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A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

nytimes.com

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Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#11

Post by newnewpdro »

speedplane wrote: post #9

How to become a cryptocurrency millionaire: start off as a crypto currency billionaire and buy a bunch of useless land in the desert.

I can't imagine any land being useless. Even contaminated radioactive land can probably be put to use as a place to store more hazardous waste or weapons testing.

It never ceases to amaze me how dismissive people are of desert land.

This particular land is covered with vegetation, it's not even some barren landscape of endless sand dunes. All he'd need to do is drill wells and build out some PV arrays and it'd already be a place people could easily/affordably build relatively comfortable, albeit simple, lives. Hardly useless.

I'd certainly prefer acres of such desert land over bitcoin of equal value.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#12

Post by newsbinator »

Personally, I like seeing actions like this.

Even though the source of his funds may be questionable (FOMO?, robbing from the uninformed?, luck timing the market?), he's not letting his funds sit idle.

It's one man's personal moonshot.

If anybody is going to actively create a mini 21st century society that gets a lot of things right, it's a crazy near-billionaire who bought 67,000 acres of land and invests in a long-term team/plan to make use of it.

I'm very interested to see what happens.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#14

Post by donavanm »

newsbinator wrote: post #12

Personally, I like seeing actions like this. Even though the source of his funds may be questionable (FOMO?, robbing from the uninformed?, luck timing the market?), he's not letting his funds sit idle. It's one man's personal moonshot. If anybody is going to actively create a mini 21st century society that gets a lot of things right, it's a crazy near-billionaire who bought 67,000 acres of land and invests in a long-…

If only there were any previous comparable attempts we could learn from ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_City,_California

Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#15

Post by stephengillie »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #6
stephengillie wrote: post #3

Subtitle tells the whole story: > A man spent millions on an enormous plot of land near Reno. Now he wants to build a community based on the blockchain technology introduced by Bitcoin. He could have joined up with the Bitcoin mining group in Wenatchee WA, where they spent millions building custom "mining pods" to house the ASICs.

I'm not sure what that has to do with this person planning a town.

They could have combined their similar goals and pooled their money.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#16

Post by newsbinator »

donavanm wrote: post #14
newsbinator wrote: post #12

Personally, I like seeing actions like this. Even though the source of his funds may be questionable (FOMO?, robbing from the uninformed?, luck timing the market?), he's not letting his funds sit idle. It's one man's personal moonshot. If anybody is going to actively create a mini 21st century society that gets a lot of things right, it's a crazy near-billionaire who bought 67,000 acres of land and invests in a long-…

If only there were any previous comparable attempts we could learn from ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_City,_California

There's a solid chance the current attempt will end up as just another failed planned city.

But that's what moonshots are all about.

If it were easy or likely to succeed, it would have been done 10 times already.

Songdo's not doing as well as hoped either: https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/06/sleepy-in-songdo-koreas...

But that's why we iterate and try again... or not "we" so much as bitcoin semi-billionaires.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#18

Post by CyberDildonics »

stephengillie wrote: post #15
CyberDildonics wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what that has to do with this person planning a town.

They could have combined their similar goals and pooled their money.

What are their similar goals? This guy is planning a town, those other people were doing crypto currency mining.

Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#19

Post by stephengillie »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #18
stephengillie wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could have combined their similar goals and pooled their money.

What are their similar goals? This guy is planning a town, those other people were doing crypto currency mining.

> Every resident and employee will have what amounts to an Ethereum address, which they will use to vote on local measures and store their personal data.

Maybe repurpose the pods to hold ETH mining gear?

But you've caught me. I obviously don't know what I'm talking about. Congratulations, CyberDildonics, you've won HN today!

Re: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada

#20

Post by jdhn »

>“This will either be the biggest thing ever, or the most spectacular crash and burn in the history of mankind,” Mr. Berns said.

At least he knows that there's a significant chance that it won't succeed. I'm also glad that somebody is doing something with their cryptocurrency millions, even if that something is as pie in the sky as this.

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