Tuvalu citizenship by investment

4 min readJun 5, 2021

TLDR: climate change adaptation, protecting the Ocean, innovative governance, exponential technologies

UPDATE: as I’m learning more about Tuvalu, I’ve realized that such a “neo‑colonialism” move would be very uncool. Treat content below as a “thought‑experiment”.

PRINCIPLE: Whatever you do, think bigger, 10x is easier than 10%

Google X Head on Moonshots: 10X Is Easier Than 10 Percent

Here is the surprising truth: It's often easier to make something 10 times better than it is to make it 10 percent…

www.wired.com

What is a 51% attack?

A brief explanation from Investopedia:

A 51% attack is an attack on a blockchain by a group of miners who control more than 50% of the network’s mining hash rate.

What is a 51% peaceful takeover?

@lemiscate — working at Aave

@kaiynne — founder of Synthetix

Both Synethix and Aave are multi-billion dollar DeFi protocols, no wonder these guys are thinking big.

Why Tuvalu?

12k people
$3.5k GDP per capita
4m highest point (going underwater)
small on land, big on the water:
“It is a very small island country of and is 26 km2 (10 sq mi). Due to the spread out islands it has the 38th largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 749,790 km2 (289,500 sq mi)”
innovative ways of earning income, such as .tv domain
innovative ways of using blockchain, see this press release:

The Tuvalu Government has today announced its plans to become the world’s first paperless society using (…) digital public ledger.

Combination of all the factors suggests Tuvalu is desperate (really enthusiastic) to innovate.

Citizenship by investment

Do they accept Bitcoin?

Tuvalu has no ATM and credit cards are not accepted anywhere either, so you need to bring all your cash with you. You can however exchange foreign currency, Australian Dollars, USD and Euro, at the only bank branch, right by the airport. — Tuvalu: All you need to know

Just like skipping landlines and going directly to mobile, Tuvalu can skip legacy payment infrastructure and proceed directly to Bitcoin.

Climate change adaptation

Note that Maldives have a much higher GDP:

Threatened by rising sea levels, the Maldives is building a floating city

Maldives Floating City is designed to float on top of the water in the lagoon, with the surrounding barrier islands…

www.weforum.org

Technically speaking not seasteading but some of the technology can be used on territorial waters too:

Active Projects

These projects are making the creation of floating ocean cities a reality. Their founders were inspired by The…

www.seasteading.org

When the Maldivian president held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting to sign a climate change SOS — Reddit

Protecting the Ocean

The income provided by citizenship investment can replace Fishing Licences.

Tuvalu Budget and Fishing Licenses: https://tuvalutrustfund.tv/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018-TUVALU-NATIONAL-BUDGET.pdf

While you are at it, you should check “Cowspiracy” too: https://youtu.be/nV04zyfLyN4

Can we agree on Tuvalu?

There are many places in the world that welcome investment and offer various privileges.

My genuine suggestion is to work with Tuvalu.

It only makes sense if others agree, I cannot do this on my own.

Game Theory 101: Focal Points — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0MY923XLtY

Would be amazing if we could agree on Tuvalu.

Geographically speaking it is far away but we can become citizens without ever visiting the country.

Reality check

Neo-colonialism or doing the right thing?

Climate change is not going anywhere.

Tuvalu has to innovate, one way or another.

We come in peace.
We protect the Ocean.
We generate loads of media attention.
We highlight the problems facing humanity.
We provide capital to find technological solutions for climate change adaptation

(climate adaptation and forced migration are complex subjects —much more than just the tech — but having tech that is able to solve it always helpful)

Positive sum game, everyone wins.