“Ideas are cheap, execution that matters”

“Actions speak louder than words”

“Talk is cheap, show me the code”

Check also agreat blog post by Derek Sivers explaining that ideas are worth nothing unless executed.

My commitment

I made a commitment to a particular idea.

I have high confidence that I’m moving in the right direction:

So what do you do?

New definition of value.

Accounting for negative externalities and positive co-benefits.

Offering

Davos

Burning Man in the Alps.

Meeting the right people in the right place at the right time.

Loads of interesting conversations.

Everyone was interesting.

LIBERLAND

Software as a Service for governments.

KAZAKHSTAN

Baikonur — startup accelerator for space.

PUTIN

Peaceful way out.

Is there a way to back out without losing face?

Can we lock this dude and change the regime?

Putin's Palace - Wikipedia

Video from Navalny, 120m views on YouTube, pretty deep investigation:

WFP (World Food Programme)

Idea ping-pong with the person who runs the innovation program + advisor to feed the next billion XPRIZE.

I really wish there was more human food and less animal feed.

GBBC (Global Blockchain Business Council)

Regulation for stablecoins (after Terra and UST meltdown) that is coming from us, the industry, not the regulators.

MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)

Nobel Peace Prize as a vehicle to add credibility.

Using a different jurisdiction as FDA is slow with approvals

GROW MEDICINE

Rewarding donors with virtual frog NFTs and accepting crypto — the biggest factor in adopting crypto was Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht.

UKRAINE

Corruption + Procurement = Blockchain

AFRICA

Banking the unbanked? Not much point in having a financial system if everyone is hungry…

Universal Basic Income

Universal Basic Food

Universal Basic Water

HOMELESS

Some safety and stability.

REFUGEES

Building cities.

Refugee camps are cities of tomorrow — that’s why not building camps, building cities.

And we know people who are willing to do it.

Does it have any value?

Maybe.

Unsure.

Hopefully.

Who knows?

I cannot different places, people, experiences, my viewpoint is one of the many possible viewpoints but I trust my gut feelings and intuition.

Always here to serve you

10+ minutes call - Mars Robertson ⚡️⚡️⚡️

Battery running out of juice, need to finish now…

Just so you know: PAY IT FORWARD

ABUNDANCE MINDSET

The last transaction scooping the remaining balance in the block 17713343

The last “round number” transactions in the block 17713330

The first transactions in the block 17713325

5 blocks = 15 seconds

Strange error

I got some strange error, then tried to refresh, then another browser, then…

Transaction of my friend has failed too

I’ve shared the private key with him to maximize the chances, I knew it is going to be busy…

Error `No sniping!`

We were both trying manually

I was not able to purchase anything

I was genuinely hoping that if we are fast it will be fast enough…

Other people missed out too, loads of WTF

The hype is real

These are all paid articles obviously but notable sources:

• One of its Kind "Sleep-to-Earn" Token DreamN Rewards Holders in BNB
• One of its Kind "Sleep-to-Earn" Token DreamN Rewards Holders in BNB - Benzinga
• One of its Kind "Sleep-to-Earn" Token DreamN Rewards Holders in BNB

Now I need to settle with people who got me into the whitelist

Mars Robertson 🕊 on Twitter: "There is one super-hyped project.I don't want to mindlessly shill.(I have respect for my audience)I was approached by one dude on Discord: "do you want to buy whitelist"?Yes please.$300 per address.After it is on the smart contract level guaranteedScreenshot this 🤑 / Twitter"

There is one super-hyped project.I don't want to mindlessly shill.(I have respect for my audience)I was approached by one dude on Discord: "do you want to buy whitelist"?Yes please.$300 per address.After it is on the smart contract level guaranteedScreenshot this 🤑

I used the phrase “after the whitelist” because I thought that the whitelist will guarantee the allocation.

It would be better if I used the wording “after the successful presale”.

Dammit.

I would be so much happier if these transactions were successful.

Till the next time.

A friend of mine — Claus G — invited me to a podcast conversation.

We decided to structure it into three separate parts to keep it on topic.

Loads of thoughts, insights, realizations.

Quality content and you are invited to have a listen:

Should we go into politics?

One of Claus’s ideas is about going into politics.

I was thinking about it too, after all now I’m 35 and can legally become a president in Poland, the country where I was born.

I was thinking about a global political party. In fact, similar initiatives already exist:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Parties_International
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Greens

Another cool idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Party

The party proposes an online form of liquid democracy that it calls “net democracy” based on the Internet. Their goal is to elect representatives who will reliably vote according to what the citizens decide online.

But the trouble is — I’ve lost hope in the old system.

Rather than fighting the old system…

Welcome to Liberland

Minimal role of the state. Private sector police, private sector courts, the only thing that is centralized — DIPLOMACY — it is better when the country speaks a unified voice.

Diplomacy is the core business of a country. That sounds sensible to me.

I’m optimistic about the future of Liberland.

The community is amazing.

Liberland can become the default location for all free-market enthusiasts.

In Dubai many people were familiar with it.

New system (continued)

Planetary Council

I’ve been to COP23 24 26 and I genuinely believe that unanimous consensus is not scalable.

