In the previous issue, I mostly talked about how the work on the land of our future settlement is progressing, and now, perhaps, I will start with this topic as it is the most grounded.

We have already laid some of the roads inside the settlement, cleared some stumps, started digging a septic tank, and so on—in short, the routine is underway. Importantly, it rained heavily for almost two weeks without interruption, and we were able to verify that the road was not washed away. However, in one place, we further improved the drainage afterward so that the stream flows along the shoulder rather than wherever it pleases.

Equipment for a small solar power plant is expected to arrive this week—we hesitated for a long time about whether to get involved in this, but electricity prices from the central grid are expected to rise significantly in the foreseeable future, so it seems that autonomous generation is exactly what the doctor ordered right now. This electricity is intended to power the trailer so that we can finally station a security guard there. As for the remaining energy, we are thinking of using it for Bitcoin mining. As an experiment, an old miner was purchased, which is currently buzzing at my home, and after the power plant is installed, it will move to the settlement.

But it’s not just about Bitcoin. Specifically for hardcore gold bugs, the Montelibero fund has released gold tokens, and several ten-gram bars were purchased with the funds collected. Some of them have already been delivered to buyers, while some remain on the fund’s balance. Tokens can be purchased in any fractional shares (worldwide) and exchanged for bars in ten-gram lots (only for residents of Montenegro).

Speaking of tokens. Along with the development of the project’s tokenomics, associated specific risks are increasing: unknown parties have already released several fake tokens on the Stellar blockchain that imitate ours. To avoid falling for such things, I recommend relying only on the tokens you see on the fund’s balance. This incident with scammers has spurred us to try to move to the Liquid Network, as tokens on a Bitcoin sidechain are, of course, far more substantial. If anyone is knowledgeable about this, feel free to drop by the developers’ chat.

However, we are not being promoted by scammers alone. You already know about the Libertarian Band video dedicated to our project. In addition, a local Montenegrin news site and a large Italian community, Instituto liberale – Gruppo nazionale, have written about us. For now, they are writing based on what can be found online, but I believe that reports from the site itself in the media are just around the corner. This motivates us to settle into our construction site as quickly as possible.

In the previous issue, I told you that the clearing of the future libertarian village plot from overgrown brush had begun. As of today, all the brush has been cut down, leaving only a moderate number of useful trees.

Now all the resulting debris in the form of branches that are poorly suited for firewood must be burned; fortunately, the rains have started, so the probability of starting a fire in the process has sharply decreased.

So far, only a small test pile has been burned, but there is an idea to organize a festival on the plot to combine business with pleasure—lighting bonfires accompanied by drinks, music, and other cultural programming. An agreement has already been reached regarding this with the local Russian-speaking art community from Budva.

In order to organize any events on the plot, it is useful to finally make the road to it passable. A construction company founded by the participants of the Montelibero project has acquired a tractor and is working on the road: building retaining walls, filling unnecessary slopes with crushed stone, removing unnecessary mounds, and preparing to concrete the road surface in key places.

Once the road becomes passable, it will be possible to bring in equipment for the festival, drill a water well, and install poles for electricity—in short, ancaps desperately need a road.

As for me, overjoyed that Bitcoin has once again started to be worth a more or less decent amount of money, I have finally bought out the land tokens that had long been reserved for me. After the debris is cleared from the plot, a land surveyor can be called in to perform the demarcation, during which I will officially obtain ownership of my two hundred square meters of land and can begin building there.

On October 16, the conference Liberty in our lifetime will take place in Switzerland. This gathering is organized by Titus Gebel’s Free Private Cities Foundation; representatives of several Honduran charter cities, a speaker from the System Design Institute, the ubiquitous Liberland info-gypsy Vit Edliczka, and several other speakers representing projects unknown to me will speak at the conference. Igal Hofman will go and speak on our behalf. We all hope for his extraordinary communication skills in the matter of establishing connections with colleagues in the sacred cause of building pockets of libertarianism in the world.

The Montelibero Foundation has decided to accept Bitcoins on its balance sheet in addition to Euros, so there is currently a sale of foundation tokens for BTC—the final tokens at a price of 1 Euro each. When the share of Bitcoins on the foundation’s balance sheet grows to 30%, the sale at this price will end, and in the event of new emissions, the token price will be set at 2 Euros. Bitcoins are stored in a multisig wallet held by the majority shareholders of the project, so we continue our shared policy of slightly cumbersome but secure distributed decision-making. We are also studying the possibility of moving all our tokenomics from the Stellar blockchain to the Bitcoin sidechain Liquid—in this case, settlements in BTC would be integrated more natively into the project’s economy. Additionally, the launch of a proprietary Lightning node within Montelibero is not ruled out. This would allow us to exchange Bitcoins among ourselves quickly and with tiny fees, by opening channels not to each other, but to a common hub, as this is cheaper.

As usual, I invite everyone to start participating in the project: join the main chat, ask any questions that interest you, get involved in online activity, buy tokens, come to Montenegro to see all this action from a close distance, and if you like the country—move here for good.

In the previous issue, I frightened you with photos of thickets—saying that we were buying the plot for a libertarian condominium, and that not only was there no road, you couldn’t even get through on foot. Much has changed since then.

At first, it was complete improvisation: learning on the fly how to use a chainsaw and a trimmer, we cleared a pedestrian path to our plots, as well as passages along their boundaries. After that, a hired surveyor marked the cadastral plan points on the terrain and handed us an elaborat—an official, legally binding scheme of the plots, as well as the municipal land reserved for the road.

