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Alex Voss

Alex Voss

Member of the Board

TipolisChief Financial OfficerTipolistipolis.com
Biography

Alex is a Foundation Council Member of the Free Cities Foundation. He has a background in investment banking and joined Titus Gebel as the CFO of Tipolis from its beginning. Alex lives in Chicago and is working to expand the ideas of the Foundation to the Americas.

Before Tipolis he worked on corporate restructurings and mergers and acquisitions in healthcare, and in asset management at Ariel Investments, buying deep-value equities. That is the discipline he brings to a field with a shortage of it: a new city is a capital project with a thirty-year horizon and no comparable transactions to price it against, and somebody has to model it anyway.

Alongside Tipolis he advises fintech, Bitcoin, intentional-community and real-estate ventures, and argues that a Free City needs a financial system that does not depend on the goodwill of the country it sits in.

He studied economics and finance at the University of Chicago and Notre Dame, holds the CFA charter along with several other professional designations, and has more recently formalised his study of Austrian economics through the Mises Institute.

Books
Cover of A Country That Builds by Alexander D. VossA Country That Builds Guantánamo Bay and the Future of American PowerThe United States has leased forty-five square miles of Caribbean coastline at Guantánamo Bay since 1903, and for decades the naval station has sat largely idle. Alex Voss argues that its extraterritorial status and ready-built port, runway, and power grid make it the ideal site for a Free City under American sovereignty, drawing lessons from Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, and Shenzhen.More about this book Cover of Strategies for Liberty by Alexander D. VossStrategies for Liberty Free Cities & BitcoinIn this book, Alex Voss makes the case that Free Cities and Bitcoin are among the most powerful tools we have to meaningfully enhance liberty. Importantly, the synergies between these two tools make them exceptionally powerful in their potential to free us from today’s legacy systems.More about this book
Browse all books
Articles by Alex Voss

  • Blog4 min read

    People Go Where They Are Treated Best

    There is a line in Jamie Dimon’s 2025 letter to JPMorgan shareholders that reads like a warning shot aimed at high-tax state capitals. “Individuals vote with their feet,” he wrote. “You can already see a fairly large exodus of people and jobs out of some states with high taxes and high expenses.” Then he laid out the receipts. JPMorgan has cut its New York headcount from 30,000 a decade ago to 24,000. Its Texas headcount has grown from 26,000 in 2015 to 32,000 over the same period. He framed the migration plainly: “People often make this a moral or loyalty issue, but it is not. Companies need to remain competitive in this very tough, fast-moving world.”

    People Go Where They Are Treated Best

  • Academic24 min read

    The Governance Dividend: The Story of Carmel, Indiana

    Most people assume that good governance is expensive. That it demands large bureaucracies, heavy tax burdens, and a government apparatus that grows in perpetuity. Carmel, Indiana suggests they are wrong. What the Carmel experience shows instead is that when a community shares basic norms, when the physical environment is well designed, and when leadership makes deliberate choices about what to build, governance gets cheap. Surprisingly cheap.

    The Governance Dividend: The Story of Carmel, Indiana

  • Blog11 min read

    Quadratic Voting, Quadratic Finance & Free Cities

    Intentional communities, planned developments, and new city projects share a common challenge: how do you fairly decide which shared infrastructure to build, and how do you pay for it? Whether the community is an off-grid village, a…

    Quadratic Voting, Quadratic Finance & Free Cities

  • Blog8 min read

    The Future of Citizenship and Residencies

    The history of residencies and citizenships is deeply intertwined with the development of human societies, governance, and international relations. It’s a complex topic that spans from ancient civilizations to modern-day policies, reflecting changes in how communities and nations define belonging, rights, and obligations. While those who argue passports are inherently statist conceptions may be correct, if we aim to be free in the world we find ourselves in, we must learn more about this institution.

    The Future of Citizenship and Residencies

  • Academic31 min read

    Free Private Cities: A Market-Oriented Solution to the Problems of Government Intervention

    Free Private Cities (FPCs) are a new model of governance in which a purely private, investor-owned company provides the services of a State in a city-sized area. Free Private Cities attempt to provide Governance-as-a-Service (GAAS) by treating the relationship with residents as that between a service provider and a consumer rather than ruler and subject. The key characteristics of FPCs include a contract signed between the consumer and the FSP Operator, consensual taxes and/or fees charged by the Operator to the resident consumer, and the provision of infrastructure including energy, water treatment, roads, security, dispute resolution, and others. This paper first lays out in detail the risks, pitfalls, and negative consequences of government intervention in the economy and then examines the FPC model of governance to determine if it is distinctive enough to avoid the same pitfalls or if it merely represents a form of privatized statehood that suffers from many or most of the flaws of traditional governments.

    Free Private Cities: A Market-Oriented Solution to the Problems of Government Intervention

  • Blog17 min read

    The Future of the Market of Living Together

    To understand how the future might look, we need to understand the past. Specifically, we must understand the past as it is unfolding into the present and the future. In that vein, we begin this analysis looking to understand a few of the historical trends in governance. In the end, we will conclude by putting forth a future state of governance provision that we believe logically follows from what we have observed in the past.

    The Future of the Market of Living Together

  • Blog11 min read

    Constitution of Consent

    The Constitution of Consent Contest was held in mid-2023 and organized by Max Borders. Intended to jumpstart and accelerate a conversation around the best forms that emerging models of consensual governance could take, the task was to:

    Constitution of Consent

  • Blog7 min read

    Free Cities and Privacy

    Free Cities and Privacy have more to do with each other than appears at first glance. While part of this is a function of those interested in Free Cities, it is also my contention that due to the competition in governance created by Free Cities, emphasis on privacy will increase in Free Cities over time as they look to separate themselves from traditional governance models.

