This is actually a good strategy. A charitable trust. If you are able to cash out your gains into a charitable trust you essentially donate the full amount to a charity (executed upon your death). The trust you put your money into can pay you dividends, pay you from the principle over time, etc. You know the term "trust fund babies"...you can set up the trust to pay out a certain amount to your children over time, etc. You get the initial first year benefit of the amount you donated to the charity as a discount on your taxes and you can spread your gains over several years instead of a single lump sum. I considered this as an option because living overseas I can make up to $100k per year tax free. But I am subject to all taxes on capital gains. The thing holding me back from doing a charitable trust was that you have to hand your money over to a company unrelated to you to manage the trust. After weighing my options the last time it reached $20k I just could not see putting a lot of money into some fiat based investment that would give me 5-6% yearly gains in a currency losing value at 8-10% per year, run by some idiot fund manager. So I just kept it all in bitcoin and decided to live off of money cashed out at the lowest tax bracket (which is still a lot in 2nd world countries). |
|
|
|
|
Very cruel but I predict that McAfee will be made to eat his own dick while in prison at the end of the year.
I do not wish that on anyone.
|
|
|
|
|
The key this past week was that we did not form a right shoulder.
|
|
|
|
...explaining the law to them.
Be your own lawyer  I would have...the speaking Spanish part was an obstacle. And in Panama it is pretty much...you're hiring the decision maker's cousin. |
|
|
|
Thanks Elwar for the post and appreciate how challenging this undertaking would be.
If all you need is a certificate of currency for P&I, then one way through the puzzle is to get a $20 million policy with a $20 million deductible.... it means the policy is worthless, but you get your piece of paper. The certificate of currency will not show the deductible value and if the regulator asks to see the policy wording you can tell them to fuck off because the policy is commercial in confidence and they only need the certificate of currency.
Enjoy taking the time off and look forward to reading about your next adventures.
This is exactly what I started telling our people to tell the insurance companies (give us a deductible up to the amount of coverage). At one point we were ready to self insure but our ship management company insisted P&I was the only way. I did not have the time to become an insurance expert enough to argue with the company we hired that is one of the top ship management companies in the world that is supposed to know the maritime insurance industry. I will have time now to become an expert in the same way I became an expert in maritime law and was arguing with our maritime lawyers, explaining the law to them. |
|
|
|
The demand for cabins was nil. Even with the lowest prices we could possibly offer and break even, nobody wanted to live on it.
While I'm sympathetic with the whole seasteading idea and I respect you for standing up and actually trying to do something rather than enjoying your likely riches, this is the critical bit, as several posts have already pointed out. The prices you quoted ("starting from" - which seems to threaten much higher numbers) weren't that high in themselves, but that would only get you an inner cabin - no sea view. Basically, a closet to sleep in and not much more. But the real issues come when one actually considers the reality of living there. Maintenance expenses that look like a real menace. Who's going to pay for the fuel, the food, the cleaning? Rhetorical question: me of course. I'm not sure the "only BTC accepted" policy was expressely stated by you, but it's as likely as not, and it doesn't look good to an oldschool hodler. Would it have been just crappy fiat - well, maybe, who knows. But my cornz? OMG nooo! Imagine having to splurge btc for every drink. Maybe for plain water, too... with the monopoly market that inevitably ensues on such a closed, isolated community. Mostly consisting in millionaires, go figure. Scary as hell for the small fish. I won't even mention the risk of having dinner table neighbors that engage in endless, unsolicited tirades. Oops, I just did! (j/k) And with the hard rules about living onboard - rules usually made and enforced by the captain, not the stakeholders, there's the sizable risk of imaginary freedom turning into perpetual obedience. The thing we were trying to run away from in the first place. An auction usually "starts from". Out of 100 rooms for sale during the auction only 10 were sold. So in every category of cabin you could have purchased at the lowest price. We wanted the auction to catch any problems where someone wants two rooms right next to each other or in front of each other but someone else wants that room. Let the highest bidder have it. Correct about paying for food and electricity. You have to pay for your own food. I know it's kinda crazy to consider no free food but we were trying something quite radical. I'm not sure what you mean by "hard rules about living onboard". You think there would be more rules on a ship run by anarchists than the island that was .5 miles from the ship or on land that was 6 miles from the ship? Did people truly think we were putting the ship 200 miles out in middle of international waters with no way to escape? We were closer to downtown Panama City than commuters that drive to the city every day from out of town. People living in the outer suburbs could have literally rented a cabin on the ship and commuted to work and been to the city faster than their former neighbors. People literally live on the island that would be swimming distance from the ship. If this is what people believed it may have been our marketing that did us in. Then again, we realized that the Internet is for talking. Not for doing. We believed people wanted a sort of Bitcoin city as a testing ground for living on bitcoin. We believed people wanted to test out seasteading even if it was just the first step at a much cheaper price than any seastead in the future will ever ever be again (we paid less than scrap prices for what was essentially a ready made seastead, just the cost of the raw material). All future seasteads will need to pay for not only the raw material but the labor, shipyard costs, government interference, and likely a company that actually wants to make a profit instead of a couple of guys that want to make something happen so much that they're willing to break even as long as we can make something great happen. |
|
|
|
|
In the end the lack of insurance was the straw that broke our back. It was like dominos where that one piece of the puzzle brought it all crashing down.
