[Winder]

Blueseed

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 1000 entrepreneurs from 60+ countries expressed interest in living on the ship.

Technology and entrepreneurs allow people to stay one step ahead.

This allows companies to hire the best and the brightest without worrying about where they are from.

[Kerrowdown]

Theory sounds good, pictures look good, costs?

[Medium FormatPro]

The cost of even elementary supplies might get extraordinarily high. Items such as fresh water and perishable food - even if it is only a few miles out. Plus depending on how large scale the population gets the united states federal government will still both get on them and go after them. They'll claim that this boat is an overpolluter of the local waters; right now that is the only thing that limits the size of oil platforms off the coasts of North america

[Winder]

Sure it's going to be expensive relative to other locations, but it will also be able offer huge advantages. What would happen if Apple moved it corporate HQ to international waters? Billions in tax revenue are saved. Companies that size can easily self-insure and avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in regulatory costs. What about data havens where people can store data away from prying eyes. Banking havens where money can be invested privately. Casinos and resorts could obviously be very profitable.

http://www.seasteading.org/about/visionstrategy/?

There are a lot of challenges to living on a small island, but technology is overcoming many of the limitations we have had in the past. Not too long ago the idea of a private space program seemed pretty distant if not impossible. Last year Red Bull sponsored a guy who jumped from the edge of space for a simple promotional event. The development of floating cities in international waters is not very far off. There are already projects underway being lead by some of the best and brightest engineers in solar and marine current power as well as engineers working on totally sustainable communities.

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Last edited by Winder; 03-17-2013 at 10:02 AM.

[ChrisPlatt]

Sounds mostly like a tax dodge to me.

Chris

[Winder]

Sounds mostly like a tax dodge to me.

Chris

Might very well be. Companies operating in international waters should not be subject to taxes, insurance, or benefit requirements. No Social Security tax. No medicare tax.

People talk about how expensive it is to live on a facility in international waters, but ignore the billions in savings that can be had by moving.

This is no different than Nisan's North American HQ moving out of California because of taxes. No different than what hundreds of other companies have done by relocating to different states that offer a lower tax burden.

High tech companies can hire people from around the globe without having to deal with immigration laws, work visas, or political crap.

There is also the prospect of research facilities that can operate without worrying about local laws. There is a lot of research going on in Europe that is not possible in the USA. A stem cell research facility could open up in international waters.

Will it work? Will it be successful? Who knows. The technology that will come out of it will be really cool.

[Just1MoreDave]

Billions in tax savings sound great until you imagine the headline:

"Pirates Seize Apple Corporate HQ!"

[Winder]

Billions in tax savings sound great until you imagine the headline:

"Pirates Seize Apple Corporate HQ!"

Not a lot of pirates off the coast of California these days, and I'm pretty sure any company operating in international waters would be able to take care of itself. The threat would be from governments not pirates.

We already have companies like BASF that have over 30,000 employees at its home office. That is already larger than many small towns in America. They employ a private security force and medical staff at their main office. Companies like GE, Apple, MS, BASF, DOW, 3M Google already have more resources than most countries in the world.

IF Apple was a country its GDP would be higher than Denmark. Has Denmark been having trouble with pirates that I don't know about?

Berkshire Hathaway had a cash revenue of $136 billion which is higher than the GDP of Hungary ($128.96 billion). The top 25 largest counties in the USA could easily move to international waters and operate as a sovereign entities. Even a small company like Yahoo is still wealthier than 50 of the 196 counties in the United Nations. Information companies like Yahoo don't require physical locations for production and shipping.

I don't expect to see any major company making a move, but small start-ups from over 60 countries have been investing in concept. Regardless of who moves or doesn't move or why they move, the technology that is being developed to make this possible is really cool.

Sea World could actually be a city at sea with underwater casinos and resorts. We could see underwater mining operations that were supported by a surface city. I personally don't care if Apple moves its HQ out of the country. I'm more interested in the technology that is being developed.