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What you ask for vs. what you get

Let’s dive in…

If you invite Amy “The Idealist” to the party, then Amy “The Social Justice Warrior” will pop in as her +1 – especially if “Lit Amy” is nowhere to be found. Except there was that one time at a bar on vacation (our anniversary) when I started talking to a random 60-year-old man about Universal Basic Income (UBI) 🤷🏾‍♀️. Romantic, I know. The moral of the story is that I’m often thinking about equity.

A few clicks into studying the The Network State Conference and “Equity-Amy” popped up. I had/have a bit of criticism for these new world constructions Balaji and friends are building. But before I go in, let me be clear: the work at The Network State Conference, I believe, at its core, could be useful, and I LOVE the way some of these companies are designing for community, connection, and care. As Balaji said during his opening address: You need the criticism part of the constructive criticism.

My first critique is on a few of the parallel societies. A week before the American Thanksgiving holiday, a double click into these companies left me wondering: Are we witnessing tech colonialism?

Enjoy!

💚 Amy & Bryan

P.S. I’m keeping Codie’s quotes from last week in here, because they are points I want to reiterate, especially in the context of Prospera.

Zoom Out: The Network State Conference, 2023

I gave an overview of the Network State Conference last week. You can read it here. The one thing I’ll add:

The 1-day conference, a collection of 10-minute descriptions of a variety of businesses and communities, was separated into two parts with up to six sections. Here’s the breakdown.

Parallel Societies

• Physical parallel societies

• Digital and emerging parallel societies

Parallel Institutions

• Media

• Education

• Laws

• Biomedicine

• Regulation

• Science

I wanted to spell these out so you see how many systems and institutions have and will be impacted.

Zoom in: Parallel Societies with Prospera

After hearing the pitch for NOMAD I was intrigued. Frankly, I love interior design, so building beautiful homes was instantly engaging.

The founder mentioned their project with Prospera on the island of Roatán.

A few talks later, the founder of Prospera, Erick Brimen, shares his background:

• Born in Venezuela

• Left his country for a better life

• Venezuela “should be one of the wealthiest countries in the world”

• Reframes the question: From “How to get rid of poverty” to “How to catalyze prosperity.”

I’m bought in. He discusses the genesis of Prospera. Then he acknowledges that the island of Roatán currently has 80,000 residents. Immediately all intrigue morphs into interrogation— how do those 80k people feel about Brimen’s new city?

In addition to sharing an overview of the talk, the notes below will answer…

1. Where is Roatán, and who are the 80,000 residents?

2. What is the impact of this new, parallel society on the current society?

3. What’s a more inclusive and equitable path forward for these companies?

Prosperity for all (of the same wealthy few 🙄)

What is Prospera?

Prospera was created to maximize human prosperity. Erick describes Prospera as a “governance platform for parallel societies. A lot of the underlying issues that hold back development and drive prosperity is generally a lack of regulatory and legal environment that is supportive of, as opposed to creating friction for, the best amongst us in society: the entrepreneurs, the inventors, the innovators.”

Starting on the Honduran island, Roatán, Prospera has completed many steps, from idea to fully establishing a new city. With direct flights from Houston and Miami, Prospera is welcoming its first movers into the island that is equipped with schools for children (Guidepost Montessori), Bitcoin ATMs, and “our version of top golf hitting right onto the Caribbean ocean.”

The open source “governance as a service” is upheld by four pillars:

• Best practice regulations: “ The ability to propose new regulatory frameworks if you're in an industry that does not already have a sufficiently supportive framework anywhere in the world.

• Low taxes: 10% flat income tax, 2.5% retail VAT, 1% land value tax.

• Efficient dispute resolution options: Currently, there are two options, common law and an arbitration center.

• High-quality public service: electricity, roads, and water, for example, come from private, for-profit providers.

What is the impact of Prospera?

According to Erick, Prospera has accomplished a lot so far:

• $100M+ raised

• 1k acres incorporated

• 160+ companies incorporated

• 4K+ jobs created

• Acquired a 400+ acre resort and are currently hosting conferences.

This sounded nice, but I curiously researched what the local Hondurans thought of this new city. My quick Google search led me to an op-ed hyping up Prospera. Then I found this Guardian article titled: ‘Go home’: Honduran islanders fight against crypto colonialists.

“To the left is the community of Crawfish Rock, a few hundred people of mostly English-speaking Black Caribbean descent who live in raised, wood-slat homes on ancestral land.

To the right, there is a security booth with cameras, a gate, and a guard. Just beyond that, a prototype residence and the headquarters of a controversial startup city sit amid a landscape scarred by a bulldozer and deep holes dug for the foundation of the next phase of construction.”

The article describes how local Hondurans felt deceived after welcoming the company that expressed plans to build a community center and were completely unaware that a charter city had been erected near their community, let alone included plans to expand its territory into the ancestral lands of Crawfish Rock. Prospera’s retort is that they wouldn’t encroach on the Crawfish Rock community.

As of the summer of 2023, Prospera was still in a legal battle with Honduras, suing for $11B for outlawing the company’s plan. Unclear how impactful the outlawing of the company’s plans has been because NOMAD announced the new deal signed with Prospera to build their Notes in Prospera’s new city.

Pronomos is funding these startup cities all over the world, including Africa, and to very similar controversy as Prospera.

What’s a better path forward?

I will be the first to admit that the world, as it is, is not working for very many people. However, designing new cities that benefit a few, as Erick called them “ the best among us,” only exacerbates the issues parallel cities could ultimately fix. Sure, there’s a $3 Trillion economic upside that Prospera boasts on their website, but who would benefit from that? Who would see an equitable portion of that money in their accounts? Take San Francisco’s Silicon Valley as a prime example. The struggles of non-tech residents in the city are extraordinary for it to be the hub for many billion-dollar companies.

The “best among us” should leverage their capital, resources, and networks in a way that is “best for all of us.” Think about the systems that got us here, the systems that instigate wars and riots, and the systems that fail to celebrate diversity for the sake of homogeneity. How do we change those?

If the goal is to maximize human prosperity, then instead of taking the established and ancestral land of a group of people, invest in cultivating the homegrown skills that would boost the local economy and ensuring everyone has well-paying jobs and the resources they need to thrive.

• The community should own the resort, not a billion-dollar tech company.

• The community should own and rent out the million-dollar homes that line the white sandy beaches that tourists love.

• Instead of housing commercial tech businesses, invest in locally-owned businesses to service the new city.

Prosperity is not a zero-sum game. True prosperity thrives in a place of abundance. There is enough for all to have and thrive.

Unless Prospera changes their tune to one that is more equitable vs. colonialist, I echo the Crawfish Rock resident Wilford Webster’s sentiments: “Go home!”

Serendipitous collisions in the hallway

• Hanging out in laundromats

• The Piano Album

• He’s problematic, but we love Queen Octavia

Hey, let’s work together. 👋

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