Alpha City Inc.

Cabo Verde’s Praia Tech Park opened in 2023. Two years later, its 20-plus resident firms already serve clients in Africa, Europe, and the Americas under a ZEET regime that offers VAT and import-duty exemptions and a 2.5 % corporate-tax rate. Tiny island, big digital ambition.

@Gonzohall Appreciate the question. Happy to share more on what we are seeing work in practice. Send us a DM and we will connect you with the team.

@alphacityinc I worked with the CV government for a while as a consultant, how do you think we could 10x the impact of their project? Free economic zones, well governed and a tech layer? What else?

Cabo Verde’s Praia Tech Park opened in 2023. Two years later, its 20-plus resident firms already serve clients in Africa, Europe, and the Americas under a ZEET regime that offers VAT and import-duty exemptions and a 2.5 % corporate-tax rate. Tiny island, big digital ambition.

A lot goes into building a city from nothing. You have to think about infrastructure, the industries that actually make sense in a particular location, and all the different economic layers of the local community. We are big believers that you need a full economic ladder with upward mobility. You have to solve for the poorest to the richest and create a place where everybody can win and thrive. That requires thinking about all the different industries, what the career paths look like, what education and healthcare look like, and what critical infrastructure to get in and out of the country looks like, including airports and ports. There is a vast number of different things you have to really understand and know about to build a city from nothing. That is part of what makes it interesting. It is a big systems problem. You have to hold a lot of things in your head at the same time and make them work together.

Bradford Cross @bradfordcross is Founder and CEO of @AlphaCityInc - a longtime AI entrepreneur now building the governance layer The lib/acc Summit is one of the few places you’ll hear from people designing new jurisdictions like products: under real constraints, with real tradeoffs.

Patri Friedman @patrissimo founded the Seasteading Institute and is now GP at @PronomosVC the first VC for building new charter cities and jurisdictions Continuing a legacy, grandson of Milton Friedman, he’s spent over a decade with real governance projects like Próspera itself!

During my 25 years working on new governance models, the main bottleneck has been finding the incredible founders we need to build something as epic as a charter city. The space is ripe & ready for new companies, and we're assembling an amazing collection of OGs to advise a fascinating collection of new founders at this @Prosperahn event. If you're serious about exploring a concept in the space, please apply! And feel free to DM me to highlight anything about your app: luma.com/founders_acc20…

Alpha City: a federation of cities where anyone with drive can thrive I often have a hard time answering the question “can you name a few benchmarks in @tftcxyz ' space?”. I can surely think about projects that do develop relevant products in our space, such as: ▶️ Single SEZs, like @CiudadMorazan & @Prosperahn in Honduras, Itana in Nigeria and @ThisIsSIC in Sierra Leone; ▶️ E-governance & e-residency platforms, such as Estonia's e-residency program ▶️ Orchestration software for SEZs, such as Mass. Yet, very few projects bundle deep civilizational design, true economic development frameworks, emerging technologies at their urban core, and a foundational federated network of charter cities. @alphacityinc is one of them. Alpha was founded by Bradford Cross. Brad explored AI 25 years ago, before AI became a thing. Brad explored crypto 15 years ago, before crypto became a thing. Brad is also managing general partner of @PronomosVC, a venture capital fund backing founders building new cities and special jurisdictions. He is now building Alpha City in Africa: charter cities ranging from core districts that supercharge foundational industries like agriculture, fishing and tourism, to portal districts at the cutting edge of crypto, AI and energy. Alpha sets a vibrant, sustainable new standard for human civilization, rich with opportunity, security, and an active, fulfilling lifestyle where everybody wins. In a recent inspiring interview co-hosted by @peerbase_, founder of @ipecity, and Rafael Castaneda, co-founder of @OxusFinance, Brad shared a compelling vision where AI and crypto form the technological backbone for reinventing human civilization from the ground up. By fusing principles of classical and social liberalism, Alpha City prototypes startup cities to demonstrate more efficient, accountable governance and vibrant economies built on zero taxation and pay-for-service models. The emerging world is viewed not as a problem but a fertile ground for bold governance experiments that could eventually transform even robust Western democracies. Education too must evolve radically with AI-driven personalized learning to prepare citizens for this new era. Through strategic immigration policies and decentralizing power, these new cities aim to be more adaptive and just. For those invested in the future of technology, governance, and society, this discussion offers a roadmap coupled with urgent calls to innovate, collaborate, and actively build these future models today. Link to the interview: youtube.com/watch?v=eR0tBR…

“If everyone thinks your idea is good, it's probably shit. If a lot of them think the idea is shit, there's a chance it's good.” — @bradfordcross

Nigeria’s adoption numbers are real, but usability is where markets either mature or stall. A lot of activity today is driven by stablecoins as dollar substitutes. That solves one problem. It does not automatically create everyday financial products. Bridging curiosity to usability means products that work for payroll, merchant payments and cross-border trade, not just trading apps. Where is the biggest friction right now for everyday users. On-ramps, UX, or trust?

Over 200 comments. 🫢❤️ Appreciate everyone rooting for Crypto Street. Nigeria ranks #1 in crypto adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa. The interest is here. The activity is growing. Now it’s about bridging the gap between curiosity and real-world usability! That’s the work. 🎥🇳🇬

$92B is not small, but “adoption” in Nigeria is doing a lot of work here. A big share of activity is people trying to hold dollars and move value across borders. That is stablecoin usage, not the same thing as users paying for services, borrowing, investing, or running payroll on-chain. Nigeria is under-built, but the pattern is consistent: many Web3 teams show up with the wrong product. Speculative features land poorly in a market that mostly needs settlement, treasury, and predictable rails. If one wedge had to scale first, what is it: merchant payments, payroll, cross-border B2B supplier settlement, or remittances?

With the high adoption of crypto in Nigeria today, you have to wonder: Why are most Web3 projects still sleeping on this market? Nigeria continues to dominate crypto activity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over a recent 12-month period, the country processed over $92.1 billion in on-chain transaction value. This data was gotten from @chainalysis and this volume alone is nearly 3x more than South Africa, the next largest market in the region. That’s not a niche ecosystem but rather that’s a continental leader This level of activity isn’t accidental. It’s driven by: • A young digitally native population • Inflation and FX constraints pushing demand for stablecoins • Strong peer-to-peer culture • High grassroots adoption, not just speculation Yet many Web3 projects still fail to localize products, build for real use cases or create intentional market penetration strategies for Nigeria. The liquidity is here The users are here The attention is here The real question is: Who will build with intention instead of treating the region as an afterthought?

5/5 Rules are forming, but not in sync. Kenya VASP Act (2025). Ghana VASP Act (Act 1154). South Africa 248 CASP licences (Dec 2024). Nigeria SEC ARIP. Dubai’s The question is whether African regulators can align fast enough for stablecoins to move from workaround to mainstream finance. Bradford Cross breaks down what that takes.

1/5 Africa leads the world in stablecoin adoption: 9.3%. Africa has 54M+ digital asset users, with ~25.9M in Nigeria. Nigeria drives roughly 40% of SSA stablecoin inflows.

5/ Why do they work? Success depends on: - Infrastructure - Regulatory certainty - Clear objectives - Ability to scale Read our full analysis here : alphacity.io/how-sezs-chang…

1/ Vietnam and the UAE are using Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to drive national trade. Here is the data on how these models perform.