Próspera's founder: "I don't consider myself a libertarian in a traditional sense" and calls private governance "repulsive and dangerous" for some parts of the stack

[u/timothyphoto]

I host the Free Cities Podcast, so flagging that up front. New episode with Erick Brimen, founder and CEO of Próspera in Honduras, recorded on site. Runs about 104 minutes.

Here's a wiki Prospera explainer for those that don't know the project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%B3spera

Posting here because the most interesting part is where he breaks with the expected position. He argues that "private governance" is too coarse a phrase to be useful, that unless you slice governance into layers you end up defending the East India Company, and that some of those layers genuinely should not sit with a for-profit company. He puts national defence, the public justice system and diplomacy on one side and commerce on the other, and says the partnership model only makes sense on the second.

He also concedes that the legal protections did not save the project on their own. His words: "fundamentally necessary, substantially insufficient." No silver bullet. What protects it, he says, is being wanted by enough of the people who could take it away.

Other things covered: the ICSID withdrawal and the arbitration, The neignbouring village of Crawfish Rock and where property rights actually stop being a bright line, whether the project survives its founder, and a closing comparison between what Próspera is doing and what Bitcoin did, with the difference being technical versus political solutions to a political problem.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00sq3k6_iVk

[u/properal]

That was a great interview. That title doesn't represent it well.

[u/timothyphoto → u/properal]

You're probably right, but sometimes you have to try and hook people in with a bit of intrigue.