Atlas Island

Overview

The Atlas Island project seeks to build a floating community, eventually becoming a fully-fledged seastead that will be settled in international waters and therefore avoid the direct control of any existing world government.

The full development of the project consists of five stages.

• Stage I is the creation of an online community. At this stage, local clubs that welcome new members interested in the project are formed.
• Stage II involves establishing marina communities in which club members start transitioning to living on floating vessels while still remaining close to onshore civilizational amenities.
• At Stage III, a harbor community is created, where a protected floating space is located which allows for the development of basic infrastructure on the to-be seastead.
• Stage IV involves several harbor communities merging together at sea, creating a coastal community. At this stage, floating infrastructure is further tested at a larger scale and an autonomous economy begins to emerge on the seastead.
• Stage V involves merging the constituent clubs and communities further and moving the seastead to international waters. There, the Atlas Island project will be able to become independent of existing governments to the fullest extent possible, perhaps operating as a patchwork of Free Private Cities on the sea.

At Stage V, the seastead will be designed to remain permanently afloat and harbor the boats of its citizens. The goal is that the micro-nation will expand as more people join it, attracted by low taxes, individual Citizen Contracts and private government, where individuals can leave the seastead at any time and take their vessels, business and homes with them.

Current Situation

The project is currently at Stage I, where an online community is being established and expanded. As of June 2023, the community has approximately 400 members taking part across a Telegram group and a mailing list. A notable percentage of this community is committed to start living on water once the project reaches the next stage.

At first, Atlas Island will be composed of clubs and their members, making no demands or claims of independence. The founders are currently identifying locations for Stage II marina communities and are targeting one location in the Mediterranian and one in the Caribbean. A third potential community, which is lower-priority, would be located in Oceania. The exact locations are being negotiated.

Atlas Island is in the process of creating a vessel design – a catamaran serving as a family-house equivalent. It should be fitted with solar panels for energy and desalination solutions for water supply to provide a high level of self-sufficiency. The boats are planned to be ready for public announcement and presale in late 2023.

Atlas Island is also in talks with companies looking to develop floating platforms capable of docking and sheltering the individual boats-houses. Such platforms could serve as floating island hubs, providing public spaces and amenities to seasteaders.

To comply with maritime law, the project leaders are negotiating with a government to adopt a flag of convenience—a flag that will impose only minimal restrictions and convey basic legal rights.