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I’ve been down the rabbit hole of special economic zones for more than four years. Before I ever set foot in Roatán, I’d already been “inside” Próspera in a virtual way—reading statutes, speaking with residents, and watching its legal infrastructure take shape. So when Infinita opened a startup program there, applying felt less like a leap and more like the next obvious step.

Walking off the plane, I wasn’t chasing theory anymore. I was finally going to see the thing up close.

Why I went — and what I hoped to find

My work for years has been about building places—physical and digital—where regenerative living and production can actually happen. I call them nodes: spaces where people can live, learn, work, create, and measure impact with real accountability.

Próspera, to me, was a checkpoint in history. Once you experience it, a switch flips. You can’t unsee the possibility. You can’t go back to “business as usual.”

I arrived in Roatán hoping for two things:

1. Proof that a different governance stack can be lived, not just written about.
2. Clarity on how a “startup society” like NetX State should grow—business model, community architecture, legal pathways, the works.

I got both—and some surprises in between.

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Próspera from the inside

People ask me what makes Próspera different from a conventional special economic zone. The short answer: it feels like the most innovative network-state experiment on the planet, rooted in Latin America, with founders dead set on aligning governance with prosperity.

One of the highlights was a long conversation with Nick Dranias. He walked me through the philosophical spine of the legal system—libertarian in theory, pragmatic in design—and how that translates into freedom with predictability on the ground. That combination matters. It lowers the cognitive tax for builders.

Even small touches say a lot. The residency flow? Surprisingly friendly. It signals a platform mindset: remove friction so energy goes into creating value, not fighting bureaucracy.

As a “private sovereign platform,” Próspera isn’t perfect, but it is fast, modular, and willing to iterate. That agility is rare—and exactly what frontier innovation needs.

Inside the startup program

Here’s the challenge we faced with NetX State: startup societies don’t always present neat, fixed business models. They evolve as the community, territory, and legal scaffolding evolve. Many of the other startups there had clearer, more conventional models, and they were brilliant. We were the weird ones—by design.

And yet the conversations were on another level. Deep, generous, and refreshingly unafraid to question first principles. People weren’t just pitching; they were interrogating the operating system of society. One afternoon I ended up talking with Tim Draper by the hotel pool—one of those short, vivid exchanges that sticks with you and nudges your trajectory a few degrees.

Those moments reminded me that the right room accelerates years of thinking.

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New ties, real plans

The best outcomes were the human ones. Friends who show up when something breaks. Collaborators who hold a vision with you, not just a calendar invite.

Out of that emerged a clear path: we’re opening a Regeneration District in Próspera—our piece of the platform focused on ecological and social restoration, connected to other bioregions. NetX State will have a node there. The goal is to lead concrete regeneration actions locally while building interoperability with other nodes globally.

What this means for Argentina (and beyond)

Most of the world doesn’t see it yet because they haven’t been to Próspera, but we’re entering a new era of legal–territorial–digital structures that expand individual freedoms and enable local problem-solving. These aren’t anti-state; they’re post-bureaucracy. They reduce dependence on centralized decision-making that rarely fits local context.

In Argentina, we’re focused on ZEEIR—Special Economic Zones for Regenerative Impact. Think of them as the fifth generation of SEZs: citizen-led, constitutionally grounded, focused on regeneration as the main KPI.

Why it matters here:

• Geography isn’t neutral. We’re the 8th largest country by land area. Logistics distort opportunity. GDP metrics don’t capture that inequality.
• Our institutions are out of sync with our tools. Tech can close gaps, but not if innovation waits for a rubber stamp written for a different century.
• Culture is an asset, not a casualty. Any legal or financial redesign must protect what makes us us—our soil, our communities, our stories—and welcome everyone who wants to help steward them.

We don’t need to burn down institutions; we need to upgrade them. Keep what works, redesign what doesn’t, and give communities the legal room to build.

What we’ll do next

We’re continuing exactly where this program pointed us:

• Launch pilots under the Regeneration District umbrella in Próspera and link them to nodes across Argentina.
• Build the infrastructure for a networked regenerative civilization—physical habitats, clear legal vehicles, and a digital layer for identity, impact, governance, and education.
• Prioritize interoperability so projects in different zones can talk to each other—data, capital, governance modules, and human mobility.

And a heartfelt gracias to the people who made this journey possible and unforgettable: Vic, Tails, Niklas, Gabe, Lonis, Erick—and to Oscar, Joan, the Brazilian crew, and so many Hondurans who extended a hand when it mattered. You know who you are.

An invitation to the builders

If you’re a chango—a doer, a pioneer, a person who can’t sit still while the world asks for better—this is your nudge. There’s nothing left to wait for. We already have the legal, territorial, and digital tools to build fairer, saner systems. The work now is to use them well, with humility and courage.

My biggest shift after Roatán? The idea became flesh. The map became road. Once you feel that—once you see a platform where governance and innovation actually move—you can’t go back.

Let’s build the places our grandchildren will thank us for.

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