‘The beginning of the aquatic age has begun’! Silicon Valley billionaires are investing in floating cities in international waters where they can avoid regulations and taxes

Billionaires have been known to buy nuclear bunkers and remote properties in the hopes of surviving a coming collapse, but some have set their sights on the open seas as a new home.

Wealthy investors, including Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, plan to launch “floating cities,” where they will be exempt from the laws that govern the world’s nations, and potentially safe from disasters that engulf land dwellers.

The Seasteading Institute, initially supported by an investment from Thiel, has spent fifteen years researching the idea of ​​permanent floating communities living in international waters, free from regulation.

In 2022, company Ocean Builders – backed by Bitcoin trader Chad Elwartowski – unveiled ‘the Seapod’, a floating building with 70 square meters of living space, which sits on a pole two meters above the water.

The Seasteading Institute planned a floating city off the coast of Polynesia (Seasteading Institute)

Ambitious designs would create utopian floating cities and towns in international waters (Seasteading Institute)

Other planned floating cities include Oceanix Busan

But the first Ocean Pod collapsed when it was unveiled in September 2022, with makers blaming it on a ‘bilge pump failure’.

Elwartowski also built a floating fiberglass house off the coast of Thailand in 2019 for himself and his wife, Nadia Thepdet,

However, the couple was forced to flee for a police raid after the couple posted videos of themselves drinking champagne in the sea.

The couple faced a possible death penalty after the Thai government said their actions threatened the country’s “independence.”

French Polynesia pulled out of a proposed deal for a cryptocurrency-funded floating city in 2017 – which the Seasteading Institute blamed on the spread of false information during an election campaign.

Thiel has cooled the Seasteading Institute in recent years, but the nonprofit continues to thrive.

Joe Quirk, president of the Institute, said in a YouTube video this year: “The technology for floating startup governments is within reach and we are eager to make it happen as quickly as possible.

Ocean Builders has ambitious plans for the SeaPod (Ocean Builders)

The plans for the floating city ‘SeaZone’ were ambitious (Seasteading Institute)

A prototype SeaPod was unveiled in 2022 (AP)

“I came here from the opposite of a floating city, which is San Francisco, California. Many people are not happy with the way it (San Fran) is run.

“But imagine if we could divide San Francisco into lots of little pieces, and people could move around and choose the neighbors they wanted. There would be variation by providers of governance and selection by citizens.

‘Let a class of people try out many ideas so that we discover the best solutions for life.’

The Seasteading Institute hopes floating cities will have “significant political autonomy.”

The Institute says: ‘Nearly half of the world’s surface area is unclaimed by any nation state, and many coastal states can legislate over maritime cities in their territorial waters.

A ‘seastead’ raided by Thai police in 2019 after Bitcoin entrepreneur Chad Elwartowski set up the seastead in international waters (EPA)

Bitcoin entrepreneur Chad Elwartowski set up the Seastead in international waters, but was threatened with the death penalty (EPA)

“We promote the creation of floating ocean cities as a revolutionary solution to some of the world’s most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance and more.”

The idea of ​​living on the high seas has a long history, with L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, establishing the ship-based ‘Sea Organization’ or Sea Org in the 1960s.

And the dream is still alive all over the world.

Florida-based company Arktide plans to build “affordable offshore real estate” over the next decade, while SeaPod plans construction in Asia and Europe.

SeaPod proclaims, “The dawn of the aquatic age has begun!”

Meanwhile, the UN-backed Oceanix project in Korea has unveiled its own vision of a floating city to help coastal communities cope with rising sea levels.

Oceanix says: “Busan is committed to bringing breakthrough technology to coastal cities facing severe land shortages exacerbated by climate threats.”