Tech Moguls Want to Build a Crypto Paradise on a Native American Reservation

> Próspera, the project of entrepreneurs funded by venture capital firms backed by PayPal founder Peter Thiel and venture capital mogul Marc Andreessen, was established in 2017 and continues today, despite repeated efforts from Honduras to shut it down. An example of a “special economic zone,” Próspera is an autonomous jurisdiction with limited regulations. The general idea has been around for years. But in recent years, Silicon Valley founders, as they like to call themselves, have reworked the concept into the “network state,” as coined by entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan, a close friend of Thiel’s and a former colleague of Andreessen’s.

> In 2022, the Catawba Nation, a tribe of about 3,000 people with land in both North and South Carolina, launched America’s first “Digital Economic Zone” where entrepreneurs can incorporate online companies—especially banks—without the **burden** of “archaic paperwork and in-person documentation,” the website says. “Today, we are taking a progressive step into the digital age by leveraging our tribal sovereignty in innovative ways for the benefit of the web3 industry and our people.”

> The Catawba DEZ (or CDEZ) is a radical new offering in what its backers conceive of as a kind of **free market of governments.** Instead of figuring out how to establish a business that abides by existing laws, entrepreneurs can shop around to figure out which deregulated zones have the laws **(or lack thereof) that best suit their businesses.**

> New Founding, an investment and real estate firm helmed by TheoBros Josh Abbotoy and Nate Fischer, says its goal is “to shape institutions with Christian norms and orient them toward a Christian vision of life, of society, and of the good.” Andreessen has invested in New Founding, and Fischer has invested in Pronomos Capital, Friedman’s startup societies venture firm.

> New Founding is buying up land in rural Tennessee and Kentucky, where, according to its website, it aims to build **conservative Christian neighborhoods** “conducive to a **natural, human and uniquely American** way of life.” The communities will be designed **around cryptocurrency** and “digital self-governance,” all to promote a culture “in which our patrimonial civic rights, chiefly those of property, free political speech and civilian armament, can be maintained and perpetuated,” the project website says. The ultimate goal? “To be connected to broader economic vitality, and to project cultural and political power.”

Agh, so we’ve reached the Shadowrun Shiawase decision plot point where corporate land is immune from government law.

Probably will be fine.

I guess they’ve run out of people to exploit and lands to pillage on the outside.

This is just the company owned housing and store again. They’ll start in money then pay you in company dollars, which you can only use at the company store, which starts cheap but grows more expensive, then you’re in debt, and before you know it you’re not making money you’re paying off debt. You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt, St. Peter don’t you take me cuz I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store!