Notes - Network State Conference 2025

October 21, 2025

Forma and the Future of Solana Economic Zones

Farhaj Mayan, co-founder of Forma, presented on the concept and progress of Solana economic zones (SEZs). Forma's core mission is to work with frontier countries and their governments to develop these SEZs, which function as physical hubs designed to build economic relations between the cloud (Solana) and nation-states (LAN).

Forma's Extensive Track Record

In the two years preceding the conference, Forma's team traveled over 100,000 kilometers and hosted four pop-ups across three continents. Key achievements include:

• Developing three long-term Solana hubs that actively engage with the local government and ecosystem.
• Delivering over $5 million in foreign direct investment (FDI) through virtual events and long-term projects.
• Generating over 10 million impressions on X (Twitter) through promotional videos created for these countries, helping to bring them to global attention.

Case Study: Kazakhstan Partnership

Forma highlighted its most recent pop-up in Kazakhstan, calling it the first ever formal official partnership between a nation-state and the Solana network state.

Event Structure and Attendance: The Kazakhstan engagement ran as a 1-day summit followed by a one-week trade mission coordinated directly with the national government. The live-streamed summit hoped to draw over 150,000 viewers. It was attended by over 250 government delegates, including national ministries, the national bank, and the securities commission.

Key Outcomes and Post-Event Impact: During the event, four Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed. Specifically, an MOU was signed with the Government of Kazakhstan and the Solana Foundation, officially recognizing and launching the Solana Economic Zone (SEZ) as the region's first.

Since the event, significant developments have occurred:

1. Digital Tenge Launch: Kazakhstan successfully launched its national currency stable coin, the Digital Tenge, on Solana.
2. Dual Listing Framework: The Astana International Exchange (AIX), which is NASDAQ-powered, signed an MOU with the Solana Foundation, Intabix, and Jupiter to develop a new framework allowing for the dual listing of public companies on Solana. This initiative aims to bring the liquidity of capital markets from the internet to the nation-state.
3. Developer Training: A national hackathon was delivered (in conjunction with Intabix), training over 1,000 developers on how to build on Solana.
4. Crypto City Announcement: Just 22 days prior to the conference, the President of Kazakhstan announced plans to establish a national crypto reserve and build a crypto city—a designated physical location for bleeding-edge blockchain innovation and payments.

Forma's Future Direction

Forma is moving away from the pop-up model and focusing on settling. The organization is in late-stage discussions with three countries (primarily in the Western Hemisphere) to establish long-term SEZs. The goal is to better match Forma's objectives with the host governments' economic development goals.

Forma also announced its last pop-up village ever. This event will be held in Georgia from November 15 to 22. It is intended to host 150 members of the Solana community (and is open to all) to deliver a cultural experience and allow participants to beta test living in the country.

Edge City: Incubating the Future of the Network State Movement

Timour Coers introduced Edge City as a society incubator. Edge City's primary mission involves three core activities: hosting month-long pop-up villages for those at the frontiers of tech, science, and culture; incubating and accelerating startups, new institutions, and entirely new fields of thought; and ultimately, building the infrastructure for the future of the network state movement.

Track Record and Global Vision

In less than two years, Edge City has achieved significant global reach:

• Hosted seven pop-ups across four continents.
• Over 11,000 people have attended their events.
• 80 countries have been represented.
• They have raised over $1 million in grants for early-stage builders.
• The community is multigenerational, with over 150 kids attending. (A fun fact mentioned is that five children were conceived at or because of Edge).

Edge City aims to create a global innovation network rather than replicate Silicon Valley (SF) elsewhere. Their hubs begin as temporary locations to run interesting and radical experiments and are intended to become permanent over time, with examples cited in California and Bhutan.

Village Structure and Core Principles

The villages are described as the "highest leverage months of your year," gathering 500 to 1,000 curious, kind, and high agency people in an environment that maintains the dynamism of a city but the social fabric and size of a village. They focus on creating an environment for deep connection, recognizing that people must care about each other enough to start a new society together.

Edge City operates under four organizational principles:

1. Default Healthy: Emphasis on healthy food, time in nature, and daily workouts, ensuring everyone leaves healthier than they arrived.
2. Multi-disciplinary: Fostering innovation that emerges from the intersection of different fields.
3. Building and Co-creation: Promoting an ethos where everyone ships while at Edge, making the ecosystem "open source in real life".
4. Multigenerational: Designing an environment where children can thrive, surrounded by top minds.

