A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

[Hydrogen]

A man spent millions on an enormous plot of land near Reno. Now he wants to build a community based on the blockchain technology introduced by Bitcoin.

STOREY COUNTY, Nev. — An enormous plot of land in the Nevada desert — bigger than nearby Reno — has been the subject of local intrigue since a company with no history, Blockchains L.L.C., bought it for $170 million in cash this year.

The man who owns the company, a lawyer and cryptocurrency millionaire named Jeffrey Berns, put on a helmet and climbed into a Polaris off-road vehicle last week to give a tour of the sprawling property and dispel a bit of the mystery.

He imagines a sort of experimental community spread over about a hundred square miles, where houses, schools, commercial districts and production studios will be built. The centerpiece of this giant project will be the blockchain, a new kind of database that was introduced by Bitcoin.

After his driver stopped the Polaris on a high desert plateau, surrounded by blooming rabbit brush and a grazing herd of wild horses, Mr. Berns, who is 56, pointed to the highlights of his dream community.

“You see that first range of mountains,” he said, pointing south. “Those mountains are the border of our South Valley. That’s where we’re going to build the high-tech park,” a research campus that would cover hundreds of acres. There are also plans for a college and an e-gaming arena.

As strange — even fantastical — as all this might sound, Mr. Berns’s ambitions fit right into the idiosyncratic world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

The blockchain began as a digital ledger on which all Bitcoin transactions are recorded. Some aficionados have grander plans. They think it could be a new way of taking power back from the institutions they believe are calling all the shots.

Just as Bitcoin made it possible to transfer money without using a bank, blockchain believers like Mr. Berns think the technology will make it possible for ordinary people to control their own data — the lifeblood of the digital economy — without relying on big companies or governments.

There is a fuzzy line between these utopian visions and get-rich-quick schemes. Several cryptocurrency projects have been shut down by regulators; apparent hucksters have been arrested; and a plan to transform Puerto Rico with cryptocurrencies has been criticized as nothing more than a bid to take advantage of the island’s status as a tax haven.

Mr. Berns was drawn to Nevada by its tax benefits, including the lack of income taxes. And the breadth of his ambitions certainly raises the risk of a boondoggle.

But he is different from his crypto-brethren in one big way: He is spending his own money. So far, he said, he has spent $300 million on the land, offices, planning and a staff of 70 people. And buying 67,000 largely undeveloped acres is a bit of old-fashioned, real estate risk-taking.

Still, Mr. Berns said his ambition was not to be a real estate magnate or even to get rich — or richer. He is promising to give away all decision-making power for the project and 90 percent of any dividends it generates to a corporate structure that will be held by residents, employees and future investors. That structure, which he calls a “distributed collaborative entity,” is supposed to operate on a blockchain where everyone’s ownership rights and voting powers will be recorded in a digital wallet.

Mr. Berns acknowledged that all this is way beyond what blockchains have actually accomplished. But that hasn’t discouraged him.

“I don’t know why,” he said over the roar of the Polaris engine. “I just — something inside me tells me this is the answer, that if we can get enough people to trust the blockchain, we can begin to change all the systems we operate by.”

Mr. Berns has managed to win over local officials who are eager for economic development. Nevada’s governor, Brian Sandoval, read a proclamation that named the Blockchains property “Innovation Park” at an event last month where Mr. Berns sat on a panel with the governor and Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla.

Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, which has been described as the largest building in the world, is surrounded by Blockchains’ land. Companies like Google, Apple and Switch also have properties in the industrial park that is surrounded by Mr. Berns’s holdings.

This week, he announced a memorandum of understanding with one of the state’s main power companies, NV Energy, to team up on projects that will run energy transactions through a blockchain.

The Nevada county where this is all located, Storey County, has only about 4,000 residents and was best known, until recently, for its history of silver mining and its modern brothels, including one owned by a county commissioner.

That same county commissioner, Lance Gilman, bought the land surrounding the brothel and turned it into the industrial park where Tesla and Google are now located.

Blockchains has already received preliminary county support for a new town along the Truckee River, with thousands of homes, a school and a drone delivery system, and is working closely with the county on a broader master plan.

But for now, Blockchains is empty land and a repurposed office building. Mr. Berns said the company won’t begin construction on the broader property until late 2019, at the earliest, after putting together the master plan and getting it approved by the county.

