• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

American and Thai Bitcoin investor couple on the run from Thailand gov for living a seastead near Phuket's coast

massoluk

massoluk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,591
Thailand
https://www.wxyz.com/news/michigan-...i-gov-for-seasteading-in-international-waters

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...ns-say-theyre-on-the-run-from-thai-government

Chad Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet (AKA Nadia Summergirl) are facing criminal charges – punishable by death – related to living in the waterborne structure, according to the Bangkok Post.

Chad and his wife Nadia were meant to be pioneers of "seasteading" an idea popular in the Libertarian culture, which advocates for societies to be set up on floating structures in international waters.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The six-meter wide structure, known as XLII, was supposed to be the first real application of "seasteading," a libertarian idea that advocates for new societies to form on structures floating in international waters. According to Ocean Builders, the startup behind the project, the structure was allegedly located in international waters, 12 miles off the coast but still within Thailand's exclusive economic zone.

After it launched in early 2019, Elwartowski and Thepdet—volunteers, according to Ocean Builders—moved in. Elwartowski, a Bitcoin enthusiast, told me he had enough in cryptocurrency holdings to retire and Thepdet posts online as "Bitcoin Girl Thailand." Joe Quirk, president of the Seasteading Institute advocacy group, directed a short documentary series about the pair, titled "The First Seasteaders."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

To be clear, it's international water, but it's still in the area where Thailand has to police it. The officials claim the structure poses hazard for shipping with it being off the grid and insufficient lighting. The company responsible claimed otherwise. This doesn't negate the fact that they made this without authorization. Not so bright these bitcoin libertarian. Now they are claiming they are hunted for dead. (Honestly, the American will just be jailed, fined, and deported. The woman may not be so lucky.)

Edit: fixed some details
 
Last edited:
Diunx

Diunx

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
188
That's a pretty fucking barbaric punishment, hope they manage to get away.
 

Deleted member 11637

Oct 27, 2017
18,204
Elwartowski, a Bitcoin enthusiast, told me he had enough in cryptocurrency holdings to retire and Thepdet posts online as "Bitcoin Girl Thailand." Joe Quirk, president of the Seasteading Institute advocacy group...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

tenor.gif
 
Cpt-GargameL

Cpt-GargameL

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,024
Wild.

"I'll say it right here. Nadia and I did not design, construct or pay to have the seastead constructed. We promoted it and lived on it. We helped out by giving the builder updates and we participated in the launch. We did not decide where to put the seastead."

"But as long as Nadia and I are able to live through this that is all that matters to us right now. We just want to live,"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm glad they're ok though. Hopefully this ends well.
 
Keikaku

Keikaku

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,775
They really like those death sentences in Asia. Reminds me of a star trek tng episode...
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,177
"Seasteading" That is the dumbest shit I seen in a while.
 

WarLox

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
574
Im miss the days of every thread having a "56k warning". lol Now that I have fiber internet, I'm using my imagination for everything since no one wants to post pics anymore. lol
 
Acorn

Acorn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,972
Scotland
Also seasteading will never work because there aren't Poors they can use to make themselves feel superior because they're rich. Or even worse they could become the Poors of the place
 
OP
OP
massoluk

massoluk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,591
Thailand
Last edited:
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
xxracerxx said:


Jesus Christ.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...



You can in fact buy that view on thousands of islands off of Florida, multiple Carribean nations and even more normal parts of Thailand.


It sounds like they learned about international maritime law from the Simpsons monkey knife fight gif and learned about art from... a slate?
 
Chopchop

Chopchop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,171
That's so fucking hipster/"look at how woke I am" that it hurts. But I don't think they should die for it.

And if you're going to live on the sea, why not just live on a fucking boat? Or build something bigger than six metres?
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,177
Stinkles said:
You can in fact buy that view on thousands of islands off of Florida, multiple Carribean nations and even more normal parts of Thailand.


It sounds like they learned about international maritime law from the Simpsons monkey knife fight gif and learned about art from... a slate?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If Sealand couldn't do it, what makes them think they could?
 
piratepwnsninja

piratepwnsninja

Lead Game Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
3,811
Reported punishment aside...Like...what is their plan when a big storm pops up and rolls through? I'm actually getting anxious thinking about how waves could reach that thing.
 
Seneset

Seneset

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,079
Limbus Patrum

Deleted member 20284

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,889
They stayed their first night without a backup boat. I think that says enough about the project mentality for safety overall.
 
Ayato_Kanzaki

Ayato_Kanzaki

Member
Nov 22, 2017
1,481
collige said:
Damn I expected something much nicer looking. This is like a 2013 bitcoin raft, not a December 2017 bitcoin raft
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Am I the only one to see the irony of Libertarians putting themselves in what look like a small, low-confort prison cell to "escape' the governement?

Aside from that, since this thing if off the grid, it has no lighting, no beacon. It is a hazard for navigation and need to be dismanteled.
 
hombremalo

hombremalo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,959
Other considerations aside this seems really dangerous, like that will die in a storm dangerous.
 
Hokey

Hokey

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,164
I understand that they want to get away from the system but isn't there some remote area of another country they can go to instead? Genuinely curious about this actually, like is there some very remote jungle or somewhere they can setup camp in without a government bothering them? I'm sure they could do it in a lot of desserts but it wouldn't be very easy to live out there so I guess the ocean is a good place to do it but couldn't they go further out so that it's away from any countries jurisdiction? Feel sorry for them because they just want to be left alone but this is not the way to go about it and I doubt it's very safe out there....the deep ocean is almost as scary as being in outer space....it's hostile af.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.