Let’s take the sum of the world’s land area, declare 95% owned by nobody and the remaining 5% distributed equally to every living person today in the form of a land quota. The quota can never be sold or given away or inherited (but the land owned under it can be freely traded of course), and every new baby is given an exponentially diminishing share of the unallocated quota. Those who own property today get to keep it as part of their quota. If they own more than the quota they must sell, give away or relinquish the excess land. People get to keep any money they have, corporations and governments can remain intact, everything can continue as normal at first, with a few notable differences: Land owned by corporations counts towards the corporation’s owners’ land quota. Land owned by governments (and military, police, etc.) counts towards the quota of those who work there and those in charge. More responsibility and higher salary should impose a larger share of the land quota within an organization. Banks owning land directly or indirectly (for example as loan collateral) would of course impose this area on their owners. That should make it impossible for any individual to own large positions in banks who own a lot of land.

Land nobody owns would be considered nature reserve. Available for anyone to use, with democratically determined restrictions where those who own nearby land have more influence than those who don’t. Unclaimed land can be claimed by anyone with enough available quota by registering a claim in a public blockchain. The claim can be challenged for up to 3 months. If the claim is challenged an auction will be held (ran by A DAO perhaps?). The highest bidder gets the claim. The proceeds of the auction is treated as tax income and split between the local and global governments. If the claim is not challenged they get the land for free. They can then do whatever they want with the land within the limits imposed by local and global governments.

In a transition phase I think it may be wise to keep existing power structures mostly intact. Too much change at once increases the risk of something going wrong and diminishes our ability to deal with it. Later I would like to deregulate more and more. Ideally a person should be free to decide the laws on their land as long as it doesn’t cause too much pollution or otherwise interferes with others. That’s a whole other discussion though.

The land quota should function as proof of stake for a global world currency (decentralized cryptocurrency obviously). Tail emission should produce let’s say about 1% annual inflation, paid out to land owners. This will serve as a universal basic income. I don’t know how to verify proof of baby and prevent identity theft but let’s suspend skepticism for now and assume the ASI comes up with a solution. Maybe a centralized totalitarian solution. Don’t be narrow-minded now. The space of possibilities is larger than you can imagine and centralized totalitarian is not necessarily evil. It’s possible to imagine a benevelent dictator ASI for example, though the issue of how the AI can be trusted is not to be taken lightly. I’m just saying we don’t know what’s going to happen after the singularity. Wishful thinking could actually be a useful tool these days so that we know what we want before we discover what’s possible. What I want is to own.. Hmm let’s see..

Total land area of Earth: 148 940 000 km2

Population of Earth: about 7 500 000 000

Available area per person: 19 858 m2

5% is almost 1000 m2 per person. Let’s round it up to 1000 m2 for simplicity. I think 5% is a good number. We have to ensure there’s always unallocated arable land up for grabs. I think 1000 sqm. is roughly what’s considered necessary to feed one person depending on climate and how efficiently the land is used. Vertical/indoor farming and more space/time/energy efficient food could reduce the need for farmland.

Important infrastructure could be collectively owned by the people who depend on it and governed through DAOs.

I suppose it should be possible to lease land that nobody owns and not have it count towards your land ownership quota. Auction off lease titles for unowned land to the highest bidder. 20–30 years into the future as maximum lease time? The proceeds could be used to pay for public services and infrastructure much like tax is used today. If someone wants to claim land that is currently leased out they must claim it like normal but the claim is automatically challenged and the price of any active lease contract counts towards the lease holder’s bid. The winner can choose to downgrade the ownership title to a maximum-duration lease title, but existing lease contracts will not be canceled. The new owner or holder can of course offer to buy the lease directly from the lease holder, before or after the auction.

When AI becomes sentient we can discuss whether we want to share our land with AI or if they have to settle for the rest of the universe.