Planetary Council on Twitter: "Around 30s mark:"...but it will need unanimous consent from nearly 200 parties..."Changing the consensus rule also requires unanimous consent 🤷‍♀️Is it a GAME OVER check mate or maybe we can upgrade the #govtech operating system for humanity? https://t.co/bZvEDIqgLK / Twitter"

Around 30s mark:"...but it will need unanimous consent from nearly 200 parties..."Changing the consensus rule also requires unanimous consent 🤷‍♀️Is it a GAME OVER check mate or maybe we can upgrade the #govtech operating system for humanity? https://t.co/bZvEDIqgLK

Planetary Council on Twitter: "#COP26 do you even know what is the consensus rule?https://t.co/FfjFYeYHXu pic.twitter.com/DtGLaNgBhG / Twitter"

COP26 do you even know what is the consensus rule?https://t.co/FfjFYeYHXu pic.twitter.com/DtGLaNgBhG

Planetary Council on Twitter: "🇷🇺 #Russia and VETO powerGenuine WTFThat's why #PlanetaryCouncil upgraded global governance Via @guardian: https://t.co/r0gvvFVIH8 pic.twitter.com/RqHA4C6R5q / Twitter"

🇷🇺 #Russia and VETO powerGenuine WTFThat's why #PlanetaryCouncil upgraded global governance Via @guardian: https://t.co/r0gvvFVIH8 pic.twitter.com/RqHA4C6R5q

“yet the UN security council is powerless to act”

Priorities:

• new consensus
• new entities (including big tech due to their de factor power)

New system (continued)

• Network State Genesis
• How to Start a New Country

Balaji Srinivasan on Twitter: "How to start a new city- Build a community in the cloud- Organize economy around remote work- Enforce laws with smart contracts- Practice in-person norms of civility- Simulate architecture in VR- Eventually, crowdfund territory- And materialize city into the real world / Twitter"

How to start a new city- Build a community in the cloud- Organize economy around remote work- Enforce laws with smart contracts- Practice in-person norms of civility- Simulate architecture in VR- Eventually, crowdfund territory- And materialize city into the real world

Nation3 ☁️🇺🇳 on Twitter: "Governments are failing to react to humankind's existential threats.We need to reimagine new nations, and we need to build them.Read the manifesto, drop your ENS below and retweet this to be part of a community creating a nation on the cloud ☁️🇺🇳https://t.co/cjriM7vpk7 / Twitter"

Governments are failing to react to humankind's existential threats.We need to reimagine new nations, and we need to build them.Read the manifesto, drop your ENS below and retweet this to be part of a community creating a nation on the cloud ☁️🇺🇳https://t.co/cjriM7vpk7

Examples of how things can evolve

Blogpost form 2020, as you can see things are evolving:

• Summary of Mars’s environmental and economic work
• Island — Homes — Cities — SEZ

We made some pivots along the way.

When the progress on the island was slowed down due to legal uncertainty, we started focusing on construction technology.

When doing housing, why not build an entire city?

When building city, why not establish SEZ (Special Economic Zone)?

• Island
• Housing
• Cities
• SEZ (Special Economic Zone)
• SEZ.network

SEZ.network was a way of doing global governance, get “foot in the door”, get a unified legal system across multiple jurisdictions.

One project leads to another

One approach is not working, then you try something new

The real skill is to know when to move on, and when to persevere.

Maybe I quit too early?

Maybe I carried on for too long?

Ended up not buying the island. Auctions are stressful and full of uncertainty.

Island DAO debrief

The debrief post explains many reasons. The most important one — my personal commitment, energy, attitude… I have just purchased a house in London and I was not ready to YOLO into the island 1000 miles away.

All the issues could have been resolved.

It was my commitment, energy, and attitude — I did not want it badly enough.

So what do you do?

These days everything is green, eco-friendly, reduces emissions, renewable energy, net-zero by 2050, good for the planet — aggressive PR greenwashing.

Pricing negative externalities.

The comprehensive IMF report found that prices were at least 50% below their true costs for 99% of coal, 52% of diesel and 47% of natural gas in 2020.

Source: The Guardian

Rewarding positive actions.

A quick video describing the problem space:

I’m still working on the proof of concept, it is not ready yet.

Writing this blogpost gives me a full conviction this is the best use of my time, energy, effort, money.

Combining blockchain transparency game theory and my unique perspective.

New definition of value

New incentives

Using the language of money

Using the language of metrics

Solving The Generator Functions Of Existential Risk - Daniel Schmachtenberger

We shape the tools, then the tools shape us.

We shape the laws, then the laws shape us.

We shape the incentives, then the incentives shape us.

From the genesis.re founding document.

High conviction

If money is the only value…

…if the goal is maximizing GDP…

…then old dying people are good for business, healthcare (or rather “sickcare”) is 15–20% of GDP in the US

Stay in touch

Follow me on Twitter @marsxrobertson or book ☎️️ ☎️ ☎️

10+ minutes call - Mars Robertson ⚡️⚡️⚡️

2022–05–20 UPDATE (real world feedback)

G20: People Planet Prosperity

WEF: Beyond GDP

we need to find a new measure to assess the health of our economies and — more importantly — the people living in them

Related projects — global governance

Planetary Council on Twitter: "🇷🇺 #Russia and VETO powerGenuine WTFThat's why #PlanetaryCouncil upgraded global governance Via @guardian: https://t.co/r0gvvFVIH8 pic.twitter.com/RqHA4C6R5q / Twitter"

🇷🇺 #Russia and VETO powerGenuine WTFThat's why #PlanetaryCouncil upgraded global governance Via @guardian: https://t.co/r0gvvFVIH8 pic.twitter.com/RqHA4C6R5q

Planetary Council

Thank you Gitcoin for providing the starting point.

Seeking a New Kind of Public Good: Open Call for Proposals - Gitcoin's Blog

This is a request for written pieces about public goods. The piece may be about an existing public good or service, or a prospective public good that could benefit from Web3 funding and technology. We are specifically interested in hearing from groups and individuals with concrete ideas to share, including those who have already been working in the public’s benefit.