Incubation Success Stories

Edge City serves as the best place for rapid prototyping, leading to several successful projects:

• Constellation: A startup founded by a Stanford Neuroscience PhD, Avery Creger, who ran a trial, collected one of the largest multimodal data sets of its kind, found his lead investor, and built his team all in 30 days.
• Vasa Computation: Well-known theorist Mike Johnson found collaborators at Edge, helping unblock his applied research in the field of consciousness.
• Decentralized Autonomous Corporations (DAC) Movement: Edge City has supported the DAC movement by helping shift it from theory to practice, organizing a grants program with Vitalik, and hosting a residency with Protocol Labs.
• New Physical States: Edge is actively working to help build Esmeralda, a frontier tech family-friendly town one hour north of SF in California. They are also engaged with government officials in Bhutan regarding the site of the new Gilfu Mindfulness City project.

Upcoming Village and Future Focus

Edge City's next pop-up will be held in Patagonia from October 18th to November 15th of this year. They plan to transform a small town into a village, onboarding the majority of local businesses to crypto payments. The event will feature 16 different residencies (smaller sub-communities) and offer amenities like saunas, cold plunges, and deep workspace.

Infinita: The Longevity Network State

Niklas Anzinger, founder of Infinita, presented the vision for Infinita, the longevity network state. The fundamental goal is to drive massive biotech acceleration with the belief that curing aging is possible based on the laws of physics and available science and technology.

The Biotech Problem and Call for Acceleration

Infinita's mission is motivated by the historical challenge of premature death resulting from a lack of access to life-saving drugs, citing the example of artist Keith Haring, who died from HIV when treatments were potentially available but restricted by agencies like the FDA. A significant structural problem currently plaguing biotech is that pharmaceutical R&D returns have collapsed below the cost of capital. This collapse is occurring despite major advancements like GLP1s and mRNA vaccines, making it “increasingly less scalable to build a biotech company”.

Physical Hubs and Jurisdictional Innovation

Since drugs cannot be taken online, Infinita has established physical instantiation in the world.

• Prospera, Honduras: The main hub is located in Prospera, on the island of Rotan, Honduras. Prospera is highlighted as having the best legal system in the world and specifically allowing for medical freedom.
  • Infinita has brought more than 1,500 people and over 100 startups to Prospera.
  • They have funneled more than $20 million to those startups.
  • The community lives in the Duna Tower, a 14-story building that features a community lab and co-working space with solar punk art.
  • The mini circle gene therapy is available there, which Brian Johnson traveled to take, as documented in the Don't Die Netflix documentary.
  • One startup operating in Prospera recently treated Kim Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian with their gene therapy.
  • Venture capitalist Tim Draper reportedly called the startup pitch competition hosted there the “highest density of great startups” he has ever witnessed.
• Montana Expansion: Infinita has recently expanded to work with innovative jurisdictions, including the state of Montana. Montana is promising for longevity treatments because it extends "Right to Try" laws—which allow patients access to unapproved but proven safe drugs—from applying only to terminally ill patients (as is standard elsewhere) to everyone.

Economic System

The community utilizes the Lives Token, which functions as a stable coin backed payment token and a gateway to the community. The Lives Token is used for payments with more than 40 different vendors on Rotan for various items, including food, car rentals, and even mortgage payments. Users can earn benefits by completing tasks and transacting in this economy using the provided wallet and residency card tooling.

The Infinite Games

Infinita announced the upcoming Infinite Games, a major series of competitions and tournaments aimed at people who want to optimize their health, enjoy competition, and have fun.

• The games will include a Rejuvenation Olympics, where participants measure biomarkers, track health, and take part in competitions.
• The national sport of Infinita City, Electric Knife Fighting (EKF), will feature a championship (EKFC). This sport utilizes rubber knives equipped with tasers, similar to fencing.
• Other events planned include a free diving world championship, poker tournaments, prediction markets tournaments, and cyberpunk paintball.
• The Infinite Games are scheduled to take place next year throughout February and March on the beautiful island of Rotan, within the Prospera jurisdiction in Honduras.

Zuitzerland: Building a Permanent Village and Accelerator for Differential Acceleration (d/acc)

Isla Munro-Hochmayr, the founder of Zuitzerland, introduced the project as building a permanent Swiss village and an accelerator for DAK (differential acceleration) and open source technology. The project seeks to create the best place for people solving humanity's biggest challenges.

Core Motivation: The Future of Humanity and Capital Allocation

The project is heavily influenced by the essay "My Techno-Optimism" by Vitalik, which posits that the next decade is critical for humanity. The central question is whether accelerated technology leads to a future where humanity retains freedom, agency, and privacy, or one controlled by centralized companies and wealthy individuals.

