The First Political Zone to Officially Recognize Cryptocoins

[solex]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

I'm pretty sure someone said it's Nicaragua

Hmm. But is there anything issued by the government mentioning Bitcoin?

[1715637414]

1715637414

[oakpacific]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

I'm pretty sure someone said it's Nicaragua

Hmm. But is there anything issued by the government mentioning Bitcoin?

He said he can't make it public until everything is finalized......

And he doesn't really seem like trying to impress people....

Seriously, someone went to give a talk at the conference about a Bitcoin special zone, and all we can get now is just hearsay? Really?

[solex]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

I'm pretty sure someone said it's Nicaragua

Hmm. But is there anything issued by the government mentioning Bitcoin?

He said he can't make it public until everything is finalized......

And he doesn't really seem like trying to impress people....

Seriously, someone went to give a talk at the conference about a Bitcoin special zone, and all we can get now is just hearsay? Really?

Yes, it's like one of those TV documentaries about the Bigfoot where they are going to do DNA tests on skin and hair samples, but by the end of it you still haven't learned anything, and the subject is as opaque as ever.

[FinShaggy]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

I'm pretty sure someone said it's Nicaragua

Hmm. But is there anything issued by the government mentioning Bitcoin?

No idea.

[Ichthyo]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

sounds like a good plan -- otherwise someone might try to acquire land there beforehand, to benefit from the increase in value...
Anyway, it looks reasonable to prepare such an endeavour rather silently and then to pull it off quickly.
The less possible opponents know, the lower the chances for generating negative spin.

[jaywaka2713]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

sounds like a good plan -- otherwise someone might try to acquire land there beforehand, to benefit from the increase in value...
Anyway, it looks reasonable to prepare such an endeavour rather silently and then to pull it off quickly.
The less possible opponents know, the lower the chances for generating negative spin.

Very true politics. Something like that is hard to do as it is. Acquiring land in general without government control usually is only done through war.

[FinShaggy]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

sounds like a good plan -- otherwise someone might try to acquire land there beforehand, to benefit from the increase in value...
Anyway, it looks reasonable to prepare such an endeavour rather silently and then to pull it off quickly.
The less possible opponents know, the lower the chances for generating negative spin.

Very true politics. Something like that is hard to do as it is. Acquiring land in general without government control usually is only done through war.

They are probably getting like a township. Just because he said "political zone" doesn't mean that it's a nation. It could be a city or a county that they are being given political control of. Or just a bunch of land they are being given/buying so that they can make a township. In America all you need is 6 acres and majority vote to become a new town.

[bonker]

And as per tradition, unknown noob poster makes vague claims. Herpderp and gl to you.

+1

OP = cockmuncher

[Rassah]

OP can't be serious if he says he was talking at the conference but the identity of his "political zone" is still a mystery.

I'm pretty sure someone said it's Nicaragua

I said it. And I didn't say it, I asked if it was.

[FinShaggy]

An idea to get media attention to projects like yours:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=212562.0

And if Bitcoin island or Blueseed get going, we could do a:
 
BTC-House: The Island
or
BTC-House: SeaSteading/BlueSeed
or
BTC-House: The Political Zone

Get a whole documentational series going

I think a good original series would be

BTC-House: Denver
And the catch line is "Bitcoin or Bust".

Maybe
BTC-House: BC BTCs
And do it in Canada

Eventually a-
BTC-House: Smart House
and have people live in a house, but they have to be willing to do technical work an try to invent new things.

[alyssa85]

The Eric Voorhees interview on Let's talk Bitcoin mentioned that these new zones were "Corporate Zones" - i.e. corporations would own the land and make all the laws, and those who chose to live on that land would just have to abide by those laws.

Sounds to me a lot like  The Corporation of the City of London, which is 1 square mile in London's heart and which was given it's charter by the Plantagenet Kings in 1189 and is governed by the businesses that make up the corporation. It's outside the jurisdiction of Parliament (I think only the monarch can interfere, and none has done so for centuries) but only 7000 people live in the City, so they arn't really affected if the Corporations that make up the City pass draconian laws. Not sure how this concept would work in an area larger than a square mile with more people though...

Edit: Actually the corporations of the City do affect other businesses within it negatively - see this article about the Billingsgate Fish Market. It was a fish trading market that had existed since the 16th century - but the Corporation of the City of London closed it down because they wanted the land for building, and all those self-employed fish traders lost their livelihoods. Parliament wasn't able to help because they had no control over the land controlled by the City, so it closed in 2012.

