Global Citizens United Summary

A summary of the Global Citizens United movement

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More information can be found in our manifesto, An Invitation⁠

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What is it?

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Global Citizens United⁠

is a movement to unite global citizens around the world to create a digital country (AKA network state) to spark the creation of a new model, one that works for our planet and all who call it home.

We are seeking to:

Reform and fundamentally shift the international system to be able to address the planetary crises and existential threats we face.

Provide all people on Earth with equal representation on global issues that affect us all, and secure basic rights and freedoms for all people of Earth

The Problem

This century will be decisive for humanity's future. The biosphere is collapsing, billions live in poverty, and numerous existential threats threaten our very survival.

These problems know no borders. They affect all of us, regardless of where we are born, and are too immense for any one country to meet. Global coordination is needed, but existing institutions have proven to be inadequate. Sovereignty pits countries against each other when cooperation is essential and the United Nations is powerless to intervene. The actions of one nation can now jeopardise our collective future, and there is no mechanism for us to have a say on the issues that affect us.

We're on a dangerous path, one that demands radical change.

In order to take on the planetary challenges — the metacrisis — we face, and uplift the billions of people left behind, a new model is needed.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller

The Proposal

There are hundreds of millions —

if not billions⁠

— of global citizens in the world. People who see themselves more as part of a global collective than a single nation.

We now have the technologies to give this latent identity a form, a unified structure to channel our collective will and begin to address the global challenges we face and extend a hand across borders to uplift all of humanity.

In order to shift the inter-national paradigm, the best path forward might be to try to participate in the paradigm itself, though in a radically different way.

Given that we global citizens number so greatly, why not come together as a global community? Why not unite under one banner?

Why don’t we create a country?

A Digital Global Citizenship, a Citizenship for all

Global Citizens United is a movement to unite global citizens around the world to create a digital country that anyone can join.

As a united entity that spans the globe, participating in the existing system but in a radical different way, we can take the first steps towards building a truly planetary society, where all human beings live dignified lives in harmony with the natural world.

By creating a new country — a global citizenship open to all who want it — we have a moral obligation to provide for our fellow citizens, regardless of where they are located.

The internet allows us to reach across borders and empower people everywhere, giving them unfettered access to services that help secure basic human rights, and enables us coordinate globally to address pressing planetary challenges.

Creating a country in this radical new way is a means for us to integrate with the existing international model and eventually subsume it. Global citizenship will give all people a voice on the issues that affect us and provides a mechanism to uplift humanity while tackling global crises.

Aims

Our aims include:

Catalysing global wealth redistribution

Attaining membership of the UN and a seat on the UN Security Council

Preserving and regenerate the biosphere through local action and global coordination

Ensuring internet access for all

Creating digital infrastructure and services to secure human rights and promote freedom

Establishing a World Federation

Address the various existential risks we face

While challenging existing notions of statehood and sovereignty, we are not seeking to eliminate nations, but propel our species along its trajectory of greater unity. This digital nation allows us to build the systems and structures now that will help humanity thrive and prosper for centuries to come, living in harmony with the planet.

How?

The following is our anticipated path forward:

1. The Movement, The Network

The first phase will be focused on providing the seeds of a new collective narrative and vision for the future to attract founding citizens.

As our movement grows, we'll establish local chapters worldwide to build community and empower local action groups.

2. Internet Access, Services, and Local Action

Having established a community of citizens, the next phase has three primary focuses:

Local Action Groups: Empower local chapters worldwide to drive political change aligned with ecological needs.

Digital Infrastructure & Services: Develop digital infrastructure and services to secure rights and economic opportunities for citizens around the world.

Global Internet Access: Strive to ensure all people on Earth have internet access, as it's necessary for participation in our digital country, and is the greatest tool for freedom and opportunity.

Much of this will involve collaborating and partnering with aligned organisations worldwide. By connecting passionate people, we can amplify impact and secure universal rights.

3. The Country

Once we have the resources, population, government and economy, we can attain statehood by securing small territory and establishing relations with other countries. This will allow us to engage diplomatically as a recognised digital nation, though obtaining statehood is not required to advance our mission.

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More information is available in our manifesto.⁠

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Permission is not necessary.

Recognition from existing systems isn't needed to unite as global citizens and advance our goals. We must choose to come together, take responsibility, and act.

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Next Steps

We are at the nascent stages of this endeavour. Our focus in the near future will be to:

Create content that outlines a new narrative of what our future could be

Attract founding citizens

Build a community of global citizens around the world

A New Narrative

Our primary focus in the short term is on content production, providing the seeds of a new collective narrative and an actionable vision of hope for the future.

The content will take the following forms:

Videos

Podcasts

Essays

All content created will be repurposed and shared across various social media platforms.

Founding Citizens

As we grow in visibility we will attract our Founding Citizens. People will be able to register as Founding Citizens via our website.

Key details:

Open to anyone with internet access and an email address.

After a 'pay-what-you-want' fee, people will receive a special digital Founding Citizen passport (NFT).

100,000 Founding Citizen Passports will be available. When they have all been claimed, new citizens will receive a standard passport.

As we are at the start of this collective journey, becoming a citizen now is a symbolic act. Founding citizens will be recorded in a publicly available ledger so that their descendants will know that their ancestors were among the first to courageously embrace the duty to create a brighter future.