Zuitzerland’s purpose is to allocate capital at a similar scale toward builders focused on long-term, decentralized, democratic, differential ways.

• Vision: The village is intended to be a shelling point for the future's hundred billion dollar companies. It promotes a model where purpose is more than profit, but the two are not mutually exclusive, aiming to build entities like the next Ethereum or Uniswap.
• Legitimacy and Capital: The founders recognize that legitimacy is a powerful social technology. In the existing attention economy, capital is often allocated to things that manipulate attention, but the physical hubs being built are crucial because they create in-person legitimacy through tight social graphs.
• Investable Model: Following a challenge from Vitalik to devise an investable model, Zuitzerland is developing a tokenized economy. This model would be piloted in Switzerland, with the goal of expanding into a transnational network of hubs. The token economy is designed to create value and upside that flows back into the ecosystem, operating like an endowment fund (e.g., Harvard or Stanford) but utilizing an economic flywheel on a token ecosystem.

Why Switzerland?

Switzerland was chosen as the pilot location because its cultural and historical framework aligns well with the project's goals:

• Governing Philosophy: If Silicon Valley's motto is "move fast and break things," Switzerland's is "move fast and try not to break things".
• Decentralized Governance: Switzerland possesses a 700-year history of decentralized governance, creating a powerful social and cultural technology aligned with d/acc.
• Talent and Commitment: The region has strong talent, including ETH, EPFL, the Zurich AI hub, and CryptoVal. Crucially, the Swiss government has committed to building all software as open source technology (within security limitations).

Zuitzerland is positioning itself as d/combinator—a place for ambitious founders who do not want to sell out.

Progress and Future Plans

The project has demonstrated proof of concept:

• Residency: In May, Zuitzerland ran its first residency at Locks, a ski resort, as a proof of concept for an onchain village.
• Strategic Partnership: The success of the residency led to a long-term strategic partnership with Locks to develop a pilot that could bring the entire resort on chain next year.
• Expansion: The team is also in discussions with Blockchain Zug and the canton, planning to collaborate with universities and researchers to establish a fully functioning onchain economy.

Fireside Chat: Arthur Hayes and Balaji Srinivasan on Bitcoin, Macro Shifts, and the Code-Based Order

The fireside chat featured Arthur Hayes (AH) and Balaji Srinivasan (B) discussing global economic trends, longevity, and the shift from traditional systems to decentralized networks.

The "Get Your Bitcoin and Get Out" Thesis and Macro Economics

Arthur Hayes elaborated on his quote, "Get your Bitcoin and get out," arguing that global politicians consistently promise spending (e.g., more bombs, free healthcare, jobs) without raising taxes. The resulting funding mechanism is the printing of "a fuck ton of money," which increases liquidity for Bitcoin and certain cryptocurrencies.

• Systemic Turning Point: Hayes believes the world is at an 80-year turning point of massive change. Politicians attempt to limit volatility by printing money until the system "explodes".
• Exit Strategy: The advice is to convert earned fiat into assets like Bitcoin, gold, or great equities and "exit stage left" to stable jurisdictions such as Singapore or Dubai.
• Reserve Currencies: B noted that gold appears to be becoming the reserve currency of states, while Bitcoin is becoming the reserve currency of the network. AH confirmed that central banks are buying gold because they understand it as a protector of wealth. The ability of governments to print infinite fiat only became common in the 20th century, enabling funding for prolonged wars.
• Debt and the Fed: AH highlighted concerns about the US macro picture, specifically who will own the accumulating debt. He noted the Federal Reserve (Fed) is performing "treasury buybacks" (starting small, a few billion) which looks like the beginning of yield curve control. Since 2020, the Fed has refused to let any bond longer than 10 years mature or sell it, meaning there is no quantitative tightening on the long end of the yield curve.
• Tariffs and Scarcity: Tariffs amplify financial strain because they reduce the utility of the dollar by telling trade partners to stop selling things for printed money. AH suggested that US industrial policy, driven by the need to allocate credit to produce necessities like rare earths and chips, stems from the military realization that the US "can't actually win a war". B suggested that the US signals strength but the underlying substance is scarcity.

Shifting to the Code-Based Order

The conversation covered the shift from the traditional "rules-based order" to the more reliable "code-based order," driven by Bitcoin and smart contracts.

