Wirtland on Slovenian Television

Today Wirtland appeared in television news broadcast in Slovenia. This is the video from today's news on Sponka television channel, covering Wirtland. The text can be found at Novice: Sponka TV. Wirtland greets all Slovenian-speaking people, and today Slovenian Club was opened at Wirtland.net. Slovenia is the third country of the world which covered Wirtland in television news. In the past, American FOX News broadcasted the interview with Larry Fiorino on Wirtland (see clip here) and Bulgarian National BTV Channel organized a live interview with several witizens (see clip here).

Show Wirtland Identity With Style: Accessories With Embroidery

An elegant way to demonstrate your Witizen identity is wearing Wirtland's merchandise. Apart from traditional T-shirts and mugs, our two online shops offer a choice of items for winter season. Quality embroidery adds a touch of style to items such as lady's bags, polo shirts or winter pullovers. As always, you may customize your item by adding your own text, changing color and style.













Check other items in Witizen Gift Company and Wirtland Design. And your new designs and ideas are always welcome!

Wirtland Offers Medical Services And Employment For Doctors

Wirtland aims to be useful to citizens. This is the cornerstone of our concept of a state. The country must constantly improve the life of citizens, make it more convenient, and create new opportunities of income generation for them.

This proves to be possible, despite natural limitations which we have as a virtual country. A good example is Wirtland Medical Centre (WIMEC), which has been growing since 2008. WIMEC was conceived to be a hub of online medical consultations, open 24 hours every day of the week, in a choice of languages. It serves two purposes:

• For users WIMEC is a unique service, where people can find the needed online medical consultant, who speaks their language. Consultation is done online through Skype call or video call. Users can rate the quality of consultations.

• For medical professionals WIMEC is an income-generating opportunity. Doctors give professional consultations, earning consultancy fees which they choose themselves, paid through Skype Prime. If you are a certified doctor, and you want to offer your services for WIMEC, you may add your listing here. You do not need to be necessarily a citizen of Wirtland.

WIMEC is not a commercial project: Wirtland will not charge doctors any fee for listing at WIMEC. Medical specialists will not pay commission from earned professional fees. WIMEC is not involved in the pricing policies of the doctors - they set up their fees independently. The first introductory call to the specialist is always FREE of charge.

WIMEC service is open to everybody (not just witizens). The users are encouraged to send their feedback with reviews of quality of consultations which they received. Doctors from all over the world are welcome to join WIMEC listing. Wirtland also opened WIMEC Group at for professionals. 

Wirtland Announces Partnership with AgilityHoster

(Wirtland Press Release)

Internet-based country of Wirtland announced partnership with AgilityHoster, which became the official web hosting provider or world’s largest cybercountry.

October 16, 2011 – Wirtland and AgilityHoster have entered into an alliance that is set to boost “Witizens of Wirtland” (WoW) – the fast-growing social network of Wirtland’s citizens – and to deliver top-level services to its global members.

“Partnership with a reliable, modern internet service company is a backbone of an innovative web project such as Wirtland. We hope cooperation with AgilityHoster will be long-lasting and mutually rewarding”, - said the head of state of Wirtland. “After 3 years of constant growth, our project has become ripe enough to have it own social platform, independent from commercial network providers, free for all members, and free from advertising”. The all-new WoW network can be found at usual unchanged address www.wirtland.net.

President & CEO of AgilityHoster said: “It was about time people to start associating the Internet as a virtual land and participating in virtual countries. We at Agilityhoster.com praise the freedom on the Internet and this is the reason we provide free web hosting services for all that want to upload web pages or website. Speaking for freedom and choice online we find so many similarities with Wirtland project. This is a new one unique and very exciting project of the modern and free minded people”.

To better protect personal data of citizens, the new WoW Network does not import automatically all nearly 2000 members from Wirtland’s old network. Instead, the existing members are encouraged to register new profiles.

