[2018-02-03] Crypto Billionaires Are Building a Utopia In Puerto Rico

[Terraformer]

Fleeing what they see as the impending taxation of their newfound fortunes, wealthy cryptocurrency investors are heading en masse to Puerto Rico, with their hearts set on building a crypto utopia.

PUERTOPIA

With the goal of creating a utopia – named “Sol” – run solely on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, crypto millionaires (and billionaires) are buying up property left and right in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.

Recently decimated by Hurricane Maria, many parts of Puerto Rico are still in need of reconstruction and renovation. Wealthy cryptocurrency proponents are ready to do just that, and have been buying up property left and right in historic Old San Juan.

“It’s only when everything’s been swept away that you can make a case for rebuilding from the ground up,” Puertopian Stephen Morris, 53, told The New York Times.

Matt Clemenson, co-founder of blockchain lottery website Lottery.com, also claims Puerto Rico is the perfect place to achieve their new vision of society:

"We’re benevolent capitalists, building a benevolent economy. Puerto Rico has been this hidden gem, this enchanted island that’s been consistently overlooked and mistreated. Maybe 500 years later we can make it right."

The Puertopians—which also includes the likes of Block.One co-founder Brock Pierce, among others—are currently based in a 20,000-square-foot hotel called the Monastery. They currently have their eyes on buying the 9,000 acre Superfund cleanup site Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, which houses two deepwater ports and a nearby airport.

Continue reading >> http://bitcoinist.com/crypto-billionaires-are-building-a-utopia-in-puerto-rico/

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[Hell-raiser]

Fleeing what they see as the impending taxation of their newfound fortunes, wealthy cryptocurrency investors are heading en masse to Puerto Rico, with their hearts set on building a crypto utopia.

PUERTOPIA

With the goal of creating a utopia – named “Sol” – run solely on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, crypto millionaires (and billionaires) are buying up property left and right in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.

Recently decimated by Hurricane Maria, many parts of Puerto Rico are still in need of reconstruction and renovation. Wealthy cryptocurrency proponents are ready to do just that, and have been buying up property left and right in historic Old San Juan.

“It’s only when everything’s been swept away that you can make a case for rebuilding from the ground up,” Puertopian Stephen Morris, 53, told The New York Times.

Matt Clemenson, co-founder of blockchain lottery website Lottery.com, also claims Puerto Rico is the perfect place to achieve their new vision of society:

"We’re benevolent capitalists, building a benevolent economy. Puerto Rico has been this hidden gem, this enchanted island that’s been consistently overlooked and mistreated. Maybe 500 years later we can make it right."

The Puertopians—which also includes the likes of Block.One co-founder Brock Pierce, among others—are currently based in a 20,000-square-foot hotel called the Monastery. They currently have their eyes on buying the 9,000 acre Superfund cleanup site Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, which houses two deepwater ports and a nearby airport.

Continue reading >> http://bitcoinist.com/crypto-billionaires-are-building-a-utopia-in-puerto-rico/

These guys are morons. They should follow Satoshi's path instead of making themselves into a target for criminals and governments from all over the world. Puerto Rico must be infested with the FBI agents, so I can't really imagine how stupid these dudes are. Money loves silence, while big money loves dead silence. A low-profile and simple life is what every cryptonaire should be looking for.

[richardsNY]

These guys are morons. They should follow Satoshi's path instead of making themselves into a target for criminals and governments from all over the world. Puerto Rico must be infested with the FBI agents, so I can't really imagine how stupid these dudes are. Money loves silence, while big money loves dead silence. A low-profile and simple life is what every cryptonaire should be looking for.

No one should follow Satoshi's path if they don't want to -- people handle different standards and ways of thinking. Point with the new wealthy crypto elite is that this in some cases can be seem as dumb wealth, which explains why they don't mind showing off what they have and be loud about it whenever they can. If we look at individuals having a traditional source of wealth, they in most cases remain silence about everything they have, where they even tend to talk their wealth down in order to make themselves look less wealthy than they in reality are. In this case crypto wealth has a lot to learn from traditional wealth.

[J. Cooper]

These guys are morons. They should follow Satoshi's path instead of making themselves into a target for criminals and governments from all over the world. Puerto Rico must be infested with the FBI agents, so I can't really imagine how stupid these dudes are. Money loves silence, while big money loves dead silence. A low-profile and simple life is what every cryptonaire should be looking for.

There's no point in trying to force someone into following a certain vision or way of handling their money. Some are satisfied living a low-profile comfortable life and others want to change the world, whatever that means. On paper the project they're trying to realize sounds great, almost utopic, so I'm sceptical as to how they will be able to pull this off.

[Hell-raiser]

These guys are morons. They should follow Satoshi's path instead of making themselves into a target for criminals and governments from all over the world. Puerto Rico must be infested with the FBI agents, so I can't really imagine how stupid these dudes are. Money loves silence, while big money loves dead silence. A low-profile and simple life is what every cryptonaire should be looking for.

