The Truth about Próspera

7 min readJul 5, 2022

Próspera is a project designed to catalyze rapid economic growth and unleash innovation through better governance and urban design.

We are Próspera. You may have heard of us recently described as “crypto colonialists” by The Guardian. While the poetic alliteration is cute, it couldn’t be further from the truth. In this blog post, we’ll outline who we really are, what we’re up to, and dispel some common misconceptions about our project.

What is Próspera?

The Próspera project encompasses many elements, but at its core is simple and straightforward: we are solving the problem of ineffective governance in order to drive rapid economic development and innovation in developing countries, the ultimate goal of which is human flourishing.

The foundation of Próspera is a governance framework, the Próspera Platform, which is optimized to deliver prosperity. We have worked for years with public policy experts from around the world to solve the core problem at the root of global poverty: poor governance. The economist Douglas North won a Nobel Prize for pointing out that governance institutions — the rules, laws, and regulations of a jurisdiction — are the real source of poverty and prosperity in jurisdictions. Daron Acemoglu, an MIT Economist and recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, more recently wrote a critically acclaimed book, Why Nations Fail, which explains in exquisite detail how poor governance institutions keep some developing nations mired in poverty, and improving governance institutions can catalyze rapid prosperity.

The Próspera platform took these lessons to heart, borrowing from the Common Law and instituting public policy improvements inspired by places like Dubai, Singapore, the United States, and more. The ability to start from a blank slate and design governance systems for a 21st century, tech-enabled economy allowed us to create, perhaps, the most competitive frameworks in the world for doing business: a jurisdiction where the rules and regulations are designed from the ground up to maximize generalized prosperity, human flourishing, and innovation in equal measure.

We partner with governments in developing countries to apply the Próspera platform within enhanced Special Economic Zones. When governments adopt enabling legislation that allows for the creation of Enhanced Special Economic Zones (ESEZs), our team sets up the Próspera Platform within the ESEZ on a greenfield site with zero or low population density. The greenfield site is important because it gives our team the ability to ensure the built environment fully actualizes the potential of our governance platform. Importantly, we are not real estate developers per se, but rather catalysts of real estate development in partnership with real estate developers themselves. This enables us to scale more rapidly and with more capital efficiency than similar projects around the world.

This process results in the construction of communities, industrial parks, and cities designed and built from the ground-up with both the software (laws, regulations, and eGovernance) as well as the hardware (real estate) needed to create an environment optimized for wealth creation, entrepreneurship, and human thriving.

In short, Próspera provides good governance as a service and creates physical destinations for optimized living.

Progress to Date

The first application of the Próspera Platform is in Honduras, on the beautiful Caribbean Island of Roatan. In our first development, we are catalyzing the creation of a city, St. John’s Bay, within the Honduran version of an ESEZ, known locally as a “ZEDE”. This ZEDE enables the application of the Próspera Platform to unlock prosperity and innovation in Honduras.

To date, we’ve raised over $80M towards the development of the Próspera Platform and our first hub in Roatan. The first buildings have been completed, hundreds of people are currently working within the jurisdiction, and the first third-party real estate development, called Duna, is currently under construction.

This initial city-scale development is already well underway and is attracting precisely the kind of cutting-edge innovative firms that the Próspera Platform is meant to attract. One such example is Fountain LLC, founded by biotech entrepreneurs to deliver leading anti-aging and longevity treatments. Fintech entrepreneurs have founded a digital-first bank built for Honduras, Seshat Bank. We’ve partnered with world-class firms like Jacobs Engineering, Zaha Hadid Architects, and many more to bring this vision into reality.

Dispelling Media Misconceptions

With this understanding of what Próspera is, we can turn to dispelling myths about what Próspera is not. Unsurprisingly, given the impactful nature of our project, we have been confronted with a barrage of lies and misinformation from the mainstream media. Below, we will succinctly put to rest all of these falsehoods and misconceptions once and for all.

