Dodging Guardians with Inner-Tubes, Decoys and Diplomats – Cointelegraph Magazine

Leaving the Freedom House boat at the EU border, they were met by a pair of Serbian policemen whose lighted car almost blinded us in the dark woods.

How many people are left on the boat? asks a large dog holding on to the sea. “I don't really remember,” said my Reuters colleague. Fortunately, they let us go.

Hoping the departing presidential convoy hasn't left us behind, we have to run using phone lights to get a little further along the muddy road to the support point in Croatia.

We are meters from the border of Liberland, a micronation of unknown crypto-fans who claim the land between Croatia and Serbia on the Danube River. At just seven square kilometers – 2.7 square miles – the piece of land is roughly the size of Gibraltar.

Liberland's “president” Vit Jedlichka stated that the neighboring country had not officially claimed terra nullius – no man's land – when the flag was raised there on April 13, 2015.

Although no permanent infrastructure or housing was established, the project attracted many libertarian-minded people. The Ark Liberty Village in Liberland is a nearby campground on the Serbian side.

Here, Magazine Floating Man is involved in the Liberland festival, which includes desert and water survival training, music, a two-day blockchain conference and a daring tour of Gornja Ciga. Jedlicka said entering a neutral state would be difficult.

“It's nice to get in and out of Liberland without getting hit.”

Breaking into Liberland

At the end of the conference, the president took the stage in front of a large Liberland flag, pointing out on the map the best way to cross the borders of Croatia and Hungary and into the micronation.

The road leading directly to Croatia on the Danube is the fastest but the most dangerous – the border police know about our gathering, so they are expecting raids and therefore prevent suspicious vehicles from entering. Flags, stickers or even Liberland-branded beer are not allowed on the crossing, as they will be confiscated, he explains.

Entry into the Schengen area via Hungary is more certain, as Hungarians are indifferent to Liberland, driving into the Croatian countryside and crossing our land border with Liberland without any prior checks.

The presidential convoy goes this way and a boat carrying “settlers” pulls up from a port in Serbia to distract border guards. Jet skis towing inner tubes take another route, aiming to land on Liberland Island before intercepting.

“They can arrest you, but you're not breaking any laws, so the longest he can be held without charge is four hours.”

It feels like a military operation.

I began to have doubts and found myself accompanying the convoy of jet-skiing soldiers – I hadn't bought a bathing suit, and being stranded in international waters in my underwear was more than I could do for a story. .

Also read: Why are crypto fans obsessed with micronations and fishing?

The last time someone took a jetski to the island they were brutalized – they were tackled and kicked to the ground by Croatian police – the police apologized and reprimanded the officer in question. The incident was widely reported in the country, partly because Croatian police were operating outside the country's borders.

Terra nullius is not on a firm legal basis

In terms of international law, the validity of Liberland's claim depends on the theory of state recognition. According to the declaratory theory supported by the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, an entity is a state – regardless of external recognition – if it fulfills four criteria: limited territory, permanent population, government and the ability to enter into relations with other states.

The location in question is neither Croatian nor Croatian-claimed – Jedlica said that when Croatia entered the visa-free Schengen area in early 2023, clearly defined borders would be a requirement for entry.

And the land is not Serbian. As unowned and unclaimed land from an international waterway, it seems to fit the definition of terra nullius, no man's land, which can be freely occupied. The only missing feature is a permanent population, which Jedlica says is only a matter of time. If you can get in, of course.

Also Read: Thailand's Crypto Utopia – ‘90% Cult, Without All The Weird Stuff'

The competing constitutional theory asserts that a state exists only if it is recognized by another state. Here, Lieberland fails, although Jedlicka argues that he is already emotionally recognized.

“They're checking people's documents before they go to Liberland, and once in Liberland they don't care – so it's already happening,” Jedlicka explained. He said.

Web3 nation?

Jedlicka remembers that he first heard about Bitcoin through libertarian circles when the price was less than $1, and he started buying at $32 on Mount Gox. In the year When Liberland declared independence in 2015, the value of the coin was $225. As many of the early participants in the projects contributed in BTC, the treasury gained value with each bull market.

“Bitcoin is truly one of the most fundamental parts of Liberia – 99% of our reserves are in BTC.”

Attracting blockchain companies is a key part of the micronation's strategy, with its vision of offering a low-regulatory power in Europe's far-flung region with only “voluntary taxation” and access directly across the Danube River.

Who could Liberland be? Anyone willing to pay $150 for e-residency, which comes with an ID card that looks just like any other. Citizenship requires 5,000 Liberland Merits (LLM) – a little over $2,000 – or can be obtained by contributing to the project.

According to “Minister of Justice” Michal Ptačinić, while Bitcoin is the currency of choice in Liberia, the Liberian dollar (LLD) is used to pay transaction fees on the Liberian block chain, which is considered the backbone of the chain's companies. Jurisdiction, Government Contract Performance and the Liberal Stock Market.

The chain is built using Polkadot's Parity Substrate Network, a solution that can be built using customized blockchain modules.

As we stood at the Hungarian border crossing, waiting to enter, I spoke with Polkadot's Ambassador-at-Large, David Pitts. Liberland's management simulation LLM already has 19 live verifiers and the website explains the requirements:

“Only citizens of Liberland can run validators, adding an extra layer of security against bad actors in situations where less than 50% of LLD distribution is captured.”

“Liberland isn't on our list yet, but I'd like to see it become a regular part of the Polkadot ecosystem,” said Petts, who is Polkadot's man in Eastern Europe. He sees his projects as ideologically linked. “The participants in the ecosystem have a very similar view on how money should work, how to send value without a central failure,” he said.