Founded in 2008, Wirtland represents people from all five continents. Wirtland issues plastic ID cards, mints its own gold and silver coins. Wirtland's population is around 2,000. In 2010 Wirtland established The Wirtland Institute (www.wirtland.org) as a center for research and professional dialogue in the area of new forms of statehood.

# # #

About Wirtland
Wirtland (www.Wirtland.com) is the first internet-based sovereign state, an experiment into legitimacy and self-sustainability of a country without its own soil. Wirtland was founded on August 14, 2008 as a public initiative. Its population is currently approximately 2000 citizens from all five continents. It is represented through its official website http://www.Wirtland.com, its social network http://www.Wirtland.net, and “The Times of Wirtland” at http://wirtland.blogspot.com.

About AgilityHoster
Agilityhoster (www.agilityhoster.com) is fast growing free web hosting services company based in Germany. We aim to provide free web hosting services to all that need stable service in no or low cost, however in the same time offer professional hosting solutions for businesses individuals and anybody that has demand for quality shared hosting, semi-dedicated servers or Virtual Private Servers.

Finally, a brand-new and fully independent social network platform for Wirtland!

Finally, Wirtland is on the way to get its own platform for social network. From beginning, Witizens of Wirtland Network (W.o.W. Network) was based on Ning platform, later migrated to Grou.ps. The quality and reliability of commercial hosting providers was often insufficient. And they were becoming increasingly greedy. Ning, and later Grou.ps demanded that Wirtland upgrades to more expensive service plans, since our membership was growing every day. But Wirtland's policy is unchanged: citizenship of Wirtland will always remain free, and there will be no obligatory membership fees!

There were many discussions about necessity of creation of an independent platform for WoW Network, which finally are leading to a concrete achievement. The first independent network is now open for membership and testing at http://witi.medianewsonline.com. It's yet in beta testing stage, but its functionality is extending every day. The good thing is that it's completely free from any non-Wirtland branding or advertising.

With time, all the content will migrate from old network to the new one. But this process is not automatic, and migration of 2000 member profiles by hand is a very complicated process. Therefore, we are encouraging every witizen to register himself/herself at the new network. We are also asking to consider voluntary donations to Wirtland (of $10 or above), to help us cover the costs of migration and new network setup. This is completely voluntary, non-obligatory support. Our Donations page is here.

The new network is based on customized version of BuddyPress software. The hosting provider is Wirtland's long-time partner Agilityhoster. Comments and suggestions from users will be appreciated. Feedback from programmers, designers, and other professionals interested in helping the project is also welcome. Wirtland's old and new citizens are welcome at new site!

Wirtland citizenship for Julian Assange

Government of Wirtland decided to grant Wirtland citizenship to Julian Assange. The official letter from the world's first sovereign cybercountry underlines Mr. Assange's "great accomplishments in changing the public perception of internet and its role in the world's balance of power". Official residence permit was issued in the name of Julian Assange.

"Your example has vividly demonstrated how quickly and efficiently the internet can influence real life. While citizenship of a cybercountry may seem merely symbolic today, you know better than anybody else the potential of cyberspace and the role of web social projects in the near future. Wirtland offers our citizenship to show our support to your case, and our appreciation of your achievements," - states the Wirtland's letter to Mr. Assange.

Mr. Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, is currently under house arrest in England pending an extradition hearing. For his work with WikiLeaks, Assange received a number of awards and nominations, including the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award and Readers' Choice for Time magazine's 2010 Person of the Year.

Update added on January 7, 2011:
Breaking News: Wirtland is on the way to producing the new Wirtland Crane coin, which will bear Julian Assange's portrait - to commemorate his witizenship and raise support.
We announce a contest for the best text of inscription for the Assange coin. Please submit proposals as comments here, or email to contest3 (at) wirtland (dot) com. The winner gets the nation-wide praise and coins with his text.

