Our Stage II boat harbor will be located in the United States. There are many reasons for this. Amongst them are two important rationales listed below. Some additional thoughts are considered in italics. 1) The largest and most robust population of Classical Liberals or Libertarians reside in the United States. Ethos Island is a Classical Liberal organization with the concepts of Natural Rights, the Non-Aggression principle and privatized governance being the overarching ethos of our group. We have already seen through experience that our guiding principles are most enthusiastically embraced by like-minded advocates of human liberty. Most of our supporters demonstrably lean in the direction of Classical Liberal views and libertarian values. ​ 2) The U.S government bears little resemblance to what the American founders constructed. The current government is closer to an organized crime syndicate than it is to the Constitutional Republic originally created. However, The American founders were brilliant and farsighted. They created a Judicial System that has remained remarkably intact. It has remained, to a large extent, (unlike the U.S. government) impervious to the forces that have warped and corrupted the executive and legislative branches of the Federal political system. Some States have judiciaries that have a high degree of fidelity to the U.S. Constitution. Other States do not. We have chosen to have our Stage II in a State that maintains a high level of integrity to the primary founding documents. This means that law-abiding people who are doing nothing illegal or unconstitutional stand a reasonable chance of being left alone as we develop in the land-based segment of our Seasteading journey. ​ The United States were born out of rebellion against tyranny. The spirit of resisting unjust authority and intolerable corruption is still quite strong in America. Large numbers of U.S. citizens have become fed-up with the malfeasance and blatant, unconstitutional activities of their own government. They are not likely to be very tolerant of any kind of bullying or harassment of law-abiding people who are peacefully pursuing a plan to regain their rightful Liberty. If authoritarians try to crack down a legal Seasteading venture while it is developing within the United States, those actions will be broadcast through millions of digital devices across the entire planet. Even the most unscrupulous and jaded American politician or judge will never be able to stand for long having to witness their own appalling injustice when revealed to the American people and the entire world.

The governance of Ethos Island will be based firmly upon three essential components: Natural Law, the Non-aggression Principle and privatized civic functions. At Stage II (the boat harbor community) we have given ourselves 3 to 5 years to prepare for life on a Seastead. It will be during this time where the creation of a Seastead Compact and Personal Citizen Contracts will be finalized based directly upon the precepts underlined above. The primary objective of our organization is the perpetuation of human sovereignty. We will achieve this through the rigorous protections of well-defined, unambiguous Individual Rights and by privatizing civic functions (including and especially the judiciary) where every aspect of these functions are completely transparent and 100% accountable to citizens. This will be done to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that nothing even approaching modern-day politicians can arise in our new societies. The private contractors hired to provide our civic functions can be dismissed if they are not behaving in a satisfactory way as judged by Ethos Island residents. New contractors will be hired to replace bad ones. Sandy Springs Georgia has a system in use today based upon this concept.

Our legal system will be established directly upon the tenants of Natural Law and the Non-aggression Principle. We are currently at Stage I in our III Stage process so there is no need for a codified legal system to be produced at the present time. Once we have reached Stage II which will be in the United States, we must abide by U.S. law. But at that time we will construct a detailed legal structure long before the actual building of an ocean-going city-state has begun. That structure will be devised in full view of all Stage II members. If we have strayed from our core principles in any way, we will expect that people will simply reject investing into Stage III. This is part of our method for retaining integrity. When our legal system is written during Stage II, we will be assisted by well-educated legal technicians with knowledge of contract terminology. However, that terminology will be modernized, simplified, and made clear. We will seek to leave the mottled past of statutory complexity and ambiguity to the greatest extent that is humanly possible. Our judiciary will be managed by private contractors who answer to the residents of Ethos Island; contractors that can be terminated at the will of a majority of citizens. This means that our legal system will be unlike any national system before it. This provides an unprecedented opportunity for great improvement over what exists at the present time. All actions of the judicial system will be made completely transparent to residents of Atlas Island. If a judge is ever understood to have violated the Rights of a resident, the private contractor who has hired and manages that judge will have to answer for the misbehavior and rectify and wrongdoing. ​

The boat harbor (Stage 2) and the Seastead (Stage 3) will be paid for through the same essential strategy that is commonly used today for building condominium complexes. Buyers pay a private contractor for their individual living space. The contractor uses the money from, as an example, 500 buyers to build a large structure that consists of the living spaces and various facilities that support the complex. An agreement on exactly how the larger property is maintained and regulated has been worked out far in advance of purchases and people have a thorough contractual agreement for their property/properties. The condominium structure (or in our case a boat harbor structure or Seastead) is collectively owned by those who have purchased individual units. Through this method, people of modest means can become citizens of new and free societies. ​ People will live aboard their own vessels in the boat harbor community. Their harbor berths can be sold if the boat harbor resident decides to leave the community. On Seasteads, all home and business structures will be modular so that the owner can take their property with them if they decide for any reason to leave. ​