So be careful - if you are a small business that has something that the corporation that owns your zone wants, you are going to get nixed... There is no such thing as a level playing field in corporate zones, though there might be in a genuine free state.

[James Bond]

Does the organization behind this have a website where I can follow it (other than subscribing to this thread)? I don't even know their name, but I'm interested in following this subject.

[Elwar]

Costa Rica has a few of these free trade zones where a business can set up there and they are free from some of the tarriffs and quotas. Basically they have to follow most of the laws but they are given a waiver on several of the financial laws. They are usually set up in economically underdeveloped areas where they want to stimulate the economy. Since Costa Rica has a high import tax people go to these areas and stock up on big ticket purchases without needing to pay the high tax.

If that is what the OP is talking about, it would be ok and all...just not a free zone.

[Melbustus]

Well, the conference has ended now, so I want to ask what became of Yago's talk? Did it happen? What did he say?

Yes, it happened. I caught the last 20 minutes or so, plus a bit of the QA session afterwards. There was a lot of interest in this talk, and a crowd of people stuck around for quite a while asking Yago questions after the talk.

Hopefully someone else who was there, or Yago, can correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following, but key points as I recall them were:

1) This will be a "zone" located somewhere in the Carribean within a "host" country.
2) Details are being finalized and will be announced around November.
3) The philosophy is to provide as small a government as possible, with as many gov services as possible run as an "opt-in".
4) No taxation (I may have missed some details on this).
5) The initial physical area of this zone will be roughly the size of Manhattan.
6) The financing model is currently to lease land to residents. Leases may be long (99yr was mentioned). Outright land sales may happen eventually, though will likely consist of relatively large blocks. The philosophy is to create a prosperous region that will experience an increase in land values naturally.
7) Cryptocurrencies will be explicit legal, which Yago actually noted was a bit of an "ideological blemish", since it was indeed specifically acknowledging a legal currency (or basket thereof).
8.) The host country will not allow the zone to have a military, though it will have an armed security force.
9) The host country will not allow the zone to have a "foreign policy" per se.
10) The zone will not be able to grant full citizenship; only the host country can grant internationally recognized citizenship.

Disclaimer: I didn't take notes and was only there for half the talk. I may be remembering things wrong and/or may not have sufficient context for accurate statements.

[jbreher]

That seemed to be the general gist of the talk.

Heck of a lot of discussion after this presentation. It seemed to get a lot of folks thinking.

[FinShaggy]

That seemed to be the general gist of the talk.

Heck of a lot of discussion after this presentation. It seemed to get a lot of folks thinking.

Yes, that was pretty much it.  He was vague on several points for plausible reasons.  In all, it seemed premature for him to be saying anything at this point, but considering that the crowd was three-deep around him afterward, I expect that they'll have little difficulty finding enough residents to make the place viable, even if it initially has a bit less estrogen than I might prefer.

If anyone from the project is lurking here: Guys, seriously.  Build a Fine Arts school or something to attract more females.

I'd say make a reality show to attract females.
If there was a "Real World: The Political Zone" they'd go for spring break

[FinShaggy]

If anyone from the project is lurking here: Guys, seriously.  Build a Fine Arts school or something to attract more females.

I'd say make a reality show to attract females.
If there was a "Real World: The Political Zone" they'd go for spring break

That could work, too, so long as reality shows are not a passé genre by the time the thing gets underway.

On the other hand, playing the Spring Break angle might work.

I don't think documentary style crazy will ever go out of style for TV, lol.

[FinShaggy]

That could work, too, so long as reality shows are not a passé genre by the time the thing gets underway.

On the other hand, playing the Spring Break angle might work.

I don't think documentary style crazy will ever go out of style for TV, lol.

An adult entertainment studio might work, as well.

My main point is that Bitcoin 2013 was something like 99.4% male.  Granted, there were two absolutely adorable booth bunnies there, but otherwise, you could have counted the female attendees on two hands.  If you are going to have clever young people relocate to someplace remote, you need a better gender ratio than that.

I don't think porn would be the best way to go.

Maybe a "club med", that's the most "adult" I would go with it.

And there will be women in whatever country it's in, don't worry. It won't be a prison camp, and eventually once it's established people will move there.

[Rassah]

If anyone from the project is lurking here: Guys, seriously.  Build a Fine Arts school or something to attract more females.

Or they could, I don't know, maybe attract successful people who have families or girlfriends. I wouldn't be surprised if a big reason for Bitcoin 2013 was mostly male was because a lot of the guys left their girls at home.

[FinShaggy]

Working on Starting a Bitcoin town here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=216139.0