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Elon Musk can make another 100 billions by claiming a chunk of Mars territory and selling NFTs backed by 1 acre lots of Mars land. The NFTs will be real so long

Elon Musk can make another 100 billions by claiming a chunk of Mars territory and selling NFTs backed by 1 acre lots of Mars land. The NFTs will be real so long as Elon gets the US gov to recognize his landlord rights on Mars, at least near the location of his first rocket landing. The thing is, he can start selling NFTs right now, as his promise alone is this valuable.

URSpider94 6y ago
Just as was done a generation above with selling off lots in the desert west ... Barring any international treaties that would probably prevent any such claims, the general rule is that you or a physical representative have to set foot and survey before you can make a claim. And stepping onto Mars in one spot would not be sufficient to claim the whole planet.
- frongpik 6y ago
  Ah, you're being nitpicky. Buyers of those NFTs will be betting on Musk setting the foot first, and thus claiming a big enough chunk of Mars land. Potential returns are very large when there's a lot of ambiguity and risk. By the time Mars is regulated by a pile laws, returns will be low and a million dollars will buy a tiny lot. Buyers of NFTs will also speculate on finding expensive minerals under the Mars surface. If you have billions rotting in stock market, investing 1% into this, backed by the Musk's reputation and potential, is a no brainer.
toyg 6y ago
It’s not just USGOV who has to approve that claim, it’s every country on COPUOUS : https://www.space.com/33440-space-law.html https://www.space.com/33440-space-law.html It’s more likely that Musk will have to settle for his Earthen technokingdom.
- vidarh 6y ago
  I think it's total folly to bet on that staying unchallenged once someone has the ability to transport sufficient mass and volume back and forth to create sufficient financial interests in changing it. If someone with sufficient odds of establishing a transport stranglehold started selling promises of land even with the giant caveat of it being subject to substantial changes in relevant treaties and laws, I'd suspect they'd find lots of people willing to take the risk, simply because even if it'd be extremely high risk, the potential payoff could be immense.
- systemvoltage 6y ago
  Who enforces this? Elon can just say he refuses to follow any gov mandates. If they try to penalize or jail him, he is going cause a massive uproar from the public that will prevent any such shenanigans. Power is in people that follow you.
  - Jolter 6y ago
    I think you overestimate the proportion of people on Earth who are in favor of Elon being held above law and international treaties. Personally I certainly think it would be appropriate for a state to act against a citizen who was violating a treaty that the state had signed.
frongpik 6y ago
I'd add another use of NFTs that follows the letter of the law, but violates its spirit: a trust fund whose beneficiary is an owner of a specific NFT. This allows to conceal the identity of the beneficiary and pull out various tricks, such as tax free transfer of wealth (e.g. to heirs) or outright illegal stuff like getting your life insured, then faking an accident and living off the payments under a different identity.
trhway 6y ago
almost 40 years too late :) These ones have been selling Moon and Mars real estate for all that time https://buymars.com/mars-land/ https://buymars.com/mars-land/ . I'd say it is original NFT. The current legal regime of the space is based on the notion of Earth sovereign states - kind of oxymoronic if you think about it. Basically the modern space treaties is an attempt to repeat that division of the world like Portugal and Spain did back then - which worked for some time only because of the strength of their Navies at the time. I dont think it would work this time as even at such early stage as today the private corporation space development beats any state one, and once we are more and more into space the governments will be falling behind in the technical development and more importantly - in the thinking, not being able to digest and adapt to the fast coming paradigm shifts and different mentality of the space farers and long time dwellers. The primary government advantage has historically been armed force, and any space faring private corporation will possess what is de-facto equivalent of state-level strike capabilities - ie. interplanetary rockets and nuclear/fusion reactors. Thus the future laws in space is just whatever force-based relationships will be established between corporations - i.e. what we call international law on Earth just substituting corps for states.

URSpider94 6y ago

Just as was done a generation above with selling off lots in the desert west ... Barring any international treaties that would probably prevent any such claims, the general rule is that you or a physical representative have to set foot and survey before you can make a claim. And stepping onto Mars in one spot would not be sufficient to claim the whole planet.

frongpik 6y ago
Ah, you're being nitpicky. Buyers of those NFTs will be betting on Musk setting the foot first, and thus claiming a big enough chunk of Mars land. Potential returns are very large when there's a lot of ambiguity and risk. By the time Mars is regulated by a pile laws, returns will be low and a million dollars will buy a tiny lot. Buyers of NFTs will also speculate on finding expensive minerals under the Mars surface. If you have billions rotting in stock market, investing 1% into this, backed by the Musk's reputation and potential, is a no brainer.

toyg 6y ago

It’s not just USGOV who has to approve that claim, it’s every country on COPUOUS : https://www.space.com/33440-space-law.html https://www.space.com/33440-space-law.html It’s more likely that Musk will have to settle for his Earthen technokingdom.

vidarh 6y ago
I think it's total folly to bet on that staying unchallenged once someone has the ability to transport sufficient mass and volume back and forth to create sufficient financial interests in changing it. If someone with sufficient odds of establishing a transport stranglehold started selling promises of land even with the giant caveat of it being subject to substantial changes in relevant treaties and laws, I'd suspect they'd find lots of people willing to take the risk, simply because even if it'd be extremely high risk, the potential payoff could be immense.
systemvoltage 6y ago
Who enforces this? Elon can just say he refuses to follow any gov mandates. If they try to penalize or jail him, he is going cause a massive uproar from the public that will prevent any such shenanigans. Power is in people that follow you.
- Jolter 6y ago
  I think you overestimate the proportion of people on Earth who are in favor of Elon being held above law and international treaties. Personally I certainly think it would be appropriate for a state to act against a citizen who was violating a treaty that the state had signed.

frongpik 6y ago

I'd add another use of NFTs that follows the letter of the law, but violates its spirit: a trust fund whose beneficiary is an owner of a specific NFT. This allows to conceal the identity of the beneficiary and pull out various tricks, such as tax free transfer of wealth (e.g. to heirs) or outright illegal stuff like getting your life insured, then faking an accident and living off the payments under a different identity.

trhway 6y ago

almost 40 years too late :) These ones have been selling Moon and Mars real estate for all that time https://buymars.com/mars-land/ https://buymars.com/mars-land/ . I'd say it is original NFT. The current legal regime of the space is based on the notion of Earth sovereign states - kind of oxymoronic if you think about it. Basically the modern space treaties is an attempt to repeat that division of the world like Portugal and Spain did back then - which worked for some time only because of the strength of their Navies at the time. I dont think it would work this time as even at such early stage as today the private corporation space development beats any state one, and once we are more and more into space the governments will be falling behind in the technical development and more importantly - in the thinking, not being able to digest and adapt to the fast coming paradigm shifts and different mentality of the space farers and long time dwellers. The primary government advantage has historically been armed force, and any space faring private corporation will possess what is de-facto equivalent of state-level strike capabilities - ie. interplanetary rockets and nuclear/fusion reactors. Thus the future laws in space is just whatever force-based relationships will be established between corporations - i.e. what we call international law on Earth just substituting corps for states.