Olivier Janssens and the First Development to Share Profits Directly with Citizens

When Olivier Janssens began mining Bitcoin in 2010, the idea that decentralized systems could outperform traditional institutions was still considered fringe. Bitcoin traded for roughly one dollar, attracted little mainstream attention, and was widely dismissed as a technological curiosity with no obvious future. Yet for Janssens, the appeal was never speculation. It was the architecture: systems designed to function reliably over time by aligning incentives rather than relying on trust.

Fifteen years later, that same long-term, systems-level thinking underpins Destiny, the world’s first Special Sustainability Zone, located in Nevis and developed in partnership with the Nevis Island Administration and the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis. The project applies principles more commonly associated with software and financial infrastructure to the physical world of cities, governance, and development.

Special Sustainability Zones build on the concept of traditional Special Economic Zones, which have long been used by governments to attract investment through regulatory or tax incentives. SSZs represent an evolved model: rather than focusing narrowly on competitiveness, they place sustainability, governance quality, safety, and long-term social alignment at the core of development. The objective is durability — economic, institutional, and social.

Destiny’s most distinctive feature is its economic structure. Under the project’s framework, five percent of net profits will be distributed directly to Nevisians, using modern digital infrastructure designed to be transparent and auditable. It is the first time anywhere in the world that a large-scale private development has contractually committed to sharing profits not only with government, but directly with citizens.

“This is not charity, and it’s not marketing,” Janssens says. “It’s a structural alignment of incentives. If Destiny does well, the people do well.”

Janssens’ credibility rests on a history of early, high-conviction decisions. After beginning his career at Sun Microsystems, he worked on large-scale IT projects for banks and telecom operators across Europe. He later founded Destiny Telecom in Belgium, which grew into one of the country’s leading providers before being sold to investors, including the De Wever brothers.

His subsequent involvement in Bitcoin, including becoming one of the earliest miners globally, and his participation in the Ethereum presale further cemented his reputation for identifying structural shifts before they became mainstream. In 2014, he attracted international attention after becoming the first person to charter a private jet using Bitcoin, a symbolic moment that marked the technology’s transition from theory to reality.

“Early on, people thought Bitcoin was about speculation,” Janssens recalls. “But the real innovation was trust minimization, systems that continue to work even when institutions fail. That insight matters far beyond money.”

At Destiny, those insights translate into a governance framework designed to combine private efficiency with public accountability. The Zone emphasizes transparent rules, strong property rights, predictable enforcement, and safety, all operating fully within the constitutional framework of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Safety and family-friendliness is a central pillar of the project. Destiny aims to become one of the most secure places in the world to live, work, and invest. It is primarily built to attract families that want live peacefully and enjoy the amazing lifestyle and nature that Nevis has to offer.

In addition to the direct profit-sharing mechanism, Destiny includes commitments to infrastructure, healthcare, education, and a dedicated development fund. These investments are intended to support not only the Zone itself, but the broader economic and social fabric of Nevis.

“This has never been done before by a private developer,” notes one regional economist. “It fundamentally changes the relationship between development and the local population.”

For Janssens, the logic is straightforward. “If you want long-term stability, you don’t extract value, you embed it locally.”

As governments around the world grapple with declining institutional trust, rising inequality, and increasingly fragile social contracts, Destiny offers a concrete experiment in next-generation development. It is not positioned as a template to be copied wholesale, but as a demonstration that alternative structures are possible.

Much like Bitcoin in its early years, Destiny may appear unconventional today. But Janssens is comfortable with that. “Every system that actually works in the long run looks novel at the beginning,” he says.

If history is any guide, Destiny may prove that the principles of resilient system design can extend beyond code and into the foundations of how communities are built.