A crypto gala about "network states," what did tech leaders like Balaji, Vitalik, and Naval say?

Author: Nancy, PANews

In the past week, the lively and bustling atmosphere of cryptocurrency has filled Singapore, where core forces in the crypto space, including project teams, VCs, exchanges, developers, media, and KOLs, have gathered. Among them, Token2049 and Solana Breakpoint are undoubtedly the most discussed crypto events in the market, with numerous related articles sharing participants' insights and industry observations.

In contrast, the annual Network State Conference was also packed but received little mention domestically. The Network State Conference was initiated by renowned Silicon Valley angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller The Network State, which challenges traditional notions of governance by proposing that future online communities can crowdfund territories globally and transform into sovereign entities. Balaji is also a staunch believer in Bitcoin, having served as a general partner at a16z and CTO of Coinbase, and has invested in well-known crypto projects such as Ethereum, Solana, NEAR, and Chainlink.

From the Concept of Network States to the Practice of Popup Cities

"We can start new companies in garages like Google, create new communities of 3 billion people in dorms like Facebook, and launch new currencies from white papers like Bitcoin. So, can we establish a new country, the Network State? If Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, then the Network State is a decentralized nation," Balaji pointed out. Communities initially form on the internet around a series of shared interests or values and then become entities with their own laws, "nations," after acquiring land. These nations will coexist with existing nation-states and ultimately replace them, potentially reaching the scale of traditional states. By establishing parallel societies in small physical communities, they can also incorporate innovative concepts like crypto to validate the feasibility of new world hypotheses, with parallel institutions built within these communities to support and serve these innovations.

This conference also featured several related "popup city" projects, including the network city Cabin, composed of modern villages with branches in the U.S., Portugal, and elsewhere; Culdesac, a community in Arizona designed for remote work; Edge City, which aims to create a "social incubator" for new ideas, technology, culture, and organizations; and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin's experiment Zuzalu.

In addition to discussions on network states, this nearly 12-hour conference also officially introduced Balaji's innovative university, The Network School, established on an island near Singapore. This three-month popup city experiment is inspired by Balaji's book The Network State, aiming to provide new educational opportunities for the global "Dark Talent" and break the constraints of traditional systems, having received thousands of applications from over 100 countries since opening for applications.

Currently, The Network School officially opened on September 23, focusing on Learning, Burn, Earn, and Fun. According to Balaji's previous posts, in the daily life at Network School, students will complete daily problems in small classrooms, involving programming and social media posting, and upon completion, they can receive a "learning certificate" NFT. Students can also compete for a daily "cryptocurrency prize" worth $1,000 for open-source projects, AI content creation, and microtasks.

Network School student @twone.eth recently disclosed in a tweet that compared to previous Popup cities, where crypto practitioners made up the vast majority, the student background at Network School is very diverse, with friends from all over the world: Americans involved in K12 education, Dutch working in traditional banks, and individuals who have lived in the Colombian jungle for many years and dedicated five years in Shanghai to natural movement…

@twone.eth also revealed that Balaji stated the goal of Network School is to become a "permanent" tech base, which is more suitable for technological innovation compared to the limitations of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Network School is working to lower living costs so that entrepreneurs can live and work at a lower cost, aiming to attract high-quality talent and form a close-knit community. The community's daily operations include facilities like gyms, workspaces, and cafes, and plans to strengthen interactions among community members through regular lectures and events. Additionally, Network School plans to establish nodes in various locations worldwide, allowing people to move freely and participate in community activities. The community will use blockchain technology to achieve transparency and openness, with all activities recorded on the blockchain.

From Popup Cities to Digital Nomads: What Do Tech Leaders Think?

Centered around the theme of "everything related to entrepreneurial society," participants at the Network State Conference 2024 included over 30 prominent figures such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong, Solana founder Raj Gokal, historian Niall Ferguson, and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant. Compared to last year, this year's event included discussions on "parallel institutions," "parallel health," and "digital nomads."

Vitalik: Popup Cities Need to Address Governance and Membership Issues

In his speech, Vitalik introduced Zuzalu, which has gathered 200 members over two months, including individuals from the Ethereum community, crypto executives, biotech entrepreneurs, and researchers, all coming together in Montenegro to address collective issues like human longevity. Participants enjoyed activities such as healthy eating, cold water baths, and yoga, and they were satisfied with the experience, noting that interpersonal interaction was crucial, but the experiment did not clearly outline the next steps for Zuzalu. He stated, "Popup cities are a new medium, and productive relationships need to be established between network states because the tribalism we see on social media today is 'zero-sum and ineffective.' Popup cities have product-market fit but still need to address governance and membership issues."