Democracy didn’t get an update in a long time

Athenian democracy - Wikipedia

Effective Altruism gets it

Our current list of the most important world problems

XPRIZE gets it

Global Action to Fight Climate Change

One of the main barriers to effective climate change actions (mitigation and adaptation) is the lack of global cooperation, reflected in the lack of orchestrated coordination of efforts and global models. While global cooperation encompasses a multitude of social, economic, and geopolitical complexities; can there be a technological innovation that can help bridge gaps and drive joint global action?

Free Software Foundation gets it

As our society grows more dependent on computers, the software we run is of critical importance to securing the future of a free society. Free software is about having control over the technology we use in our homes, schools and businesses, where computers work for our individual and communal benefit, not for proprietary software companies or governments who might seek to restrict and monitor us.

Suggested solution: New definition of value

GDP = one metric

Old dying people are good, healthcare is 17% of GDP in the US

New definition of value: triple bottom line

Triple bottom line - Wikipedia

The triple bottom line (or otherwise noted as TBL or 3BL) is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological) and financial.

TODO: research how is that accounting happening in real life?

Think along these lines:

• World: Visa, Mastercard. China: WeChat, Alipay
• DVD vs CD vs VHS vs LaserDisc
• Cassette vs Vinyl
• Gold standard vs Bretton Woods vs Hyperbitconisation

Different standards.

One can opt-out, establish a new standard.

Do you want to do business with us? Need to comply with our standard, just like requiring payment in USD BTC or ETH not Reichsmark.

TODO: JFDI

Can you please exercise article §16 of the Nature Conservation Act?

Technical details

I was ready to accept the verdict — did not win the auction.

It was the existing appeal that made me realize — there is some chance!

I am forwarding the deed of auction of the real estate Hõralaiu Vara. The act is attached as an attachment, the challenge of Datahouse OÜ is attached.

Big vision

The big vision combines a number of themes: REGEN IT

Resilience

Economy

Governance

Education

Nature

Innovation

Technology

Smart City

• Smart City Challenge - ENG
• Smart City Challenge | TalTech

Refugee Crisis

• Moria migrants: Fire destroys Greek camp leaving 13,000 without shelter
• Moria fire: Greek court jails four Afghan asylum seekers for 10 years
• A doctor's story: inside the 'living hell' of Moria refugee camp

I have no solution, but I want to give a voice to these silenced people, and hope there is a willing audience prepared to begin to listen.

EU announces funding for five new refugee camps on Greek islands

We have said it several times: continuing to clone and repackage the containment model is the best recipe for a catastrophe. It is time to demand dignified alternatives to camps and access to a fair and dignified asylum procedure, otherwise those seeking safety in Europe will continue to suffer.

We suggest a solution: building cities

Refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", says aid expert

Migrant Cities Instead of Refugee Camps - Politas Consulting

I believe that all these proposals (…) deserve the reality check in well-commissioned pilot projects. Even if one considers the founding of new cities too ambitious, at least the third approach would allow us to consolidate our values and interests much better than if we continue to rely on UNHCR camps.

3D printing is getting exponentially better (and cheaper)

Habitats on Mars will be 3D printed, using locally available materials.

That can happen on Earth too.

The price of the house that I’ve purchased in London is £362,500

The cost of raw materials is probably less than £10,000

By far, the largest contributing factors are the availability of residential land (they are not making land anymore) and the availability of cheap credit.

The second biggest factor is the availability of labor. The cost of training and employing people is high.

At the far end come raw materials, commodities are cheap, everything that can be commoditized the price goes to zero. That’s why I like 3D printing — we can literally use dirt, soil, clay, sand — materials are available everywhere.

For completeness, Earthships — houses build made of recycled rubbish (tires, plastic bottles) — are also a plausible option.

Accelerate Estonia

Our proposal in a nutshell:

Accelerate Estonia 2021 — Solving Wicked Problems

Independent food + water + energy that makes housing resilient to climate change and related global instability.

NINBY: not in my backyard

Sure thing.

We are not building a refugee camp in Estonia.

We are evaluating smart city technology.

It is so much easier to start from a blank slate, rather than retrofit into existing cities and troublesome regulations.

(I have a genuine feeling that regulators have one goal in mind — preserve their jobs by imposing even more regulation)

At the same time, we invite marine biologists to our research center.

(one more thing) Elon Musk Carbon XPRIZE

This theme is related to the unique geographical setting.

Low salinity — it freezes in winter.

Low depth — can work in the water easily.

So what are you doing exactly?

My biggest skill is connectedness, this proposal involves a number of

Smart city?

Off-the-grid resilience? (food + water + energy)

Refugee crisis?

Research center? (algae, seaweed, aquaculture)

Yes!

Compensating the existing winner

TBD.

TBC.

I would like to remain fairness and offer compensation for the hassle.

I hope that we will remain friends regardless.

Why 100% confidence?

Raising money with the uncertainty of the auction and time pressure proved to be difficult.

You can refer to the dedicated blog post explaining the most important reasons:

We didn’t make it (this time)

It is so much easier with the known price, political support and if we get some press and media attention.

Press release (DRAFT)

Can you believe the worldwide attention it could get?

This is just a DRAFT, with a few key speaking points.

• The government of Estonia decided to exercise the law…
• Together with the Smart City innovation program, we invite…
• We realized that climate change is only going to accelerate…
• We are concerned about the refugee crisis that can undermine the stability of the entire EU…
• …
• Elon Musk Carbon XPRIZE…
• Marine biologists, experimenting on seaweed and algae aquaculture…
• E-Governance and blockchain tokenization…

This can easily attract the right people!

