Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government. The term is a conjunction of 'sea' and '*homesteading**'*. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign state.
Seasteaders say such autonomous floating cities would foster faster development of techniques "to feed the hungry, cure the sick, clean the atmosphere and enrich the poor".[1][2] Some critics fear seasteads are designed more as a refuge for the wealthy to avoid taxes or other problems.[3][4]
Proposed structures have included modified cruise ships, refitted oil platforms, decommissioned anti-aircraft platforms, and custom-built floating islands.[5]
As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperation with an existing nation on prototype floating islands with legal semi-autonomy within the nation's protected territorial waters. On January 13, 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone" for a prototype[6][7], but as of 2018 its status was uncertain.
References
- Seasteading, wikipedia.org