Summary

We are very fascinated by the amazing anti-state, voluntaryist and
non-profit organization Paralelni polis.
In this article, we go more in-depth with Prague's Paralelni Polis
co-founder, the libertarian Perpetual traveler Pavol Luptak.
Pavol is the CEO of multiple companies, true voluntaryist and cryptocurrency advocate.
We are very happy to have spoken to him regarding Paralelni Polis.

What is Paralelni Polis?

Paralelni polis is a hackerspace meeting the art world.
Paralelni polis meaning parallel society.
It is a social idea to create a society separate from and not dependent of the state.

The idea of Paralelni Polis was created together with Charter 77.

Charter 77 was a very controversial document signed by 242 intellectuals, which was a statement
against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia with the goal to reclaim the human rights taken from the people.
The current communist government tried to stop this by arresting and threatening the signing people
with violence, loss of job and fear.
This resulting in a spark of hope which led to the velvet revolution taking place in 1989 which took down the communist government.
One of the key players behind charter 77 was Vaclav Havel, Which later became the president
after the revolution.

When you walk into Paralelni Polis you are leaving your current the state
you currently where in and entering
this amazing free space, where cryptocurrency and free society ideas flourish.
The Czech slogan for Paralelni Polis actually is “Vedje ven” meaning
“enter outside”. The state printed monopoly money that you have in your wallet is no longer accepted as a value of exchange.
Here you pay with Bitcoin(also supporting Monero, litecoin and bitcoin lightning).
Paralelni Polis is one of the few places on earth that is completely running 100% on
crypto currency only as it's value of exchange.

Pavol Luptak

Pavol is a human living a very free life as a Perpetual traveler.
He is proudly sitting on residency in Panama hopefully soon one Paraguay,
which both operate a territorial based tax system.
Panama who is mostly known for taking a major punch in the face after the Panama papers which later resulting
in Panama allowing the financial surveillance system we know as Common Reporting Standard to be put in use as of January 2018.
Obtaining Panamanian citizenship is pretty straight forward.
Visit 3 times, fill out some paperwork, open up a company in Panama, get an address and a bank account,
apply for a temporary resident card that you later expand to 10 years.

We asked one of our business partners living in Panama if he could describe Panama in one sentence:

Panama is the true Dubai of Latin America, Very cosmopolitan with great infrastructure that is very open to
business, nightlife, hot girls and tourism.

If you are originally an EU passport holder like Pavol, we recommend that you check out Panama as one of your many residency options.
Being a Panamanian residence also comes with a lot of great perks like the Panama driving license for example which several EU states are not legally able to confiscate, it's also valid in all countries which is a
huge perk. If you are an EU citizen/passport holder and already have a driving license, all that is needed from you in order to obtain a Panamanian one is a light medical exam(assuming you are already a resident of Panama) checking your hearing and eyes a translated version of your driving your current driving license.

Paraguay is also very interesting if you ever tasted the amazing club mate cold drink.
Then you had Yerba mate which originates from Paraguay.
The country was also a shining Perl in the sand, not taxing local earned income within the country
until 2010.
Paraguay's passport holders also recieve visa free access to 143 countries! And if your recieve permanent reciedency you will be given an ID card you can use to travel to the majority of latin america countries with.
After 2010 a 10% income tax for local earned income was put into regulation.
Residency in Paraguay is a bit trickier and requires you to live in the
country for 3 years first, spending more than 6months of each year within the country.
Sidenote:
Paraguay is a great option for residency, not taxing your foreign earned income. However, a Paraguay company is may not be the best chess piece in your global flag theory puzzle.

Pavol is a hacker, being a hacker is all about the mindset of approaching problems, poking in holes you are not supposed to do.
Like when the original phone phreak John Draper was able to manipulate
the phone system with a toy whistle taken from a box of cereal.
The best minds in both journalism and cybersecurity work fields are hackers, people who think outside the box.
Not hesitating a second to execute on an idea no matter if it's state-approved or not.
A great example is Kevin Mitnick, who capitalized hugely from being jailed and made an example of.
Even being thrown into jail by the state can be turned to something nice.
The state is always threatening with fear, being a fear-driven social circle.
Then it's important to go beyond the imaginary rules.
Be flexible, Be global, Be a Perpetual traveler, Be given dopamine for you executing on ideas, receiving intellectual stimulants, and much more!