Lobbying

I have never tried to directly influence the government.

What I know for the fact, is that guys like Microsoft, Facebook, Google spend loads of money for lobbying in the US Congress and EU Parliament.

My genuine intention is to convince Estonia: this is a good deal for you!

We bring together visionary entrepreneurs and public sector evangelists to launch success stories solving humanity’s most pressing challenges.

Personal credentials of Mars

I’ve been involved in a number of projects but only recently waking up to the unlimited human potential and the abundance mindset.

Summary of Mars’s environmental and economic work

Kindly asking for your consideration

The work will continue anyway.

But while are still in the process of appealing — the challenge of Datahouse OÜ — them please exercise the §16 of the Nature Conservation Act.

100% legal. 100% legit. 100% transparent. 100% OK in my book.

Kindly asking for your support

Estonia is a small country (in km² sense) but with a global footprint with the E-Residency program.

Bitcoin Whitepaper 2008 | e-Residency

Estonia is a small country (1.3m citizens) but that can act to the advantage — people know each other.

If you know people who have influence over this matter — please share this article, please make a phone call…

Contact details

• marsxrobertson@gmail.com
• +44 758 629 4279 (WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, everywhere)
• Book a call: https://calendly.com/marsxr/basex ☎️️️ ☎️ ☎️
• @marsXrobertson and @IslandDAO on Twitter
• join our Discord
• join our Newsletter
• 👏 👏 👏 on Medium right here!

Open letter to the Republic of Estonia was originally published in Island DAO on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

UPDATE: why support from Estonia?

Make it possible to build, make it possible to experiment.

In the UK it is very difficult to build new homes.

You hear about new homes during the election campaign (to capture young voters) but the reality is that the law is designed to preserve the status quo.

In a nutshell, if you are a developer and want to build new homes, you need to also build a road, parking, park, school as well.

In our project, our intention is to become fully off-the-grid self-sufficient and there is no dependency on government services, other than the military but we hope we remain in peace.

(and build prosperous future)

Below is copy-paste from the form

Your Moonshot Idea

What is your inspiring Moonshot vision in one sentence? (Please complete the form in English. There is space at the end of the form to add more context, links etc. so you can focus us on the key elements/highlights at the start.)

Independent food + water + energy that makes housing resilient to climate change and related global instability.

What will the world look like if your moonshot succeeds?

In brief, describe what the specific change will be (is it novel; audacious; does it need socio-economic transformation?) and why that change will make the world a better place.

World of abundance. Independent food + water + energy makes it possible to live anywhere, no need to migrate.

It is effectively solving the refugee crisis as well as housing affordability crisis.

Public Sector Role

Accelerate Estonia offers unique access to decision makers in the Estonian Government and public sector. Knowing there is a specific and relevant role for the Estonian public sector is essential for us to understand whether this is the right program for your project. What public sector support needed to run the experiments or make the solution possible? e.g. do public sector processes need to change; or policies, regulations, market conditions? Or do you need a sandbox environment to run experiments that would not normally be allowed?

The existing building code allows tiny homes up to 20 square meters and 5 meters tall. We would like to seek permission for an experimental village with scalable off-the-grid infrastructure.

This is because some of the facilities make sense only with the economy of the scale.

In other words, it is possible to have individual house fully off-the-grid but the cost per unit will be lower in a village arrangement.

Market Creation

Scaling impact by creating a market for other business should be at the core of your project with aE. What is your idea for creating a market and how will your business growth increase the market opportunity for other businesses?

Once the technology is developed, the excess capacity of independent homes can be utilized on platforms like AirBnb. US military rather than bombing countries can deploy manufacturing bases that will 3D print these homes at a scale in the affected regions.

Problem

In brief, what is the problem you are solving and who has it?

Reliance on supply chain with food. Reliance on the energy grid. Reliance on water reservoirs.

There was that ship stuck in Suez Canal. There could be any number of reasons why the food is not delivered, we need to plan accordingly.

Why is this problem “wicked”?

In brief, why is the problem particularly complex? Why hasn’t it been solved already and why is it urgent in Estonia now?

It is the intersection of many problems and many technologies. Estonia offers an abundance of natural resources: sea, woodland, water reserves. Citizens should

What is your solution?

In one sentence, what is your idea for solving this problem?

Independent food + water + energy.

Why is your solution a moonshot?

How is your solution audacious and game changing?

Because it solves one of the most pressing problems facing humanity at a global scale.

Progress / Status

What is the current status of your idea, has been achieved so far and what are your next steps?

Various pieces of technology exist independently but currently, there is no single package that would connect independent food + water + energy

Impact

What is the potential massive/game changing impact if successful (in numbers if possible)?

It changes the geopolitical status of the entire planet. It makes it possible to live anywhere.

Business Model

If successful, aE projects should launch from the program with scalable business models. What is your project’s most likely scalable business model?

Just. Build. More. Homes. Cost of housing in the cities is not affordable for many young people. If we enable technology that allows living independently, chances are people will choose that way. Building more homes is a very scalable business model.

Key Experiments

What are the key experiments needed to validate the solution? i.e. what to you need to test in Estonia to prove the solution is viable and has the potential to have massive impact?

Connecting various pieces of technology and experimenting with how they work together at a scale.

Economic Opportunity

aE’s remit is to turn wicked problems into economic opportunities for Estonia. How might the solution create economic returns for Estonia?

Attracting intellectual capital to Estonia. Making society more resilient to consequences of the climate change.

Team

Describe your personal connection to the field, including business experience or experience in the public sector or academy. Are there any other contributors to your team — what is their role? Which skills would you need to add to your team?