Wear Wirtland T-Shirt and support release of Assange, Khodorkovsky

You can demonstrate your Witizen identity and at the same time show your support to political victims in other countries. Wirtland's official shop has approved designs for T-shirts "FREE Julian Assange" and "FREE Mikhail Khodorkovsky". Both well-known prisoners are awaiting sentence in their countries. The garments can be purchased with or without the inscription "Wirtland", so you may use them optionally without association with Wirtland. All profit will go to Wirtland's charity fund.

Wirtland Network in Russian: Виртландия ПО-РУССКИ!

Witizens of Wirtland Social Network (W.o.W.) is expanding. Recently a group of Russian-speaking witizens opened a localized witizens network with user interface and commands convenient for users of Cyrillic alphabet - Russians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians. But it is not limited to Cyrillic users only. In accordance with Wirtland's principles, the new network can be automatically translated to any language - just like the main W.o.W. Non-Russian speakers can also sign up using translated interfaces.
The Russian network is not an official Wirtland network: membership in it does not make you a citizen of Wirtland. But Wirtland welcomes this initiative, and hopes that localized witizens networks will help to popularize Wirtland around the globe.

How to sell a square mile of wasteland for 2.6 billion dollars? A micronation proposes new way to raise money to help developing countries

(published originally by Wirtland Institute)

Wirtland, an internet community which considers itself a micronation, invented a new way to generate funds to help small developing countries.

Many small third world countries have scarce resources, almost non-existent economies, and extremely high levels of unemployment. However, even the smallest of them possess territory - and that's what matters in Wirtland’s plan. According to it, all currently unused, barren or abandoned territory, including mountains, wasteland left over after mining, or even adjacent sea, lagoons, coral reef can become a source of immediate income. How?

Wirtland proposes to sell the plots of such territory. Though the current market price of such plots is close so zero, Wirtland knows how to make them attractive to buyers. Here's the catch: first Wirtland proposes to formally acquire this territory, because this web-based micronation aspires to become a real sovereign country, and therefore needs own legitimate land. This is not as fantastic as it sounds – the international law (Montevideo Convention) leaves the door open for formation of new states. To be eligible for international recognition Wirtland needs territory - even a symbolic piece of land, which is not under jurisdiction of any other country. It can be achieved through a contract with a country, which wants to cash in on its unused land resources and agrees to transfer a piece of its territory to Wirtland.

Such an agreement will be the world’s first case of legal formation of a new country from a virtual community. It will be an unparalleled global sensation, and immediately will bring the agreement in the focus of world attention. This is one of reason why Wirtland hopes there is market for its plots. Another reason is citizenship of the world’s newest state and other benefits which come along with passport of Wirtland, which will no longer be just a virtual micronation, but a fully-fledged sovereign state. Yet another reason of high demand in Wirtland property will be its competitive pricing – many times lower than other options for second citizenship on the market today. Of course, no one will physically move to a Pacific island or other remote property. Wirtland will remain a virtual country, so all its citizens will safely remain in their homes, but with legitimate second passports, certificates of land ownership, and full sets of human rights including free travel, or rights to elect and be elected for various positions within the ever-growing global state.

As Wirtland divides the land into tiny plots and offers them for sale, all the profits will go into the budget of the donor country. This is how the developing nation will financially benefit from the deal: its government will receive income from otherwise worthless land. A simple calculation shows that, if Wirtland sells symbolic 1 square meter of land for a symbolic one thousand dollars, just one hectare (100m x 100m) of territory will bring 10 million dollars to the developing nation. And a single square mile may bring in a hefty 2,6 billion addition to the country’s budget!

Wirtland’s gain from the deal is not financial – by acquisition of a formal territory it becomes eligible for international recognition, for the first time in the world history. This is why the size and quality of territory are not important for Wirtland. In fact, Wirtland may sell plots from more than one developing country, strengthening its statehood by stepping into several regions of the world – in case the sufficient demand for Wirtland’s plots and alternative citizenship.