No one should follow Satoshi's path if they don't want to -- people handle different standards and ways of thinking. Point with the new wealthy crypto elite is that this in some cases can be seem as dumb wealth, which explains why they don't mind showing off what they have and be loud about it whenever they can. If we look at individuals having a traditional source of wealth, they in most cases remain silence about everything they have, where they even tend to talk their wealth down in order to make themselves look less wealthy than they in reality are. In this case crypto wealth has a lot to learn from traditional wealth.

They are free to do with their money what they want of course. But if they want to hide their newfound fortunes from taxation as per article, this is not the way to go. Isn't it obvious that my point was about preserving their wealth that they most likely had been just lucky and fortunate to acquire in the first place? If you ask me, it is not so much about traditional ways of earning money versus unconventional ones as about easy money versus hard-earned money. People that had already been rich before crypto started off or those born into riches won't change their lifestyles dramatically even if their wealth multiplied many times and they could afford it. Anyway, let's see what'll become of this effort and these dudes in a few years.

[CryptoBry]

This is a good project and maybe with some good intentions too. However, I am afraid that soon when the project is already running and successful, government forces will be upon them since the project can easily be identified being heavily promoted in the media. In my opinion, the only way to get away from the control and power of the government is to base outside of this Earth...maybe we need to have a good location in Mars which will be a cryptocurrency-based project...that way no power in this Earth can ever do damage or regulate it.

[Hell-raiser]

These guys are morons. They should follow Satoshi's path instead of making themselves into a target for criminals and governments from all over the world. Puerto Rico must be infested with the FBI agents, so I can't really imagine how stupid these dudes are. Money loves silence, while big money loves dead silence. A low-profile and simple life is what every cryptonaire should be looking for.

There's no point in trying to force someone into following a certain vision or way of handling their money. Some are satisfied living a low-profile comfortable life and others want to change the world, whatever that means. On paper the project they're trying to realize sounds great, almost utopic, so I'm sceptical as to how they will be able to pull this off.

May I ask you a question? Thank you.

So, which path would you choose personally? Grab who knows how many coins, leave some of them behind as presumably dead and ride off into the sunset without trace, or brag about your newly acquired wealth at every corner? Which would be a faster route to disaster and ultimately losing all this wealth either to criminals or government agents going after you, which may turn out to be the same dudes. It is not about forcing someone into following a certain way of action or behavior, it is more about choosing a means to an end.

[odolvlobo]

The author of the article is apparently unaware that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. He even called it a "country".

[aveon]

The author of the article is apparently unaware that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. He even called it a "country".

Yes, it's not even yet the state of the US as well as not independent country. It's an unincorporated territory of the United States. It may become a full state later on, it may also be separated. Now they are in the middle of something. Building this ideal society, they probably hope to become a US state)

[TraderTimm]

The author of the article is apparently unaware that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. He even called it a "country".

Correct.

The irony would be them building all this stuff, and buying all that land only to have Puerto Rico get annexed like Hawaii, and become another state. Then their tax protections fall away, and they'll be under the same regime as mainland U.S.A.

I wonder if they considered the risk of statehood when they started investing in property. I guess we'll see how that shakes out. There are no unclaimed patches of land on the Globe, and the places that are extremely arid or cold are the only patches left, and good luck trying to live there - but even those extreme examples have some kind of claim on them.

The only way to be fully independent would be sea-steading, but even then the international boundaries of countries extend a considerable distance off-shore. The UK is famous for extending theirs to prevent smaller bits becoming their own sovereign nations.

You'd have better luck launching into space and finding your own rock to colonize.

[limek]

There are many Islands in this world you can own like this one and build a country.

[jjacob]

These guys are morons. They should follow Satoshi's path instead of making themselves into a target for criminals and governments from all over the world. Puerto Rico must be infested with the FBI agents, so I can't really imagine how stupid these dudes are. Money loves silence, while big money loves dead silence. A low-profile and simple life is what every cryptonaire should be looking for.

They may become a target for criminals, but governments - I am not so sure. Most of these millionaires and billionaires would have highly paid lawyers who would be able to move their wealth offshore. In any case, unless you sell your bitcoins and incur capital gains, your crypto wealth really isn't taxable.
Of course, the criminals will really not care about that. 

[Hell-raiser]

These guys are morons. They should follow Satoshi's path instead of making themselves into a target for criminals and governments from all over the world. Puerto Rico must be infested with the FBI agents, so I can't really imagine how stupid these dudes are. Money loves silence, while big money loves dead silence. A low-profile and simple life is what every cryptonaire should be looking for.

They may become a target for criminals, but governments - I am not so sure. Most of these millionaires and billionaires would have highly paid lawyers who would be able to move their wealth offshore. In any case, unless you sell your bitcoins and incur capital gains, your crypto wealth really isn't taxable.
Of course, the criminals will really not care about that. 

Governments these days are not very much different from hard-core criminals, and I'm afraid they have never been. You may want to take notice of what Edward Snowden says about NSA's extensive involvement in the targeted killing program or read what Hillary Clinton wrote in her leaked emails when she was a state secretary. When you become a nuisance, a pain in the ass, highly paid lawyers won't help you. You would need heavily armed bodyguards then. And a place where they won't be able find you since bodyguards may not help you. Puerto Rico obviously doesn't cut it as a safe haven.