Polity Atlas
ProposedCharter / proprietary governance

Seasteading Institute

A nonprofit founded in 2008 to promote floating, self-governing ocean communities; its 2017 project with French Polynesia did not proceed.

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Location
Tahiti, site of the 2017 French Polynesia memorandum (not implemented)
Operating since
2008
Governance
Charter / proprietary governance
Legal status
Not applicable
Economy
Market
Autonomy level
Own regulatory regime
Uses AI in governance
No

Seasteading aims to create new jurisdictions at sea where governance can be tried out. No permanent seastead has been established.

Timeline

  1. 2008Seasteading Institute founded. [S1]Established
  2. Jan 2017Memorandum of understanding signed with French Polynesia; later abandoned. [S1]Established

Post-mortem

The French Polynesia memorandum was not carried forward after political opposition.

Claims

EstablishedCLM-0025 · checked 2026-10-23

In 2017 the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding with French Polynesia for a floating-island project, which was not carried forward.[1]

EvidenceHistoryDispute this

Sources

[S1]The Seasteading InstituteWeb page