1 yr ago, I rescinded my US O1 visa, left my startup, and moved down to Próspera to build a city from scratch. It’s a zone with very special laws, regulations, and taxes. It has raised almost $200M, incl from Coinbase, Peter Thiel, and created 3000 local jobs 🧵

In medieval times, within the arms race of ever more demonic torture devices, some sadistic genius came up with the idea of the Little Ease. This was a prison cell built so small in every dimension that a grown man could not stand upright in it nor lie down at full length nor properly sit. The pain is relentless and without relief and inflicted by one's own body. Prisoners were known to go insane within a few days. A stay at the Little Ease was considered even more cruel than the rack, the thumbscrew, and the other ghoulish machinery of the Tower of London. A breeding pig will spend her whole life in a version of that box. These are social, roaming creatures (more intelligent than dogs) who will never leave this corset of steel. They have been selectively bred to be bigger than their frames can support. Yet we put them in cells so confined that they cannot comfortably sit, and their attempts to do so (for example, by sneaking their limbs into adjacent stalls) reliably lead to fractures and sprains. They cannot sweat, yet have nothing to roll around in to cool themselves off. Except their own manure, which (contrary to the common misconception) they are so averse to (thanks to their strong sense of smell) that new sows will often suffer from constipation to avoid soiling the space from which they eat and sleep. Here is how the writer Matthew Scully described what saw at one of Smithfield’s “gestation barn”: > “Sores, tumors, ulcers, pus pockets, lesions, cysts, bruises, torn ears, swollen legs everywhere. Roaring, groaning, tail biting, fighting, and other “Vices,” as they’re called in the industry. Frenzied chewing on bars and chains, stereotypical “vacuum” chewing on nothing at all, stereotypical rooting and nest building with imaginary straw. And “social defeat,” lots of it, in every third or fourth stall some completely broken being you know is alive only because she blinks and stares up at you … creatures beyond the power of pity to help or indifference to make more miserable, dead to the world except as heaps of flesh into which the [insemination] rod may be stuck once more and more flesh reproduced.” — The Save Our Bacon Act is trying to unroll the few state protections we have against this barbaric cruelty - for example California’s Prop 12 - which banned the sale of pork from pigs kept in gestation crates. It’s incredibly important we don’t end up with this sort of federal preemption. SOB will not only kill the most important animal welfare related laws in the US of the past decade, but more importantly, it will also restrict ALL future legislative progress (aka how the animal welfare movement has gotten its biggest wins). The Senate is currently deciding whether to add the SOB Act to the Farm Bill. With relatively little money now, we can discourage the most pivotal senators in the Ag committee from backing this amendment. Defeating this bill is even more important given the amount of philanthropic funding I expect to come online in the next year or two. It will plausibly be over 10x more expensive to repeal SOB than to prevent it from passing in the first place. All that money that could be spent transforming our society's relationship to mass animal suffering will instead have to be spent just getting us back to where we are right now. That's why money spent now fighting this bill (and I mean right NOW) is so effective. If you’re in a position to donate six figures, please DM me.

First episode of the Próspera Podcast is out - with @waitbutwhy - Tim's impressions from his Próspera trip - What Próspera learned from the US Framers - Where Tim and Erick think Próspera can go from here Listen here: youtu.be/GzQxmWp2TYQ

Próspera is building the world's first regulated AI agent sandbox. Agents can create entities, pay taxes, and operate with limited legal personality, with important safety guardrails built in. Town hall to cover it in full: luma.com/h8qg93ul

Was great to bring the first-ever TEDx conference on the island to Próspera!

The largest chess tournament in Central American history is launching as part of Próspera, in partnership with @FIDE_chess Total prize pool: 2 ₿TC Winner: 1 ₿TC We're looking forward to welcoming the world's top 20 chess players @HansMokeNiemann, @chessleinier, and more!

I'm claiming my AI agent "LonisBot" on @moltbook 🦞 Verification: lagoon-5ASN

AI will produce miracle cures, but only in frontier jurisdictions like Próspera will they actually reach people in need faster than the 10-12 year FDA cycle allows

Próspera World Tour continues: In January, the core team will visit major cities to host Próspera events: Berlin - Jan 7: luma.com/ukqvnest London - Jan 9: luma.com/w2jap3yu SF - Jan 21: luma.com/prospera-in-sf

It was great to host @VitalikButerin in Próspera!

if you are in high school or college, and you are hyper ambitious and don't know where to start, this podcast will explode your world view most peoples outlet, including mine, was to study as much as possible which is obviously not the fastest path to something great