“A real-world crypto paradise” is the plan for an island tucked between Australia and Fij. All transactions there will be made with Bitcoin and all property owned as NFTs.
That’s the description given for “Satoshi Island,” in Vanuatu. Named after the anonymous Bitcoin creator, it spans 800 acres and contains 21,000 individual parcels of land, according to a promotional website.
The firm behind this bespoke cryptoland is a holding company called Satoshi Island Holdings Limited, and they’ve produced a video advertisement, first reported by The Sun, featuring a robotic female voice and uplifting music that promises the island will be a utopia for the crypto enthusiast. According to the female robot, the first stage of development is already completed.
The island will contain seven “NFT zones,” also known as neighborhoods, surrounding a central grassy patch emblazoned with the Bitcoin logo. To create larger buildings, landowners can buy several parcels near each other and combine them.
“A real-life private island dedicated to the crypto community,” the site promises, inviting investors to “Own a real piece of the island. Turn your crypto into a physical asset.”
The site displays mockups of homes made of modules resembling shipping containers, with a midcentury aesthetic designed by James Law Cybertecture, a Hong Kong-based architecture firm. They will be manufactured offsite and then shipped to the island.
True to their name, the modules can be stacked in different arrangements “to create hundreds of unique types of homes, apartments, amenities, and offices,” said chief architect James Law in the promotional video.
Starting at $60,000, the homes will go on sale in the second quarter of 2022, the site says, with plans for modules to arrive the following quarter to accommodate “short stay visitors.” The borders “will be opened to holders of Citizenship NFTs” for short-term stays the quarter after that.
The beginning of 2023 is when permanent moves are to be allowed. “Satoshi Island will become the official home for cryptocurrency professionals and enthusiasts, worldwide,” the video’s narrator says. “A place to visit, work, and live in the first true society built around an entirely decentralized financial system and blockchain-based democracy.”
The blockchain will also be used to govern the island, with each holder of a citizenship NFT” receiving one vote along with the right to live and work on the island. But it’s citizenship in name only. The citizenship NFT does not give the buyer actual citizenship for Vanuatu, the nation of islands which has jurisdiction over Satoshi Island.
The island will be giving out 5,620 free citizen NFTs to applicants that have a valid Ethereum wallet address and have bought, sold, or minted an NFT on OpenSea in the last year. Verified crypto influencers with more than 21,000 Twitter followers, will automatically get a citizenship NFT if they apply.
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