Part of our blog is devoted to exploring alternative lifestyles (tiny house living, homesteading…) and so I thought some readers might find this seasteading project interesting. No, the ship is not made of bamboo or other natural materials. However, there are numerous interesting features worth contemplating. For one, the ship will be positioned about 12 miles off the coast of San Francisco in international waters. This makes it especially convenient and practical for entrepreneurs from other countries to build businesses near Silicon Valley without requiring US work visas or US permanent residency. And, you can’t put a price tag on working alongside hundreds of extremely talented, cutting edge entrepreneurs. This would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for launching a high tech company.
“Blueseed will station a ship 12 nautical miles from the coast of San Francisco, in international waters. The location will allow startup entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to start or grow their company near Silicon Valley, without the need for a U.S. work visa. The ship will be converted into a coworking and co-living space, and will have high-speed Internet access and daily transportation to the mainland via ferry boat. So far, over 1300 entrepreneurs from 67 countries expressed interest in living on the ship.
Top motivation for moving to Blueseed: living and working in an awesome startup- and technology- oriented space. [The wireless 1 Gbps Internet will obviously be a nice feature.]
Top 10 Facts about Blueseed
1. Who is this for? – The world’s best entrepreneurs and visionaries
The boldest, brightest, and most talented tech entrepreneurs from around the world. Plus the individuals and organizations that support and invest in them. 1100+ have already expressed interest.
2. Where will it be? – Right near Silicon Valley
On a ship anchored half an hour (12 miles) from Silicon Valley, in international waters outside the jurisdiction of the United States.
3. What does it cost? – Around $1,600 USD/person/month
We’ll charge a combination of rent and equity to accommodate the stage of your startup. The price per person will include living and office space, and will range from $1200 for a shared cabin to $3000 for a top-tier single accommodation cabin.”
Get the details at Blueseed Concept Vessels
Related: Seasteading Part 1
Seasteading Part 2
(Note how I try to show more sustainable seasteading concepts.)
Technically, 12 nautical miles (around 22 kilometers) is still within US territorial waters, the United States has a wider sea territory than any other nation-state. So a permanent city-ship in that zone would still be subject to United States immigration laws, tax laws, and every other federal law in the book. You need to be at least 24 nautical miles \34 km out to be in international waters. And even in international waters, all inhabited structures must by international law, fly the flag and obey the edicts of an established nation-state.
Though seasteaders could always go rogue.
Hello libertarian microcountries!
Jay, how smart you are to call Blueseed a scam!
Maybe you’d like to explain why they haven’t taken anyone’s money since August 2011, when they launched. Do you really imagine these guys don’t know everything there it to know about the territorial waters line, contiguous zone, EEZ and UNCLOS?
@Carroll – pirates? When was the last time you’ve heard about pirates near California?
@Pepe the conspiracy theorist weirdo – actually the startups on Blueseed can operate outside the financial box by using Bitcoin. If you bother to read Blueseed’s blog, you’ll see they’ll present the the upcoming Bitcoin conference.
Where’s your evidence of a scam? A quick search turned up nothing.
You say they haven’t been taking people’s money since August, 2011. So how are they scamming people if they’re not taking their money? Or are you saying they conned people before August, 2011 and know of lawsuits?
And don’t miss the larger purpose of this blog post. We’re just examining alternative lifestyles and living arrangements. I never suggested investing in Blueseed or even participating in their program.
Praveen?
Why so angry?
Do you work for Blueseed? Are you part of their publicity department?
The only claim I make is that their operation gives me the impression that they are a scam.
That’s the first thing that popped into my head when I saw their marketing materials.
There are a variety of warning signs that I didn’t go into that make me wary, not only their erroneous representation of the legal status represented by International Waters. Do I need more than that to become wary. First impressions are usually the most reliable.
You make the claim that Blueseed hasn’t taken anyone’s money.
Are you saying that Blueseed has not been able to attract any investors? Sounds like the project is doomed before it starts due to lack of financial support if that is true.
Tell me? Has the Bank of Nigeria invested yet? I’ve frequently heard that they have lots of extra money laying around in accounts free for the taking if only someone will send them an email revealing their financial information. Perhaps Blueseed should contact them for financing?
There are many ways to take people’s money and getting them to invest in a huge risky project is perhaps one of the most frequently used and abused tactics in all of history.
Hey Praveen? Will Blueseed be building this huge artificial environment out of “Natural Materials?”
Hey Praveen? If the ship gets damaged in a storm, or collides with another ship, will their first call for help be to the US Coast Guard?
How many barrels of oil will this ship burn in a year?
