The four-man team of entrepreneurs behind the ‘Satoshi Island’ project in the South Pacific claims to have already fielded 50,000 NFT visa applications to become permanent residents of the mooted crypto paradise.
The team’s declared vision is of a fiat-free, true crypto-economy where everything will be paid for in cryptocurrencies and all land ownership on the island represented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
As first reported by Crypto News Australia in January, it’s intended that Satoshi Island – so named for the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto – will host events year round, house and headquarter crypto projects, as well as being a gathering place and residence for crypto enthusiasts worldwide.
The Satoshi Five-Year Plan
The Satoshi Island vision took flight during the 2017 bull run, though a tight checklist of objectives had to be met over ensuing years before it could become a reality:
- the island had to be remote enough for privacy but not so remote that development would be too difficult;
- it should ideally not be at risk of climate change and be protected from natural disasters; and
- the slog to find an adequate location was compounded by the knowledge that the team “had to be realistic”.
Options Narrowed Down to Vanuatu
Most importantly, the government managing the territory where the island was located had to be open to the idea of a “crypto city”. After years of searching, the team settled on Vanuatu: “The government showed a willingness to innovate and were open to discussions right away.”
Pacific island nations in general are building a reputation for being crypto-friendly. Nearby, in Tonga, the prospect of Bitcoin becoming legal tender could happen as soon as November this year, while the neighbouring Marshall Islands are open to decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs).
However, as with any proposed utopia, there are hurdles ahead for the developers of Satoshi Island. Vanuatu passed a law last year that allows companies to gain a special licence to deal with crypto assets. The Vanuatu Financial Services Commission, which provides those licences, recently issued a media release stating that Satoshi Island has not been granted one, and that it “could be a scam”.
Vanuatu’s Finance Minister has said that “proper policies” around cryptocurrency and blockchain still needed to be worked out:
It’s a new form of doing things and from our perspective it’s something Vanuatu will have to think seriously about. We need to have legislations updated so they can absorb the implementation of the cryptocurrencies.
Johnny Koanapo Rasou, Minister of Finance, Vanuatu
Moreover, NFT residency does not automatically confer citizenship of Vanuatu, where the government stipulates that actual citizenship costs US$130,000 for each aficionado who wishes to bid farewell to fiat and say hello to a crypto life in the sun.
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