It is known officially that Wirtland started its contacts with potential partner countries with Nauru, a tiny Pacific nation. How the developing countries will react to Wirtland’s proposal is yet to be seen. There are dozens cash-strapped third-world nations in the world today. Even if just one of them takes the virtual micronation seriously, it will be a major sign of the times, showing that virtual life is firmly setting its rules everywhere, and changing profoundly the life of 21 century.

(published originally by Wirtland Institute)

Le Wirtland? French Wikipedia now includes Wirtland

Connaissez-vous Le Wirtland? Mais oui! The French Wikipedia has now started an article on Wirtland. French has become the 7th language in which Wikipedia articles on Wirtland are available. Wikipedia's coverage of Wirtland is growing steadily. The first article on Wirtland appeared in Bulgarian Wiki, soon followed by English, Spanish, Russian and other language versions.

"View from Wirtland" will cover world news

"View from Wirtland" is a new project of our team. While "The Times of Wirtland" is mostly restricted to the Wirtland's internal news, View from Wirtland is "facing outside". It is a blog exclusively focused on the global news feed, providing brief comments on current international events, with emphasis on the Wirtland's official position on each topic.

Madonna "sings Happy Birthday" to Wirtland

Madonna congratulated Wirtland with its second anniversary. The pop icon's message reads "Happy Birthday, Wirtland! Greetings from La Isla Bonita!". We wish to thank Madonna for her greetings and congratulate on her own birthday, which was just two days ago.

Thank you, Madonna. You are always welcome in our country at Wirtland.com/ Wirtland.net!

To be on the safer side, Wirtland PR department contacted Madonna's official representation to verify if the congratulation in fact came from the pop superstar.

Address of Chancellor of Wirtland

Happy Wirtland Day! Please accept my best wishes for happiness, good health, successful and prosperous life within our world-wide internet community.

1. Two years of Wirtland

Wirtland is two years old. Not much for a country. But a lot for a micronation. Starting from zero in 2008, Wirtland became the world’s largest micronation. We are happy to welcome new citizens almost daily. They come from every country of the world. Wirtland’s plastic ID cards are being used for identification by people on all five continents. Our Citizenship Application Form is now available in 12 languages (English, Spanish, Bulgarian, Turkish, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Korean, Dutch, Italian, Chinese, Japanese), and all translations have been done by our citizens. It’s not a big exaggeration to say that Wirtland is everywhere.

Like any new project, we had our ups and downs. Our gold and silver coins have been a fantastic success, instantly making Wirtland the world’s only micronation to produce such objects. But direct retail sales of coins became too expensive for the mint, because sending precious metals to many countries is restricted. That’s why the coins are now available only from re-sellers. Our mint is ready to produce the coins in bulk. We still need to find the way to distribute them.

Wirtland ID cards are becoming popular. The orders have come from a wide range of countries – from Canada to Turkey. Obviously, the witizens find ways to make them useful for real life purposes, for instance to use along with a credit card, or to prove one’s age. Though we had to increase the card issuance fee in accordance with our printshop’s pricelist, the demand for the cards remains stable. In future, we want to make the cards much more useful. As IDs have names and unique numbers, they can be used as discount cards. We are seeking merchants willing to accept them, offering discount to citizens and attracting new clients.

One of more serious landmarks of Wirtland’s history was development of our plan for real land acquisition. This plan is a barter deal between Wirtland and a recognized country. According to it, Wirtland helps such a country to make financial profit out of its unused territory, in exchange for a transfer of symbolic piece of land to us. Fantastic as it sounds, this plan has nothing impossible about it. Of course, we are realists and did not expect success after one or two attempts. We will continue to carefully identify potential partner countries and work to establish contact with them.

