Liberty Minecraft's free-market economy depended on a stack of custom and modified Minecraft server plugins that NullCase commissioned, funded, and directed over the course of several years. These plugins transformed the bare mechanics of Minecraft into a system of enforceable property rights, automated real estate markets, and decentralized infrastructure. The story of their development is also a story about how NullCase managed capital, worked with freelance developers, and navigated the fragile open-source ecosystem of Minecraft modding.

GriefPrevention: The Foundation

At the base of everything was GriefPrevention, a widely used Minecraft plugin that allows players to claim land and protect it from modification by others. In Liberty Minecraft, GriefPrevention was far more than an anti-griefing tool -- it was the enforcement mechanism for property rights. Claim blocks functioned as the server's currency (Diamond Money), and claiming land was the act of establishing ownership.

The price of claim blocks changed between eras. In the Old World, claim blocks cost $20 each (with diamonds converting at $1,000 each). In the New World, following a 10x redenomination, claim blocks cost $100 each (with diamonds converting at $10,000 each). In both cases, one diamond purchased 50 claim blocks, preserving the real cost of land.

NullCase worked closely with RoboMWM, GriefPrevention's lead developer, on multiple custom enhancements funded by player donations.

Claim Names

In January 2018, during the Old World era, NullCase funded the addition of the /claimname command, allowing players to assign display names to their land claims. Before this update, claims appeared in the /claimlist only by coordinates, making property management difficult for players with multiple holdings. The feature cost $10 in developer fees.

Claim Sorting

Around the same time, NullCase commissioned a sorting update so that /claimlist would organize claims by world and coordinates rather than displaying them in an arbitrary order. This seemingly minor quality-of-life improvement reflected a real need: players like Remix, who held more than 200 claims, needed practical tools to manage their portfolios.

Claim Expiration Delay

In September 2018, with the launch of the New World, NullCase introduced a system where land claims expired after 60 days of inactivity by default. This was a significant change from the Old World, where claims could become permanent if a player invested $1,000,000 or more in claim blocks, and where playtime-based ranks determined expiration periods of 28 or 60 days. The New World eliminated both permanent claims and ranks entirely.

To address the anxiety this caused among paying supporters, NullCase funded a custom feature that delayed expiration for donors -- 30 extra days for every $5 donated. Subscribers received indefinite protection while their subscriptions were active. The feature cost $31.50 to develop.

Today Liberty Minecraft will begin live testing an update which I promised to deliver following the launch of The New World; it's about giving you peace of mind!

GPRealEstate: Smart Contracts for Land

GPRealEstate was the plugin that allowed players to buy and sell land claims using in-game signs -- what NullCase described as "smart contracts." A seller would place a sign on their property with a price, and a buyer could purchase it with a click, automatically transferring both ownership and payment. This plugin was used in both the Old World and New World.

The Critical Exploit

In late 2017, during the Old World, NullCase discovered a serious vulnerability in GPRealEstate. The exploit was devastating in its simplicity: when a land claim was sold, the plugin transferred ownership but did not transfer the claim blocks used to create the claim. This meant a seller could sell a claim, regain their claim blocks, and repeat the process indefinitely. Two cooperating players could claim the entire world with just four claim blocks.

Before December 2017, the situation was even worse -- the exploit would actively duplicate purchased claim blocks, creating money from thin air.

Imagine you buy enough ClaimBlocks to create the smallest possible land claim. During the last four years this was also the minimum cost to claim the entire world.

NullCase brought the problem to RoboMWM. But the fix was complicated by a separate catastrophe: GPRealEstate's original developer, SuperPyroManiac, had destroyed the plugin's entire public repository and source code in response to verbal abuse from other server operators demanding features. Four years of development work was deleted.

NullCase contacted SuperPyroManiac, obtained permission to repair the damage, and then had RoboMWM decompile the plugin binary, reverse-engineer the source code, and fix the exploit. The solution cost $30 in developer fees and was released as open-source software, available to the entire Minecraft community.

Sign Type Updates

In March 2020, NullCase funded another GPRealEstate update for $30 to support the new sign types introduced in Minecraft 1.15.2 -- birch, dark oak, spruce, and others. Without this update, players would have been unable to create real estate signs using anything other than the original oak sign.

