SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The NYT reports that a loosely knit group of crypto-currency multi-million/billionaires have chosen Puerto Rico to set up shop -- several reasons are given including a tax haven for US citizens and low real estate prices since the hurricane Maria destruction last year. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/technology/cryptocurrency-puerto-rico.html
Dozens of entrepreneurs, made newly wealthy by blockchain and cryptocurrencies, are heading en masse to Puerto Rico this winter. They are selling their homes and cars in California and establishing residency on the Caribbean island in hopes of avoiding what they see as onerous state and federal taxes on their growing fortunes, some of which now reach into the billions of dollars.
And these men — because they are almost exclusively men — have a plan for what to do with the wealth: They want to build a crypto utopia, a new city where the money is virtual and the contracts are all public, to show the rest of the world what a crypto future could look like. Blockchain, a digital ledger that forms the basis of virtual currencies, has the potential to reinvent society — and the Puertopians want to prove it.
For more than a year, the entrepreneurs had been searching for the best location. After Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico's infrastructure in September and the price of cryptocurrencies began to soar, they saw an opportunity and felt a sense of urgency.
[...] The movement is alarming an earlier generation of Puerto Rico tax expats like the hedge fund manager Robb Rill, who runs a social group for those taking advantage of the tax incentives.
"They call me up saying they're going to buy 250,000 acres so they can incorporate their own city, literally start a city in Puerto Rico to have their own crypto world," said Mr. Rill, who moved to the island in 2013. "I can't engage in that."
I suggest that the SN posters who write, "everything should be organized by contracts, not government" please buy a one-way ticket to PR now! And then see if you can actually make it work. [With limited electricity and thus limited internet, they may not pester the rest of us so often.]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Tuesday February 06 2018, @05:14PM (1 child)
There are already plenty of ultra-rich gated communities in PR. Private security forces, private and secured water and electricity generation. Nothing new here.
Reading through these comments though it is really strange hearing people sperg out calling these people essentially socially-retarded basement dwellers. It's a favorite SJW ad hominem so it's a little strange to see used here. They saw the opportunity, took risks, and made money. Is it because it's technology related? How odd. It reminds that the under-educated philosophers and social scientists really do have a case of skills-envy. Being able to do something useful is a foreign and wondrous thing to them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:25PM
No, it's not, you crumpulous fartswallower!