Institute for Progress and Development

Institute for Progress and Development logo

The Institute for Progress and Development is a secretive think tank based in Trapp Street, London SW1.

Personnel

The Institute is controlled by a Board of Directors, none of whose names have been made public, although there have been several rumours to the effect that The Hon Sholto Chelford-Bickerton has at least a prominent position in the organisation. The following other individuals have close links to the Institute:

• Kevin Wilberts, the libertarian philosopher
• Tiger de Montfort, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur

Funding

The Institute's sources of funding are exceptionally opaque. The seed capital for the project was supposedly provided by a shady group of American billionaires, but since then the Institute has made considerable efforts to be self-funding, for example by hiring out consultants to industry, commerce and government. There have also been suggestions that its close relationship with de Montfort's Tulpencoin organisation has been to the advantage of the Institute's coffers.

Indeed, not only has the whole Tulpencoin project been a scam from start to finish, but it has also provided an opportunity to steal cryptocurrency wallets from some of its more careless customers. Not only that, but the whole crypto venture has also turned out to be a useful way of laundering the profits from the Institute's drug-dealing program.

The Institute has also been involved with the Belarusian mafia in an attempt to use mathematics to cause, and then profit from, chaotic movements in the local currency markets.

Politics

The Institute's politics have been described as "neo-Randian", in that they espouse an extreme form of libertarian individualism, whereby a self-appointed elite are <quote>removed from the crippling restrictions of the legal process in order to free them to create a better world.</quote> To this end, the Institute provided guidance on the formation of Chelford-Bickerton's Channellia self-governing entity, and the Institute frequently holds this up as a shining example of what could be created if their vision were to be adopted.

Or at least, they used to, up until the point where Channellia sank to the bottom of the Bristol Channel.