The office manager from Mr. Berns’s old law office in Los Angeles, Joanna Rodriguez, moved with her four children and husband to Nevada.

“He has these crazy ideas — but I know that every time he sets his mind to something he will get there,” said Ms. Rodriguez, 29, who has worked with Mr. Berns for eight years and is now the manager of the Blockchains office in Nevada. “That’s why I decided to move.”

Mr. Berns spent most of his professional life on class-action lawsuits, many of them against financial companies. He learned about Bitcoin in 2012 but was won over by another cryptocurrency, Ethereum, which makes it possible to store more than just transaction data on a blockchain.

Mr. Berns bought Ether, the digital token associated with Ethereum, in a big sale in 2015. Thanks to an astronomical increase in the price of Ether and some well-timed selling last year before it crashed, he became wealthy enough to fund his dream project.

Ethereum is what he believes makes his community more than just a giant real estate project. To understand why requires more than a bit of imagination. And faith. Every resident and employee will have what amounts to an Ethereum address, which they will use to vote on local measures and store their personal data.

Mr. Berns believes Ethereum will give people a way to control their identity and online data without any governments or companies involved.

That is a widely shared view in the blockchain community, but there are significant questions about whether any of it can work in the real world. Most blockchain companies have failed to gain any traction, and Ethereum and Bitcoin networks have struggled to handle even moderate amounts of traffic.

Mr. Berns believes that one of the big problems has been security. People have been terrible at holding the private keys that are necessary to get access to a Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet.

He wants to address that with a custom-built system where people’s private keys are stored on multiple digital devices, kept in vaults, so that no one device can gain access to the keys. He has already purchased vaults that are burrowed into mountains in Sweden and Switzerland, and he plans to build additional vaults in the mountains in Nevada.

The other thing holding back Ethereum, Mr. Berns believes, has been a lack of real-world laboratories. His Nevada land, he hopes, will change that.

“This will either be the biggest thing ever, or the most spectacular crash and burn in the history of mankind,” Mr. Berns said. “I don’t know which one. I believe it’s the former, but either way it’s going to be one hell of a ride.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/technology/nevada-bitcoin-blockchain-society.html

....

Wow.

Long story short. This crypto millionaire bought 67,000 acres of land in nevada. He plans to build a city which utilizes something like a real life crowdfunding system built on blockchain and ethereum technology. Rather than having a political or corporate power structure, it looks like he's aiming more for a trust-less system based on voting via blockchain or eth.

Someone might summarize his venture by imagining a city built on blockchain technology.

Will he be successful? What do ppl think about this?

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[Levious]

This is a great moment. The emergence of the cryptocurrency blockchain has once again brought human civilization into a highly informatized advancement. Future smart cities will lead the development of global culture.

[davis196]

So this crypto millionaire is an ethereum supporter.He is betting everything on a dead horse.
What the hell is a "distributed collaborative entity"?Sounds like a communist project,in which all the participants will have equal rights and equal property,despite the fact that this millionaire pays for everything.
Pretty crazy experiment,if you ask me.

[best ever]

This is a great moment. The emergence of the cryptocurrency blockchain has once again brought human civilization into a highly informatized advancement. Future smart cities will lead the development of global culture.

I have read this news today. The guys really wants to spend HIS money as he believes in the blockchain. His greatest desire is to make the life of the people  who will live in this city much better than now.

[eroejoe]

Well, this is crazy idea. But sometimes crazy ideas like this have great impact on society. I wish him luck with this project, also I hope that he will gather experts around this project which are competent enough to put this idea into reality.

[Michael_Cox]

Well, this is crazy idea. But sometimes crazy ideas like this have great impact on society. I wish him luck with this project, also I hope that he will gather experts around this project which are competent enough to put this idea into reality.

Agreed. Otherwise he will just be wasting his hard-earned cryptos for nothing. It's a great plan, but without professionals to guide him, he might as well be giving out his coins to people and he will be left with nothing.

[Thekool1s]

So this crypto millionaire is an ethereum supporter.He is betting everything on a dead horse.
What the hell is a "distributed collaborative entity"?Sounds like a communist project,in which all the participants will have equal rights and equal property,despite the fact that this millionaire pays for everything.
Pretty crazy experiment,if you ask me.

