Thus, the pirate example illustrates how state regulation creates markets—or rather, drives certain services off the legal market. The flag of convenience example shows how a company’s ability to register vessels in different countries forces states into competition with each other. Maritime trade is nearly the only domain where such competition between states actually exists. Once again, the pirate example illustrates that a state can only prevail against non-state actors by deregulating and adopting certain practices. Pirate radio ceased once private FM stations appeared on land, offering the same service legally.
The strategy called seasteading proposes to exploit precisely these factors. Imagine a multitude of floating platforms, large enough to live on permanently. On the one hand, the platforms are “watercraft” and can use flags of convenience; on the other hand, they are not ships—meaning their function is not to deliver passengers and cargo from point A to point B. They can remain at sea for as long as desired. Thus, a “flag of convenience” can be selected depending on the business practiced on the platform. Finally, technically speaking, the residents of these platforms may not be citizens of any state and may practice their own methods of self-governance. That is, the idea consists in the fact that by conducting at sea certain activities that on land are problematic due to state regulation, you move simultaneously in two directions toward freedom. On one hand, you create new experience in public governance; on the other hand, you force existing states to compete with each other and reduce the level of regulation.
I don’t know, perhaps something will come of it after all.