A wealthy Belgian bitcoin investor wants to create a libertarian village for millionaires with its own legal system on a Caribbean island near Saba and Sint Eustatius.
According to the Financial Times, the company of Olivier Janssens is purchasing parts of the island of Nevis. The entrepreneur plans to establish his own community for (wealthy) people who dislike government and regulations.
The southern coast of the tropical island will be developed with villas, a hyper-modern hospital, and clinics. In exchange for this investment, the Belgian investor wants greater influence in decision-making, the article states.
The wealthy want changes to the rules
The “Destiny” project has already been presented to representatives of the island’s approximately 12,000 residents. During a video conference, Janssens warned that Nevis’s legal system would need to be reformed, otherwise the world’s wealthy would not be willing to relocate there. However, he promised that in the end he would submit himself to Nevis’s national legal system.
According to the Financial Times, Janssens has hired the prestigious architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the same firm that designed the new World Trade Center. So far, the designs have not been made public.
A video from Janssens’s company, South Nevis Ltd., has appeared on YouTube. However, the Belgian investor declined to reveal how much the villas for the “happy few” will cost.
An idea of billionaires
The Destiny project is an idea shared by billionaires around the world who want to establish their own small libertarian states. Investors such as Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, and Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, are said to have contributed millions of dollars in venture capital to realize such dreams.
What is the libertarian principle?
The new communities would live according to libertarian principles: individual freedom and self-determination are paramount. Government intervention should be minimal. The non-aggression principle also applies: violence is permitted only in self-defense.
According to the plans, the Destiny project would also protect and expand the natural environment and coral reefs around the island.
Originally, libertarianism was a left-wing idea advocating the abolition of capitalism and private property. Today, there is also right-wing libertarianism, in which government is little more than a “night watchman.” An example is Argentina, where Javier Milei became president two years ago as the world’s first openly libertarian head of state and implemented major cuts in government spending.
Roatán Island
In Honduras, a similar project has been underway for more than three years on the island of Roatán. The government at the time gave American millionaires free rein and designated the area around a fishing village. The Próspera project invested 150 million dollars in the very poor community and promised 4,000 jobs. The first buildings have already been constructed.
Residents of Roatán soon realized that the libertarians would enjoy total freedom, while the local population’s freedom of movement would be severely restricted if the American billionaires took control.
Today, Próspera is locked in a major conflict with the new government, local residents, and environmental organizations. Lawsuits worth billions of dollars are being filed by both sides.
Injection of millions
When the government of Saint Kitts and Nevis decided last summer to make room for “special projects,” Olivier Janssens seized the opportunity, according to the Financial Times. He has already promised to invest 50 million dollars in Nevis’s infrastructure, on the condition that the project moves forward.
However, the developers insisted that they be allowed to introduce their own form of justice. Residents of Nevis are unhappy about this, especially after what happened in Honduras. The Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) fears that the original population will lose out. They are concerned about displacement in the housing market and the possibility that their drinking water will have to be handed over to the new wealthy residents.
Janssens insists that residents have nothing to fear and that a true paradise on earth can emerge.