Lol was waiting for communist trolls to jump in. So you are saying cryptos are somehow linked to communism? "distributed collaborative entity" doesn't mean "Communism". Its most likely a voting system for each class. E.g The residents will elect their Representatives and those Representatives will elect the head, All of it will take place on the Blockchain. You can't make a thriving communism society when Capitalism runs the world. But I do agree with you with on Eth being dead. They will most likely develop their own currency/blockchain if they are half serious with the project.

[NeuroticFish]

Rather than having a political or corporate power structure, it looks like he's aiming more for a trust-less system based on voting via blockchain or eth.

Well, it would have been great if he would have stopped at technology and wouldn't have involved politics.
I'm not sure that such "wide" democracy would be a success. However, it sounds as an interesting endeavor and I hope he will have at least a partial success.

[dothebeats]

A utopia with an element of politics doesn't sound nice. IMO it's best to just leave the concept of politics somewhere else and just push forward a society in which everyone helps each other, with or without a central authority or a governing body. Anyway though, it's a nice concept for a small community like this; it will ultimately test whether the possibilities of applying the blockchain tech on a wider scale and daring endeavors such as this would receive some sort of success. While it's quite far-fetched to receive some significant support for this project on its early stages, I'd love to hear more on this once it becomes a reality.

[ninuplanste]

I am not too sure if nevada is the best option for this. I mean the idea is nice and all but we are talking about a crypto utopia where everyone only lives thanks to crypto and noone uses fiat and all that stuff but in reality how are they going to live only on crypto when everything in the world is based on fiat? Will these people raise their own apples? Will they herd their own cattles? Will they find builders accepting crypto? What about the iphones and samsungs? I can continue listing stuff that would cost them fiat and no way of getting crypto but in all honesty even the title says it all, he "wants" to build a utopia. Well I want to build an utopia where I can live rest of my life just eating whatever I want and playing with my ps4 but it ain't happening yet, so no reason to think this will ever be a reality.

[sinkfish]

for this project to work, at least 100 billions dollar needed. usually this kind of plan by millionaire is just opportunist to grab more money.

seen too much of this project. it will end badly.

[squall1066]

for this project to work, at least 100 billions dollar needed. usually this kind of plan by millionaire is just opportunist to grab more money.

seen too much of this project. it will end badly.

its a start, that's enough for now, it will take years and many millionaires to get this moving. but the seed has been planted.

[tightcoat490]

Sounds like John Galt lol.

I don't think he needs to build this utopia. If he really wanted to make a difference he would spend his money to develop applications that make the rest of the world a blockchain utopia. Decentralized marketplaces, decentralized social media platforms, and decentralized news platforms would be a good start.

[cryptodv]

I don't know how that will work without mass adoption. Most of the world thinks crypto is a scam. A lot of people got rekt. 

[arbifahrozy]

like making a private city with a blockchain system, and this is a brilliant idea. no wonder a millionaire makes an empire with wealth. but with the blockchain system inside it can make the city modern.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Someone might summarize his venture by imagining a city built on blockchain technology.

Well that's exactly how I'd summarize the info given in this article--and it sounds very strange and very, very ambitious.  It almost sounds as though he's planning on building a cult compound or something of the sort.

But hey, people with grand ideas built Las Vegas in Nevada, and that state does have a bit of a reputation of having a maverick mentality.  If I'm not mistaken, it's one of, if not the only, states in the US where prostitution is legal and one of only a few where organized gambling is legal.  Makes sense that this guy Berns chose Nevada as the state in which to do what he's planning.

like making a private city with a blockchain system, and this is a brilliant idea. no wonder a millionaire makes an empire with wealth. but with the blockchain system inside it can make the city modern.

Yeah, but I'm just wondering what exactly "a private city with a blockchain system" really means and what it would actually look and function like.  Nevada still has laws, as does the federal government. 

In addition, this statement is the absolute truth:

I don't know how that will work without mass adoption. Most of the world thinks crypto is a scam. A lot of people got rekt. 

I get the feeling that this project is either way ahead of its time or might be doomed to failure at any point in the future.  But that sure was an interesting article, and I'll keep this on my radar.

[Dimon8]

The idea is very innovative and progressive, but its implementation in life requires billions of dollars. Perhaps Jeffrey Burns serves as the organizer and one of the investors of this project. I think that the idea will be implemented.

