A new look at Structurally Insulated Panels.

STANDARD SIPS (STRUCTURAL INSULATED PANELS)

AIM TO MAKE PRE-FAB CONSTRUCTION MORE EFFICIENT. THE GOAL WITH NOMAD BLOCKS IS TO TAKE THIS CONCEPT TO ANOTHER LEVEL, BY:

1. Consolidating more of the trade portions (electrical, plumbing, finishing) of home construction into the assembly-line and/or automated manufacturing processes

2. Passing the resulting cost, time, and energy efficiency savings to the homeowner, by equipping them with a smarter, greener and more self-sufficient home

3. Modularizing the home, allowing users to replace, upgrade, and customize the home with ease and without the dwindling, costly, unpredictable and often unreliable assistance of tradespeople

4. Introducing a whole new world of possibilities in regards to home applications & amenities.

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This post details three "Moonshot" projects related to real-estate that the founder of NOMAD Living came up with, and would like tackle within our lifetimes. 

TERRAFORMERS

ter·ra·form ‘terə,fôrm = transform (a planet) so as to resemble the earth, especially so that it can support human life.

Mars is currently a cold, radioactive wasteland. Yet, some seem to have as much hope that Mars will become our secondary (or necessary future) home, because we’ll surely “destroy” our own planet, than the possibility that we could reverse the destruction process of it. That’s ridiculous. One can’t have one without the other. That is why NOMAD Living wants to make “Terraformer Architecture” a real thing. Imagine a metropolis denser than Manhattan. Now imagine that as a land filled with hike-able trails, waterfalls, hills of green grass, birds and wildlife abundant throughout. Imagine a city that recycles CO2 and filters pollution (which kills millions of people each year, at a growing rate) naturally through vegetation. With a ‘passive solar’ approach to urban design, this could be the future of urban landscapes, and it’s a moonshot goal for NOMAD Living to make that happen. Terraforming has been, for the most part, considered a thing of science fiction. More recently, entrepreneurs have seriously discussed goals of terraforming other planets, such as Mars, to become hospitable for humans in the future. Some even think of this as a necessary step for survival; the future of the human race. Applying this concept to the Earth could be equally as intriguing. For the past decade at least, we’ve all heard doomsday scenarios played out on repeat - the planet is getting hotter, energy consumption is growing, and we’re ravaging more and more natural habitats till the ends of the earth (no, the earth is not flat, that’s a figure of speech).

PARKING DECK VILLAGE

This one is simple. The top floor of the parking deck is the least attractive floor. It takes forever to get up there, and it’s more susceptible to rain, pollen, dust, heat, whatever. Throw in a future with driverless cars, the top floor of parking decks are the least attractive piece of useless real-estate. HOWEVER - throw a neighborhood up there, and you’ve got something special. Beautiful views, a safe environment for children to play around, and a rock-solid foundation - Parking Deck Villages are just a no-brainer. (Yes, we’re currently seeking candidates!)

3D - PLUMBING

Pneumatic Tubing is nothing new. You know, those things that you used once at a bank drive-through, that sent your parents a pod containing their bank receipt when you were a kid? Decades ago, Prague used to send its postal mail via Pneumatic Tubing before the pipes flooded and became obsolete. When the founder of NOMAD Living built his first house, it blew his mind how “magical” the process of ‘regular’ pluming, or unlimited running water was when one really thinks about it. Five-thousand years ago, clean, running water (the most valuable yet abundant resource on the planet) would have been equivalent to printing money. Nowadays, we don’t give it a second thought. Now - imagine a faucet that, when you pulled the lever, food appeared. Or maybe life-saving medication during an emergency. Imagine ordering sushi for dinner via an app, and having it appear in a container within minutes in your apartment or house - and when your roommate has an allergic reaction to shellfish, an Epi-Pen appears less than a minute later. Applications for mail, food, bathroom, kitchen, and medical supply delivery are abundant. It’s the 3-D Internet - and we want to make that a real thing in our lifetimes

The crypto-hype has died down quite a bit since BTC neared $20K, (and for good reason) but there are still real-world outlets for crypto-investing - specifically via the tokenization of assets, even in "boring" spaces such as real-estate.