One of our top priorities, if not the highest one, is raising awareness about Wirtland in the world. In accomplishing this aim, the first year of Wirtland was very successful, with dozens of articles and two television shows: on America’s FOX Channel, and on Bulgaria’s main BTV Channel. I have to admit that the second year was less bright. One of the reasons was, probably, the painful exodus from our hosting provider, caused by change in its pricing policy. However, a large part of responsibility remains on Wirtland’s administration, and personally on me. In the future I will take more active part in the popularization of Wirtland. Also, I want to facilitate contact with the citizens and the press, and establish a direct questions-and-answers hotline with my office. At the same time, I strongly believe that citizens of Wirtland also need to play a more active role in spreading the word about our project.

Economic sustainability of Wirtland is another core priority. Many ideas have been proposed, but no considerable business projects have been realized or even developed so far. I believe this is natural. The number of our population is still very low, while for business projects we need highly experienced professionals. But they are too few, and in high demand – even in the big countries. So, we do not dramatize the lack of business activity, but we want to encourage more initiative in the business field. One of promising directions is the “Wirtland Franchise” model, which serves a dual purpose: profit generation and popularization of Wirtland. “Wirtland Franchise” is, essentially, use of word Wirtland as a part of brand name for various new products. This model was first proposed by a South African winemaker, who wanted to sell wine under Wirtland label (“real wine from virtual land”). The same approach may apply to a variety of products and services, and we hope it will prove successful eventually.

2010 was also marked by establishment of Wirtland Institute. Wirtland Institite (WI) and Global Antiwar Party (GAP) are two Wirtland’s pilot projects in the humanitarian field. They are conceived to demonstrate Wirtland’s stand in the theory of statehood (WI) and in the practice of political life (GAP). Of course, they are still in embryonic phase, just like Wirtland itself. But we believe they serve as an important message, that Wirtland is more than just another online game or business venture, and has ambitious goals in politics and policy as well.

2. Witizen Services

After this overview, let briefly touch upon our new initiative - Witizen Services.

Wirtland’s overall concept is simple. We want to build the country around the person. We are not starting with institutions, laws and other mechanisms. We want to address person’s needs, first and foremost. This is why we are now developing Witizen Services.

First, we want to learn what services are most needed by the people.

Second, we will define what services Wirtland can render, taking into account our natural limitations as non-recognized country. We will hire qualified personnel and start rendering the services. The personnel will receive salary. The salary will be formed from the service fees.

What services will that be? Let witizens decide. It will depend on the people’s demands, and Wirtland’s ability to find appropriate professionals. From legal services to consulting, from information and translation services to security, from medical to religious. As witizens come from every professional sphere, our range may be rather broad.

Among the most obvious services that Wirtland should offer to our citizens is protection and legal advice. If you believe that you are in trouble and need legal support, perhaps contacting Wirtland’s lawyer would be a good idea. If you feel you were offended, maybe Wirtland can protect you. There is a chance that a witizen, who is willing and able to help, is nearby. We just need more information to release the full potential of witizenship. That’s why we are starting Witizen Services and looking forward to hearing from you!

With best regards,

Alexander, Chancellor of Wirtland

[This text will be updated with more information and hyperlinks. Please come back later for links to appropriate pages]

HAPPY WIRTLAND DAY!

On August 14 Wirtland celebrates its second birthday, a national holiday. Chancellor Alexander's Statement reads: "... Wirtland is now two years old. Not much for a country. But a lot for a micronation. Starting from zero in 2008, Wirtland became the world’s largest micronation. We are happy to welcome new citizens almost daily. They come from every country of the world. Wirtland’s plastic ID cards are being used for identification by people on all five continents. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Wirtland is everywhere. (full text here)."

We will be adding special anniversary news to this post. In the meantime, here is a small gift to Wirtland's citizens and friends: official Wirtland Anthem Ringtone for mobile phones. This jazzy tune is less formal than any ordinary anthem - relaxed and easy just like Wirtland itself as compared to traditional countries!

