Bitcoin Early Adopter Couple Building First Ever Sea Stead

By Rishma Banerjee

Cryptocurrencies and their adoption are on a steady rise, and more and more use cases are coming up day by day. One such example is this team of Bitcoin early adopters, who are constructing a seasteading home off the coast of Thailand. The plans for this project was outlined and explained in a short video documentary which was released by the Seasteading Institute on its Youtube channel. The video showcased the establishment of a small seastead 12 nautical miles off the coast of Phuket, Thailand. The installation, the brainchild of Chad Elwartowski and Nadia Summergirl, the couple who wanted to move the futuristic idea from just a concept to practical reality, now also has become their home.

The people dealing with this endeavour were Bitcoin early adopters who utilised the profit from that investment to fund their dwelling. They spent around $150,000 on the seastead, which was almost $30,000 more than they expected. As revealed to Reason’s Brian Doherty, Elwartowski and his team kept on adding and adding to make this experimental project a success. The official blog od the seastead construction team, Ocean Builders, says that $150,000 is the target minimum price for a barebones facility. Furthermore, it reads,

“Closer to $200,000 would likely give you a move-in ready seastead with a nice kitchen, water, solar electric, etc.”

Seasteading, a combination of the words sea and homesteading, basically refers to the creation of permanent habitats at sea, beyond the territorial control of existing governments. Promoters are hopeful that in the near future, large autonomous seasteading cities may be recognized as sovereign states in their own right and provide a platform for experimenting with new forms of governance to ensure citizens’ liberty.

It was reported that a seasteading project has signed a memorandum of understanding with French Polynesia with the objective of creating an independent island with its own cryptocurrency. Elwartowski and Summergirl had been waiting to build their seastead as part of that very venture, but when progress there did not take place according to their expectations they decided to go it alone in Thailand. They have no agreements with the Thai government but don’t anticipate any friction from authorities.