[Pab]

Great idea
And i wish him best luck
if you look project what i  advertise in my sig than you will see it is perfect to realize his idea
Australian Power Ledger can help them to establish his own energy system
And because of Nevada it can be capitol and hub for blockchain gambling

[BitHodler]

its a start, that's enough for now, it will take years and many millionaires to get this moving. but the seed has been planted.

That's exactly what it is all about. If no one even attempted to set up something like this, maybe because it's too ambitious on paper, we probably wouldn't even have Bitcoin right now.

Crypto stimulates people's free minds, where they technically can't be stopped from doing anything the government may not like. You can do it right away without having to ask for permission from anyone. Perfect.

Over 90% of what we'll be seeing pop up in the coming years will likely fail, the other 10% is what we will be using in the future because it's either more useful than what we had, or it solves an actual problem.

[niteroy]

I think it is too early to talk about whether this project will be successful or not. At the moment there is no infrastructure, only land. It takes time to understand whether the project will be implemented or will remain in the form of a project, but the idea is good.

[audaciousbeing]

After reading the article, I must admit that the man is one hell of a dreamer that might sound stupid or mad to certain people but he sure have the courage to make such courage. For me, it's only time that tell as to whether he is a real dreamer or a wishful one but the surrounding factors point to the fact that it is possible after all, several years ago, a lot of people have dreamed which has become solutions to millions of people's problems.

I won't bank much on the support of the governor because as politicians, that is their default mode to ensure that the rich who could bring about development to their domain are given the most resounding welcome.

[Umkar]

Good idea, this guy is a real enthusiast. If he manages to implement his project, it will positively affect the adoption of the blockchain technology, the development of high-tech industries, and I think it will most likely have a positive effect on the cryptocurrencies in general and on the Ethereum price.

[Dasha88fed]

If he manages to implement the project and he will be successful, it will be a good start to start accepting cryptocurrencies all over the world and building similar projects. We will follow the process of implementation of this project, as it can positively affect the entire crypto industry.

[spongegar]

If this actually came true and the city was actually erected then it would be awesome if it will be a crypto currency exclusive city and combine gambling in it then crypto currency will see a huge leap in its demand in that particular place. Besides, since crypto currency is virtual, then stealing it will only be by hacking.

[ausbit]

After reading the article, I must admit that the man is one hell of a dreamer that might sound stupid or mad to certain people but he sure have the courage to make such courage. For me, it's only time that tell as to whether he is a real dreamer or a wishful one but the surrounding factors point to the fact that it is possible after all, several years ago, a lot of people have dreamed which has become solutions to millions of people's problems.

I won't bank much on the support of the governor because as politicians, that is their default mode to ensure that the rich who could bring about development to their domain are given the most resounding welcome.

Even though I really thought this guy was full of joke material what he did is now much better in retrospective. Dude cashed out his bitcoins at a higher level and used that to get a huge piece of land and now that bitcoin is lower he has his land all owned up by him while holding bitcoin would have lost him money.

Not only did he get away from all this bear market with this move but he also probably already made profit since lands are getting more and more expensive every day. I would take this deal over any other every single day if I was given the choice.

I know bitcoin suppose to skyrocket and the land he bought would be like the 10 thousand btc pizza deal one day but that doesn't seem to be any time soon so he is still profiting every single day bitcoin is not going higher.

[duoduoshigexiaozhu]

This is simply a feat of human civilization. The emergence of a smart city will once again promote the development of all mankind and economic civilization. I hope that such a city can quickly establish success. I am very much looking forward to traveling to such a city.

[Willitivity]

This sounds like a very hefty project inspired by too many visits to the cinema to watch alot of Sci-Fi. First of all, to pull this off will take so many years, that's if it even gets completed at all. But on the other hand, it will open up a gateway for massive worldwide adoption for crypto. All we can do is watch and pray and see how it comes up.

[jademaxxiss012]

This is a great moment. The emergence of the cryptocurrency blockchain has once again brought human civilization into a highly informatized advancement. Future smart cities will lead the development of global culture.

Well if this is true then you must have some support for the claim. It is easier said than done and there is nothing that it could be true for the city that you have been stated was already developed and has a full of functions already which I do not think that it is in need for a new system to be implemented like bitcoin or cryptocurrency.