We have also prepared some Special Anniversary Edition souvenirs for Wirtland fans: T-shirts, mugs, etc. Tell us if you like them or want something new. Check back for more Anniversary merchandise and souvenirs here.

Witizens of Wirtland has moved to new hosting provider

The constant address of Witizens of Wirtland (W.o.W.) remains the same: www.Wirtland.net. W.o.W. is now hosted at grou.ps/witizens. The alternative witizens.grouply.com is still being tested. If you don't like something at grou.ps/witizens, please check the same function at witizens.grouply.com, and let us know at migration (at) wirtland.net.

Statement regarding the intrusion in privacy of Chancellor of Wirtland

During recent weeks the Office of Chancellor of Wirtland has received several letters from person(s) who offered photographic material related to the private life of Chancellor Alexander, the head of Wirtland. This person(s) offered to sell such photographs to Wirtland for considerable sum of money. In case of Wirtland’s refusal to buy the photographs, the paparazzi threatened to send the photos to press. In connection with the repeated requests from above-mentioned person(s), the PR attaché of Government of Wirtland was empowered to issue this statement.

I. Government of Wirtland will not grant any requests from blackmailers.

II. Speculation regarding the possible marriage of Chancellor Alexander is groundless. He protects his private life. He will not disclose the identity of the young lady who accompanied him on the photographs taken in Prague, however he commented that she is a family member. According to Chancellor Alexander, “the paparazzi are completely free to use their photographs as they desire”. He will not provide any further comment.

Cristopher Luengo
PR Attache of the Government of Wirtland
Wirtland, July 14, 2010

Paid hosting for Witizens of Wirtland Network: Influence of global economic crisis?

Wirtland.net, or Witizens of Wirtland (WoW) social network, has been hosted at Ning.com since 2008. In exchange for free hosting, Ning has been placing its Google Ads and its logo on WoW. All has been working rather well until now, when even Wirtland started to feel the consequences of global economic crisis. On May 4, 2010, our hosting provider discontinued free service for Wirtland, so we may face a need to introduce some kind of membership fee in the future. Ning's message to WoW network members reads: "We're focusing 100% on paying Ning Networks and will begin phasing out our free service in July".

Wirtland.net has been completely free for witizens so far. Shall we introduce a membership fee for new members now? What about the old members? How much? Any other solutions? Wirtland invited its citizens to brainstorm this new situation. It was discussed at: http://witizens.ning.com/forum/topics/paid-hosting-for-witizens-of.

Attention! The address of Witizens of Wirtland is now www.Wirtland.net. W.o.W. is now hosted at grou.ps/witizens. The alternative witizens.grouply.com is still being tested. If you don't like something at grou.ps/witizens, please check the same function at witizens.grouply.com, and let us know at migration (at) wirtland.net.

Recent "Witizen-to-Witizen" initiatives: a web startup and a job offer

Wirtland's population is not only growing fast. Witizens are becoming an active community, with its own market, start-ups, jobs. Here are two recent projects by witizens and for witizens.

Paul Miller has created "Merkato Virtlando", a beautiful marketplace for Wirtland (link). Everybody is invited to explore this website and share comments and ideas. Hopefully Wirtland will have more projects like that. Seems like a logical strategy for a cybercountry!

Hakan Eren is also proposing a new "Witizen-to-Witizen" project, and is offering a job for webmaster. Here's his announcement:
We are looking for webmaster to create a "party web-page". Looking for a witizen with experience in social networks, who is accessible and responsible. This page will be targeted mainly at Turkish people, so command of Turkish language is important. However, if Turkish is not available, English can do. Salary is negotiable. I'm going to donate 10% of project's profit to Wirtland.

Virtország! Do you speak Hungarian?