Mars Robertson: entrepreneur: https://marsrobertson.com/
Joanna Picetti: businesswoman, politician: https://jp.network
Julien Carbonnell: Smart-City and Civic-Tech, PhD in urban science: https://juliencarbonnell.medium.com/
Letty: XPRIZE Visioneering
Dan: already based in Estonia, blockchain entrepreneur

Supporting Information

We’ve asked for short responses above so you can focus us on the most important and urgent issues and opportunities. Please use this space to any supporting information and links you think are valuable.

Similar ideas:
- https://www.regenvillages.com/
- https://www.effekt.dk/regenvillages
- https://futurethinkers.org/village/

Key terms: “regenerative village” and “smart village”

Questions?

Do you have any questions for the Accelerate Estonia team?

Are you aware of all the geopolitical factors related to climate change? (food, water, energy security)

Will you consider allowing to use some of the lands that belong to the Republic of Estonia?

Please offer us honest feedback, we will continue to work on BaseX (independent food water energy) and we are hoping that Estonia will welcome our efforts.

Accelerate Estonia 2021 — Solving Wicked Problems was originally published in Island DAO on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

UPDATE: as I’m learning more about Tuvalu, I’ve realized that such a “neo‑colonialism” move would be very uncool. Treat content below as a “thought‑experiment”.

PRINCIPLE: Whatever you do, think bigger, 10x is easier than 10%

Google X Head on Moonshots: 10X Is Easier Than 10 Percent

What is a 51% attack?

A brief explanation from Investopedia:

A 51% attack is an attack on a blockchain by a group of miners who control more than 50% of the network’s mining hash rate.

What is a 51% peaceful takeover?

@lemiscate — working at Aave

@kaiynne — founder of Synthetix

Marc '22 Billy' Zeller on Twitter: "there's a lot of venues in the world with "easy" access to citizenship and low voter turnout."Ddos voting" our way to be the gov seems doable.St.Kitts 2020 current gov won by 10,316 votes, citizenship by investment is ~100k$.Think big lmao. https://t.co/5pSHXDd0en / Twitter"

there's a lot of venues in the world with "easy" access to citizenship and low voter turnout."Ddos voting" our way to be the gov seems doable.St.Kitts 2020 current gov won by 10,316 votes, citizenship by investment is ~100k$.Think big lmao. https://t.co/5pSHXDd0en

Both Synethix and Aave are multi-billion dollar DeFi protocols, no wonder these guys are thinking big.

Why Tuvalu?

• 12k people
• $3.5k GDP per capita
• 4m highest point (going underwater)
• small on land, big on the water:
  “It is a very small island country of and is 26 km2 (10 sq mi). Due to the spread out islands it has the 38th largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 749,790 km2 (289,500 sq mi)”
• innovative ways of earning income, such as .tv domain
• innovative ways of using blockchain, see this press release:

The Tuvalu Government has today announced its plans to become the world’s first paperless society using (…) digital public ledger.

Combination of all the factors suggests Tuvalu is desperate (really enthusiastic) to innovate.

Citizenship by investment

Do they accept Bitcoin?

Tuvalu has no ATM and credit cards are not accepted anywhere either, so you need to bring all your cash with you. You can however exchange foreign currency, Australian Dollars, USD and Euro, at the only bank branch, right by the airport. — Tuvalu: All you need to know

Just like skipping landlines and going directly to mobile, Tuvalu can skip legacy payment infrastructure and proceed directly to Bitcoin.

Climate change adaptation

Note that Maldives have a much higher GDP:

Threatened by rising sea levels, the Maldives is building a floating city

Technically speaking not seasteading but some of the technology can be used on territorial waters too:

Active Projects

Protecting the Ocean

The income provided by citizenship investment can replace Fishing Licences.

Can we agree on Tuvalu?

There are many places in the world that welcome investment and offer various privileges.

My genuine suggestion is to work with Tuvalu.

It only makes sense if others agree, I cannot do this on my own.

Would be amazing if we could agree on Tuvalu.

Geographically speaking it is far away but we can become citizens without ever visiting the country.

Reality check

Neo-colonialism or doing the right thing?

Climate change is not going anywhere.

Tuvalu has to innovate, one way or another.

• We come in peace.
• We protect the Ocean.
• We generate loads of media attention.
• We highlight the problems facing humanity.
• We provide capital to find technological solutions for climate change adaptation

(climate adaptation and forced migration are complex subjects —much more than just the tech — but having tech that is able to solve it always helpful)

Positive sum game, everyone wins.

Do you have friends in Tuvalu?

Warm introductions welcome.

Maybe I can address them via targetted advertising on Facebook 😇

ExO — Exponential Organisations

I’m currently completing ExO certification course: certifications.openexo.com

I would like to sponsor the place for someone in Tuvalu and organically build my network there.

Contact

Leave a comment or @marsxrobertson on Twitter or book a call: https://calendly.com/marsxr/basex ☎️ ️☎️ ☎️

Island DAO on Twitter: "https://t.co/HOwtG2dK1GOur highest bid was €260,000Congratulations to the winners!It was the best island available on the market.There is always another one coming 😇 pic.twitter.com/jZVqIJxfeL / Twitter"

https://t.co/HOwtG2dK1GOur highest bid was €260,000Congratulations to the winners!It was the best island available on the market.There is always another one coming 😇 pic.twitter.com/jZVqIJxfeL

We didn’t have enough committed funds to make the winning bid.

