The Guardian recently published “The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship.” Thanks to Joan Druett for pointing it out.

In 2020, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a pandemic-bargain cruise ship with plans to create a libertarian utopia, that would be, in theory, free from conventions, regulations, and taxes. The 777 cabin, 804′ long ex-Pacific Dawn, would be anchored permanently off the coast of Panama and provide a home for freedom-loving digital nomads, entrepreneurs, and traders in crypto-currency. In homage to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of bitcoin’s mysterious inventor (or inventors), they renamed the ship the MS Satoshi.  The ship would be the first large-scale attempt at “seasteading.”  

Seasteading is usually defined as the practice of establishing permanent settlements on structures located in areas of the sea outside the jurisdiction of any country. So far, it has remained largely a fantasy. Despite having been proposed for several decades, no one has been able to address the engineering or jurisdictional issues of seasteading. (Strictly speaking, as the Satoshi was to be moored in Panamanian territorial waters it doesn’t qualify as being outside the jurisdiction of any country.)

The three founders of the project are software engineer turned bitcoin trader Chad Elwartowski, entrepreneur Grant Romundt, and bit-coin wealthy German engineer Rüdiger Koch. They had previously formed a company, Ocean Builders, to develop single-unit dwellings as the basis of a potential seasteading community. 

In 2018, Elwartowski and his girlfriend, Nadia Summergirl, lived for two weeks in an early prototype, an octagonal white box mounted on a floating pedestal, 12 miles offf the coast of Thailand.  When the Thai government caught wind of the venture, they declared it a threat to the country’s independence, possibly punishable by life imprisonment or death. Elwartowski and Summergirl had to flee the country before the Thai navy dispatched three ships to dismantle the floating box.

In 2019, Romundt, Koch, and Elwartowski moved their company to Panama, where the found a government was willing to back their next project: the SeaPod. These would be individual fiberglass pods held 3 meters above the water by a single column and a tripod-shaped base beneath the ocean. The design is strongly reminiscent of the Jetsons, a futuristic cartoon show from the 1960s.

Thye built a factory to build the pods in Linton Bay, a marina on the north coast of Panama, hired a team of about 30 engineers and mechanics, and, in early 2020, began building the first SeaPod prototype. Progress was slow. Even once they had a successful prototype, Romundt predicted the factory would only make two SeaPods a month. 

They had considered buying a cruise ship to jumpstart the seasteading venture but ruled it out as too expensive. Then the pandemic hit. The cruise industry was crippled with older ships being sold for scrap.  In October 2020, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski found their ship. They bought the ex-P&O cruise ship, Pacific Dawn, for a reported $9.5m. (Built in 1991 for $280m, the ship could have sold pre-pandemic for more than $100m, one industry insider told the Guardian.) Renamed MS Satoshi, the seasteaders had their ship.

Marketing of the ship began right away. The 777 cabins were to be auctioned in November. There was considerable interest but not many sales. By December, they began offering monthly rentals. On 29 November, Elwartowski published a post on the venture website, announcing the official opening of the Satoshi in January 2021.

The problem now was that the trio knew nothing of the cruise industry, ship operations, or maritime regulations. Having purchased the ship and hired a ship management company, they discovered that the ship’s certificates had expired, requiring an unscheduled dry-dock, repairs and inspections in Gibraltar.  

Once the inspections and repairs were completed, MS Satoshi sailed for Panama on December 3, 2020. By now, they had begun to understand just how much it costs to operate a cruise ship. Fuel was $12,000 per day. Overall, the ship could cost easily a million dollars per month.

The team had attempted to convince the government of Panama to let the ship anchor permanently in its waters and de-register as a ship, becoming a floating residence instead, so as to avoid some of the more exacting requirements of maritime law. 

One such requirement involved sewage. As reported by the Guardian:  Though the ship had an advanced wastewater management system, which could turn sewage into drinking-quality water, they were not permitted to discharge this wastewater into Panamanian waters, and so would have had to sail 12 miles out every 20 days or so to empty tanks into international waters.

The deal-killer, however, was insurance. They had arranged insurance for the trans-Atlantic voyage but found that they couldn’t get insurance for a Panamanian seastead. The underwriters didn’t know what to make of a floating crypto-community, presumably mostly populated by quick-to-litigate Americans. Uniformly, the underwriters said, no.

Without insurance and with questionable demand, Romundt, Koch and Elwartowski pulled the plug before Satoshi even made it to Panama. On 18 December, while she was still at sea, the team announced the sale of the ship to a scrapyard in Alang, India.

The good news is that even the scrapping contract fell through. The Basel Convention, which covers the disposal of hazardous waste, means that they weren’t allowed to send the ship from a signatory country (Panama) to a non-signatory country (India). The contract with the scrapyard had to be canceled. 

The more good news is that the Satoshi was purchased by Ambassador Cruise Line, a start-up British cruise operator. The ship has been renamed Ambience and is expected to start cruise operations in April 2022. Ambassador bills itself as offering “traditional, authentic cruises.” (My guess is that crypto-currency may not be accepted.)

Click here to read Sophie Elmhirst‘s The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship in the Guardian.