A cryptocurrency billionaire is looking to transform a vast arid portion of the Nevada desert into a thriving, state-of-the-art “smart” metropolis.
Blockchain investment group Blockchains LLC is ratcheting up plans to establish a futuristic urban habitat east of Reno.
Spearheading the ambitious project is Jeffrey Berns, chief executive officer of Nevada-headquartered Blockchains LLC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr1lch2Pbh4
Futuristic city in the desert
The crypto magnate visualizes a city where people not only buy products using virtual money but also register their entire online footmark — financial and medical records and other personal information — on blockchain.
A quick note of blockchain: it’s a system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another digital currency are kept across multiple computers that are connected in a so-called peer-to-peer (P2P) network.
In order for his dream to materialize, he’s asking officials of the state of Nevada to allow companies like Blockchains LLC to establish local governments on plots of land they own, which would give them authority over everything — from grocery stores to schools to police stations.
The proposed project will be built on more than 67,000 acres of undeveloped high desert land at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center.
A city powered by blockchain
Berns made public the company’s grand vision to construct a blockchain-powered city on the purchased property during a conference in Prague in 2018. Berns plans to hire more than 1,000 workers this year.
It envisions to eventually employ one in 50 Nevada locals and account for almost 2 percent of all wages generated in the state — a plan the CEO later said was “too optimistic,” according to sources.
Blockchains LLC proposes to break ground next year in rural Storey County, 12 miles east of Reno. The group wants to build 15,000 houses and 3 million square meters of commercial and industrial space within 75 years.
“There’s got to be a place somewhere on this planet where people are willing to just start from scratch and say, ‘We are not gonna do things this way just because it’s the way we have done it,'” Berns said in remarks quoted by the Associated Press.
Image courtesy of DW Shift/YouTube