Liberland president intends to utilize new ‘Merits’ digital money, not Bitcoin
Liberland has a passionate leader, a committed populace, a working draft of a constitution, and huge plans for what’s to come. Vit Jedlička , the President of Liberland, a small self-proclaimed microstate on a patch of land between Croatia and Serbia, is looking to use a new cryptocurrency called ‘Merit’ to underpin his vision for the new country. According to the official website of Liberland, the 2.7 square miles of land is now the third smallest sovereign state in the world.
Vit Jedlička’s idea for a new crypto-based new micro-nation has taken steady steps forward over the last few years.
Jedlička said how he looked through a Wikipedia rundown of “no man’s lands” to discover the spot. So far, Liberland has not been recognised by any nation. He says 205,000 individuals who have enlisted on the official site are eligible to become citizens.
According to him, Liberland is a ‘role model of a new type of state’ and the country is about pushing the borders of liberty to the maximum to maximize the happiness of its citizens. He intends to have no binding taxes, a decentralized government, and a range of freedoms, like the right to have arms.
The designated territory formerly used Bitcoin for a reserve currency. In an interview, Jedlička stated how he thought the virtual currency “was a great thing” since it has a fundamental value as a tool of exchange. But now, he has his eyes on a more ambitious virtual currency plan for Liberland, one that “will be more of a share in Liberland than a cryptocurrency.”
Ultimately, he wants to change the country into a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). A DAO is a structure where decisions are made electronically by written computer code or through the vote of its members.
The DAO will control the dispersal of the new ‘Merit’ cryptocurrency to its citizens. The approach is to weigh the power to vote based on the number of Merits a person holds. Jedlička reveals that the system lets people “get the shares of the country they are living in,” if they want to return some (voluntary) taxes.
He presumes people “that actually make the country possible and have contributed to its creation” should be the ones with the right to make decisions. There are also plans for Merit, which runs on Ethereum, to be used as the collateral inside of the proposed nation’s justice system.
The key to Liberland’s plan is ‘Merit’. The crypto is topped with a supply that is constrained by the government, right now pegged to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 proportion with plans to build up a Bitcoin-like exchanging market in future. The point is to cancel required tax collection: Unlike pretty much every other nation that makes residents cover government expense, individuals decide to willfully stake Merit so as to cast a ballot and fall under Liberland jurisdiction. Merit likewise functions as a guarantee in the justice system. The idea, Jedlička elaborates is “the people that build the country are the ones to run it.”
The contributions from Merit, all viewable on a webpage, are used to fund what Jedlička refers to as “the most cost-efficient government ever.” Last year, in its annual financial report, Liberland earned $334,000 in operating income and $212,250 from cryptocurrency gains. Voluntary tax donations made up $96,889, or 29% of operating income, with 53% of its funds coming from “strategic and larger investments.” It spent $292,000, leaving a surplus of $254,350.
Merit is not the state-mandated official currency. In fact, its representatives see Liberland as serving as something of a cradle for the cryptocurrency. Recently, Vit Jedlička showed his interest to be a part of World Blockchain Summit in Taipei, to explore Blockchain and crypto opportunities in Liberland.
As South Korea establishes directions on real-name accounts and the United States thinks over which tokens to control as securities, Liberland wants to support digital currencies with a pro-crypto regulation with the goal of creating employment, not just for Liberland’s citizens but also in the neighbouring Baltic States.