Hungarian Wikipedia became the 6th Wikipedia to feature Wirtland. Another beautiful new name for Wirtland was born - Virtország! This is excellent news, of course, and the link is here. However, the article seems a bit too short. Such rudimentary articles are often deleted by the Wiki system, unless users add flesh to them. One of witizens told us about this article. She said she tried to expand it, but could not save the updates, because Hungarian is not her mother tongue, so she probably lost her way in the Wiki commands. Now, some help from Hungarian-speaking people would be appreciated, to save that Virtország Wiki entry.
So, we are asking: Magyar, anybody?

Wirtland creates its own research institute

The Wirtland Institute (WI) was founded in March 2010 as a center for research, analysis, and professional dialogue in the area of new forms of statehood, pertaining to their social, legal, political, economic, and other aspects. WI is conceived to become Wirtland's "think tank" and produce policy recommendations for the first sovereign cybercountry. WI is independent from the government of Wirtland; WI's authors and experts are not limited to citizens of Wirtland. The founders will do their best to keep Institute neutral and free from any political or ideological bias.

The Wirtland Institute welcomes high-quality contributions from international experts. WI opens with publication of article by Thomas Frey, Executive Director at DaVinci Institute, entitled "The Virtual Country: Six Possible Scenarios for the Creation of Viable Virtual Countries". "Emerging forces in globalism has given rise to the notion of creating Virtual Countries, countries without land and without borders. Citizens of Virtual Countries will live in existing land-based countries; abide by their laws; and, at the same time, hold two or more citizenships", - points out the author of the article.

Patri Friedman, founder and executive director of the Seasteading Institute, welcomed possible cooperation with the Wirtland Institute. He said: "I would be delighted if Wirtland would take on research of questions of sovereignty, which are more general than just seasteading and apply to any nation-founding venture, so that we could focus on the specific issues related to nations on the water".

Wirtland institute was appointed with domain name www.Wirtland.org.

Wirtland sends condolence letter to Poland

April 10, 2010
The Honorable Donald Tusk
Prime Minister of Poland

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

On behalf of citizens of Wirtland, I extend to the people of Poland and to the families of those killed in the tragic accident my deepest condolences. Wirtland is not listed on the geographical map, but it represents over 1000 people from five continents, and we would like to add our voices to the thousands of expressions of deepest sympathy to the Polish nation on this tragical day.

Wyrazy szczerego żalu i współczucia.

Alexander, chancellor of Wirtland
www.Wirtland.com

Virtual state to acquire physical territory from Sweden

"Concept such as Wirtland is a new step in development of democracy in 21st century, and Sweden is open to support such initiatives", - Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Teo Zetterman said. Wirtland, the first sovereign cybercountry, announced plan to legitimately acquire real land from one (or several) world's countries. Once realized, Wirtland's plan of will be the first case of peaceful formation of a new country “from a scratch”. Sweden became the first country to react positively to Wirtland's proposal. Previously Sweden was among the first to open Embassy in "Second Life" virtual world.

According to Proposal, “The Kingdom of Sweden officially assigns a piece of its territory, of any quality and size, to Wirtland. Sweden will have a major stake in future sales of land from this territory, agreed in contract”. Thereby the virtual state takes hold of official territory, which later would be offered for sale to people willing to become citizens of new country. The quality and size of territory do not matter: Wirtland will remain virtual community, as no buyer will physically move to Sweden. Presence of defined territory is a necessary condition for diplomatic recognition of Wirtland by international community, according to Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. According to Article 1, to have sovereignty, a state must have a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government. Peaceful acquisition of even a small piece of territory by virtual community is a unique historical precedent, which opens door towards full official recognition of Wirtland, legitimization of Wirtland passports and other documents issued by virtual state.

* * *
Wirtland (www.Wirtland.com, www.Wirtland.net, www.Wirtland.org) describes itself as an experiment into legitimacy and self-sustainability of a country without its own soil. Founded in 2008, Wirtland represents people from all five continents. Wirtland grants citizenships, issues ID cards, mints gold and silver money, is featured in Wikipedia, and has won considerable coverage by television and press. Sweden was among the first nations to open official Embassy in "Second Life" (a virtual world).

