{"id":154556,"date":"2026-03-08T20:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/prospera-a-unique-jurisdiction-in-the-world-heres-how-to-get-there\/154556\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:38:28","slug":"prospera-a-unique-jurisdiction-in-the-world-heres-how-to-get-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/en\/prospera-a-unique-jurisdiction-in-the-world-heres-how-to-get-there\/154556\/","title":{"rendered":"Pr\u00f2spera, a unique jurisdiction in the world: here’s how to get there"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prospera is a city, a city that could be defined as a private or charter city. It is a perfectly legal city, fully recognised by the government of the country in which it is located, Honduras, and fully compliant with international law. Prospera is a city where anyone can choose their preferred tax regime and the laws of the country they prefer, and can live and do business in a completely transparent, legal and recognised manner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who founded Pr\u00f2spera and what is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prospera ZEDE was conceived and founded by Erick Brimen, a Venezuelan financial manager, who formally submitted the charter city application in Honduras in 2017 through Honduras Pr\u00f3spera Inc., a company incorporated in Delaware (USA). The co-founder of the project is Gabriel Delgado Ayau, a Guatemalan national. The project was developed based on the concept of a ‘charter city’ originally theorised by economist and former chief economist of the World Bank Paul Romer (Nobel Prize in Economics 2018).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this a private area?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, to a large extent. Pr\u00f2spera is a ZEDE (Zona para el Empleo y el Desarrollo Econ\u00f3mico), or a semi-autonomous zone recognised by the Honduran Constitution, but managed by a private entity \u2014 Honduras Pr\u00f3spera Inc. \u2014 which holds a veto vote on the city’s governance council. In practice, it is a hybrid model: it operates on Honduran soil and under the formal sovereignty of Honduras (including criminal law), but with its own completely autonomous fiscal, civil, commercial and arbitration systems. It has been described by the international press as ‘the first private for-profit city’ and ‘the Hong Kong of the Caribbean’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who invested?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr\u00f3spera’s main investors include prominent names from Silicon Valley: Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz), Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase) and, since January 2025, Coinbase itself through its venture capital division. Investments have been channelled mainly through the Pronomos Capital fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governmental and legal context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous government attempted to expel Pr\u00f3spera, but failed due to solid international agreements on stability and capital protection, despite never receiving approval from the Supreme Court (which declared the ZEDE law unconstitutional in 2024). Investors initially claimed $10.775 billion against the Honduran government in December 2022 at ICSID, under the CAFTA-DR treaty; the figure was then reduced to $1.63 billion in October 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Position of the new government<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new government is the same one that originally approved Pr\u00f3spera (under the Hern\u00e1ndez administration in 2013\u20132017) and continues to invest in and support the initiative, overcoming past tensions. Dentons legal opinion<\/a> (now superseded by the new government context).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Pr\u00f2spera is unique, key points<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n