Future Thinkers Smart Village

The next-best alternative: futurethinkers.org

If you are sold the vision of a regenerative future, check out their project:

🌍 Regenerative Economy 🌎 SEEDS 🌱 on Twitter: "Yup! This is epic! Check out @FutureThinkers_ - modeling some fun ways to finance Regenerative Villages!This is how future civilizations are created! https://t.co/SAcvHChdGF / Twitter"

Yup! This is epic! Check out @FutureThinkers_ - modeling some fun ways to finance Regenerative Villages!This is how future civilizations are created! https://t.co/SAcvHChdGF

Debrief

There are plenty of reasons why we didn’t make it (this time).

There is always another island coming.

My current spotlight is on Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

The main reasons:

• resilient to climate change
• English speaking country
• strong sense of national identity (can help survive the collapse of society)
• much closer to home
• COP26

100% responsibility

I take 100% responsibility for everything that happens in my life.

Please don’t interpret the reasons below as “excuse”.

These are factual circumstances that were present and were affecting my attention, energy, focus, and everything in between.

Hopefully, in the future, I will not repeat too many of the same mistakes too many times.

1. Personal circumstances

When I started working on the island roughly a year ago, I realized that if I was to move there, I would miss my kids a lot.

I made a decision to be present in their lives.

I made a decision to provide a stable home.

To comply with the lending criteria, I got a full-time job, slaved my time in useless employment, had sufficient evidence for my income, purchased a 🏡

(10% downpayment, 90% LTV, 25 years mortgage)

If I was a single digital nomad with no family commitments, I would totally YOLO into the island.

Because of my personal circumstances, I was taking a much more conservative approach — let’s grab a bargain but not take too much risk.

I DID NOT BURN THE BOATS.

2. Short notice

Noone likes to act under time pressure.

That’s why I was casually touching base with the court officer, to get enough notice.

I didn’t expect the island to be on the auction so soon.

🏝 Island DAO 11th newsletter - BACK IN THE GAME

3. Crypto crash

Losing 50% of your money (in USD terms) is nothing fun.

I have HODL mentality, I’m here for the technology, supercycle and hyperbitcoinisation.

It was the realization of changing market sentiment that was really painful.

What was meant to be smooth sailing, turned out to be not achievable.

4. Too much energy invested into DeFi products

I could honestly tell that one of the most relaxing things is checking the crops and watching the number go up.

Compound interest works, especially when you see it accrue in real-time.

5. Indecisiveness with the blockchain choice

ETH vs BSC vs XDAI vs POLYGON vs some other EVM

6. Indecisiveness with the legal structure

Legal status update

7. Too worried about nitty-gritty legalities

Asked the lawyer for advice:

…combination of a loan agreement and a preliminary agreement for the sale of shares. Such an agreement can only be entered into in Estonia as a notarial. As the contract for the sale of shares must be notarial, the preliminary contract for the sale of shares must also be notarial. There are certain exceptions, but in your case (a private limited company with a share capital of only 2,500 euros and not registered in the Central Register of Securities) they do not apply).

BULLSHIT

JFDI

8. Lack of clear message when reaching out to potential investors

The lack of clarity in positioning non-profit association VS private company was definitely an issue.

Due to the crypto crash, relying on donations should be dismissed.

I should have figured out much earlier.

Each conversation, each pitch was getting closer to the goal but this time around we ran out of time.

9. “If you confuse you lose”

Not that many days ago I was shilling: genesis.re

Then I was shilling: islanddao.org

CONFUSING

Network State Genesis

10. Spinning too many plates

I should have put openexo.com certification on pause and focus 100% on the island.

I was also liasing the transfer of two WWW domains.

Totally not a priority.

I should have removed everything that is not IslandDAO.org from my sphere of consciousness.

11. Personal relationships

I’m fully responsible for the quality of my personal relationships.

You can search for the word “counterproductive”:

You can also search for “very confused” when someone joined and couldn’t understand what are we talking about.

12. Lack of experience in building community

How do you maintain engagement?

Suggesting 18:00 UTC

Monday. Next week on Tuesday. Next week on Wednesday. And so on…

This is to avoid potential conflicts, world moved online and people have lifes.

13. Lack of experience in leading teams

My job as web-developer was comfortable and paying well and I never stepped into the managerial path.

14. Lack of experience in closing sales

Having €50k from someone in the bank account is different than soft-commit

15. Lack of transparency when dealing with the existing funds

While almost all of my personal capital was “farming”, the ETH that belonged to the multisig was the only “liquid ETH” and I did use it to play some money-making games.

16. Personal brand

17. Paralysing stress

On Sunday we had “war room” call and the energy was really positive.

Too bad that on Monday I was stressing out rather than get myself into the flow of work.

Noone will commit money at such a short notice

Rather than worrying I should be hustling anyway and use time pressure as an excuse rather than a red flag.

(of course it is a red flag but you can turn it around anyway)

No excuses

Full responsibility.

In order to achieve something of epic proportions, a lot of things need to align well.

In this particular instance, a lot of things were out of order.

100% responsibility and the reason number 1 is number 1 for a reason:

There was some hope

At some point, I asked for guidance…

$10k FREE MONEY and THREE PEOPLE reaching out of the blue…

Taking risks VS playing it safe?

The €260k bid was already YOLO territory, a bit of a stretch.

I didn’t have the courage to gamble on closing the sale in the coming 30 days.

Island DAO on Twitter: ""This is about taking charge of your future, it's about making things happen, it's about getting things done." pic.twitter.com/pXmNYKvGhD / Twitter"

"This is about taking charge of your future, it's about making things happen, it's about getting things done." pic.twitter.com/pXmNYKvGhD

Moving forward

I tried back in 2017 with the astralship.org

I still continue to support them. That truck was 1.7 ETH

OUR NEW MOBILE MAKERSPACE

I tried 2020–2021 with this particular island.