Wirtland's population crosses 1000 mark

Olga, a charming lady from Moscow, Russia, became the 1000th citizen of Wirtland, who signed up to the Witizens of Wirtland (WoW) social network at www.wirtland.net. In addition to usual welcome, the 1000th witizen received a present - a free garment from the collection of Wirtland gift shop.

Population of the world's first sovereign cybercountry, however, is larger than the membership of WoW network. In fact, population of Wirtland had reached the 1000th mark much earlier.That's because there are two ways of joining Wirtland. One can either request citizenship application forms by email, or by online registration at www.wirtland.net. Membership in the online community is optional. There are people who received their Residence Permits and plastic ID cards without signing up to the network, so they are not counted by WoW. The total population of Wirtand is currently around 1100 and growing steadily. New members join in almost every day, from nearly every country of the world.

Virtual state to acquire physical territory

Wirtland has announced plan to legitimately acquire real land from one (or even several) world's countries. If realized, it will be the first case of peaceful formation of a new country “from a scratch”.

According to official press release, Wirtland approached the government of Nauru with a formal proposal to transfer a piece of its territory to Wirtland. Nauru, one of world's smallest island nations situated in the South Pacific, has vast barren terrain left over after several decades of phosphates mining. “Proposal for Monetization of Unused Land by cooperation between Republic of Nauru and Wirtland” is intended to utilize a piece of Nauru’s barren terrain. According to the Proposal, “Republic of Nauru officially assigns a piece of its territory, of any quality and size, to Wirtland. Nauru will have a major stake in future sales of land from this territory, agreed in contract”. In his letter addressed to the President of the Republic of Nauru, Chancellor of Wirtland underlined his hope that “such a plan, if realized, will make a positive effect on the economy of Nauru”.

Thereby the virtual state would take hold of official territory, which later would be offered for sale to people willing to become citizens of new country. The quality and size of territory do not matter: Wirtland will remain virtual community, as no buyer will physically move to Nauru. However, presence of defined territory is a necessary condition for diplomatic recognition of Wirtland by international community, according to Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. According to Article 1 of Montevideo Convention, to have sovereignty, a state must have a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government. Wirtland hopes that peaceful acqusition of even a small piece of territory by virtual community will become a unique historical precedent and will open the door towards full official recognition of Wirtland, legitimization of Wirtland passports and other documents issued by virtual state.

For a partner country such as Nauru, the result of the barter deal is possibility to make money out of otherwise useless land. Nauru’s official reaction is not known. Wirtland reserves right to approach other governments with similar proposal.

Wirtland describes itself as an experiment into legitimacy and self-sustainability of a country without its own soil. Founded in 2008, Wirtland represents people from all five continents. Wirtland issues plastic ID cards, mints its own gold and silver coins. Wirtland's population is around 1,000 people. Republic of Nauru is an island nation situated in the South Pacific. Nauru's population is around 10,000.

>> Media Reactions

Sorry, Wirtland, You’re Not a Sovereign– Try ..., View from LL2, January 29, 2010

За бога, братя! Да емигрираме във... Виртландия!, Avtora.com, January 21, 1010 (in Bulgarian)

Scratching at the Surface - Wirtland gets physical, PR from the Beach, January 20, 2010

Wirtland, The Virtual State, Is Now Shopping For Real Estate, DGC Blog, January 20, 2010

Виртландия си купи истинска земя, "Telegraph"/IT In The Press, Jan. 20, 2010 (in Bulgarian)

Wirtland To Acquire Real Land, "Impact Lab", January 19, 2010

Application for Witizenship in Korean: 워틀랜드 시민권 신청서

Wirtland has become friendlier to Korean-speaking people. The Korean language has become the 8th language in which the Wirtland Citizenship Application Form is available, in addition to English, Spanish, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Thai. We hope it will help to make Wirtland better-known in the Far East, and among Korean-speaking communities worldwide.