    Free Cities and Privacy

  • Academic31 min read

    Can Free Cities Establish a Monetary Moat?

    Every country in the modern world exists under a fiat standard in which central banks manipulate credit expansion and contraction in the economy, resulting in business cycles as described through Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT). Given the relative unlikelihood of modern major nation-states adopting a sound monetary policy and this author’s role and interest in bringing about autonomous cities with monetary policy (amongst other liberties) set by private companies separate and apart from the nation-state, we aim to explore whether an independent city-state can extricate itself from the business cycle by creating a “monetary moat” and if so, to what extent. We begin with a brief explanation of ABCT and the possible mechanisms for economic disturbances to transmit from one jurisdiction to another. We then highlight the similarities and differences between 1.) a move to sound policy from a credit expansionary fiat policy by a.) a large competitive country b.) a smaller ‘regional’ country c.) a city-state towards a unique and distinct policy. Concluding this section, we will set forth certain assumptions and conditions for our analysis which follows in the next section. Finally, we conclude with policy recommendations for cities (largely autonomous but also subsidiary) and small countries. Time permitting, we will explore the role that a self-governing city that implements sound Austrian monetary policy can play in promoting sound policy around the world and limiting the boom-and-bust cycle.

    Can Free Cities Establish a Monetary Moat?

  • Blog6 min read

    The Adventure of Building a Free City

    Free Cities are the new frontier. There can hardly be anything more adventurous than exploring the exciting possibilities, the mystery of the unknown, and the immense promise and potential that Free Cities bring with them. From founding and developing them to moving there and becoming a pioneer and entrepreneur in so many ways, the landscape of Free Cities appears to be the next big adventure in the development of the market for living together.

    The Adventure of Building a Free City

  • Blog6 min read

    Taxes Are the Price We Pay for Not Living in a Civilized Society

    During tax season, many people will be trying to provide you with practical ways to lower your tax bill and mitigate your potential exposure to both tax payments and tax reporting. Instead of repeating such advice, I would rather leave that to the other writers and spend some time in this article discussing the role of taxes in society. In particular, I would like to explain why we don’t actually need taxes.

    Taxes Are the Price We Pay for Not Living in a Civilized Society

  • Blog5 min read

    How Free Cities Promote Peace and Goodwill

    While spiritually, peace might have positive characteristics and qualities, in the world of human affairs and legal and political systems, peace is more of a definitionally negative concept. Much like darkness is the absence of light, peace is the absence of conflict. When viewed from this perspective, peace is at the very core of what Free CIties try to promote.

    How Free Cities Promote Peace and Goodwill

  • Blog4 min read

    Intentional Communities: De Facto Free Cities

    As the world grows increasingly centralized and each little part of life seems more and more micromanaged from above, the desire for intentional living is a deeply understandable response. It offers a way to opt out — to decentralize society by associating with the people you like and consciously choosing the things you do and the places you visit.

    Intentional Communities: De Facto Free Cities

  • Blog6 min read

    A New Year, a New Beginning

    Free Cities are in many ways a manifestation of a new beginning for those jurisdictions that are looking to start over. Big changes may not always be palatable to the population or politically feasible but smaller-scale experiments can often pass the test. At the same time, many Free Cities are themselves starting from scratch and really represent a new beginning to the development of infrastructure, culture, human interactions, and the development of new and improved ways of doing things. In much the same way that the new year represents a hard stop and a way to change one’s habits, Free Cities offer the same in governance and lifestyle.

    A New Year, a New Beginning

  • Blog6 min read

    How Free Cities Can Transform Our World

    Free Cities represent an ideal mechanism to transform the world into a more peaceful and prosperous place. They provide more options and more creative innovation in the market of living together which can lead to a transformation in governance services. What is also remarkable about Free Cities is how they transform the incentives of a governance service provider.

    How Free Cities Can Transform Our World

  • Blog5 min read

    Free Cities and Taxes

    Free Cities offer a wide variety of benefits to their residents-customers. In all freed markets, both the buyer and the seller of a given service enter an economic relationship voluntarily and both sides (at least before the transaction) believe they will benefit from the relationship. Otherwise, why would they freely consent to the transaction? While the benefits of Free Cities range from providing a secure community to work and live to finding a place to live that is simply less political, one of the most important freedoms that Free Cities offer is freedom from overbearing income taxation. The following is, of course, not tax advice but rather a general article on the benefits that Free Cities might offer to their residents. The points explained below are best applicable to the most far-reaching Free Cities model — the Free Private City.

    Free Cities and Taxes

  • Blog5 min read

    Madeira: A Portuguese Free City?

    Though Free Cities are in one way a universal idea, at the present they cannot just be built anywhere. Geopolitics, food and water supplies, trade routes, and other such variables represent just a few of the major considerations a Free City will need to consider and adapt around. Each location has its pros and cons. The more remote, likely the greater autonomy a Free City can achieve but also the more self-sufficient it must be.

    Madeira: A Portuguese Free City?

  • Blog5 min read

    Free Cities as Plan B

    Free Cities represent a promising option for countries and individuals looking for a “plan B”. They can be a backup plan for any country willing to give them a shot. I would even venture to say that Free Cities represent a plan B for global society at large.

    Free Cities as Plan B

  • Blog6 min read

    Free Cities: A New Option for Expats?

    It will come as no surprise to readers of this article that the current situation is perilous in the US and throughout much of the western world. We are ensconced in debt and our political leaders are preoccupied with virtue signaling on foreign affairs rather than ensuring babies have the formula they need. Both major parties argue over the legitimacy of US elections. Any semblance of a solution seems unlikely.

    Free Cities: A New Option for Expats?
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