Vanuatu prime minister says yes to Satoshi Island crypto project

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It’s not every day that a country’s leader endorses a cryptocurrency project. Nayib Bukele, the President of orange-pilled El Salvador, was the first leader to endorse Bitcoin (BTC).

Now, the prime minister of Vanuatu, the Honourable Bob Loughman, has officially given the green light to Satoshi Island.

*The Vanuatu government approval, which Satoshi Island was happy to share with Cointelegraph. Source: SI*

Satoshi Island is the megaproject crypto utopia in the South Pacific tha recently disclosed to Cointelegraph its vision, progress and preparation. Hot on the heels of news that they received 50,000 citizenship nonfungible token (NFT) applications, the prime minister of Vanuatu has given his blessing to “watching the development of Satoshi Island unfold.”

For the team at Satoshi Island, the endorsement is welcome news:

“With this full endorsement from the prime minister of Vanuatu in hand, we can show everyone that Satoshi Island is as real as it gets, and the kind words of the PM inviting our community to their home could not be a warmer welcome.”

The official letter states that “the overnment of Vanuatu welcomes the Satoshi Island project and its community to our country,” while highlighting that “Vanuatu is looking for new ways to attract investment and people to our country.”

The COVID-19 pandemic “severely affected the tourism sector,” a mainstay of the Vanuatu economy, contributing 34.7% to total GDP in 2019. According to World Bank data, visitor numbers to the paradise-like archipelago 2,000 kilometers (or 1,243 miles) from Brisbane dropped from circa 300,000 to 80,000 in 2020.

The team at Satoshi Island had previously told Cointelegraph that the “lack [of] tourism” was one of the pain points they wished to alleviate with their project. Fundamentally, however, the “crypto industry finally has a physical home” in Satoshi Island.

Satoshi Island is a space in which crypto enthusiasts plan to reside — not visit. Community members will be living in sustainably-built homes in a community organized by decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, where ownership is represented by NFTs.

Artist’s rendering of the Satoshi Island sustainable build homes. Source: SI

Many of the past crypto megaprojects, from Akon City in Senegal to CryptoLand in Fiji, have failed. Satoshi Island’s team advises others to “keep ideas on a need-to-know basis within the team until everything is in place to turn the idea into a reality.”

The team recommends that others “be very selective with the location and ensure it [is] logistically, environmentally and legally possible,” as well as to

“Be very selective with the location and ensure […] most importantly, owning the land before you release your project is an essential step to showing your target market that what you are promoting is real and not just a pipe dream.”

With the prime minister of Vanuatu’s approval, the Satoshi Island crypto “pipe dream” is nearing reality.