Next, a contractor was hired for the first stage of road construction. It is planned that a four-meter-wide strip 900m long will be leveled using an excavator—thus, the road passing through our plots will connect the lower highway from Bar to Ulcinj with the upper highway from Bar to Škodar. However, the width of the municipal land strip is not sufficient everywhere to lay a four-meter road. In one place, an agreement was reached with the plot owner, and the road has already been laid there. In another, negotiations are still ongoing. If we are not successful, there will be a small section of road two and a half meters wide, which is generally not fatal.

The neighbors, realizing that laying a road past their territories means an increase in price, are happy and are even starting to help. Near the lower end of the road, they are paying for improvements, including concreting the road section and a parking area. Another neighbor offered crushed stone for filling via self-pickup—we will most likely take him up on this offer. In short, this autumn, it is quite likely that construction can already be launched on the plots themselves.

And this means that it is the perfect time to buy a piece of land in the future condominium. For now, most of the territory belongs to the Montelibero fund, and the fund is ready to reduce its share in the land by selling land tokens to those wishing to settle in the future village. After the final clearing of the plot, it will be divided into shares, which can then be officially registered as private property; however, the sooner you enter MTLCITY tokens, the cheaper the square meter will eventually be for you—which is logical, as early investors want a premium for the risk. Instructions on the project’s tokenomics and on how to become a co-owner are available on its website.

By the way, about the fund. Recently, a personnel section appeared on the project website. It lists those co-investors of the project who are already ready to state this openly. Several investors remain anonymous for now.

So, some bought MTLCITY land tokens immediately, while others invested in the fund, which bought up the remainder of these tokens to close the land purchase deal on time. Now the fund is selling the land tokens held on its balance sheet. What will it do with the proceeds? Naturally, invest them in other businesses. So far, a relatively small amount has been invested in a trading project owned by one of the fund’s founders. As a result, the fund has begun paying weekly dividends to all MTL token holders, generated from the profits of this investment. Trading investments are high-risk, so the fund is unlikely to significantly increase its contribution, and as money from land sales comes in, it will start investing in a land development company. However, if you have other interesting proposals, please contact the main project chat, and you will then be redirected to the specialized one for business ideas.

Also, in the time since the project started, quite a few libertarians have visited Montenegro on tourist trips, wanting to look closer at the country and our project, and they continue to arrive from time to time—but haphazardly and with their own cultural programs: some for the beach, some for the mountains, some for parties. We very much hope that they all liked the country and will soon move here permanently. And for those who liked the country but are not ready to move for some important reasons, we plan to create a regular festival so that we no longer gather haphazardly. Ideas and offers of help for the festival should also be written in the main chat, and then we will move to a closed thematic one.

In Issue 1, I mentioned the start of a project for the joint purchase of a plot of land in the south of Montenegro. Fundraising was initiated for this, and to confirm the share of participation in the project, 80,000 MTL tokens were issued on the Stellar blockchain, which were then offered for purchase to anyone interested. As far as I can tell from the token page on the Stellar website, today the token already has 67 holders (you can find the current figure at the moment you are reading the article by looking at the funded trustlines line).

However, buying land is not the only possible direction for investment in Montelibero. Therefore, the project initiators decided to complicate the tokenomics a bit. Now you can invest directly in the MTLCITY land token, or you can stay in MTL tokens, with the exchange rate of both tokens being exactly 1 euro. The logic is as follows. The number of MTLCITY tokens is exactly equal to the sum in euros that makes up the costs of acquiring and registering the land, constructing the mandatory infrastructure, and other expenditures on public goods approved by current holders. At the same time, each token grants the right of ownership to a piece of land equal to the total land area divided by the total token issuance. If a new expenditure needs to be funded, an additional issuance of land tokens takes place, and current holders have the right of first refusal to buy the additional issuance proportionally to their existing share—thus, the area of land assigned to them will not decrease. But if this right is not exercised, the tokens will be bought by someone else, and the previous holder’s share will decrease. So far, MTLCITY has 6 holders; many prefer to own land indirectly, through the MTL fund, rather than planning the allocation of a physical plot for their direct use.

As for the MTL tokens, they can be used not only for land investments but also for other business projects, for example, the purchase of a crypto ATM or something else equally inspiring and ancap-friendly.

I tried to explain this as clearly as possible; if I didn’t succeed, I apologize, you will have to ask for clarification in the project chat.

Now I will move from the intangible to offline news. A third family has moved to Montenegro as part of the Montelibero project, as a result of which the diaspora now consists of six people. Budva is currently serving as a transit base for all settlers, and later, both I and the newly arrived family from Tomsk moved to the city of Bar, which is cheaper and closer to the land being purchased.

Next week, the payment of a deposit and the reservation of the land plot are expected. Then, within a month, we will have to register a company, which will then take ownership of the land. In this company, I will perform the functions of director, meaning I will directly manage the process of land development—of course, according to the instructions of the company’s shareholders. For now, I am looking for a geodesist (they are archaically called geometers here) to transfer the plot boundaries from the cadastral plan to the terrain, after which we can begin clearing the plot of underbrush and building a road to it.

I would say that so far, despite being much less well-known, our project is developing faster than Liberland and Liberstad (the latter is particularly disappointing, as it is very close to us in concept, but so far looks more like a scam). I hope we will continue to meet expectations, despite Montenegro’s reputation as an extremely slow-paced country.