The Network State
If you could start your own country today, how would you do it?
My curiosity led me to 1729.com, a new ambitious project from Balaji Srinivasan.
He wants to start a new country and he’s approaching it by creating a network state.
A network state is a social network with an agreed-upon leader, an integrated cryptocurrency, a definite purpose, a sense of national consciousness, and a plan to crowdfund territory.
There’s a four step process to starting a network state:
- Found the community.
- Form a network union (give the group purpose and a leader).
- Build trust online and offline (via in-person meetups of increasing duration and crypto).
- Crowdfund the nodes of the network state (i.e. apartments, houses, towns, etc.).
And boom, you have a new type of country.
The key to this idea is that it is easy to exit these network states.
For those involved, they review the leadership and when it stops working to their liking, they just leave and join another network state that does. Voting by exit is the way he puts it.
It’s a concept that I find fascinating not because I want my own country, but because I want a country that feels safe for everyone. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… that’s something that should be afforded to all people.
I think network states gives us an opportunity to test new governance models that can vastly improve our own country.
The best way to get an incumbent to change is to provide a viable alternative. Network states are that option for the 21st century.
Dive more into the topic of network states here.
Balaji also did a 5 hr Tim Ferris podcast. It’s worth the 5 hours!