CreativeGates: Decentralized Portals (Old World)

CreativeGates was an Old World plugin that provided player-built teleportation, replacing the administrator-controlled warps that existed before it. Any player could create a portal by building a frame containing two diamond blocks and using a named clock to activate it. Two portals created with identically named clocks would link together. Additional items -- magma cream to hide portal names, blaze rods to toggle entry and exit, blaze powder to display network information -- gave players granular control over their networks.

The cost of four diamond blocks made portal creation a significant investment, which meant portals naturally appeared where they provided the most value. Dozens of player-owned portals spread across the Old World, making markets more accessible and giving players infrastructure that no administrator could revoke.

CreativeGates was deliberately not carried over to the New World. NullCase removed all forms of teleportation when the New World launched in August 2018, believing that instant travel undermined the economic significance of geography. This decision made physical transit infrastructure -- most notably the Netherway -- essential to the New World's functioning.

GPAuctions: Automated Property Markets (New World)

GPAuctions was perhaps the most significant custom plugin developed for Liberty Minecraft, and it was created specifically for the New World era. NullCase conceived it in 2017, began development in 2019, and invested hundreds of dollars and at least 30 hours of his own time in its creation. The plugin solved a fundamental problem unique to the New World's design: what happens to property when its owner leaves, in a world where no claims are permanent?

In the Old World, wealthy players could make claims permanent, but this meant inactive players' claims gradually degraded server performance while imposing costs on active players. The New World's solution was twofold: eliminate permanent claims, and auction expired ones. GPAuctions automated this process. When a player's claims expired after 60 days of inactivity (plus any donor-funded delay), the property would be automatically auctioned over a one-week period. The former owner received the proceeds even if they were no longer active. The highest bidder who could pay received the property.

I couldn't have been more excited when we released GPAuctions. It was a great day.

Bug Fixes and Exploits

GPAuctions required ongoing maintenance as Minecraft itself evolved. In April 2020, NullCase paid RoboMWM $11.11 to fix an off-by-one error caused by a change in Spigot's getHighestBlock method. Auction signs were appearing in incorrect locations -- sometimes replacing walls -- because the underlying calculation had shifted.

In May 2020, a more creative exploit was discovered by Minarchu: the block supporting an auction sign could be destroyed by natural processes like decaying leaves or melting ice, which would prevent anyone from bidding. Rather than trying to anticipate every possible block behavior change Mojang might introduce, NullCase funded an elegant fail-safe: if an auction sign was destroyed for any reason, the auction would simply cancel and restart. This cost $31.45.

Instead of playing whack-a-mole, auctions simply cancel so they can be restarted.

Murray RothBot (New World)

Not all development was strictly economic. Murray RothBot was an automated helper bot named after Murray N. Rothbard, the Austrian School economist. Developed for the New World era, the bot provided guides, shared Rothbard's ideas, and helped define the server's culture. In February 2019, NullCase commissioned artwork from Japanimator to give Murray a proper visual identity, and Barhabagian on Fiverr created a Minecraft skin. The art cost $19.20 and the skin $7.

NullCase also launched a merchandise store featuring Murray RothBot, offering a free Minecraft skin with any purchase and a 10% discount code: LIGHTHOUSE -- a reference to the famous lighthouse Rothbard was once given as a joke gift.

Development Philosophy

Across all of these projects, NullCase maintained a consistent approach. Every expense was funded by player donations and documented with publicly shared invoices (minus personal information). Costs were modest -- $10 here, $30 there, $31.45 for a critical fix -- reflecting both the economics of Minecraft plugin development and NullCase's disciplined capital management.

His primary developer relationship was with RoboMWM, who worked on GriefPrevention, GPRealEstate, and GPAuctions across both eras. NullCase also worked with developers Pheonix919 and Stonar96 on other projects. He timed his investments carefully, avoiding periods when demand for Minecraft developers was high and prices were inflated (see the article on NullCase).

Every piece of custom work was released as open source, available to the wider Minecraft community. The plugins that made Liberty Minecraft's economy function were not proprietary tools but public goods -- created for one server's needs but shared freely with anyone who wanted to build something similar.