The work on Island DAO will continue, at a steady and sustainable pace, with the intention that others will step up and co-lead the project.

I’m planning (soon soon soon) to publish another blogpost describing my personal future steps, one way or another my actions will be aligned with the stated purpose:

Regenerative Civilisation.

Climate Change Adaptation.

Could have, would have, should have…

“No one ever went broke taking profits”

“No one ever went broke by not buying an island 1000 miles away”

Preservation of energy

If you are sold the vision of the island, then contribute to the futurethinkers.org Smart Village

Smart Village SEED NFT

They are good people. They are doing great work.

I will personally “ape in” into NFT to become a member of the community…

Contact

• Twitter: @IslandDAO
• Discord: https://discord.gg/3K6yU5jfmp
• Newsletter: http://island.substack.com
• Book a call: https://calendly.com/marsxr/basex ️☎️ ☎️️️ ☎️

11th June 2021 UPDATE

Some additional thoughts.

To what extent talking about stuff adds value? It helps me process… The downside of such an approach is thinking about reaction of others and preserving privacy.

I’ll probably just keep my (unpublished) notes and focus on adding value, rather than dissecting which of the 17 reasons affected, compounded, reinforced one another.

100% responsibility and the reason number 1 is number 1 for a reason

Friend 1 and the 🏡

Friend 2 and the 🏡

I made a decision to be present in the life of my children.

I just moved in.

It was my mindset that prevented me from accomplishing the goal.

It makes it even more painful.

Apparently, there is some appeal going on…

Thank you for keeping us informed.

I’ve learned about the auction pretty late and I did not have enough time to prepare and raise funds from friends and family.

With enough notice, I’m pretty sure I will be able to make a winning bid.

Either of these options is good:
1. repeating the auction (challenge of Datahouse OÜ is accepted)
2. accepting my offer, the number that I have in mind is €500k
3. working collaboratively on the project with the current owner / current winner of the auction

I have a big ambition for the island that includes working with the government program: https://accelerateestonia.ee/

“We bring together visionary entrepreneurs and public sector evangelists to launch success stories solving humanity’s most pressing challenges”

I know that €500k is more than the current winning bid but I’m fully confident that with enough time and political support coming from Accelerate Estonia I will be able to raise the required funds.

I hope that we will remain in communication and we will find an agreeable way moving forward.

Here is the political support I’m referring to:

Accelerate Estonia 2021 — Solving Wicked Problems

Recovering energy

According to Susan Miller of the website AstrologyZone.com, eclipses are a way for the Universe to get grab your attention.

Eclipses can highlight those areas of your life that may need improvement or change.

Ms Miller wrote on the website: “They uproot us, surprise us, and get us moving.

“They shake us out of our feelings of compliancy so that we can move from one level of maturity to another, to a higher plane, and they work very rapidly.

“Eclipses want us to change and change we do!”

In astrological terms, the Sun represents everything to do with the outer sphere — how you act in public and how you vocalise your feelings.

You never know… Let’s see what happens!

We didn’t make it (this time) was originally published in Island DAO on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Some updates

Latest newsletter

🏝 Island DAO 11th newsletter - BACK IN THE GAME

Latest blogpost

Legal status update

The information about the auction was a pretty big deal.

Ethereum mainnet

I recently launched Network State Genesis — Passport NFT on the Ethereum mainnet:

Email from Uzbekistan

Ethereum is prohibitively expensive to use.

As I am a school teacher at a school in a far village of Uzbekistan, receiving a monthly salary of $180, I can not afford to pay for it. Although I am open to contribute to any studies, observations, data analysis, helping the community to grow.

I was aware of the consequences of using ETH and high gas fees, I even implemented freeClaim() just not exposed in the UI yet.

Alternatives

Hassle of moving to XDAI

1. Have ETH to pay for gas
2. Have DAI
3. Approve DAI
4. Bridge: https://dai-bridge.poa.network/

Bottom line: onboarding to XDAI takes effort. Not practical for wider adoption.

Quick google search, this looks like a complete (up to date) resource:

Too complicated, too many options, it’s either ETH or BSC.

Arguments for BSC

Fast. Cheap. Growing. Momentum.

Decentralized enough.

Loads of abundant “play capital”.

For people who never experienced a bear market, the number “up only”.

(definitely less OG though)

Binance Chain is On 'a Parabola', Surpassing Ethereum in Several Metrics

Arguments against BSC

I think it’s a scam network full of scam projects and Binance is about to be smacked hard by US and EU regulators. I want nothing to do with it.

Crypto exchange Binance faces investigation by IRS, Department of Justice: report

Long term vision

BTC is not gonna die: 99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries

ETH is the dominant chain for smart contracts, despite the fees.

BSC might be just a temporary fashion, triggered by high network fees and the convenience of using the largest exchange

Major decision

It’s like buying a house

It’s like marrying someone

It’s like choosing the blockchain.

(it is in fact exactly choosing a blockchain)

While it is possible to migrate the blockchain in the future, it will cause a serious hassle.

Provisional decision

Use BSC for now, it appears like the best option.

Implement PAUSE feature so that the supply on BSC can be paused and migrated to other chains.

Unless new information comes into light or more people voice their observations.

To lose a major supporter is a blow, maybe we can still be friends?

