The Seasteading Institute

Friedman and Gramlich noted that according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country's Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from shore.

[1][4][5] The project picked up mainstream exposure after PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel donated $500,000 in initial seed capital[4] (followed by subsequent contributions).

[3][10][11] In July 2009, Friedman launched Ephemerisle, intended to be a week-long event that modeled seasteading in the Pacific Ocean.

Ephemerisle was held on a number of watercraft and makeshift floating platforms in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

[24] On January 13, 2017, French Polynesia Minister of Housing Jean-Christophe Bouissou signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TSI to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone".

TSI spun off a for-profit company called "Blue Frontiers", which will build and operate a prototype seastead in the zone.