CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – In the Nevada desert, a cryptocurrency tycoon hopes to turn dreams of a futuristic ‘smart city’ into reality. To do so, he is asking the state to allow companies like his local governments on land they own, which will give them power over everything from schools to law enforcement.
Jeffrey Berns, CEO of Blockchains LLC in Nevada, provides a city where people not only buy goods and services with digital currencies, but also record their entire online footprint – financial statements, medical records and personal data – on blockchain. Blockchain is a digital ledger that is best known for recording cryptocurrency transactions, but has also been accepted by some local governments for everything from documenting marriage licenses. to facilitate the election.
The company wants to break ground by 2022 in rural Storey County, 19 miles east of Reno. This suggests to build 15,000 homes and 33 million square meters of commercial and industrial space within 75 years. Berns, whose idea is the basis for draft legislation what some lawmakers saw behind closed doors last week said the traditional government does not offer enough flexibility to create a community where people can devise new uses for this technology.
“There has to be a place somewhere on this planet where people are willing to start over and say, ‘We’re not going to do things this way just because we did,'” Berns said.
He wants Nevada to change its laws to allow ‘innovation zones’, where companies have powers like those of a land government, including creating court systems, introducing taxes and building infrastructure while making land and water management decisions .
The prospects have been met with intrigue and skepticism from lawmakers in Nevada, although the legislation has yet to be formally filed or discussed in public hearings. Most in the Democratic-controlled legislature are eager to diversify Nevada’s tourism-dependent economy, but many fear there is a setback to business incentives because they struggle to fund health care and education.
This proposal differs from the large tax cuts they are careful to offer, such as the $ 1.3 billion given to Tesla to build its northern Nevada battery factory, or the billions of New York and Virginia offered Amazon to build a new headquarters.
But it raises deeper issues about increasing the grip of technology companies on everyday life at a time when antitrust regulators are acting and Democrats in Congress claim tech giants like Facebook and Google control markets and endanger people’s privacy.
Blockchains LLC and so-called innovation zones were a key part of Steve Sisolak’s government in January, when he outlined plans to rebuild a more diversified economy following the coronavirus pandemic.
Sisolak, whose campaign and affiliated political action committee jointly received $ 60,000 from the company, said the proposal would transform Nevada into “the center of this emerging industry and create high-paying jobs and revenue.”
The governor’s office declined to comment further on innovation zones. But with the support of Sisolak, the idea could gain serious consideration in the Legislature.
‘I still do not know enough to say whether I am comfortable with this as the next step or not. But look, it’s a big idea and Nevada is built on big ideas, so let’s hear it, ‘said State Senator Ben Kieckhefer, a Republican who sponsored blockchain legislation in 2017 and 2019.
If legislators support the proposal, technology companies with an area of 50,000 hectares (200 square kilometers) that promise an investment of $ 1 billion could create areas managed by three people such as land commissioners. According to the draft legislation, two of them would initially come from the company.
In Storey County, where Tesla’s factory is located, officials are waiting for more information before offering opinions, but say questions have yet to be answered.
Commissioner Lance Gilman, who owns the Mustang Ranch brothel and bought most of the land to turn it into an industrial park decades ago, supported it to attract technology companies to the area and grow its population. But Gilman, who worked in the marketing of Blockchains LLC from 2018 to 2019, said there are many unknowns about relinquishing control to a new jurisdiction that falls within national boundaries.
“(The bill) wants the host province to shape it, become successful, and not have to pay a lot of money, and eventually take over the whole province and all the operations if it is successful,” he said. Gilman said. “If it does not become successful, then who will be responsible for all the stuff built in the meantime?”
The province’s master plan does not offer residential development in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, where most of Blockchain LLC’s property is, but it does offer 3,500 homes in Painted Rock, a subdivision of the company’s 27,000 square miles.
Berns said officials told him in an informal discussion two years ago that they were not interested in furnishing more homes, a meeting confirmed by former provincial manager Pat Whitten. Berns understands that Storey County elected leaders may not want an experimental city in their backyard, but believes the idea should be a state decision because of the potential to define Nevada once and for all in the future.
‘We bought 70,000 hectares of land in the country. What did they think we were going to do? He said.
The former consumer protection advocate said the idea arose from how he views the government as an unnecessary middleman between people and ideas.
‘This is not how the government works, because we can dare and be humble, flee and invent things like you when designing new products. So let’s just create a government that we can do these things? Berns said.
___
Associated Press author Michelle L. Price contributed coverage from Las Vegas. Metz is a corps member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that puts journalists in newsrooms to report on subjects.