Olivier Janssens promises tens of millions of dollars to build an ecological luxury paradise on the small island of Nevis, with his own rules.</p><div data-agora-connect-urls="{"baseUrl":"https:\/\/connect.lefigaro.fr"}" data-component="fig-content-body" data-context="was @visible" data-id="bGVmaWdhcm8uZnJfXzFmMGRhYjgwLTM0ZjMtNjE2MC1hYWI4LTFmZmEwZWY1NTBlZF9fQXJ0aWNsZQ==" data-module="fig-body" data-premium="false">
<p class="fig-paragraph">Create a libertarian enclave in the heart of the Caribbean, with its own rules, economy and worldview? This is not a teenage dream, it is the ambition of Olivier Janssens, a Belgian investor who became a millionaire thanks to bitcoin, who wants to transform part of the small island of Nevis, located in the Caribbean Sea, into a special economic zone with its own legal system.
<p class="fig-paragraph">The project is called Destiny and has been maturing for more than ten years. It found favorable ground this summer, when the micro-island state of Saint Kitts and Nevis authorized the creation of <em>“special areas”</em> sustainable development on its territory. Olivier Janssens promises to invest no less than 50 million dollars in local infrastructure – villas, a state-of-the-art hospital, technological centers – to build an ecological luxury paradise, powered by green energy and the most advanced technologies. The millionaire is already making major land purchases through his South Nevis company.</p>
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<h2 class="fig-body-heading" id="subhead-ff9053c8-5532-47ee-80c2-1fff711324b3">“Monaco-Dubai of the Caribbean”</h2>
<p class="fig-paragraph">Supposed objective: to create a framework favorable to the greatest fortunes. On the official website, Destiny presents itself as one <em>“Monaco-Dubai of the Caribbean”</em>assumed <em>“significantly increase the GDP of Saint Kitts and Nevis and the entire Eastern Caribbean”</em>. The island of Nevis, which has approximately 13,200 inhabitants on an area of 93 km², has never organized a project of this scale. Destiny was designed by the American company Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and also provides a specific legal system that must protect the assets of wealthy investors.</p>
<p class="fig-paragraph">But Destiny is also a political project: Olivier Janssens, an outspoken libertarian, shows a deep distrust of political institutions. <em>"I don't trust politicians... We just say, 'Leave us alone and let us do what we have to do'"</em>he summarizes. He said on Reddit in 2014: <em>“My goal is to create a decentralized world, a free society”</em>.</p>
<h2 class="fig-body-heading" id="subhead-01b58bdc-38d9-4a16-82f7-ee0d0a7478c0">Semantic dressing</h2>
<p class="fig-paragraph">Enough to make people wary of the island nation. Behind the promises to ensure that the local population benefits from these pharaonic investment projects, Kelvin Daly, member of the opposition Nevis Reformation Party, denounces the <em>Financial times</em> semantic dressing: <em>"They have carefully chosen the term 'sustainable' because it implies something good and fair (...) It's just a pompous way to talk about a special economic zone with extra benefits."</em> for the great fortunes.</p>
<p class="fig-paragraph">Olivier Janssens has been a former bitcoin miner since 2010, when the cryptocurrency was worth just a few cents, and is part of a broader movement of bitcoiners looking to build states or companies. <em>“networked”</em>focused on decentralization and individual financial freedom. Destiny would not be the first example of this type: Liberland, a 7 km² micronation sandwiched between Serbia and Croatia, declared in 2015, advocates a state without taxes or gun control and attracts crypto investors from all over the world.</p>
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