Ideas

Seasteading and the startup cities

Floating nations, a Honduran charter city, and a $10.775 billion lawsuit

RECORD / AT A GLANCE

Funding documented

Documented. His personal role in Próspera is as a backer of an investor fund, not a manager.

THE EVENTS / THE INVESTIGATION / THE STORY

The chronology.

READ THE FILE

Evidence & assessment.

Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE

The claims, rated.

4 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.

All 153 rated claims ↗

OPEN THE RECORD

Sources & limits.

Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.

  1. The Seasteading Institute: launch announcement, 2008 ↗

    Records Thiel’s $500,000 pledge to launch the institute.

  2. The Seasteading Institute: who supports the institute ↗

    Patri Friedman founded it in 2008; Thiel was an early supporter; the Thiel Foundation last donated in 2014.

  3. Business Insider: Thiel no longer thinks floating cities are realistic, January 2017 ↗

    Quotes his New York Times interview with Maureen Dowd: “not quite feasible from an engineering perspective.”

  4. WIRED: A lawsuit from backers of a “startup city” could bankrupt Honduras ↗

    Próspera’s backers seek up to $10.775 billion from Honduras; its investor Pronomos Capital was backed by Thiel and Marc Andreessen.

  5. ICSID: Honduras Próspera Inc. and others v. Republic of Honduras (ARB/23/2) ↗

    The World Bank tribunal’s official case page.

  6. The Seasteading Institute: history ↗

    The institute’s own timeline.

← The Thiel hub: biography, timeline and every file

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