From the proclamation of independence on the banks of the Danube in 2015 to permanent settlement, blockchain governance and a growing international diplomatic presence, Liberland’s first eleven years have been anything but conventional. This timeline traces the defining moments that transformed a bold experiment in liberty and voluntary government into a functioning community with its own institutions, economy and place in the world.
Historical Milestones of Liberland: 2015–2026
The history of the Free Republic of Liberland is an unusual convergence of classical liberal ideas, experimental governance, blockchain technology, physical settlement and international diplomacy.
Proclaimed on the banks of the Danube on April 13, 2015, Liberland began with an ambitious proposition: that a new country could be built around individual liberty, voluntary cooperation, private property and limited government. What began as a declaration on an uninhabited piece of territory between Croatia and Serbia quickly attracted worldwide attention.
In the years that followed its historic proclamation of independence, Liberland has developed institutions, a global diplomatic network, a blockchain-based system of government and, eventually, a continuous physical settlement on its territory.
These are some of the milestones that have shaped Liberland's first eleven years.
2015 - The Founding of Liberland
On April 13, 2015, Vít Jedlička and the first Liberlanders proclaimed the Free Republic of Liberland on Gornja Siga, approximately seven square kilometers of land on the Danube between Croatia and Serbia.
The territory had emerged from differing interpretations of the Croatia-Serbia border following the breakup of Yugoslavia. Croatia maintained a cadastral interpretation of the border that placed Gornja Siga outside Croatia, while Serbia regarded the Danube as the relevant boundary and likewise did not claim the territory. Liberland's founders therefore regarded Gornja Siga as terra nullius prior to the proclamation.
The announcement produced extraordinary international attention and hundreds of thousands of applications for citizenship.
The remainder of the year brought both rapid institution-building as well as considerable difficulties. The Liberland Settlement Association organized attempts to establish a physical presence, while Croatian authorities increasingly restricted access to the territory. Numerous Liberlanders and supporters were detained during attempts to visit Gornja Siga.
Those confrontations made physical settlement difficult, but they also transformed Liberland from an obscure experiment into an internationally known project.
2016 - Building National Institutions
With worldwide attention established, Liberland increasingly turned toward the less glamorous but essential work of building a state.
Government departments, diplomatic missions and humanitarian initiatives developed while work continued on a constitutional system intended to place strong limits on government power and protect individual liberty, private property and voluntary exchange.
Liberland also began developing its system of national honors. The First Class Order of Merit of the Star of Liberland, established in 2016, would eventually be awarded to distinguished supporters of liberty, innovation, humanitarian work and the development of Liberland.
2017 - A Diplomatic Breakthrough
On September 25, 2017, Liberland and the Republic of Somaliland signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Berbera.
Representatives of the two governments agreed to begin a mutual recognition process and created a Joint Committee on Technology, Energy and Banking. The agreement became one of the most important early milestones in Liberland's foreign relations.
At the same time, Liberland was attracting architects, entrepreneurs and urban planners interested in the possibility of building a new city virtually from the ground up. International architectural proposals explored dense, environmentally conscious and technologically advanced approaches to developing the territory.
2018 - Humanitarian Action and International Expansion
Liberland's growing international network increasingly moved beyond advocacy into practical action.
Following Cyclone Sagar, which caused severe destruction in Somaliland in May 2018, the Liberland community organized humanitarian assistance for the country. The effort demonstrated that the relationship established the previous year could extend beyond diplomacy into practical cooperation.
Liberland also continued expanding its international representation and building communities of citizens and supporters across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.
2019 - Developing the Liberland Economy
By 2019, Liberland Merit, or LLM, had become an important element of the country's voluntary economic and political system.
Rather than financing the state through compulsory taxation, Liberland rewarded voluntary financial contributions and work performed for the country with Merits. By the end of 2019, more than four million LLM had been issued.
This system laid important conceptual foundations for the later blockchain governance model, in which Merit would become directly connected with political participation.
2020 - Building a Digital State During a Global Shutdown
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented restrictions on international travel and physical gatherings. For Liberland, however, it also reinforced the importance of institutions that did not depend upon geography.
Work continued on electronic government, digital identity, cryptocurrency and remote administration. During this period Liberland decided to move its developing blockchain e-governance concept toward the Polkadot ecosystem, an important step toward the architecture subsequently developed for the Liberland Blockchain.
The experience demonstrated one of Liberland's founding assumptions: many functions traditionally associated with a state could be performed digitally by citizens scattered around the world.
In spite of these challenges, Liberland signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government of Haiti on March 5, 2020 and Liberland citizens acting through the Liberland Aid Foundation delivered around 37,000 lbs. of food to Haitians in need.
2021 - Expanding Government-to-Government Engagement
As international travel resumed, Liberland intensified its diplomatic outreach.