Provisional tokenomics

1,000,000,000 total supply: fixed, no mint (avoiding temptation)
30% fundraising phase 1: island
30% fundraising phase 2: construction
10% liquidity pools / incentives
5% core team (long term vesting)
5% marketing / influencers
5% contractors / advisors / suppliers
5% airdrop / community / ecosystem
10% reserve, contingencies, rainy day, unknown unknowns

If you have experience — please share your knowledge.

We need to make a decision

Please be involved.

Please contribute.

Please join our mission.

Objective 1: Regenerative civilisation and climate change adaptation.

Objective 2: To acquire an island and create a living example serving Objective 1.

Non-profit association

“d” in the island is for “donation”

Check out the recent blog post about legal status:

Legal status update

Most likely you’ll be “aping in” into a donation and receive a token that doesn’t do anything.

No expectation of profit.

Information directly from the Estonian regulator:

A fundraising for the development of a business project shall be considered as a donation only under the condition that it does not lead to (i) a participation in the issuer or (ii) any obligation to repay the funds, interest, dividend, or any other repayment, or cash flow. In addition, no right of use of a service or product shall arise in connection with the donation.

The describing documents of raising donations must prominently highlight that it is a donation and the donors are acting in good faith and knowingly waive their contribution.

We will make it clear that it is a donation.

You may freely trade the donation token on decentralized exchanges, in the jurisdiction where “code is the law”.

For the purpose of the legal framework in Estonia: the money contribute is a donation.

Timing is everything

The no. 1 thing that mattered was TIMING

Why Startups Like Uber, Airbnb, and SpaceX Succeed, While Others Fail

Extreme example: abolishing slavery was “in theory” a good idea but it took many generations to accomplish. Self-driving cars were “in theory” a good idea but it took many inventions across the board to make it happen.

Buying an island is “in theory” a good idea…

Island DAO 🏝 community ☎️ decision about blockchain ⛓

Island DAO 🏝 community ☎️ decision about blockchain ⛓
Wednesday, May 19 · 18:00 UTC
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/aqt-syyb-kjm
Or dial: ‪(GB) +44 20 3956 4898‬ PIN: ‪170 792 279‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/aqt-syyb-kjm?pin=9292476749367

Join the discussion on Discord: discord.gg/9RDzBUX

ETH vs BSC vs XDAI vs POLYGON vs some other EVM was originally published in Island DAO on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I was casually touching base…

I just wanted to remain in touch…

I wasn’t expecting such an answer…

The property is on auction again. Please find enclosed auction notice.

https://www.oksjonikeskus.ee/oksjon/view/?okid=60696

First thoughts: existing structure

• BaseX OU: basexisland.com/bank
• Transferwise as banking provider: https://wise.com
• Cashaa as crypto provider: https://cashaa.com/business-account

Second thoughts: NGO

The main reason for the change: tax treatment.

As an NGO, we can legally pay no tax. Nice 😎

It is always OK to change your mind when new information becomes available!

We adopted simplified articles of association and memorandum of association from this website. Very good resources:

The establishment of a non-profit association

Our objectives are simple and self-explanatory, we hope this will age well:

Objective 1: Regenerative civilisation and climate change adaptation.
Objective 2: To acquire an island and create a living example serving Objective 1.

Of course, you could DIY online (it’s E-Residency after all) but a virtual address is necessary, that’s why going with service provider

Longer-term: DAO

As of May 2021 we are not quite there yet…

…getting there. “Island DAO” has DAO in the name and originates from Estonia DAO: estoniadao.org

DAO is in our DNA and governance innovation (ancient democracy) is one of the key requirements for regenerative civilisation — something that we decided to put in our articles of association.

Caitlin Long 🔑 on Twitter: "AND IT'S OFFICIAL!! 🤠#Wyoming will recognize #DAOs as a new type of LLC, effective July 1! Thank you legislators & @GovernorGordon for building on Wyoming's history of inventing the LLC, which all other states followed roughly a decade later. We're doing it again! A thread👇. 1/ pic.twitter.com/4x7VpcPTkk / Twitter"

AND IT'S OFFICIAL!! 🤠#Wyoming will recognize #DAOs as a new type of LLC, effective July 1! Thank you legislators & @GovernorGordon for building on Wyoming's history of inventing the LLC, which all other states followed roughly a decade later. We're doing it again! A thread👇. 1/ pic.twitter.com/4x7VpcPTkk

Some things are not technically legally possible as of now.

Doing what we can with what we have 🙏

Timeline

Phase 1: to acquire the property, the timing is tight

Phase 2: together figure out what’s next

We did a solid DYOR back in a day.

We have all the information that is needed right now.

Detailed information

➡️ Permitted development: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/101gxDshk5Svwt2twJaEsIGeNheH8jEqU

️➡️ Detailed plan: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18Y_LzNGaOcnGCQRo36vH6eDpsRbFR1Iy3TBmyFU-j5M/edit

Historical reference

Speculating about the structure: github.com/basexisland/legal/issues/12

How to ensure that everyone is protected and incentivized?

Four entities:

1️⃣ Land ownership
2️⃣ Building ownership

If all the buildings are portable, they can be moved to another location, company that owns the land is a different company that owns the buildings.

3️⃣ Maintenance / repairs / cooking / cleaning
4️⃣4️⃣4️⃣4️⃣ Operating companies

Events, seminars, conferences, activities, day to day customer service. There will be multiple operating companies from all over the place.

I can totally imagine one of the companies to be totally officially the DAO. Members doing presale in ETH and once the activation threshold is reached, the smart contract will do the booking.

Let’s chat ☎️️️️️ ️️️☎️ ☎️

➡️ Book a call: https://calendly.com/marsxr/basex

➡️ Join Discord: https://discord.gg/9RDzBUX

Legal status update was originally published in Island DAO on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.