Thread by @asfoooooom

The imagined reality of capital gains financing critical infrastructure

@harari_yuval says nations, money and corporations are imagined realities. He argues that fictions narrated by lawyers today are far more fantastic than witch doctors of days past. His larger point is that when enough people believe in a story, it becomes real.

I consider myself a financial engineer. I use my knowledge of market forces to construct bankable contracts in order to solve a problem. For the last four years I’ve focused only on one problem: how to make Internet access affordable for all.

While reading an article by @Ali_Christopher i internalized that a fiber connection enhances home value by 3%. Usually a fiber connection to a home costs less than 3% of a home’s value. And so I thought aha a possible bankable deal

@fiberopticassoc estimates that it will cost $70 bn to connect all households. Now telecom cash flows aren’t enough to justify all these investments. However, if some of these investments can be satisfied by home equity value appreciation then Fiberizing America becomes feasible

I’ve spent the last two days learning about home equity sharing agreements. Such agreements allow investors to own a fraction of a home. Similarly there are upside only sharing agreements.

This idea can enable a situation where home owners become owners of last mile fiber infrastructure. Community owned last mile Internet infrastructure looks feasible. The mere thought is exciting.

Going back to Harari. This too is a fiction, much like any other financial contract. But if enough people believe in it, it becomes real.

Help me make this finance fiction a reality: investors can buy a fractional share of home equity for $5,000 and use those proceeds to pay for a last mile fiber connection which becomes a part of the home owner’s property.