How many barrels of oil will be burned transporting people to and from the ship each year?
What about Blueseed’s competition?
Ever heard of the Cayman Islands? Do you know what they are famous for?
The main backer of Blueseed is Peter Thiel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
He was the co-founder of PayPal, the first outside investor in Facebook and he’s a billionaire venture capitalist. While it’s possible he’s running a pump and dump, it just doesn’t seem like it to me. And there’s nothing I can find on the Internet so far that points to this possibility. Then again I haven’t put much time into checking this out. Blueseed is still giving appearances at conferences, etc. to promote the project. So again, how can it be a scam if they’re not taking people’s money?
And as far as legal issues about work visas, etc. I’m sure Peter Thiel can afford the best attorneys.
Perhaps Theil can afford the best attorneys.
He also should be able to afford marketing experts that can portray the project in a manner that doesn’t instantly give a person impression that it’s “fishy.” I guess he didn’t want to spend the money for that?
I don’t know. I never got that impression. It does seem like he’s taking a hands-off approach and letting others do everything. Maybe he’s too busy on other projects.
Looks like a scam to me.
Let’s start with the fact that the promoters of this concept propose anchoring the ship 12 miles off the San Francisco coast outside U.S. “Territorial Waters.” They claim that puts the ship outside the “jurisdiction” of the United States.
FALSE.
Territorial Waters are just one legal designation for the various zones of water that extend beyond any country’s coastline.
Beyond US Territorial Waters 12 mile limit there are other zones that are still within US jurisdiction.
Placing the ship 12 miles offshore still places the ship within the United States’ “Exclusive Economic Zone.”
I smell a rat.
The United States cannot prohibit any ship from loitering in it’s “Exclusive Economic Zone” unless that ship violates United States law. Once that ship violates US law, it can be forced to leave.
So… as long as the businesses on that ship obey US Law, they won’t have any problems.
Uhhhhh… if you’re going to be forced to follow U.S. law wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier to place your business on land inside the United States?
This whole idea smells like a scam. I suspect they will take people’s money and never produce a ship.
It may circumvent some laws, not all. My hunch is it’s not a simple scam where investors lose money. But it could very well be an elaborate system to gain insider info on cutting edge technology. I won’t speculate on the details here for obvious reasons, but I’m convinced they’re working with ‘higher authorities’ to make this happen.
Spencer Tracy consulted with “Higher Authorities” at the end of his movie, “Dante’s Inferno” too.
Yeah. I guess I can see a similar outcome.
Yes, that’s a shameless plug for a great old movie. Worth watching if you get the chance.
Not to mention, every vessel and other similar structures is\are required by international law to fly the flag of and obey the laws of an existing nation-state. The owners of a ship or artificial floating island could choose to go rouge and operate like a sovereign entity, but unless it packs kilotons of military grade weaponry, an existing national government is likely to raid and invade. After all, under the current paradigm of geopolitics, sovereignty is largely based on force and coercion.
I would not be inclined to work or live there. The possibility of storms plus in the world we live in today there’s always the possibility of pirates/political kidnappings etc. If the world were a perfect place then perhaps but, sadly it’s not today. There’s also the possibility of the wrong type of people getting on board working and living as a cover then making their way to our country. There’s no real safe way to prevent that from happening in todays world. I’m not trying to be a pessimist but, I am a realist.
No doubt there will be some drawbacks. Nothing is perfect. I think the general concept is fascinating. It’s a way to bring skillful entrepreneurs together from different countries and get around some of the antiquated business regulations.
Pepé the Polyp says nice idea but someone is daydreaming hard, not paying attention, or simply smoking crack. They’re forgetting one thing… the national / international economic system is being intentionally collapsed by a handful of international central bank owners. This to enable this small group of banksters and friends to take over the small planet we live upon.
These “startup entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world”, should they show up, are operating inside the box! (they will be using existing currencies and the current economic system which is designed to implode and is a scarcity based system) They may keep themselves distracted for a bit, just as the “brilliant” house flippers did when flipping houses like pancakes recently, but very soon all will be coming to the end of its completion cycle.
Please carry on with the excellent practical “how to” apply off the grid solutions as you do, but this hyper glee of richness is a product of shallow depth of consciousness vision/ understanding.
Blessing from under the sea..
I agree the financial system is a big trap, and the current fiat money system is unsustainable. The other day I posted the link to the Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi about how everything is rigged:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425
But it’s interesting to contemplate various lifestyles such as seasteading (not that you have to live on this particular vessel). Read the last two links where I propose more sustainable options.