Benefits and utility of citizenship will evolve as our movement grows and we develop infrastructure and services.

Community

As our list of founding citizens grows, we will establish Global Citizens United chapters in cities around the world to create a place where our citizens can come together. While one of our aims is to be a digital nation, we will not attain our goals if we do not manifest in the physical world. Communing regularly in person and fostering a sense of solidarity amongst our citizens is crucial for the success of this movement.

Members of these local chapters will be encouraged to form local action groups whose aim will be to impact local, regional, and national politics and culture in their respective countries to align with bioregional and planetary needs.

Revenue Sources

Initially, our sources of revenue will come from:

Founding Citizen registration

Merchandise sales

Businesses donating a percentage of their profits

Donations

In the future once the movement is established and we’ve built various forms of infrastructure to support our country and citizens and our economy begins to emerge, other sources of revenue will include:

A fee applied to all transactions using apps we’ve built that facilitate various forms commerce

Licensing of the civic technologies we develop to other states and localities

Taxation

What we need

We are at the initial stages of this ambitious endeavour. To accelerate our progress we need to build our team and secure funding.

Funding

We are currently raising funding to get this project off of the ground and accelerate its progress. We are seeking to raise $2 million USD in total. This funding will be used for:

Platform Development

Content production

Team salaries

General expenses

In exchange for funding, we are open to exploring what a return on that investment may look like, though it will not include any degree of ownership of this country apart from the vote you will have as a citizen, as that is not ours to give away. One idea we are open to is remunerating investors up to 10-20x of the investment amount over the course of a decade. We are open to exploring an array of options.

The Team

The Global Citizens United team is small but we are actively recruiting at the moment. Our current team members include:

Sam Barton — Spark

Sam is based in Sydney, Australia but grew up in Asia, spending 19 years across Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia. Living in multicultural settings and going to an international school cemented his identity as a global citizen.

Sam first had the idea for Global Citizens United in 2016 while at university. He has spent the intervening years exploring whether or not the idea was worth pursuing earnestly, and returned to university to study philosophy to explore questions relating to it.

Sam has 10 years of experience working in product and marketing in startups, including in crypto and more recently with AI.

Website:

samhbarton.com⁠

Twitter:

twitter.com/samhbarton⁠

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-barton-b4604246/⁠

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Kamal Singh — Design

Kamal is a product designer based in Bengaluru, India. He has years of experience building crypto products, shaping the interface for Ideamarket.io and an NFT marketplace, and more recently designing interfaces for AI apps.

Website:

kamal.framer.website⁠

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Mitchell Travers — Advisor

Mitch is founder of Soulbis, a consultancy and research organisation focused on decentralised society and soulbound tokens , and is also a contributor to the Blockchain Governance Initiative Network (BGIN). He has worked in crypto since 2018, founding the the digital currency exchange Aus Merchant, and previously worked for digital identity and compliance solution, bronID.

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-travers/⁠

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Website:

https://soulbis.com/⁠

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Spencer Davis — Software Development

Spencer grew up in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University in 2022 with a Bachelor’s in Software Engineering. He loves exploring the intersections of politics, humanitarianism and technology

FAQs

Why a digital country?

Creating a country is a way for us to participate within the existing system though in a radically different way. There is nothing in international law that bars us from exercising our right to self-determination and to form another country. The internet allows us to reach across borders and connect with our our citizens, no matter where they live, and provide them with access to various crucial technologies and services.

Is this a movement for open borders?

No, our aims don't require eliminating borders. The world is not ready for such a change. Our focus is on transcending borders, connecting and empowering people through the internet and coordinating action to address the global challenges we face.

Is the aim to completely remove state-sovereignty?

No, we don't seek to fully eliminate sovereignty. However, in our interconnected world, unchecked sovereignty must be balanced with responsibility. We aim to gradually shift rigid notions of sovereignty into a more flexible, nuanced concept that enables effective global cooperation while preserving as much national and local autonomy as possible.

Is this idea realistic?

It’s not only realistic, but necessary. As Nelson Mandela said, "It always seems impossible until it's done.”

With citizens who are committed and united in purpose, and with the winds of history our backs —a history that has seen us evolve from tribes to villages, cities, and nations, perpetually coalescing into larger, more unified peoples, what can be seen dreams turn into achievable aspirations.

Anyway, do we have anything better to do?

Who can become a citizen?

Citizenship is open to anyone in the world, regardless of nationality. If you want to be part of the collective effort to create a better future for humanity and our planet, you are welcome.

What are the benefits of becoming a citizen?

At the early stages of our journey, becoming a Founding Citizen is a symbolic act, a declaration of your commitment to a unified vision of hope, unity, and collective stewardship of our world that will be — a commitment that will be eternally etched in our history for your dependents future generations to witness and honour.

Initially, citizenship serves as a passport to our community and events, and as we progress, it will evolve into a portal to a range of digital services and benefits that we will develop.

Is this a movement to replace countries?

No, not at all. We recognise the importance of national identity and existing governance structures. However, new complementary systems are needed to address unprecedented global issues like climate change that require worldwide cooperation. Our movement seeks to evolve notions of isolated nationalism towards planetary cooperation. We are establishing a digital country to prototype solutions that empower global citizens to cooperate beyond borders. This global citizenship is intended as a complement, not a replacement, to current nations, to be what the United Nations should have become.

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