We reached out to one crypto company, MyBit, which aims to enable anyone to directly invest "in the technologies of the future" by integrating Ethereum Smart Contracts into a platform that will allow us 'regular people' to invest in a variety of IoT products. Because most of us are 'regular people,' most of us don't even know that we can't legally invest, at least in the U.S. in many cases, in companies even with $500,000 dollars cash and no debt (you can thank the SEC for that one). Apparently, there are some arbitrary thresholds that the government decided make you worthy of making reasonable investment decisions. Hopefully, blockchain tech will offer a longer-term workaround to such two-tier society bullshit tactics, which is part of why we are interested in the MyBit platform. 

Our thought was that we potentially have a relevant fit with our "micro-hotel" project, which we intend to build multiple times around the world, assuming we integrate adequate IoT tech (and potentially something like AirBnb's API) that will allow investors to seamlessly monitor the success or otherwise of our business model in real time. 

They responded to our request with one of their own, which was to update them once we have a functioning prototype. We fully intend to do so. 

Stay tuned.

Here is a quick PDF we've put together, hinting at some of our plans.

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Some Crypto-Inspiration

It's been a big year for crypto-currencies. Anyone who "got in" around January, wether in ETC, BTC or most any of the other popular ICO's or crypto-currencies (that were not scams) made some serious returns without much effort. Myself and most of my family (everyone who participated) did really well. 

After visiting multiple countries in Eastern Europe this summer where crypto-currencies were all-the-rage (mostly in Kiev, Ukraine), watching bitcoin hit $6,000, learning about Estonia's more than serious e-Residency program, I wanted to venture further into the possibilities that digital decentralization offers us. 

To note, not everyone investing in crypto-currencies at the moment do so for the same reasons. Some are driven purely by seeking ROI, others by the technology, others for fundraising, others for anonymity, and many others for purely political reasons. If you'd like to get a good quick lesson on blockchain and the history of Bitcoin - watch "Banking on Bitcoin" on Netflix. You'll get a glimpse of why the 2008 housing crisis actually played a big part in the rise of BTC and why banks, government institutions, and many other players are on the edge of their seat deliberating their next move on the matter. 

The possibilities are endless. The consequences for the status-quo are also potentially endless. Decentralization of currencies could theoretically lead to a more fair world. One can imagine why that isn't always a good thing for certain players.

Taking It A Step Further

Nowadays, nearly anyone can put together a well-designed white paper, create a new currency and make some money on an ICO. Many liken it to the dot-com boom. You'll see a lot of new, seemingly interesting platforms and coins in the coming years, some of them having more merit than others. As crypto becomes more of a "fad," the more we'll begin to see stale, ripped-off concepts that aren't really helping move the needle anymore. 

Recognizing this to be an already occurring pattern, I thought it would be fun to stretch the possibilities of this new trend to new territory. Hence our over-indulgence in designing a new theoretical country. We even put together a mini constitution, automated the monetary fund & banking at-large (The Treasury), came up with some bad-ass branding tools, and put together a plan of action. 

During a time of rampant political corruption, nationalistic uprisings around the globe, borders shutting down, walls being built, migrant crisis's occurring around the planet - Nomadia is an idealists dream come true. It's a borderless nation that theoretically works. It's citizens' wealth proportionately augment by helping out other citizens. It's not communism, it automatically rules out crony-capitalism, and it encourages investment in its people to all of its people. 

Decentralization of Banking

This is one of the most radical and interesting concepts, in my opinion, of the Nomadia project. We've heard about the decentralization of currencies. That's huge. I've already touched on the potential for the elimination of direct meddling of your wealth by government institutions. 

With peer-to-peer lending already on the rise, why not use blockchain to automate banking at-large?

Who needs 'em anymore? 

See the document for a visual explanation of the project. 

Think about it, and let me know your thoughts.