Naval Ravikant: AI is More About Intellectual Repetitive Labor; Personal Curiosity and Self-Improvement are Key to Progress

Naval Ravikant, founder of the $4.1 billion equity crowdfunding platform AngelList and an investor in well-known companies like Uber, Twitter, and Yammer, is also a staunch supporter of Bitcoin. His book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a bestseller in the business field. In a fireside chat with Balaji, Naval discussed personal growth, stating that nearly all his great achievements stem from following his natural curiosity. If you can become obsessed with something and delve into details that others cannot reach to satisfy your curiosity—such as obsessions with network states, artificial intelligence, or cryptocurrencies—this becomes the foundation of all so-called "self-improvement." Personal curiosity and self-improvement are key to achieving meaningful progress. He also revealed that one of the important things in life is to meet material needs, which requires some physical leverage in this material world, meaning you must create something that society needs. Wealth is not money; it is the ability to transform one thing into another, which can be monetized knowledge, infinite creativity… immense wealth is merely a value frozen in time.

Naval also shared his views on the development of artificial intelligence, stating, "AI is natural language processing, good at automating existing jobs. The real breakthroughs will come from addressing unsolved problems and generating novel ideas; merely increasing computing power will not produce AI that truly solves problems. Moreover, trying to make AI safe in some way is absurd; it is a logical contradiction."

Additionally, Naval revealed that there are three things on his personal list that cannot be bought with money: a healthy body, a calm mind, and a loving home. He also recommended two books: The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality.

Raj Gokal: Solana is Promoting the Construction and Development of Network States

Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana, stated that a year ago, a Solana intern mentioned building a parallel financial system based on Solana that could perform all operations of the traditional financial system through decentralized protocols. Today, Solana has become one of the largest blockchains by decentralized trading volume, with millions of users and hundreds of billions of dollars flowing through decentralized protocols, involving land, governance, payments, energy, and communication. These decentralized stories are forming network states on Solana. For example, if you want to crowdfund land as a network state and gain diplomatic recognition, products that provide similar decentralized physical infrastructure networks become particularly attractive. The decentralized hotspot network Helium on Solana can provide infrastructure for land through crypto incentives; tools like MetaDAO serve as predictive markets for resource allocation, applying the power of financial markets to governance and voting, which is seen by the younger generation as the most interesting way to interact with the world. Solana hopes that future network states can be more intuitive, fast, fun, and easy to use, attracting people to participate actively, not just because they believe in the mission, which is also one of Solana's core principles.

Brian Armstrong: Builders Need a Shelter that Supports Freedom and Innovation

In his speech, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the transition of tech companies to the tech community is happening, allowing people to start changing the hierarchy of their tribes and gain a greater sense of purpose. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have deconstructed money from the state, and we see that the next layer to be untethered from the state is identity. The current traditional forms of identity seem somewhat outdated, and cryptographic proofs will be a good solution.

Brian Armstrong also noted that there are signs of declining trust in Western institutions, and the choices people face are internal reform or opting out, with the creation of global special zones as an alternative. Despite the challenges, there is still an opportunity to build the next Singapore or Hong Kong, forming an island that can provide shelter to ensure that global builders have a place to live freely when their speech or currency is under attack. He believes the ideal network state is one of technological optimism or an efficient network state.

Pieter Levels: There are 100 million to 200 million Digital Nomads Globally; the Internet and Cryptocurrency Will Drive Network States

Pieter Levels is a Dutch entrepreneur, programmer, and digital nomad who has achieved an annual income of $2.7 million through four successful products: PlayMyInbox, GoFuckingDoIt, Tubelytics, and Nomads.com. Nine years ago, Pieter Levels predicted that there would be 1 billion digital nomads by 2035. In a fireside chat, Levels shared one of the first network states he built ten years ago, Nomads.com, which now has tens of thousands of globally mobile members and attracts tens of millions of digital nomads annually, with major entities located in Bali, Thailand, Mexico, and Miami.

Levels also shared interesting data about digital nomads, including that currently, one-third of the global workforce works remotely or in a hybrid mode, with about 10-20% being mobile like digital nomads, which translates to approximately 100 million to 200 million people, and it is expected that by 2024, 1 billion people will work remotely. Most digital nomads are not economically strapped backpackers, with an average annual salary of about $125,000, and 90% hold university degrees, making them highly attractive talent for various countries (or network states); additionally, most male digital nomads work in software development (34%), while most female digital nomads work in marketing (16%); 66% of digital nomads are single, and 72% of female digital nomads are progressives; furthermore, most digital nomads do not wander aimlessly but stay in one place for several months, with the reason for moving often being the lack of visas for long-term stays, which is an issue that countries and network states can address (by providing visas).

"While we can easily imagine a map of the physical world, imagining a digital map is much more difficult, and the internet allows us to establish close relationships with distant people, where proximity based on relationships and interests is more important than physical location or distance. Additionally, unlike physical nations that require guns and armies for protection, network states and digital assets are protected through encryption—impenetrable borders and encryption as the ultimate firewall. The power of network states lies in their media, currency, and agility," Levels added.