Delegations engaged government officials and political leaders in a growing number of countries, while the rapid international adoption of cryptocurrency brought new attention to Liberland's longstanding interest in Bitcoin and blockchain-based governance.
The emergence of El Salvador as the first UN member state to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender was particularly significant for Liberland, whose government had accepted Bitcoin and maintained cryptocurrency reserves years earlier. In November, Liberland citizens made a large donation in Bitcoin to the Benjamin Bloom Children’s Hospital in San Salvador as an official Liberland delegation visited the Presidential House and several Ministries.
2022 - The Liberland Blockchain Takes Shape
In 2022, years of experimentation with digital governance began taking concrete technological form.
The Liberland Blockchain, based on Substrate and the Polkadot technological ecosystem, approached its Alpha Mainnet stage. The system was designed not merely as another cryptocurrency network but as infrastructure for a state: citizenship, elections, company registration, governance, assets and eventually judicial functions could be administered on-chain.
The year represented an important transition from the idea of blockchain government to functioning national infrastructure.
2023 - Return to the Territory
The year 2023 fundamentally changed Liberland.
Early in the year, settler Jan "Honza" Urban maintained a presence on the territory for 25 days despite difficult conditions and restrictions on access. The highly viewed visit of YouTuber Niko Omilana subsequently brought Liberland to millions of viewers around the world.
The decisive breakthrough came on August 6, when a group of Liberlanders entered Gornja Siga through a newly established border regime with Croatia.
For the first time since the country's founding, regular access to Liberland became possible. Settlers quickly established camps, infrastructure and basic services, including filtered running water.
The following months were not without setbacks. Croatian authorities again removed settlers’ property in September, but Liberlanders remained and rebuilt. From August 2023 onward, a core community maintained a continuous presence on the territory.
For the first time, Liberland was no longer only a state with a territory it sought to settle. It had become home to a permanent community.
In December, an official Liberland delegation attended the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei.
2024 - Blockchain Democracy and New Political Leadership
In October 2024, Liberland conducted its first congressional election entirely through its blockchain governance system.
The election demonstrated that blockchain government had moved from theory into practice: eligible citizens could participate in choosing national representatives through transparent on-chain mechanisms.
Among those elected to Congress was TRON founder Justin Sun. Following the election, Sun was appointed Prime Minister of Liberland.
His entry into government brought considerable international attention to Liberland and strengthened the connection between the country's political experiment and the global blockchain community.
2025 - Ten Years of Liberland
Liberland entered its second decade with achievements extending from the Danube to the Moon.
On March 2, a digital Liberland flag reached the lunar surface aboard Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander, part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The Moon landing occurred near Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium.
In April, Liberlanders from around the world gathered to celebrate the country's 10th Anniversary at Ark Village in Apatin and on Liberland itself.
The year also brought further development of the Liberland Dollar, or LLD, expanded blockchain connectivity, international diplomatic outreach and ambitious investment plans for the region surrounding Liberland.
After a decade, the project that had begun with a flag planted on the banks of the Danube had developed a permanent settlement, elected institutions, a functioning blockchain government and a worldwide community.
2026 - Institutional Maturation and a Second Decade
Liberland's eleventh year has been characterized by the continued maturation of its democratic, technological and diplomatic institutions.
Quarterly blockchain elections have demonstrated continuity in on-chain governance, while Congress has assumed an increasingly important role in legislation and national policy.
Liberland has also begun another major technological transition. After years of developing and testing its Substrate-based blockchain, work began toward greater Ethereum compatibility and ultimately migrating key elements of governance into the Ethereum ecosystem. The goal is to combine Liberland's existing on-chain institutions with the security, liquidity and enormous developer community surrounding Ethereum.
Meanwhile, continuous settlement on Gornja Siga has now endured for more than three years. Dwellings and basic support structures have been established, regular events bring visitors to the territory, and the Liberland community in nearby Apatin has continued to grow.
Internationally, Liberland has continued expanding dialogue with governments, legislators and diplomatic representatives while advocating peaceful resolution of outstanding questions with neighboring Croatia.
Eleven years after its proclamation, Liberland has moved through several distinct phases: from an idea, to an international movement, to a digital state, and finally to a country combining functioning digital institutions with a physical community on its territory.
From Declaration to Nation-Building
Liberland's history remains a work in progress.
Its first eleven years have demonstrated that building a new country is neither a single declaration nor a single diplomatic breakthrough. It is a gradual process of creating institutions, establishing a population, developing infrastructure, maintaining international relations and building a community whose members are willing to invest their time and resources in a shared future.
The principles announced in 2015 remain at the center of that experiment: individual liberty, voluntary cooperation, limited government and the simple national motto, "To Live and Let Live."
The milestones of 2015–2026 therefore represent more than a chronology. They document the transformation of Liberland from an audacious idea into an ongoing experiment in what a sovereign state can look like in the twenty-first century.