We understand the impulse to start a new nation. Large, bureaucratic, sclerotic countries, mostly in the industrialized West, are riddled with controversy, unaccountable to large portions of the populace, slow to change, unwieldy. And potentially endangered. Consider that over 60 percent of Americans no longer believe in democracy.

Enter the superficial appeal of quitting one’s native borders and endeavoring to start from scratch. The notion of a nation on a flotilla has frequently been floated, and failed. (Or, more precisely, sunk.) These just-off-shore retreats for seasteaders—atop an abandoned oil rig, or a conglomeration of small boats lashed together—have been variously characterized as hairbrained, dysfunctional, patently unsustainable, or even a threat to the integrity of the UN’s 200+ recognized nation-states. More often, they’ve been dismissed as unadulterated tax-avoidance schemes and vanity plays for billionaires or crypto-humbled millionaires whose drug of choice is intravenous ego therapy. 

In contrast, the specific appeal of Socotra, an island 400 nautical miles off the southern coast of Yemen, goes well beyond the desire for an extra-national territory to call home. Firstly, it's geo-strategically positioned between Djibouti (a US base), Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, and Oman, in the center of highly trafficked shipping channels. Second, it’s a unique geological corridor, hosting some of the rarest bird and plant species on earth. Third, it has a surface that more closely resembles Mars than any stretch of dirt on Earth, ideal for rover testing or long-term residency training in preparation for an extra-planetary outpost; fourth, it’s a bastion of relative calm in a veritable sea of tumult, with a culture uniquely immune to or inoculated against regional instability; and fifth, it contains one of the most intact, unblemished fossil records for ongoing scientific research. What more dynamic place could you possibly choose? 

The bigger question: How to buttress or buoy the island’s long-term prospects in terms of health and relative wealth without disrupting the daily lives of Socotris—with tourism, server farms, mining, or the like. We have devised a method, or what we call a sub-sovereign jurisdiction, to deliver real dollars, in real time, with little or no detectable imprint on the ground. Or on culture. A virtual layer that can be emulated by or updated for other vulnerable island nations, particularly those under threat from the exigencies of geography rather than geopolitics. 

The global economy in 2023 is approximately $97T of worldwide trade in goods and services. An estimated 10% of those funds are kept permanently moored offshore in just 23 states or principalities. There are advantages conferred upon and enjoyed by small, manageable, nimble nations. If adopting new registration and banking legislation—to attract and coax capital away from other prominent banking centers—can dramatically improve the financial tides of small vulnerable entities, this recipe can be repeated in dozens of locations most acutely impacted by climate change. Outfitting those least responsible for their own approaching crises with critical resources to prepare for, or stave off, catastrophe. This is a key innovation, and a pivot away from reliance on foreign aid or the beggar-thy-neighbor approaches that currently characterize the climate crisis.