“Liberal governance and corporate governance have a lot in common – the ban is basically cut from the polkadot,” he said. A land registry working on NFTs is also available on the roadmap and on Liberverse.

Travel to Liberia

It starts to rain as we approach the Hungarian border. This apparently caused internet outages, resulting in hours-long queues for the process. Almost desperate, we drag him into the diplomatic channel, which the Hungarian authorities are not happy to know about Jedlicha. After the procedure they made us wait for about 20 minutes, which I understood was a summation of a “slap on the wrist” for abusing a diplomatic meeting.

Crossing into the Hungarian countryside, we encountered a roadblock intended to catch illegal immigrants. But we managed to continue to Croatia by boat.

Past travels tell me stories. Last year, police warned that it was dangerous to enter Liberland because it was hunting season. Our driver said, “We could hear gunshots from a short distance away; But they thought we couldn't tell hunting rifles from pistols – no one hunts with a gun,” explained our driver.

Other times, border guards take it upon themselves to “rescue” those they see stuck in Liberland against the will of the rescued. Technically, such actions could be kidnapping under both Croatian and Liberian law. Jedlichka also stated that the Liberlanders were arrested for disobeying a stop sign posted in the forest.

“We're on the northern border,” Jedlichka said as we turned onto a back road along the Danube River. Others arrive, and a Croatian police boat is tied to the shore with an officer respectfully collecting everyone's passports and taking them to the boat. Passports were returned within 20 minutes, despite another police cruiser speeding to the scene.

A supply van is opened, and each Libertarian takes what he can carry – tool boxes, stuff sacks, coolers of food and drinks. I carry water. We walked 700 meters into the forest towards the river where a houseboat with a Liberland flag was moored.

Pictures are taken, and Jedlichka takes the border crossing sign to a nearby tree.

Someone announces that it's time for border control, and a line forms for Liberian, American and Swedish passports to be stamped.

“Will the stamp cause a problem if it's in my real passport?” asks a nervous visitor.

The answer would be yes, but at the time, we didn't know the headache it would cause.

There is an element of theater – the tree and the passport table are on the beach, still in Croatia. The actual border is 200 meters down the road and officers are leaning on their yachts waiting for the exit from Europe. I will approach them.

Although they initially refused permission to pass, I returned with others to ask again. They hoped for our entrance, saying that the forest was very dangerous because of the wild boar. I asked them how big they were, and the tall officer laughed and raised his hand to chest level, indicating that there were monsters across the border.

But eventually they let us pass on the promise that we would be back before dark. Leaving the European Union and the Schengen area, I'm heading into the murky wilderness. I don't belong to anyone – Liberland. It's something of an anti-climax.

20 minutes later our passports were checked again to get back into Croatia.

Back on the boat, there is a lot of eating and drinking and with some fans, “Radio Liberland”, the signal “Sent from the soil of Liberland” made its first broadcast.

“I'm an odd person – I don't feel like myself when I'm faced with things like I'm committed to certain places,” he explains. Toward a project for libertarian philosophy.

At first I expected that we would just go to the land and set up camp and never leave – but it was very different. I learned a lot that you have to be diplomatic,” he reflected on Jedlicka's approach.

Banick is optimistic about the project's blockchain ambitions. “From my understanding, they create smart contracts that can be enforced as an immutable court without a third party, without corruption.” It also sees cryptocurrency promoting “economic freedom associated with increases in every standard of living, including longevity, literacy and infant mortality.” He is a true believer.

“They want to use smart contracts and blockchain to change governance and law.”

Jonas, a Czech national who boarded the boat that day, likened his vision of Liberland to Hong Kong's former Kowloon, which housed 35,000 residents on 2.6 hectares. “It had the cheapest rent, the cheapest medical care, the cheapest food, even though it was the most densely populated anywhere,” he explains — though by most outside accounts the city wasn't exactly a comfortable place.

There was silence as I walked back from the deck. I'm behind.

Croatian border guards break the law

Although some cars left, I was able to get a ride with Jedlica after having my passport checked by the newly arrived police officers. Less than two kilometers away at the old guard station, we stopped again for passport control.

The final challenge came at the Batina Croatia-Serbia border crossing, where Croatian officers argued with two Americans and a Swede whose passports had been stamped in Liberland, who refused to return their passports unless they each paid a fine of 230 euros.

A Croatian-American dual citizen with a Liberland stamp on her US passport was later, in a private room, threatened by Croatian authorities with immediate loss of her Croatian citizenship if she refused the sentence. This is not possible by law.

Throughout the ordeal, officials at the otherwise barren border held all passports — including the author's Finnish passport — for two hours and refused to explain the reason for the delay.

A few hours after crossing Serbia and returning to the Ark camp, we were shocked to see dozens of migrants headed for the Schengen border under the cover of darkness. Does seeing them struggle and risk everything to get to Europe like what we've done now – with far greater resources and lower stakes – make me laugh at their struggles? Could Liberland actually be more than the sovereignty of many Bitcoiners?

And with the emergence of the Floating Man Festival in early August – a big change at the time – small houses were built and a small settlement established on the land, relations with neighboring Croatia took a turn for the worse. On September 21, Liberland Press reported an “unknown foreign raid” in which several settlers were arrested, newly built structures were demolished, and equipment including generators, quad bikes, and food were seized by Croatian police.

The history of Liberland seems far-fetched.

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Elias made us

Elias Ahonen is a Finnish-Canadian author based in Dubai, who bought his first Bitcoin in 2013 and has since worked as a small blockchain consultancy around the world. His book, Blockland, tells the story of the industry. He holds a Master's degree in International and Comparative Law and wrote a thesis on NFT and Metaverse Regulation.

Follow the author @eahonen