Bitcoin Nation

[Wilikon]

Why can't you guys and gals use Burning Man's organization as a base to build a XBT Nation? They need to keep a place safe and clean for a lot of people in the middle of the desert for a while.

[Bitcoin-hotep]

Why can't you guys and gals use Burning Man's organization as a base to build a XBT Nation? They need to keep a place safe and clean for a lot of people in the middle of the desert for a while.

Is there a bitcoin presence at burning man yet?

[coastermonger]

Interesting take on the floating city idea, I imagine this would have a number of benefits: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/mega-engineering-building-a-floating-city.htm

[bryant.coleman]

Why can't you guys and gals use Burning Man's organization as a base to build a XBT Nation? They need to keep a place safe and clean for a lot of people in the middle of the desert for a while.

That desert is still located inside the territorial limits of the USA. So I'd veto this move. 

[Bitcoin-hotep]

Interesting take on the floating city idea, I imagine this would have a number of benefits: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/mega-engineering-building-a-floating-city.htm

I hadn't seen that video yet only this picture

[TiagoTiago]

How will that "floating city" handle big waves though? And do we even got chains strong enough to anchor that thing and survive fighting against the winds hitting such a huge surface area? What if the wind is asymmetrical, causing it to try to turn, distributing the strain over the anchors unevenly?

[Ibian]

Good points. A Really Big Ship is more sturdy against the weather but less flexible. So make the modules big enough to handle most weather solo, which should make them able to handle it when pieced together too?

[Bitcoin-hotep]

How will that "floating city" handle big waves though? And do we even got chains strong enough to anchor that thing and survive fighting against the winds hitting such a huge surface area? What if the wind is asymmetrical, causing it to try to turn, distributing the strain over the anchors unevenly?

I don't think they said they were going to be anchoring it And I don't think waves and wind will have much of an effect on something that is larger than all the cruise ships in the world combined... Watch the video

[Hideyoshi]

There is better, or at least simpler option. One that does not require anyone to move. Look at how Cosa Nostra and Yakuza function. They live in same country as everyone else, but they are effectively their own people and their own nation, with their own economy and services.

[qiwoman]

I had a vision of starting up crypto villages..small micro economic centers that would be fully sustainable, co friendly and be each mining its own coin so anything that the village needs that it cannot produce it can buy with Bitcoin or whatever other Crypto Con. This way everyone living their would live a poverty free and self sustainable lifestyle yet be part of a thriving community. Humans have the capacity to thrive but not with these types of economic systems we have in place today that gear towards only the 5% have any form of decent life.

[Hideyoshi]

How will that "floating city" handle big waves though? And do we even got chains strong enough to anchor that thing and survive fighting against the winds hitting such a huge surface area? What if the wind is asymmetrical, causing it to try to turn, distributing the strain over the anchors unevenly?

You know about that giant pile of plastic trash floating in Pacific Ocean? Maybe a ship like this can park there. They would not need to anchor, since they would just float in circle just like all that trash, and they can "mine" the trash as resource. Maybe melt it, and use it as source for 3D printing.

[bryant.coleman]

There is better, or at least simpler option. One that does not require anyone to move. Look at how Cosa Nostra and Yakuza function. They live in same country as everyone else, but they are effectively their own people and their own nation, with their own economy and services.

Not practical. A lot of the Cosa Nostra members are currently in various Italian prisons. I don't want any Bitcoiner to go to jail for breaking the financial regulations.

[Hideyoshi]

There is better, or at least simpler option. One that does not require anyone to move. Look at how Cosa Nostra and Yakuza function. They live in same country as everyone else, but they are effectively their own people and their own nation, with their own economy and services.

Not practical. A lot of the Cosa Nostra members are currently in various Italian prisons. I don't want any Bitcoiner to go to jail for breaking the financial regulations.

Cosa Nostra does not use Bitcoin, Bitmessage, PGP, and other cryptography tools. They are old style underground economy and society that did not have the tools we have now, but they can be a foundation of rules and mistakes to learn from and build on top of. Also, Cosa Nostra needs to have image of powerful and violent to do what they do. They are not liked by authorities, and can be easily demonized in media, because they can be violent and sometimes kill people. If people just withdraw into background, not bothering anyone, the worst they can be accused of is not sharing. I want to share idea later, but am still working out details.

