Convince a Micronation to Use Bitcoin

[mrb]

A micronation is an entity that claims to be independent, but is not recognized by other governments, for example: Sealand, Empire of Atlantium, Naminara, Kingdom of Lovely, etc. Bitcoin obviously fits the philosophy of independence of micronation founders. We could attempt to entice some of them to adopt or promote Bitcoin somehow, if only as a publicity stunt. A micronation could:

• come up with a customized physical representation of Bitcoin (the same way each European country customize one of the sides of Euro coins)
• declare Bitcoin as its official currency
• peg their currency to Bitcoin
• etc

Relevant links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronation_currencies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-nation

If this is successful, the next step would be to market Bitcoin to microstates which are, contrary to micronations, formally recognized (Liechtenstein, Monaco, etc). But that is, of course, much harder

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[Anonymous]

Wirtland ?

[ploum]

Exactly, I agree that Wirtland is really our target of choice. I also believe that more bitcoiners should join Wirtland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirtland_%28micronation%29

[ribuck]

Hutt River Province in West Australia has been going 40 years and is an excellent candidate for this, although it is hard to forgive them that their website is "best viewed on IE 5.5 or better with popups enabled".

[FooDSt4mP]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Saugeais
i like the french ppl here ^^
but have doubts about adopting any currency with BIT in it's name
it's namely french for penis.
ok, one of 200 words for penis in french, but that might be an adoption issue ; )

Or you embrace it and make it a male only currency .  Of course, then the women will want to have it too, so they will have their own underground economy of cockcoins.  And if bitcoin ever crashes and burns, they'll all be fucked.

By the way, I thought maybe it meant something else that was used as slang, but google translate informed me I was mistaken.

bite: noun
cock
prick
knob
rod
dong
peter
pole

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[Binford 6100]

Of course, then the women will want to have it too, so they will have their own underground economy of cockcoins.  And if bitcoin ever crashes and burns, they'll all be fucked.

hooray for cockcoins! vive la revolution!
will be fun to spend some. daydreaming ...

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[FooDSt4mP]

Micronations are always doomed to fail - or rather nobody even takes them seriously. Making your own nation really isnt a thing that can be done (you need actual control over land).

What about a small island nation?

[caveden]

Making your own nation really isnt a thing that can be done (you need actual control over land).

Not necessarily land: http://seasteading.org/

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[caveden]

Why do you think it would be shut down fast, the tax haven? Not necessarily... maybe they would be forced to cooperate concerning people/money from other nations, but no more than the existent tax-havens already are.
And the new nation could be free of all sort of stupid regulations that jam other economies.
Different nations could be created with specific purposes. For example, a nation with no labor laws could succeed in the Mediterranean or maybe west of Portugal, due to the draconian labor laws of Europe in general... a nation with no health regulations could provide decent and cheaper health care to patients from US and so on.

Once the engineering is feasible, you have a total new "startup sector" for nations. Different nations with different political systems could pop up, and the best would survive and grow. If you have time, watch this talk done by the creator of the seasteading project. It's quite interesting.

Concerning costs, there are big challenges there, but it may be brought down with some techniques. For example, using concrete instead of steel - heavier, but apparently much less expensive to maintain. Another approach are submarines instead of boats: in the case of a storm, you sink. For larger scales, there are those breakwaters, but that's for a big city only.

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[kseistrup]

What about a small island nation?

Show me a viable island (more than just a rock or frozen wasteland) that isnt claimed by an existing nation and were talking.

It seems Wirtland is looking into buying some land from Nauru, thus acquiring a formal territory: http://wirtlandinstitute.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-sell-square-mile-of-wasteland.html

Cheers,

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[kseistrup]

I still doubt any other country would recognize them without Wirland citizens actually moving there (which doesnt seem to be planned and i dont see happening)

If they managed to buy a piece of land on Nauru, I wouldn't mind moving there if it could turn into something like Tribe Wanted.

Cheers,

[speeder]

One of my dreams is form a small nation, kinda like a indigenous tribe, plainly because I believe it is a better form of government.

But I see that this is almost impossible to be done without war :/

The most feasible plan so far is buy a large farm, remain part of the country where it is located for a while, build a fortress, a army, and only then claim independence (and the likely result will be a bloody war...)

[caveden]

Tax havens usually are only attractive if you dont have to live there (think mailbox-type of tax havens),

There are also those tax-havens which, due to low taxes, become a very interesting place for investors and entrepreneurs, like Hong-Kong for example. Maybe tax-haven is not the appropriate word in English. I mean "country with very low taxes".
There is also the example of Monaco, where millionaires go to live in order to avoid certain taxes. Their business outside of Monaco keep being taxed, but their personal income and wealth not that much.

If you are a rich Canadian living in Canada, you can say all you want that you dont have to pay taxes in Sealand and that your company is registered there... the Canadian judge wont be very convinced by that argument, though. You will have to actually move there, so the Canadian authorities dont enforce their tax laws. And that wont work with any concept of micro-nation i ever heard of.

The idea of seasteading is that people would move to live there. And by the way, it's not meant to be "for rich only". The idea is to create prosperity for all. Obviously that in the beginning poor people will not be able to afford floating houses, but as times goes by and technology advances, the "ocean tax" becomes smaller, while government taxes quite the contrary...

The only reason that existing tax-havens are still there is that they are actually nations, you know, with armies;

What armies do places like Monaco, Lichtenstein, Singapore and others have?

Floating micro-tax-haven will simply get a visit by the US customs and border protection agency (and/or IRS), who will round up their citizens and haul them off to a grand jury.

Maybe, maybe not. I think it's something worth trying. Way easier to achieve more freedom through this path than through elections, anyway.

An alternative to avoid this danger, at least in the beginning while these floating-nations are not internationally recognized, is to use a convenience flag. This limits your freedom but not that much, since there are small governments out there who make this "convenience-flag" business an important source of revenue. Once the city is big enough, it may abandon the convenience flag and declare sovereignty.
Take the example of the Women on Waves boat. It has already been forbid to dock on ports of conservative nations, but it was never military attacked.

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