CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – In the Nevada desert, a cryptocurrency tycoon hopes to turn the dreams of a futuristic “smart city” into reality. To do this, he is asking the state to allow companies like him to form local governments on land he owns, which would give them power over everything from schools to law enforcement.
Jeffrey Berns, CEO of Nevada-based Blockchains LLC, envisions a city where people not only buy goods and services with digital currency, but also record their entire footprint online – financial statements, medical records and personal data – on the blockchain. Blockchain is a digital ledger known primarily for recording cryptocurrency transactions, but it has also been adopted by some local governments for everything from documenting marriage licenses to facilitate elections.
The company wants to open by 2022 in rural Storey County, 12 miles (19 kilometers) east of Reno. Is proposing build 15,000 homes and 33 million square meters (3 million square meters) of commercial and industrial space in 75 years. Berns, whose idea is the basis for a bill that some lawmakers saw behind closed doors last week, said the traditional government does not offer enough flexibility to create a community where people can invent new uses for this technology.
“There must be a place somewhere on this planet where people are willing to start from scratch and say, ‘We are not going to do things this way just because this is how we did it,'” Berns said.
He wants Nevada to change its laws to allow for “zones of innovation,” where companies would have powers like those of a county government, including setting up court systems, imposing taxes and building infrastructure while making land management decisions and Water.
The prospect was met with intrigue and skepticism by Nevada lawmakers, although the legislation has not yet been formally presented or discussed at public hearings. The majority in the Democratic-controlled legislature is eager to diversify Nevada’s tourism-dependent economy, but many fear a backlash against corporate incentives as they struggle to finance health and education.
This proposal differs from the large tax cuts they have been concerned with offering, such as the $ 1.3 billion given to Tesla to build its battery factory in northern Nevada, or to the billions that New York and Virginia offered Amazon to build a new corporate headquarters.
But it raises deeper questions about increasing control by technology companies in everyday life at a time when antitrust regulators and Democrats in Congress Tech giants like Facebook and Google are controlling markets and putting people’s privacy at risk.
Blockchains LLC and so-called innovation zones were an important part of Governor Steve Sisolak’s speech on the state of January, when he outlined plans to rebuild a more diverse economy after the coronavirus pandemic.
Sisolak, whose campaign and affiliated political action committee received a total of $ 60,000 from the company, said the proposal would make Nevada the “epicenter of this emerging industry and create well-paid jobs and the accompanying revenue”.
The governor’s office declined to comment further on the innovation zones. But, with Sisolak’s support, the idea can be taken seriously in the Legislature.
“I still don’t know enough to say whether I’m comfortable with this as the next step or not. But, look, it’s a great idea and Nevada was built with great ideas, so let’s hear it, ”said state senator Ben Kieckhefer, a Republican who sponsored blockchain-related legislation in 2017 and 2019.
If lawmakers support the proposal, technology companies with 50,000 acres of land (200 square kilometers) that promise a $ 1 billion investment could create zones governed by three people, like county commissioners. The bill says that two of them would initially belong to the company itself.
In Storey County, where Tesla’s factory is located, officials are waiting for more information before offering opinions, but say the questions still need to be answered.
Commissioner Lance Gilman, who owns the Mustang ranch brothel and bought most of the county’s land to turn it into an industrial park decades ago, supported attracting technology companies to the area and increasing its population. But Gilman, who worked in marketing for Blockchains LLC from 2018 to 2019, said there are many unknowns about giving up control to a new jurisdiction that lies within the county’s borders.
“(The bill) wants the host county to let it graduate, become successful, not pay them much money, and eventually let them take over the entire county and all operations, if successful,” he said Gilman. “If it doesn’t work out, who will be responsible for all the things that have been built in the meantime?”
The county master plan it does not allow residential development at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, where most of Blockchain LLC’s property is located, but it does allow 3,500 homes in Painted Rock, a subsection of the company’s 67,000 acres (271 square kilometers).
Berns said the authorities told him in an informal discussion two years ago that they were not interested in zoning more houses, a meeting that former county manager Pat Whitten confirmed. Berns understands that elected leaders in Storey County may not want an experimental city in their backyard, but believes that the idea must be a state decision because of its potential to “uniquely define Nevada going forward”.
“We bought 70,000 acres of land in the county. What did they think we were going to do? ” he said.
The former consumer protection lawyer said the idea came from how he sees the government as an unnecessary intermediary between people and ideas.
“So that we can take risks and be flexible, agile and discover things like you do when designing new products, that’s not how the government works. So, why don’t we just create a government that allows us to do these things? ”Berns said.
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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed a report from Las Vegas. Metz is a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national non-profit service program that puts journalists in newsrooms to report on covert issues.