[TiagoTiago]

How will that "floating city" handle big waves though? And do we even got chains strong enough to anchor that thing and survive fighting against the winds hitting such a huge surface area? What if the wind is asymmetrical, causing it to try to turn, distributing the strain over the anchors unevenly?

You know about that giant pile of plastic trash floating in Pacific Ocean? Maybe a ship like this can park there. They would not need to anchor, since they would just float in circle just like all that trash, and they can "mine" the trash as resource. Maybe melt it, and use it as source for 3D printing.

That thing looks like it would be affected more by the wind than by currents; it got way more surface area above than bellow water.



I think latching all the pieces together wouldn't work well, would cause too much stress. It would work better as a flotilla with flexible paths between them. Sorta like Columbia from the Bioshock Infinite game, but with a bit less up and down bobbing between the "islands".


Not having each unit have it's own propulsion seems like a bad idea; having to evacuate a whole cityblock in the middle of the ocean because it was about to crash doesn't sound all that feasible.

Something like an array of Voith Schneider propellers under each unit might perhaps be the best idea. Obviously, the islands would have to coordinate their movement with each other, sorta like how vehicles like SPMTs do.


If i'm not mistaken, propellers like that, might even be able to produce vertical thrust; which could be used to reduce rolling and delay the sinking during an emergency.

[Cryddit]

An arrangement like that, if it allows for some flexibility between the hexagons, could grow much larger than any rigid ship and still be able to handle very long waves out on the ocean.  It is effectively an articulated structure, which puts it light years ahead of, say, Freedom Ship in terms of practicality and ability to exist.  And leaving space between the hexes allows boats to get through, so rowboats and little sailboats could be used effectively like bikes.  (and of course motorboats would be the SUVs of the system... ).  So you'd want flexible standoffs between hexes. If you put them above the water, they'd also probably serve as bridges as well for foot, bicycle, and scooter traffic, and would have to be high enough that reasonable-size sailboats could get under them.

One thing I notice about the float city above is that it has a lot of differential loading.  Some of those hexes will need to be awfully deep, and ballasted at the lower ends, in order to support the large buildings on top of them, while those that just support a cottage and a garden can be effectively flat bottomed and quite shallow. The very deep hexes can work a lot like "sea spars" in that they can resist large waves without being capsized or necessarily having large vertical movements.  They'd be a hell of a lot harder for a violent wave to flip over or push around, for example.  So your best arrangement for a city like that, in order to withstand hurricanes etc, would be to have the "deep" hexes (and multi-hex platforms) with the big buildings on the outer edge of the city, protecting the interior, while the regular 'flat' hexes that support just a cottage and a garden should be on the interior -- effectively the reverse of the way it's pictured above.  This would also be more convenient for the heavy industries, fish packers, shipping centers, malls, and factories etc that the larger buildings likely contain, because it would give them access to the edge of the raft where larger ships for ocean traffic, and medium-size boats that would serve as trucks to take loads to other businesses around the edges of the raft, could be loaded and unloaded. 

[Elwar]

This has all been covered by the Seasteading group.

You cannot build anything within 200 miles of any nation, everything else is in deep sea which cannot anchor.

Any structure has to deal with 100 meter waves.

BlueSeed is a test of the seasteading idea of many people living in an ocean vessel but it will still be registered to a nation, most likely the bahamas.

The Seasteading Institute has done several studies, the last one is one choosing a nation to support a trial run in their waters, that study will be out soon.

But there is another option that is already in the works.

Alderney
http://www.coindesk.com/british-island-physical-bitcoins-uk-royal-mint/

A british island nation that has control over minting their own currency is seriously considering using Bitcoin as their official currency.

They would actually mint a physical currency backed by Bitcoin like how the US dollar used to be backed by gold. You will be able to take your currency to the mint and exchange it for Bitcoin if you wish.

[bryant.coleman]

Cosa Nostra does not use Bitcoin, Bitmessage, PGP, and other cryptography tools.

Whatever it is, I don't want the bitcoin nation to exist inside another sovereign country. We should seriously consider the proposal to build an artificial island (a floating one, to be precise).

[BearKing55]

http://oceania.org/images/old.3.jpg

sorta like this at oceania.org ??

[bryant.coleman]

Building artificial floating islands can be a risky business. What we'll do if something like this happens:

[deisik]

Building artificial floating islands can be a risky business. What we'll do if something like this happens:

Looks like photoshop, though I know that it is not...