Próspera

What Próspera is

Próspera is one of Honduras’s Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs): a special jurisdiction created under national law that writes its own civil, commercial, labour and environmental rules while remaining part of Honduras, bound by the constitution, criminal law and international treaties. It describes itself as a governance platform where entrepreneurs are “free to build”, and it is the most developed project of its kind anywhere.

It is a public-private partnership. The Próspera ZEDE is a Honduran local-government jurisdiction under the constitution; the platform that runs it is furnished by Honduras Próspera Inc., a company founded by Erick Brimen and backed by investors including Pronomos Capital and, later, Coinbase Ventures. The zone is headed by a Technical Secretary, a Honduran official appointed by the state, and its rules require approval from CAMP, the national committee that oversees the ZEDEs.

Where Próspera is

Próspera sits on the west side of Roatán, the largest of Honduras’s Bay Islands, about 65 kilometres off the Caribbean coast and around twenty minutes from Roatán’s international airport, which has direct flights from Miami, Houston, Atlanta, Denver, Toronto and Madrid. Its two districts are a twenty-minute walk apart: the Beta District, the first hillside campus, and Pristine Bay, a beach resort with an eighteen-hole golf course. The jurisdiction also includes a mainland site near La Ceiba, incorporated in 2021 and intended for manufacturing.

The zone started with under five acres in 2017 and grows by consent: land enters Próspera only when its owner chooses to incorporate it, recorded in the public land registry.

How Próspera is governed

Próspera’s legal system is built on common-law foundations, with an unusual choice of regulation: a business may operate under the default common-law liability rules, adopt the regulatory regime of an OECD country such as the United States, Canada, Sweden or the state of Delaware, adopt Próspera’s own best-practice rules, or propose its own, backed by regulatory insurance. Its charter incorporates the U.S. Bill of Rights and prohibits the expropriation of land.

Taxes

The published tax code is short. Personal income tax works out at an effective 5 percent, business income tax at an effective 1 percent of gross revenue, value-added tax at an effective 2.5 percent, and there is a 1 percent tax on the unimproved value of land. There is no capital gains, estate, inheritance, wealth, payroll or gift tax and no import or export duties. Twelve percent of the zone’s taxes and fees go to the Honduran national government, and the charter caps what Próspera may collect at 7.5 percent of its economic output.

Courts and currency

Disputes go by default to the Próspera Arbitration Center, whose roster includes former state supreme court justices from the United States, though parties may agree on other courts. The lempira and the US dollar circulate, and Bitcoin is recognised as an official unit of account in which taxes and fees can be paid.

Living and working in Próspera

Anyone entering the zone signs an Agreement of Coexistence, as the ZEDE law requires. Residency and e-Residency are open to foreigners and Hondurans alike for an annual fee, and a company can be formed online in under a day. By charter, at least 90 percent of employees must be Honduran and wages must exceed the national minimum.

The built environment includes the Duna Residences tower, the tallest building on Roatán, with studios and apartments, coworking and a makerspace; the Beta Building, which houses the arbitration centre; a hotel, beach club and golf course at Pristine Bay; a Montessori school; a clinic; and a Bitcoin centre. The businesses on site cluster in biotechnology and longevity medicine, crypto and fintech, technology and hospitality.

How Próspera came about

Honduras amended its constitution in 2012 and passed the ZEDE Organic Law in 2013 to allow special jurisdictions with their own legal and fiscal systems. Erick Brimen applied for a zone on Roatán in 2017 and Próspera was approved that December; the first residents and businesses arrived in 2020, construction of the Beta District began in 2021, and the e-Residency programme launched the same year.

Legal status

Congress voted to repeal the ZEDE law in April 2022, and in September 2024 the Supreme Court declared the ZEDE constitutional amendments unconstitutional. Próspera continues to operate. It holds a fifty-year legal-stability agreement with the Honduran state, the repeal of the constitutional articles was never ratified by a subsequent legislature as the constitution requires, and the developer points to protections under the Honduras-Kuwait investment treaty and the CAFTA-DR trade agreement. Honduras Próspera Inc. has brought a claim before the World Bank’s ICSID tribunal, and the zone’s Technical Secretary and independent legal opinions have concluded that it may keep operating while the dispute is resolved.