Seasteading as a Solution to Rising Seas

Blue Frontiers
3 min readMay 29, 2018

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by Laurel Tincher, Head of Marketing + Sustainable Design and Biomimicry Group Leader at Blue Frontiers

Friends of Blue Frontiers,

Dreamt of for centuries and nearly realized by Buckminster Fuller over 50 years ago, the era of floating cities is finally here. Seasteading is a solution to a host of ecological, political and economic pressures threatening the future of humanity and the planet. Blue Frontiers, in partnership with The Seasteading Institute, has assembled over ten years of research, a world class team of experts, and an actionable plan. With the launch of Varyon we are bringing together the final step; the resources to build and a global community of supporters. The Varyon presale is now open. To participate, visit Varyon.io

We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.

-R. Buckminster Fuller

Facts and Figures

Pilot Project

  • 12 Floating platforms
  • $5 Million avg cost of each platform
  • 200–300 Total residents

Estimated Two Year Economic Impact

  • 800+ Jobs created
  • $200 Million from construction, tourism and other revenues

Sea Level Rise

  • $17-$210 Trillion in asset losses by 2100
  • Immense ecological damage and infrastructure spending
  • 10,000+ Communities affected

Global Governance

  • Only 193 National Governments
  • 7.6 Billion people
  • Seasteading creates opportunities for thousands of new governance systems

Completed by Blue Frontiers in 2017

Economic Impact

Environmental Assessment

Initial Design and Engineering Concepts

Legal Research

Business Development

Global Community Building

Extensive Team Research and Reporting in the areas of Food, Energy, Waste, Water, Information Systems, Sustainability, Biomimicry, Design, Blockchain

The Seasteaders, Part I

A Solution to Rising Seas

With around 40% of the world’s population living in coastal areas, sea level rise is a challenge that will impact countless millions.

Blue Frontiers’ Seasteads will effectively provide these affected populations with new floating ‘land’ for re-settlement. They will allow the establishment of stable commercial and community infrastructure, including resources for food and energy production. They will also allow the development of facilities for medical treatment, scientific research and accelerated technological innovation. Most importantly, Seasteads will be future-proofed against further sea level rise.

Current solutions to sea level rise include dams, land reclamation, or moving. Dams and land reclamation both have considerable negative effects on the environment, are overly costly, and land reclamation has been shown not to last. Many coastal communities can’t or don’t want to move. In the case of smaller islands, there isn’t anywhere nearby for them to go. The social and economic cost for millions to move their existing businesses and lives would be immense. For example, sea level rise in the islands of Kiribati in the Pacific could force the evacuation of the entire country by 2050, resulting in a loss of their political and economic sovereignty.

The world’s megacities

Seasteads are a more cost effective and ecologically restorative solution, as well as being quicker to build and globally deploy than alternative options. They allow coastal communities to continue their way of life and to transition along with the ocean without great social and economic disruption. Additionally, seaborne settlements can be up to 130 times more efficient for food and energy production than those based on land.

As the recognised global leader in pioneering Seastead technology and development, Blue Frontiers has positioned itself to capture a very large portion of this vast new market. Some Seastead communities will also operate independently with decentralised economies powered by cryptocurrencies, such as Blue Frontier’s Varyon ERC20 token. Economic studies predict the first seastead to create a local ecosystem of hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars in growth.

Join the Blue Frontiers community on Telegram.

With great anticipation of the first seasteads,

Joe, Randy, Marc, Nic, Egor, Nathalie, Laurel, Karina, Bart, Greg, Benno, Gabrielle, Joshua, Carly, O.Shane, Bryan and the many dozens of advisors and professionals at Blue Frontiers.

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Blue Frontiers

Realizing the promise of seasteading. Sustainable floating islands and innovative governing frameworks