Complying with the legacy systems is becoming impossible
I wrote a long post about “technical” reasons why I made the decision to become a Free Business instead of a governed (registered) company. That got so long that I didn’t publish it, but the main reasons are:
- The (extreme) difficulty with getting banking access and credit card payments
- The country risks
- Insane ways to calculate taxes, and the legal cost of managing them
- etc etc.
While those reasons are all valid, they are not the real reason.
Attempting compliance with the parasites is wasted life energy
With each possible avenue of trying to comply with governments (mainly through banks which are just another arm of the government), I run up with the desperate control mechanisms of the crumbling fiat economy, and the despair it brings.
I see this depression all around when looking at normies who haven’t yet figured out that the legacy system is actually in shambles and there is no way out for it. The quiet desperation of seeing the problems, but not the solution.
All my attempts to “comply” with this system just tie me directly to these issues, pushing that depression directly into my consciousness – wasting the time and energy I should be using for the benefit of the customers.
The real reason for becoming a Free Business is that I can’t live my life in that cage of depression. I have customers to serve.
It’s time for the bureaucrats to get out of the way
I’ve now spent around 4 months trying to figure out ways to “comply” with the banks, and it’s been a miserable process. A process filled with make-belief “work” desperately trying to conform with ridiculous made-up requirements. Requirements conjured up by far-away bureaucrats of the past, with no understanding of the world of today – and with zero interest or incentives to improve.
An excruciating process that, if followed through, would only be the beginning of a long and gruesome road to having to create a compliance department. A department with the power to hamper every move and every word this business needs to do and say to provide real & honest value to real & honest people.
A department that despite guzzling resources away from productive work, could never guarantee compliance with the legacy states.
It is time for those parasitic bureauc-rats to “get out of the way”… or in other words:
Compliance means living in a constant fear of cancellation
“Compliant” businesses are always one tiny change away from being “out of compliance” = cancelled by the government. The parasites of the world are forced to constantly tighten their screws of control on productive individuals, because these legacy states are:
- Increasingly bankrupt (financially, morally and spiritually)
- increasingly power-hungry
- increasingly totalitarian
Trying to comply with them feels very much like tying myself to a sinking Titanic. Sure, the tether might be long and this business would not sink immediately, but it would 100% mean building on the wrong foundation – the completely unsustainable foundation of the old legacy fiat system.
Building a real value providing business on a Bitcoin Standard
Building on a Bitcoin Standard means making difficult decisions in the short term to build something durable and truly great in the long term. A foundation capable of outliving the ongoing & accelerating downward spiral of the fiat system (whether you want to call that a “collapse” is up to you).
Building on a sustainable hard money foundation is what inspires me to get out of bed in the morning. Not the thought of having to raise funds for a compliance department.
I could (try to) play the game of making this business a golden goose for some distant government. That would mean living in constant fear of the politicians, waiting to be slaughtered despite pouring endless energy into submitting to their ever-increasing demands…
…or, I could just focus 100% on building Sovereign Landing to create real value to real people. Instead of seeking to be governed, it is time to find another way – time to become a Free Business!
Thanks to Gsovereignty for inspiring this decision. It had been long brewing but this talk provided much needed clarity (I need to start going to conferences again).
Pre-emptive FAQ
I’m sure this raises some questions… let’s have a quick FAQ to dispell some of the potential confusion.
So what is a "free business" exactly?
It is just a normal business that has chosen not to be (directly) governed as a REGISTERED business: to opt out from being an official company recognized by some state.
In a perfect world, the customers wouldn't be able to tell a difference between a registered and a free business - but of course that's not the world we live in.
The biggest downside of not being a registered company is getting shut out from the banking and credit card system - but then again, many businesses are effectively shut out from it even if they do register.
A Free Business works best on a Bitcoin Standard. It is about serving customers and having the ability for those customers to pay you, without having to beg the state for permission each time value is created and exchanged. Free Business for Free People - let the permissionless value flow!⚡️
Is it possible to pay with fiat at all?
Yes, fiat payments will also be possible. You will pay the agents directly, so the exact payment methods depend on them. Even credit card payments may be possible! These will be documented on the location/agent specific pages, so if bitcoin (and lightning) payments are "above your current pay grade", please check with your agent!
You should also be aware that using bitcoin for payments has become significantly easier over the years. You don't need to be a shadowy supercoder to use it - stand by for instructions. You might be surprised by how easy it can be!
Can my business also become a Free Business?
Freedom is situational, so the answer is "it depends".
A considerable variable is your personal tax situation - if you're still living in the country of your citizenship, you might have to (or be heavily incentivized to) register your business with the state.
Legal protection is another consideration - especially in the US, LLC and other company structures provide significant legal protection. You should not overlook this! With the Sovereign Landing business model, I've calculated that my risk of malicious litigation is at an acceptable level - but your situation might very well be different.
And of course, probably the biggest consideration - if you need to collect payments in fiat as a business, especially credit card payments, you probably have no choice but to bend the knee. Bitcoin will fix this, but it won't do it today or tomorrow everywhere for all businesses. It depends on your customers.
Can I do this Free Business thing to dodge taxes in my home country?
That's a very bad idea. Doing this as a tax avoidance strategy will most likely backfire. From a tax authority perspective, non-registered businesses have been a thing forever, and governments know how to deal with those (basically taxes pass on to the person running the business, which may not always be the best option). Make sure your business is compliant with your local regulations - registered or not!
For Sovereign Landing, this is a "pay only fair and legally required taxes instead of avoidable-with-lawyers unfair taxes" strategy. Tax planning (compliance) for this kind of a business is not simple - being a free business allows us to pay the taxes locally, instead of being taxed locally AND globally for money that was never ours. This way all participants can just easily pay what is due to them locally, without taxation becoming a regulatory nightmare for some non-local fictitious legal entity.
Is this a strategy to avoid legal responsibilities?
The "free business" operating model doesn't mean avoiding legal responsibilities: this business has ties to the real world, and in case someone needs to be sued, it is only natural to do that locally where the issues also are. Multinational corporations have ways to make themselves so hard to sue that nobody ever does that - from a customer perspective a Free Business probably has more customer protections locally than those customers would ever find with a faceless corporation.
How is a Free Business different from freelancing?
From a legal perspective there is not necessarily much of a difference. Generally, freelancers are single individuals catering directly to their customers - a Free Business can easily be a larger team and a "real business" in all ways that matter - just without being registered as a company.
As a practical example: Sovereign Landing provides a marketing service to the local agents, who then in turn provide a service to the customers who come in through Sovereign Landing. Sovereign Landing is essentially a facilitator business, and doesn't need to be a legal party in the contracts between the customer & local agents, or the rental contracts between the customer and landlord.
Our job is to facilitate the creation of those contracts, not to be a legal party in them. The customers will rent directly from the landlords, not from "Sovereign Landing local hospitality service LLC". Customers also pay the agents directly, not Sovereign Landing, to connect them to these landlords. The agents pay Sovereign Landing to make this all happen in a quality-controlled way, so that the customers can skip hiring local lawyers!
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