Article 59 of Liberland vs The World
Liberland vs. Micronesia: Pacific Scatter vs. Danube Pocket
The Free Republic of Liberland, founded in 2015 on 7 km² of disputed Danube terra nullius, runs on voluntary taxation, blockchain governance, and the Liberland Dollar (LLD) token. With more than 800,000 citizenship applications, it remains the most ideologically uncompromising attempt to build a society without compulsory government.
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), a sovereign nation of 607 islands scattered across 2.6 million km² of Pacific Ocean yet possessing only 100 km² of dry land and 104,000 citizens (2025 estimate), has quietly become one of the world’s most advanced blockchain-native states. Under its Compact of Free Association with the United States it uses the dollar, enjoys American defence protection, and has used that breathing room to roll out a complete national blockchain identity system, explore tokenisation of its colossal Exclusive Economic Zone, and legislate special digital-economic zones that look remarkably similar to what Liberland wants to become—only with a UN seat and universal recognition.
This article compares the two across Historical Origins, Culture & Society, Environment, Governance & Economy, and Diplomacy.
Historical Origins
• Liberland: Born 13 April 2015 when Vít Jedlička planted a flag on a territorial no-man’s-land created by the Croatia–Serbia border dispute.
• Micronesia: Settled by master navigators 4,000 years ago; colonised sequentially by Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States; Compact signed 1986, granting full sovereignty while preserving USD currency and US military responsibility.
Comparison: Both are products of great-power withdrawal—Liberland from the wreckage of Yugoslavia, Micronesia from the American trusteeship system—and both immediately began redefining nationhood around identity rather than contiguous territory.
Culture & Society
• Liberland: Entirely digital, contribution-based citizenship; a global diaspora bound only by voluntaryist philosophy.
• Micronesia: Four culturally distinct states (Yap stone money, Chuuk matrilineal clans, Pohnpei sakau ceremonies, Kosrae Sabbath culture); every newborn now receives a blockchain birth certificate and national digital ID on Polygon; youth have among the highest per-capita crypto adoption rates in the Pacific; traditional stick-chart navigation knowledge is being preserved as on-chain NFTs.
Comparison: Micronesia has achieved universal sovereign blockchain identity without sacrificing ancient oceanic traditions, proving that deep cultural roots and cutting-edge technology can coexist at population scale.
Environment
• Liberland: 7 km² floodplain regularly submerged by the Danube.
• Micronesia: Average land elevation 2 metres; 2.6 million km² EEZ contains some of the planet’s richest tuna stocks and seagrass meadows; 2024–2025 pilot tokenises blue-carbon credits from Pohnpei seagrass on Toucan and KlimaDAO; Kosrae experimenting with mangrove-backed stablecoins.
Comparison: Both face existential inundation and are responding by turning intangible natural capital—wetlands or ocean—into verifiable, tradable digital assets.
Governance & Economy
• Liberland: Zero compulsory taxation; future full DAO congress; every transaction auditable via my proposed LTAA.
• Micronesia: No personal income tax and no corporate tax on foreign-sourced income; 2024 Digital Economic Zone Act creates 20-year tax-exempt enclaves for blockchain and remote-work companies; national blockchain ID already live for all citizens; Compact Trust Fund exploring partial tokenisation; each state legislature debating DAO incorporation laws modelled on the Marshall Islands.
Comparison: Micronesia already functions as a near-zero-tax federation with sovereign digital identity and is actively writing the legal code for tokenised natural resources—operating, in practice, as one of the closest existing approximations to Liberland’s vision while remaining a fully recognised state.
Diplomacy
• Liberland: Zero UN recognitions; diplomatic efforts limited to MOUs with other micronations and crypto projects.
• Micronesia: Full UN member with voting rights; diplomatic relations with more than 80 countries including Taiwan; member of the Pacific Islands Forum; 2025 chair of the Alliance of Small Island States working group on digital sovereignty and climate finance.
Comparison: Micronesia shows that extreme geographic dispersion and small population are no barrier to a seat at the global table when paired with strategic alliances and innovative policy.
Conclusion
The Federated States of Micronesia—104,000 people spread thinner than almost any nation on Earth, using the US dollar, and issuing blockchain birth certificates—has become living proof that radical digital adoption and traditional sovereignty are not mutually exclusive.
Liberland began with a philosophical declaration on a river bend; Micronesia began with wave-finding canoes and arrived at nearly the same destination through centuries of adaptation and a favourable Compact. Between a 7 km² floodplain and an ocean larger than Europe lie two of the most instructive case studies on the planet: when land becomes scarce or optional, the future belongs to those who can turn identity, natural assets, and law into immutable code. One is still seeking recognition; the other already has it—and both are writing the same quiet revolution in what a nation can be when the map no longer matters as much as the ledger.