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The Villages of Blockchain and Crypto

The Villages of Blockchain and Crypto

With the rise and hype of blockchain and crypto, one of the most interesting things has been the popping up of small blockchain and crypto communities. Whether these villages are a glimpse into the future or will always be off the grid small societies, remains to be seen. They can, at this point, definitely be thought of as MVPs and case studies.

Dubai is already ahead of the curve in terms of tech with flying taxi drones replacing ground taxis and Smart Seats which are benches with free WiFi and charging points are currently placed outside police stations. Sticking with this technological lead, Dubai is now looking to become the first blockchain powered city by 2020.

They are currently looking for startups, innovators and ideas to accomplish this and for ways to incorporate blockchain into the city. The government is facilitating a collaboration between entrepreneurs, developers and investors to come up with ideas and are aiming to become a hub where blockchain startups can thrive.

In the United States, Portsmouth, New Hampshire is a digital currency town and even has an official Bitcoin Tour. They currently can claim more restaurants and shops that accept Bitcoin than anywhere else. These shops cover the gamut from a novelty “Free State Bitcoin Shoppe” which only accepts crypto currency to normal life usages. While that shop caters to the “crypto crowd” by selling things such aslibertarian art, pro-science t-shirts, and unsurprisingly, books on crypto, many other shops in the area do not cater to the crypto-insider. There is a yoga studio, various cafes, bars, and restaurants, a Lens Doctor with optometrists, a hair salon and more. You could live there and get everything you need by spending nothing but crypto.

In the Ukrainian village of Elizavetov, all residents now own crypto. This initiative, inspired by the head of the village council, Maxim Golosnoy, who invested his own personal funds, and not the village budget to stimulate the local economy. He invested in his own residents, and while he manages the currencies, he states that the people can withdraw their own funds whenever they would like. Within the village, local items such as eggs and milk can be purchased using crypto.

Agnes Water, Queensland in Australia is a small beach town that is claiming itself as “Australia’s first “digital currency-friendly” tourist town in an effort to attract a new crowd of international tourists. All local hotels, cafes, etc in Agnes Water will accept Bitcoin.

The city/town most known for planning it’s own ICO is Berkeley, CA. This project is a collaboration between local Mayor Jesse Arreguin and councilman Ben Bartlett who are working with the investment startup Neighborly to. -according to Coindesk, “advance an initiative that would divide municipal bonds into micro-bonds and then sell them as tokens in what they call an ‘initial community offering’.” They plan to use the sales of these micro-bond tokens for small benefits to the community such as the purchase of an ambulance. The ultimate vision is that they will eventually be able to fund affordable housing projects,

An exciting and controversial experiment is the “crypto utopia” that newly wealthy blockchain and crypto entrepreneurs are looking to launch in Puerto Rico.

In the wake of the immense devastation Puerto Rico suffered from Hurricane Maria, intensified by a seeming lack of competency or interest by the current federal government to help, this crypto-utopia could be a chance to help Puerto Rico rebuild.

Along with their claims of benevolent reasons, which I am not challenging, there are also tremendous tax benefits and incentives gained by moving their business to Puerto Rico. They are currently looking for land to bring this dream to life and temporarily working out of The Monastery, a large hotel that was not harmed by hurricane Maria.

These communities will be interesting to watch and hopefully continue to progress and thrive.