When you’ve made a fortune through cryptocurrency investments, what’s the next step? Reinvesting and reinvigorating the blockchain space sounds like a good place to start. Within the scorching Nevada desert, Blockchains LLC – an almost unknown company – has purchased a large plot of land for $170 million in cash. The sheer size of this purchase raises eyebrows, but when you realize that this is the idea of just one man, the story becomes even more bizarre.
Viva Las Vegas
Jeffrey Berns is a lawyer, cryptocurrency millionaire, and the man behind Blockchains LLC. After earning a fortune from the crypto market, he’s come up with an idea that appears to have boom or bust written all over it. His idea is to create an experimental blockchain community, which will be spread across more than 100 miles in the Nevada desert. On the proposed development there will be schools, colleges, e-gaming arenas, homes, production studios, and even commercial districts, with the idea being to create an independent, self-sufficient community. A new development of this size isn’t exactly alien in Nevada. Las Vegas was the idea of infamous Mafia gangster Bugsy Siegel after all, but its digital nature means that it’s a unique project to say the very least.
Method Behind the Madness
You would be forgiven for believing that this idea is nothing more than the pipedream of a crazed crypto fanatic, but Berns truly believes that there is something to his “dream community.” Fitting into many of the ideologies surrounding the crypto and blockchain space, as digital currencies take power back from banking institutions, Berns’ vision reinvents the idea of community living for the digital age.
By creating a community that is built with blockchain as its foundation, the belief is that those involved will have control over their own data, with there being no need to rely on governments or rigid financial institutions. The concern with this project is that this it’s not the first cryptocurrency-based idea to present a utopian vision. Many other, so-called crypto communities eventually turned out to be get-rich-quick schemes. Various fraudsters have been arrested over the years as well, including Louis Ong, ‘Bitcoin Maven’ Theresa Tetley, and Charlie Shrem. We’ve profiled many of the most shocking cryptocurrency scams in the past, so we certainly hope that the Blockchains LLP project doesn’t join these ranks.
The reason as to why Berns was drawn to Nevada specifically was its tax breaks, which also include a notable lack of income taxes. This opens the doors to his ambitions, without the risk of his project being hounded by the state for additional charges, costs, and commissions. It also helps that blockchain was recently the hot topic at the World Crypto Conference in Las Vegas, which shows that Nevada as a state has one eye on the future.
Power to the People
What makes Berns so different from all other crypto rich names flooding the market is that he is actively trying to give back – spending his own money in the process. He’s forked out more $300 million on the land, staff of more than 70 people, offices, and planning permissions. Covering 67,000 acres, this is a real-estate risk of there ever was one, but this is simply the cost of having such a huge vision.
Surprisingly, despite his career choice, Berns has said that he never had any real desire to get rich or become a real estate magnate. For this reason, he’s promised to hand over the project’s decision-making power to residents, while 90 percent of any dividends it generates will be transferred to a corporate structure held by investors, residents, and employees. This new structure will be called the “distributed collaborative entity,” which will operate on a blockchain where everyone’s voting powers and ownership rights will be detailed in a digital wallet. If Berns’ dream ever comes to be a reality, he would truly be taking blockchain technology to a new, almost unimaginable level.
Support of the Locals
When asked about why he’s decided to undertake such a huge project, Berns said, “I don’t know why.” He also revealed his true passion for blockchain and what it’ll mean for the world, “something inside me tells me this is the answer, that if we can get enough people to trust the blockchain, we can begin to change all the systems we operate by.” Surprisingly, he’s been able to win over local officials, who seem keen on his vision of digitally-infused economic development in the area.
Berns’ project has already received support from nearby Truckee River, as the call for thousands of homes and new schools has been warmly received. Truckee River is now working with Blockchains LLP to help construct a master plan, with Berns’ staff already hard at work to make the project tangible. But, at least for now, outside of an office building, the land owned by Blockchains LLP remains empty, with there being no concrete timeframe for the start of development. Berns has earmarked late 2019/early 2020 as a realistic time for the project to break ground, but that does appear to be a little optimistic.
Taking Cryptocurrency to Unseen Heights
Berns’ earned his money through Ethereum, buying cheap coins via a big sale during 2015, before impeccably timing his exit during the price boom late last year. Reinvesting his money, the idea of creating a blockchain community is very much “out there,” yet he feels that dreams and faith are what have helped cryptocurrencies capture the imagination of the world. Berns said, “This will either be the biggest thing ever, or the most spectacular crash and burn in the history of mankind.” He admits that he “[doesn’t’] know which one”, but he is confident that it’s “going to be one hell of a ride.”
Is Jeffrey Berns’ blockchain utopia project realistic? Will Nevada soon to become home to the world’s first blockchain haven? Only time will tell, but here at BitStarz News we’re certainly excited about what Blockchains LLP could potentially create!