Owning a cruise ship, every day is money so the clock is ticking from day one of buying the ship to becoming revenue neutral. During that time you are shelling out money to keep the thing going. The sooner revenue neutrality comes, the better. This wasn't a boat (bring out another thousand), it was a boam.
We were trying to play nice. We were in talks with Panama's presidential office, the marine authority, ministry of tourism, etc. They all told us they wanted our ship in Panama. But they all did what they could to make sure they could get what they could out of the project with no regard for how that affected the success.
The marine authority classified the ship as a seagoing vessel though we were pleading with them to not classify it as such as it would have bad consequences.
The demand for cabins was nil. Even with the lowest prices we could possibly offer and break even, nobody wanted to live on it.
Our ship management company was not very useful when trying to get us insurance, more of a spectator of "let's see how this 'crazy' project is treated by the strict, good ol' boy club of insurances". The insurance companies were almost toying with us, asking for information on how we would deal with X or Y...we give them some reasonable response that we think they will be ok with only to the response of "denied" (no explanation). Nobody ever let us speak directly to the insurance companies to discuss what they would accept for various scenarios ("highly unprecedented", when we asked).
We could have come up with another solution, we could have done some blockchain type of P&I insurance...over time. We focused on complying with maritime and Panama law as opposed to gaining an expertise in maritime insurance (assuming that surely a private insurance company would want money). So being turned down by all of the companies caught us off guard.
With time of the essence, no support from the seasteading nor Bitcoin community that we were trying to serve, the Panama government reneging on their promise to work with us and the final stroke coming from lack of insurance we had to pull the plug before paying to cross the canal. We had a day to make the decision so we went with it.
We bought the ship at below scrap prices, we burned through a few million and are selling it for higher scrap prices so dollar wise we even out. But lost potential, Bitcoin wise, we can put it down as "losing" half of our investment.
I was not the big investor in the project (as usual). With the bitcoin price being up and the main investor being a member of the Vladmir club...expect something brilliantly insane to come next (I am the guy in the spotlight because our main investor speaks his mind too readily...he makes me look like a US congressman in comparison).
I will likely sit out this next adventure and go into hibernation like I did after Thailand until I am pulled back out into the world by the next project.
I chose seasteading as my passion project because I have been following it for 10 years and wanted to see something actually done instead of people just talking about it all the time and I see it as one of the shortest avenues toward a modicum of freedom. I have time to decide my next steps. Now I focus on myself (and my wife) and take a good break from things for a while.
|
|
|
|
So we have a lot of people that have been interested in coming and checking out the Crypto Cruise Ship, MS Satoshi. The time is near. The ship arrives in Panama on December 22nd and we anchor on the Pacific side after passing through the canal on the 23rd. We're having a New Year's Party on board then opening officially for guests on January 3rd to commemorate the first Bitcoin block. Rates include nightly (starting at $88/night), weekly (starting at $546/week) and long term rentals (starting at $1311/month). Reserve your room now at https://vivavivas.comDon't bother getting out your credit card to pay, fiat is not accepted. |
|
|
|
It's happening again - I've started getting messages from friends-of-friends asking whether I think they should invest in xxx shitcoin, because apparently it's the new bitcoin.
So 2017.
I am moving beyond just saying "yes, just by bitcoin and hold it". Instead I will ask them to ask themselves why they never bought bitcoin before. In what ways are they living their life differently from the many people that bought bitcoin early. Why is it that they are just now considering buying. If they just want to get rich in dollars then they have missed the whole point of bitcoin and they should not buy. If they want to buy bitcoin they should stop watching the media and propaganda that has hidden bitcoin from them this whole time. They should actually start looking into what money is and what gives it value. They should actually read the White Paper to find out what this whole 'Bitcoin' thing is all about. If they want to go down that road, then my door is wide open and the advice is free. If they just wanna get rich on the next boom, then gtfo. |
|
|
|
Maybe Biden self identifies as the winner of the election. |
|
|
|
The ship will be close to shore near Panama City. We will not be a seagoing vessel which eliminates about 25 international maritime treaties that we would be subject to otherwise. We hope to create a special economic zone in the water but I cannot promise that at such an early stage. Though we have the full support of the Panama government. With cabins starting at $25,000...what are you waiting for? https://oceanbuilders.com/auction-page |
|
|
|
Strangely enough reddit r/Bitcoin removes any picture of Satoshi that I post. Tried to post: If your economy is underwater, throw out a lifeline.  |
|
|
|
It's happening! May I present...the MS Satoshi. Sheesh! What does it cost to get a 'wave related' Condo on this beasty? Link? (no way I can but curious)  Brad Cabins starting at $25,000 You can check out the rooms here: https://oceanbuilders.com/auction-page |
|
|
|
Looks great! A bit disappointed there's no orange color and no BTC sign anywhere... Orange will be in a different location. Sides will be in blue. Waiting on most of the paint until we're in Panama... Permission to paint the boat is upwards around $20k at the port in Pireaus. So only the legally required minimum for now. |
|
|
|
It's happening! May I present...the MS Satoshi. |
|
|
|
|
Expect military trucks to drive into the justice department shortly before Trump leaves office.
Expect Trump to walk away a very rich man.
|
|
|
|
Bitcoin price is up 50% from the time we began the purchase of the Crypto Cruise Ship. As of 4:20PM GMT today, the MS Satoshi is now owned by Ocean Builders. The auction for the cabins is now open: https://oceanbuilders.com/auction-page/You can have a cabin on the Satoshi for less than 2 BTC. The official stamps for the ship have been made:  |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
