Part 7 of the “Don’t Repeat History Series”
Diplomacy: Allies Without Compromise via Blockchain
The Free Republic of Liberland, founded in 2015 on a 7 km² patch of disputed Danube land between Croatia and Serbia, embodies libertarian ideals: minimal government, voluntary contributions, property rights, and blockchain transparency. By 2025, Liberland has stabilized governance with blockchain elections, launched a $30 million Danube revitalization plan, and has attracted over 700,000 e-residency applicants, signaling global ambitions from its 1,400 citizens. Yet, its lack of international recognition and Croatian disruptions pose geopolitical hurdles, risking isolation akin to the Iroquois Confederacy’s struggles (c. 1142–1777). To navigate these challenges without compromising its non-aggression ethos, Liberland must pursue voluntary diplomacy through blockchain-based treaties, ensuring allies are gained without entangling commitments. Inspired by the Iroquois Confederacy’s recognition failures, this approach fosters sustainable partnerships, supporting Liberland’s 2025 infrastructure and diaspora goals while preserving its “To Live and Let Live” motto.
The Iroquois Confederacy, a union of six Native American nations in what is now the northeastern U.S., thrived on decentralized governance and voluntary alliances, much like Liberland’s vision. By the 17th century, it balanced trade and diplomacy with European powers—Dutch, French, and British—through wampum-belt agreements, non-binding pacts symbolizing mutual respect. Its Great Law of Peace ensured internal unity without coercion, mirroring Liberland’s blockchain governance. However, the Confederacy’s lack of formal recognition by colonial powers led to its downfall. European treaties, like the 1763 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, ignored Iroquois sovereignty, ceding their land to settlers. Internal divisions, exacerbated by wealth disparities and competing alliances (e.g., Mohawk with British, Seneca with French), weakened its diplomatic leverage. By 1777, colonial pressures and the American Revolution fractured the Confederacy, as nations split allegiances, leading to territorial loss. This history warns Liberland: without strategic, non-coercive diplomacy, unrecognized entities risk marginalization, especially amid regional tensions like Croatia’s opposition.
Liberland’s 2025 context—blockchain elections, the Danube plan, and e-residency surge—demands diplomacy to secure allies without compromising sovereignty. Croatian disruptions and Serbia’s neutrality limit physical access, while the Liberland Govt has attempted U.S. outreach and MOUs with countries like El Salvador signal diplomatic ambition, but these are not enough unfortunately; the need for traditional treaties, binding under international law, risk entanglements that clash with Liberland’s ethos, as seen in post-Iroquois colonial overreach, however treaties when done strategically is the best way forward. Wealth-driven voting, where citizens with more Liberland Merits (LLM) hold disproportionate influence, could skew diplomatic priorities toward what elites priorities, mirroring Iroquois divisions. Besides traditional treaties, blockchain treaties can offer a new voluntary solution for Liberland: smart contracts on Liberland’s blockchain codify binding and non-binding agreements—cultural exchanges, trade partnerships, or recognition pacts—with transparency and immutability. These treaties, like the Iroquois wampum belts, symbolize mutual respect without legal coercion, ensuring allies align with Liberland’s principles.
Blockchain treaties operate via decentralized ledgers, automating terms (e.g., trade access, visa reciprocity) without state enforcement. E-residents and citizens can opt into funding and citizens can vote on treaties via LLM tokens, a novel approach from the traditional national legislatures only approve and vote on treaties. For example, a treaty with Montenegro’s Montelibero could facilitate a diaspora village, with DAOs managing shared eco-projects. Social incentives—prestige for treaty contributions, blockchain-verified credits—encourage participation, fostering a culture of voluntary diplomacy. Civics modules, which should be mandatory for citizenship, can teach about the Iroquois Confederacy’s failures, emphasizing non-binding alliances to avoid colonial-style subjugation. This mirrors the voluntary DAO trusts and IP registries from my series, ensuring fairness without force.
In practice, the new blockchain treaties can support Liberland’s 2025 goals. The $30 million Danube plan can fund cross-border projects (e.g., solar parks with Serbia), codified in treaties to de-escalate Croatian tensions, unlike the Iroquois’ exploitative treaties. As e-residency scales into the thousands, treaties with crypto-friendly nations like El Salvador or the UAE can secure trade hubs, bypassing physical blockades. Informal outposts, managed by DAO-CLTs as proposed in my sixth article, can host treaty negotiations, ensuring community-driven diplomacy. Sunset clauses on treaty terms—expiring after 5–10 years unless renewed—keep agreements adaptable, avoiding the Iroquois’ rigid divisions; these sunset clauses could also be applicable to traditional treaties too.
Critics may argue that the new blockchain treaties lack enforceability, but they can enhance freedom by prioritizing choice over coercion. Unlike binding treaties, they reduce entanglement risks, scaling globally via blockchain automation. Without them, Liberland risks the Iroquois Confederacy’s fate: isolation and fragmentation. By encouraging voluntary treaties, Liberland builds allies while preserving sovereignty, supporting its crypto-economy and diaspora growth.
By learning from the Iroquois Confederacy’s recognition struggles, Liberland can craft a voluntary diplomatic system. Blockchain treaties, backed by social incentives and transparency, ensure equitable alliances, supporting 2025’s elections, Danube plan, and e-residency surge. This makes Liberland a beacon of principled diplomacy, not a cautionary tale of marginalization.
Appendix
I feel the need to add another appendix here even if no one or only a few people have read my article series. I cannot stress enough the importance and potential DAO’s have wherever paired with CLT’s or not, these are the keys to success for Liberland. I have done a ton of research on DAO’s over the past year and see huge potential in it. I want everyone to know that what I am advocating for by doing this article series, and that is we must not corrupt our community by being divisive in different classes we are all human beings and by associating with Liberland we do not want in anyway, shape or form to use coercive means to achieve the goals we wish to accomplish. I have read of too many great civilizations of the past that were fantastic more than I have put before you, but they all have one thing in common, cultural collapse. It could be from economic collapse, military invasion from another country, natural disaster, coup de tat from internal strife, a dictatorship being unwittingly accepted, abdication by treaty or any other number of causes.
Liberland has the rare opportunity to be different, blockchain technology has the means of changing human history because everything is automated, there are no fallible judges to rule on complex legalese corporate law jurisprudence, the smart contract already has built in arbitration if there is a dispute and there cannot be land disputes if the land is owned by the CLT, there are built in clauses for how that land can be used by the CLY before any contract is signed. Investments are done by specialized DAO’s which have an inherent fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders because they all have a common cause, building the future of Liberland.
I just want to make the case by using multiple different scenarios and case points that there are many ways Liberland could fail, more than any one person could think about, but these ones I have mentioned and still have to work on are I think the easiest to tackle and are not so much so at the mercy of external powers to the best extent those can be mitigated.