**Woman Discovers Her Entire Country Is Just A 20-Year-Old IT Guy’s Crypto Side Hustle**
Look, I’m not saying you should start questioning the fundamental nature of reality every time you pay your taxes, but maybe you should start questioning the fundamental nature of reality every time you pay your taxes. Because a Reddit user who goes by the handle “u/rsa_country” just dropped a post on r/AmITheAsshole that has the entire internet reeling, and by “entire internet” I mean the three people who still use Twitter and a bunch of basement dwellers on 4chan. The post, which has since been deleted but was preserved by every screenshot bot known to man, claims that the user is the sole proprietor and administrator of a sovereign nation that he created, maintains, and monetizes entirely through cryptocurrency mining and NFT sales. Yes, you read that right. A whole country. Like, with borders, a flag, and a national anthem that’s just a 10-second loop of the Windows XP startup sound.
The original post, which I’m summarizing because reading it gave me an aneurysm, goes something like this: “AITA for charging my citizens taxes in Dogecoin and then rug-pulling the entire national treasury to buy a Lamborghini?” The user, who we’ll call “Dave” because that’s the most generic name for a tech bro who thinks he’s a deity, claims he founded “The Republic of Satoshi’s Algorithm” (RSA) in his mom’s basement in 2019. He allegedly coded a fully functional government website, issued digital passports that are just JPEGs of his cat, and even held a national election that he won by a landslide because he was the only voter. The country, according to Dave, has a population of “about 47” people, most of whom are alt accounts he made to farm karma on Reddit. The rest are “real citizens” who bought in after he promised them a utopia where the only currency is meme coins and the only law is “don’t be a boomer.”
Here’s where it gets juicy. Dave claims he collected “taxes” from these 47 people—some of whom apparently sent him actual money because they thought they were investing in a real country, which is honestly the most 2024 thing I’ve ever heard. He says he accumulated roughly 2.3 million Dogecoin, which at its peak was worth about $500,000. Then, in a move that would make SBF blush, he cashed out last week and bought a Lamborghini Huracán. Not a house. Not a college fund. A car that screams “I peaked in high school but now I have crypto money.” He posted a photo of himself next to the car, wearing a fedora and holding a sign that says “HODL the nation, bro.” The AITA part? Dave’s “citizens” found out and are now spamming his DMs with death threats and demands for a refund. Dave’s response? “lol, skill issue.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “This is obviously a shitpost. No one is this stupid.” And you’re probably right. But the internet has a way of making the absurd feel real, especially when it involves crypto bros and their delusions of grandeur. The post has spawned a thousand thinkpieces, a dozen YouTube video essays, and at least one podcast where a guy with a neck tattoo argues that Dave is a “libertarian hero.” The most unhinged part? Some people are actually defending Dave. I saw a comment on the original post that said, “NTA. If you’re dumb enough to send money to a guy who calls his country RSA, you deserve to lose it.” That’s the energy we’re dealing with, folks. The same energy that makes people buy NFTs of pixelated rocks and then act shocked when the market crashes.
But let’s dig into the details, because the internet has done what the internet does best: overanalyzed everything. Reddit detectives—the same people who solved the Boston Marathon bombing by accusing an innocent man—have traced Dave’s IP address to a McDonald’s in Ohio. They’ve also found evidence that “RSA” is actually just a rented server space that Dave pays for with his mom’s credit card. The national anthem? It’s a royalty-free sound file from a 2005 video game. The constitution? It’s literally a copy-paste of the Minecraft server rules. And the flag? It’s a crude drawing of a rocket ship with the words “TO THE MOON” written in Comic Sans.
The best part? Dave apparently tried to mint the entire country as an NFT collection called “Sovereign Citizen #1-47.” Each NFT was supposed to grant the holder “full voting rights and a lifetime supply of digital respect.” The collection sold exactly zero units. Even the bots weren’t interested. But Dave, ever the visionary, claims this is all part of his master plan: “I’m not a scammer, I’m a performance artist. The Lamborghini is a critique of late-stage capitalism.” Sure, Dave. And my cat is a critic of Fauvism.
Meanwhile, the real world is reacting exactly how you’d expect. The State Department, probably exhausted from dealing with actual geopolitical crises, issued a statement that was basically a polite version of “we have no idea what you’re talking about and please stop emailing us.” The IRS is reportedly investigating Dave for tax evasion, because nothing says “I’m a genius” like committing financial crimes for a fictional country. And the Lamborghini dealership that sold Dave the car? They’re now selling T-shirts that say “I sold a car to the president of a fake country and all I got was this lousy shirt.” Capitalism, baby.
The most tragic part of this whole saga? Dave’s mom. According to a leaked Discord message, she found out about the “country” when she tried to use the family computer and saw a spreadsheet titled “NATIONAL DEBT LOL.” She reportedly grounded Dave and
Final Thoughts
Having spent years tracking the ebb and flow of political currents, it’s clear that the “RSA Country” narrative is less a geographical reality and more a potent ideological weapon—a digital ghost haunting the intersection of disinformation and genuine grievance. While South Africa’s land reform debate is fraught with real historical pain and constitutional complexity, the deliberate framing of it as a genocidal seizure for an international audience feels like a cynical ploy to sidestep domestic accountability and stoke racial division abroad. Ultimately, the tragedy here isn’t just the distortion of facts, but how easily the nuanced struggle for economic justice can be hijacked by those who profit more from fear than from resolution.