Myth #1: The Próspera team did not adequately socialize the project prior to launch.

This is an outright lie. The very first action we took was to set up the Próspera Foundation to cooperate with the community of Crawfish Rock, located directly adjacent to our development. We launched an after school tutoring program, built a community center, and created other programs to support the local community.

Prior to moving one shovel of dirt, we also held a referendum with this neighboring community where we explained our development plans in detail and asked them to vote for or against our project as a show of good faith. Most of the adult members of the community voted in favor of our project, the signatures of which you can find here. Below is a photo of this referendum in action:

Furthermore, 70+ people from the Crawfish Rock village now work for Prospera businesses, which are the single largest provider of employment to that community. But don’t just take our word for it–hear it directly from the local community members themselves:

Myth #2: Próspera is an ideological/crypto/libertarian project.

This, too, is simply an outright lie propagated by dishonest mainstream media. As previously mentioned, the Próspera Platform incorporates public policy ideas from across the ideological spectrum. This is because we only implement what works, irrespective of what “ideology” may claim the idea. And we are not the cadre of radicals some claim. Simply put, what works is often dictated by what is acceptable; i.e. what is within the “Overton Window.” Admittedly, some of our innovations are on the edge of that “window;” and we will work to shift the window when justified by good public policy. But we recognize a practical limit to innovation: market acceptance. The truth of the matter is that we only make money if the Próspera Platform institutes public policies that attract businesses and residents, and maximize human flourishing. We want to be first movers, but not so far ahead of our time that no one can imagine joining us.

Let me reiterate: our company, Honduras Próspera Inc., only makes money if our residents and businesses are flourishing.

As such, we’ve instituted policies that defy neat ideological categorization, such as:

a minimum wage indexed at 10% to 25% above than the national minimum wage in Honduras
easy union formation by right
social welfare funding that is employee-owned
all public officials are fiduciaries
full regulatory reciprocity with all OECD countries
World-leading protection of property rights and contract enforcement
strong environmental protections against pollution and provable threats of pollution
decentralized enforcement of the law by all residents, alongside traditional enforcement mechanisms

Furthermore, because we value the importance of transparency, these and all other policies are available online through the public gazette of the Próspera ZEDE here.

Próspera welcomes residents and businesses from across the ideological spectrum to join the Próspera ZEDE, from crypto industry participants to biotech firms and much more! Our “tribe” is not the Left or the Right, but all honest humans of good will who are committed to creating a flourishing society.

Myth #3: In Honduras, the Próspera ZEDE expropriated land from locals.

This is an outright lie crafted by those who are ideologically opposed to our project which has been parroted uncritically by agenda-driven journalists. The truth of the matter is that the Próspera platform respects land rights with the strongest protections in the world; see Section 12.01(2)(b), Prospera Charter, here. It is not only illegal (technically “ultra vires”) for the Próspera ZEDE to expropriate external land, but it violates the core principle and animus behind the entire project: rule of law and protection of private property rights. The Próspera ZEDE Council has further reaffirmed this fact with a resolution, found here.

Help Us Build a More Prósperous Future for All

At Próspera, our mission is simple: lift the developing world out of poverty by unleashing the untapped potential of the world through better governance and better placemaking. We are building a community of people from around the world who desire to see humanity innovate, not just in the digital realm of software and bits, but in the physical world of atoms as well. We believe humanity can reach levels of generalized prosperity previously inconceivable, if only given the permission and support needed to innovate. We never lose sight that prosperity’s purpose is to enable human flourishing.

The Próspera Platform is built from the ground up to support and enable the entrepreneurs who will build the prosperous future of tomorrow. The world’s next Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Zaha Hadid should spring forth from the fountain of possibility that the Próspera Platform creates.

If living in a place where both the laws and rules as well as the architecture and urban planning were designed from a blank slate to maximize your potential sounds appealing to you, then I invite you to join us. You can do this in a few ways:

Come help us build a better and brighter future for humanity!