As more and more of the world becomes decentralized in the digital realm, the ability to decentralize other areas of life is becoming possible. One such area is national citizenship. Using the borderless nature of bitcoin, PlanBPassport has developed a global passport that allows holders to legally live where they wish through economic citizenship using Bitcoin to enter a country’s citizenship program. 

Economic citizenship 

PlanBPassport is led by CEO Katie Ananina and COO Jessica Hodlr, both of whom held a keynote speech at this year’s Bitcoin Amsterdam. Ms. Ananina and Ms. Hodlr spoke about their belief that people should be free to practice so-called ‘flag theory’: the proposition that one should “go where they are treated best”. 

For example, it may be more affordable to live in one country while operating your business in another country that has tax incentives; people should have the right to exercise this option. In essence, the passport provides all proof of the holder’s ability to live in the country while being independent of government assistance. 

Economic citizenship is nothing new, but offering an assistance program like PlanBPassport to guide people toward a decision, is new. The company goes one step further by incorporating bitcoin, which is borderless. When put together, economic citizenship and bitcoin work to give individuals many new opportunities such as true ownership of their funds, becoming “unbanked”

Benefits of a second passport

PlanBPassport provides holders with a global passport that is legally valid in 145 countries. Using bitcoin as a springboard toward true self-sovereignty, holders are able to move to different countries for varying amounts of time, visa-free. The company breaks down its passport into six main value-adds:

1. Flag Theory: countries should provide people with a customer-service provider relationship rather than a citizen-government relationship. Corresponding to that, investors should ‘shop around’ for countries that offer the best match for living standards.

2. Visa-free travel: PlanBPassport gives holders the privilege of traveling to many different countries without the need for a visa. 

3. Privacy: For investors, entrepreneurs and business owners, it is highly valuable to be able to operate in other jurisdictions with the bonus of privacy protection from government surveillance.

4. Asset protection: Wealth confiscation is another concern for investors nowadays. Flag Theory comes in here, providing the option to remove layers of bureaucracy that can invade portfolios by operating in the most optimal countries. 

5. The ultimate hedge: Moving around the world with better security and ease is an excellent way to move away from economic instability, lockdowns and state violence. 

6. Tax strategies: Legal ways to optimize your tax strategy is crucial for investors to be able to hold residencies and multiple citizenships while complying with legal obligations.

PlanBPassport offers a second passport (a “plan B”) that holders can purchase with bitcoin or fiat currency. In order to obtain residency, a person typically declares one of two types of economic citizenship investment: Donation or Real Estate. 

A Donation means that one offers a certain amount of money to the government to prove good faith. One example would be the island nation of St. Kitts in the Caribbean; economic citizens can donate to the country’s Hurricane Relief Fund.

A Real Estate investment proves a person’s commitment to invest in the local community and stimulate the economy. Moreover, it can provide services and benefits for locals such as housing or jobs. The island of Antigua requires a minimum investment of $200,000 of real estate to be invested before economic citizenship is required.

How it works 

A prospective client has a consultation call with the PlanBPassport team to determine which investment route – Donation or Real Estate – is best suited for their situation. The plan B passport provides holders with three specific value-adds:

1. The ability to reside in countries that offer the best tax strategies for personal income and business operation.

2. Plan B passport holders are typically bitcoiners, meaning they are unbanked and able to use their funds anywhere in the world. As such, Plan B facilitates the visa-free travel that comes with this type of lifestyle where one can travel almost anywhere, without financial constraints.

3. Visa-free travel also allows a person to move out of a country and legally obtain residency in another country to avoid various types of financial risks, political violence, etc.

Bitcoin and the future of citizenship

It is uncertain how globalized citizenship and the future of bitcoin will pan out, but financial literacy is needed now more than ever. Concerns over surveillance and privacy have lorded over web2 for decades and CBDCs are only exacerbating those types of concerns. 

With TradFi banks capriciously revoking services, and bitcoin being used more and more as collateral, it is clear that legacy institutions are rapidly dating themselves and people are becoming more self-reliant. 

However warranted the disquietude around legacy institutions may be, it is imperative that people understand how bitcoin works and how they can use it to safeguard their financial futures. PlanBPassport offers people the ability to test other options that best suit them.