Photo: Seasteading.org

In a move that seems out of a dystopian fiction novel, PayPal founder Peter Thiel has given $1.19 million to the Seasteading Institute to help fund a project that aims to create new countries in international waters, The Sun newspaper has reported.

The idea behind this project is to build gigantic floating platforms “for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage and few restrictions on weapons".

The mastermind behind the Seasteading Institute is Patri Friedman –economist Milton Friedman’s grandson – whose mission is “to further the establishment and growth of permanent, autonomous ocean communities, enabling innovation with new political and social systems”.

Friedman believes that building these artificial islands in the ocean is the only option to create new societies.

“Government is an inefficient industry because it has an insane barrier to entry. To compete with governments on existing land, you have to win a war, an election, or a revolution."

Photo: Seasteading.org

Thiel admits that there are many people who don’t believe a project this big is even possible.

"That's a good thing,” he said. “We don't need to really worry about those people very much, because since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

According to The Sun, the first platform could be built off San Francisco as soon as next year.

We wonder if the shopping centres in these nations will only accept PayPal?

Photo: Seasteading.org