Love your self, Not the tax.
Pavol is also a co-founder of Paralelni Polis in Prague, helping the wheel turn since day 1.

State problems

Being a freedom-minded cryptocurrency only entity operating outside of the state.
Behind Paralelni Polis in Prague stands a controversial activist group called Ztohoven.
The controversial group has gotten away with a lot of things from the Czech state, such as replacing the flag with a pair of underpants.
You might think that the local government is always throwing glass in the eye of Paralelni polis but
so far zero police raids have happened and the main state interference has so far only been:

Czech state limiting the use of the word Czech word for coin

Paralelni polis has had several small projects, one of these projects were to
produce a custom limited amount of silver coins.
So far they have produced coins featuring Ross ulbricht, Julian Assange, Aaron Swartz and soon to come
Edward Snowden.
These coins are more than a nice piece of art, Paralelni polis gives out a certificate guaranteeing the value of each coin which is 0.01 Bitcoin, included in the consumer price of the coin.
Each coin is linked to a bitcoin private key guaranteed by Bitnotes.
One of the key players of this project is Roman Týc the artist. However,
What the Czech state has done is monopolized the use of the word “Mince” which is the Czech word
for coin.
So only the Czech government is allowed to use this word.
At the moment the Czech government is taking part in a campaign to punish all Czech nonstate actors from using the word Mince in its products or brand names.
They have contacted Paralelni polis about this and given them a penalty for breaking the state monopoly.
The case is still ongoing.

EET

Czech republic being very welcoming to cryptocurrency, cannabis, and several other things.
However when it comes to the state intervening in the economy.
The Czech Republic got a
terrible thing called EET which looks like something that slipped out of Winston's world of 1984.
EET standing for elektronická evidence tržeb loosely translated to “electronic records of sales”.
Which is a system built into all Czech businesses point of sales systems reporting transactions in real-time
to the Czech tax authority, giving the Czech state real-time data on the local economy.
So when you buy a beer at the pub or a pack of smoke in a gas station, the tax authority is being notified about this in real-time when the clerk
hands you the invoice for the purchase.
Paralelni polis being a liberty Phoenix risen from the ashes of the movement that opposed the Czech communist rulers.
Is saying no to this madness we call EET.
EET is hated by a large chunk of entrepreneurs and business owners, costing money and resources to implement and use.
They have completely Boycott the submission of data using EET.
This is not making the Czech tax authority so happy, which has been resulting in the Czech tax office putting Paralelni polis under inspection.
Several tax inspection checks have been taken place at Paralelni Polis, they are still waiting for the results.
Fun sidenote: The Czech state has closed down eet because of the covid19 situation.

Operational costs

The operational costs in terms of staff are obviously not the same as a normal company. Being a voluntary driven project all staff are volunteers, donating their time and effort.
This is a bit tricky when operating a Bitcoin coffee place
open 12 hours a day 8 am to 8 pm.
The biggest cost is the rent which is around 10000 Euros monthly.
Luckily this is covered by various income streams Paralelni Polis has been able to build up.

Income streams

Paralelni polis in Prague has 4 main income sources

1: Board of donors

Standing behind Paralelni polis is a private board of donors helping the project stay alive and well.
The people on the board of donors are carefully cherry-picked, A person can not, for example, become a donor if
the person has is an active politician in a political party.
Each donor pays a monthly fee of exactly 15000czk (roughly 561 euros) no more or less is allowed.
Each donor has the ability to represent paralelni polis but does not have influence over the decision making.
Unlike the board of directors of a company where they sit on the decision making power and each decision is voted on.

2: Paperhub coworking space

The digital nomad and remote work movements are becoming bigger and bigger.
Companies offering coworking space are becoming profitable by allowing companies to save the
hassle of having a physical office.
A great example of this is the successful company We Work with it's over 600 000 users.
A coworking space is a great income stream!
All you basically need is office space, coffee, and an internet connection.
Targeting mostly startups and early adopters which are often very cryptocurrency-friendly.
The paperhub is currently being rebranded to the new name PH43.

3: Private club

Charging 2000czk a month per member.
The club organizes meetups, lectures, dinners, art and much more for its members.

