Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
March 14, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Dozens of nouveau riche
made wealthy through cryptocurrency speculation and/or blockchain
ventures are overwintering in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the
intention of staying permanently to establish a crypto utopia
called “Sol”, where money is bankless and contracts are all
public.
Many of the group of men (they are all men) sold their homes in
California and other high tax locations to establish residency in
Puerto Rico, in an attempt to escape state and federal taxes on
their newfound wealth, which, in a couple cases, is in the billions
of dollars. Beside the tax advantages, the group chose Puerto Rico,
not in spite of, but, because of the recent devastating hurricane,
moving forward with the mantra that “It’s only when everything’s
been swept away that you can make a case for rebuilding from the
ground up.”
When the group learned that the first name that they chose,
“Puertopia”, translates to “eternal boy playground” in Latin, they
changed the name of their project to “Sol”. The renamed group wants
to build a crypto utopia, a new city to show the rest of the world
what a crypto future can look like. Sol investors are scouting for
properties where they can build their own airport and mini-seaport,
and they are working with local governments seeking permission to
open the first cryptocurrency bank. So far, they have bought hotels
and a museum in the Old San Juan historic area. For now they are
residing at the Monastery, a 20,000-square-foot hotel largely
unscathed by recent hurricane, which Sol rents as its base.
One of Sol's founding members, 34 year old Matt Clemenson,
co-founder of blockchain-enabled Lottery.com, said, “We’re
benevolent capitalists, building a benevolent economy. Puerto Rico
has been this hidden gem, this enchanted island that’s been
consistently overlooked and mistreated. Maybe 500 years later we
can make it right.”
Brock Pierce, 37, the director of the Bitcoin Foundation and the
leader of the movement, says that the guiding principles for the
establishment of Sol are, “Compassion, respect, financial
transparency.”
Pierce co-founded the blockchain-for-business startup Block.
One, which sold $200 million worth of its EOS coins during its ICO,
and has a current market cap of $5 billion. Pierce, who has
promised to donate a significant portion of his wealth to charity,
has what might be called "New Age" ideas about what the founders of
the Sol project intend to do. He seems to believe that there is a
fundamental metaphysical goodness underlying bitcoin as a
grassroots movement and social phenomenon. Kai Nygard, son of the
founder of clothing company Nygard and crypto multimillionaire,
said about Pierce recently, “He’s tuned in to a higher calling.
He’s beyond money.”
Pierce's ideas about the utopia-creating potential of
cryptocurrencies mirror a recent statement from Reeve Collins, a
Sol team member and co-founder of $2 billion+ market cap Tether,
“This is the first time in human history anyone other than kings or
governments or gods can create their own money.”
Learn more at the website for this week’s Puerto Rico crypto
investment summit at https://blockchainunbound.com.
By: BGN Editorial Staff