We were delighted to take part in the recent Free Cities Foundation’s Liberty in Our Lifetime conference. This was the third of its type, or as alluded to by Titus Gebel (founder of the FCF and author of the book Free Private Cities), the fourth for its founders. It was the most well attended so far and we are confident interest in the idea of free private cities will continue to increase.
Our part in the conference was in enabling the Free Cities Foundation merchandise to be paid for using bitcoin. As such, we had a presence in the hall, spoke with many guests, and Seb was also given the opportunity to speak to the audience. One would expect a crossover in interests between people that recognise the need for contractual living spaces and that value money with defined rules and no special privileges – and that is indeed the case. In fact, we learned that Liberstad in Norway is looking to implement a bitcoin-based money, and suggested that either a federation (Fedimint) or eCash (Cashu) would fit the ticket. It will be nice to see how this develops.
At our stall we were also selling Cryptosteel’s Capsule seed storage device as well as our remaining Blockstream Jade hardware wallets. There was a lot of interest in both products and in bitcoin more generally. Cryptosteel recently produced a booklet that explains everything you’d want a beginner to know – in both English and Czech. We were pleased to have been given a load of these for our stall. They flew off the shelf and we can credit Cryptosteel for adding to the number of people who will both use and advocate for bitcoin. The best way to buy from us is to get in touch – we’re always pleased to help
I was interested to learn via FCF member, theorist and writer, Joyce Brand, about the entrecomm concept, and pleased to be pointed in the direction of Spencer Heath and Spencer Heath MacCallum, who wrote extensively on law without a state and other related ideas. I’ll be looking into these as well as Titus Gebel’s book to learn more.
In terms of live projects, a highlight was hearing from Massimo Mazzone about the difficulties facing Ciudad Morazán due to the socialist Honduran government’s reneging on agreements. Some say that ‘land is a shitcoin’ and this would be a painful example. But there is no escaping the fact that we need living space and that explicit bilateral contracts trump vague and everchanging notions of a ‘social contract – both morally and economically. This make all attempts to establish private cities courageous, necessary, and worthy of our support. We wish Massimo and the citizens of Morazán success in resisting this onslaught.
All in all, the conference was an enjoyable and valuable experience and we’re looking forward to working with the FCF in the future as both FPCs and bitcoin continue to grow in stature.