4: Membership

Times are changing and the Bitcoin coffee area of Paralelni Polis is going to be for members only.
Charging a low fee of around 10 euro per month to join Paralelni Polis basic monthly membership.

Thanks to these income streams Paralelni Polis has after 3 years been able to be cash positive
and no longer go minus.

Marketing and brand awareness

All entrepreneurs know the challenges of shipping a product into the market.
The majority of companies live and die based on marketing and its early customer success.
If a company is not able to attract enough customers it dies. So providing a great service and being able to reach out is key, So marketing is crucial.
Luckily thanks to Prague's Paralelni polis uniqueness and hard work from its founding team
and multiple contributors such as the amazing artist Roman Týc.
They have been able to attract both investors and grown a happy user base.

Location

When running a project like this location plays a huge part of the puzzle.
Not only do you want a central place so the space can become a social meeting point and a hub for
it's consumers and visitors.
But you also want to have a good relationship with the owner of the building.
A threat to any organization is that counterparties will try to get the landlord to evict you.
Which is never fun.

On the other side of Paralelni polis the art studio la fabrika has it's home, which is owned by the same owner of the building
Paralelni Polis is in.
The landlord is a proud supporter of Charter 77 which has led to Paralelni Polis achieving a good relationship with him.
Which has been a crucial key to success.

Paralelni Polis goes global

Paralelni polis is going global and new once are popping up all around the globe.

Bratislava Paralelni Polis

The one in Bratislava has risen and fallen.
They started off with having a lot of problem with the location, resulting in them taking a big loan in order to fix up the place.

Bratislava Paralelni Polis bitcoin coffee

A bad relationship with the owner also helped the ship go in to storm.
Resulting in the doors being closed in
March 2020.
Luckily the community in Bratislava is still going strong!
With several interesting projects in the pipeline, with the focus being aimed at
TAZ(temporary autonomous zones) and other freedom-minded projects.

Vienna Paralelni Polis

As readers, you probably are aware of Austria's capital Vienna.
The university town of Hayek, Mises, Menger and other
great liberty-minded people.
Founded by the US expat Michael Parenti, Paralelni polis in Vienna opened its doors in 2019.
More info can be read here:
parallele.at

Kosice Paralelni Polis

Kosice is the second biggest city in Slovakia after Bratislava.

Barcelona

A Paralelni Polis is being built in Barcelona, The project is currently on hold until they can solve the funding.

Decentruck

Decentruck is a new project where the Paralelni polis in Prague have bought a truck
and will go to music festivals and promote Paralelni Polis and it's ideals.

How to start Paralelni Polis

"Just start a Paralelni Polis, Just fucking do it" - Pavol Luptak

You have read the tale, now you have the option to start your own Paralelni Polis.

( optional step

0: register as a non-profit organization

It will help with getting a bank account to pay the rent in the local currency as well as all major interactions with the local government.
But since you do not need the state permission to open or run a Paralelni Polis, this is up to you.
Being a DAO(Decentralized autonomous organization) is also a very attractive alternative.
)

1: Find location

The more central the better.
You want to have it in a place where your target audience is.
It needs to be easy to find and get to it. After the location is found, a good step in the process is to register your paralelni polis domain name.

2: Funding

If you are not available to get a big bag of money from a venture capitalist
your goal will be to attract your consumers, you are going to run a very cryptocurrency
friendly place and in these times where we have several big hedge funds backing blockchain companies
finding companies in the cryptocurrency niche is becoming easier and easier.
Another idea to locate investors is pooking around in the libertarian groups in the surrounding areas.
Like with many projects the most important thing is that you get to launch it, so get the basic costs
covered, some ideas for income streams, and the universe will follow.

3: Launch!

Once funding and the rent contact(ideally you cut out the middle man and buy a building) is signed you are ready for launch, get the word out that the newest and most freedom-minded coworking and hackerspace is going to open! Marketing Marketing Marketing.

We are always looking forward to hearing about the next Paralelni Polis here at donottax.me

External links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Polis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_77
https://github.com/ParalelniPolis/ParalelniPolis-decentralized/wiki
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Tax/dttl-tax-paraguayhighlights-2019.pdf
https://www.paralelnipolis.cz/coins/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_T%C3%BDc
https://www.paralelnipolis.cz/o-nas/en/

How to build a Paralelni Polis