278: Breaking New Ground: Everyday Life in a Free Private City – Alex Ugorji

The Expat Money Show - With Mikkel Thorup

Alex Ugorji is an entrepreneur and educator interested in prosperity zones, breakaway civilizations, and disruptive technologies. He started the Crypto Frontier, an intentional crypto community in Saipan, and co-founded a blockchain software company RaiPay. He is also the co-founder of Nakamoto Financial, a consulting and financial technology company. After realizing that his dreams of disruption could not be realized in the United States, he moved to Ciudad Morazán in Honduras to become one of the first-ever residents of this free private city, where he currently works as a consultant, community manager, and fellow Free Cities Ambassador.

TODAY'S CONVERSATION WITH ALEX UGORJI

• Listen in to Alex’s backstory of how his interest in cryptocurrencies and the ‘frontier of money” led him to first to Saipan and now to Ciudad Morazán in Honduras.
• Discover what it was like to live in the remote U.S. Pacific territory of Saipan and why Alex believes it to be the “freest place in America” and “America’s hidden gem.”
• Find out how the U.S. government’s increasing interest in cryptocurrency saw the Crypto Frontier projects ultimately getting shelved in Saipan.
• Learn about the unique law passed in Honduras that has allowed for three distinct “free private cities” to develop, including Ciudad Morazán, where Alex lives.
• Hear why Alex chose to live in Ciudad Morazán, which is more catered towards locals, over Prospera, which more caters more to foreigners and expats.
• Discover how Alex helped build a crypto ecosystem for payments which allows anyone who lives in Ciudad Morazán, aka “Bootstrap City,” to live entirely on crypto.
• You’ll be floored when you hear how simple and easy it was to open a gym in Ciudad Morazán with so many needless rules and regulations stripped away.
• Learn about the friendly competition between the two very differently structured ZEDEs of Prospera and Ciudad Morazán.
• Get the latest updates on the issues the ZEDEs have had with the Marxist Honduran government and how it will affect these projects down the road.
• Find out what it’s really like to live inside a private city on a day-to-day basis from someone who literally has boots on the ground.

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CONCLUSION

It was a blast talking to Alex after having dinner with him at the Liberty In Our Lifetime conference in Prague last year. Ciudad Morazán and the prospects of future cities like it present a huge potential opportunity for expats to begin a new life under a totally different model of private governance. This is a huge reason why I am a Free Cities ambassador along with Alex. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. I’ll see you all next Wednesday!