A group of academics, philanthropists and investors are working together to literally launch an independent floating island by 2020. This project was initially run as a pilot in partnership with the French Polynesian government, and will contain 300 homes and use cryptocurrency to power its economy. The currency has been named ‘Vayron’ (VAR), with interested parties able to participate in the presale through a smart contract mechanism on the Ethereum blockchain. Currently 1 ETH is worth 14,750 VAR, with a Hard cap of 22,000 ETH. Circulating supply of the new VAR currency is unknown.

Whilst the speculative details and proposition of this new currency remain to be seen, if at all, the conceptual use case and prospect that a self-governing, self-sufficient, cryptocurrency ‘powered’ ecosystem holds is potentially remarkable.

If you don’t want to live under a particular government, people will be able to just take their house and float away to another island.” – Nathalie Mezza-Garcia, Blue Frontiers

The company behind this venture – Blue Frontiers Ltd – was founded by the executive team and ambassadors of the Seasteading Institute, with billionaire Peter Theil a notable founder. Blue Frontiers claim that these new floating islands, dubbed ‘Seasteads’, will offer a decentralised form of governance, bringing fairer decision-making in the place of overly centralised institutions. They will also provide a tangible solution to the threat of rising sea level and overcrowded cities.

Furthermore ‘SeaZones’ will become Special Economic Zones, creating legal and regulatory frameworks within territorial waters of host nations. The fact that Blue Frontiers have already secured a pilot project with the French Polynesian government goes to show that there is genuine interest in such a project. Whilst this particular development will not directly affect speculative cryptocurrency investments, it surely demonstrates the use-cases and potentially transformational change that DLT and cryptocurrencies can bring.

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