• Disrupting Banking: AH believes the banking system is "very ripe to be completely disrupted" by DeFi. Compliance, accounting, and cross-border money transfer can be done instantly for the cost of a gas transaction.
• Stable Coins as Licenses: B proposed that a stable coin functions as a new kind of banking license, allowing an entire financial UX (like Wells Fargo or Chase) to be built on a stable coin backend. Traditional banks' high valuations and huge employment numbers (e.g., 315,000 at JPMC) are sustained because they function as arms of the government and hold a crucial government license. Stable coins provide an unlocked network defense against the locked network of traditional banks.
• Identity and Sovereignty: B suggested that denaturalization (stripping citizenship) is the new debanking. Crypto offers a defense through Bitcoin (banking) and ENS/crypto identities (identity). AH observed that people have an emotional attachment to their birthplace identity ("lottery ticket"), but that choosing a crypto tribe (ETH, Solana, Bitcoin) is a stronger bond based on conscious choice and signing a "social smart contract".

Longevity and Stem Cell Investment

Hayes is personally interested and involved in longevity.

• Veritas Clinic: Two years prior, AH began researching stem cells and met Julian, the CEO of Veritas (a clinic near Thailand), in which he is now an investor and board member.
• Aim: Hayes aims to "feel like I'm 30 for the rest of my life". The goal is to further research and commercialize stem cell treatments, hoping to lower prices over time.
• Medical Bravery: B praised AH's willingness to take the personal health risk, calling it "medical bravery," which is necessary to push for "an ampic for longevity".

Balaji's Vision: The Decentralized Country

Balaji shared his core ambition, stating that while others focus on Mars or AGI, he wants to start a new country.

• Islands Separated by Internet: B envisions a decentralized country replacing "islands separated by ocean" (like Indonesia) with islands separated by internet.
• Coordination and Peace: Coordination across distance is possible via teleresence, remote work, and drones. B believes this endeavor can be accomplished nonviolently, citing the independence of India and Singapore.
• No Army: The network state, backed by Bitcoin, would require "no army".

Binance's Global Vision and Strategy (Fireside with Richard Teng)

The CEO of Binance, Richard Teng, discussed the company's priorities, its role in financial inclusion, and the geopolitical landscape of crypto regulation. Teng joined Binance in 2021.

Company Scale and Focus

Binance’s priority is always centered on its users, maintaining their trust and confidence. The company is aiming for a major milestone of 1 billion users globally, building upon its current base of almost 300 million users.

Key organizational activities include:

• Rolling out new products, such as the enhanced Web3 wallet (Binance Alpha).
• Working with institutions (citing a partnership with Franklin Templeton) and ecosystem partners like stable coin issuers.
• Being supportive of all innovation and collaborating globally with governments, institutions, and communities through events like hackathons.

The Mission of Financial Inclusion

Binance is currently the most regulated exchange globally, operating in about 22 different jurisdictions. The core mission, set by the founders, is to support the freedom of money.

This mission is crucial because Binance has significant traction in the developing world (the Global South, including Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East).

• Teng highlighted that 1.4 billion people globally remain unbanked, lacking access to basic banking or payment systems.
• Traditional finance has failed to solve this problem over the last 30 years.
• Blockchain and crypto provide the only mode of payment for many in these regions.
• Cross-border remittances are instantaneous and cost a fraction of traditional methods, which can take two days.
• Crypto, including stable coins and Bitcoin, is a critical store of wealth for those experiencing hyperinflationary situations where their fiat currency depreciates sharply.

Superiority of Internet Capital Markets

Binance is focused on the potential shift toward Internet capital markets becoming the largest in the world. Teng affirmed that the trajectory is tremendous and strong for this to happen.

The crypto system is deemed superior to traditional finance because:

• It provides atomic settlement (immediate clearing), eliminating clearing and settlement risks associated with traditional T+2 settlement.
• It offers global liquidity that is accessible 24/7 from anywhere, unlike traditional centralized marketplaces. This access provides users with the best execution and lower slippage.
• It eliminates many middle and back office functions of banks, such as reconciliation, which become unnecessary with blockchain technology.

Geopolitics and Regulatory Agility

The regulatory environment significantly impacts capital flow globally, as demonstrated by the US shift toward being more pro-crypto, which compels other governments to pay attention to attract foreign direct investment and talent.

In terms of effective execution, Singapore and Middle Eastern countries like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Bahrain are executing well.

A key advantage noted is that smaller countries are often more crypto friendly because they are more nimble and agile than large countries burdened by tedious regulatory processes involving multiple agencies. These small states are essentially startup countries.

• Smaller states are willing to experiment because failure is contained, while success brings "huge impact in terms of economic windfall".
• Binance is actively helping institutions and countries set up strategic asset reserves in crypto (citing Bhutan and Kazakhstan as examples).
• Countries with sovereignty (the ~200 UN-listed nations, plus special economic zones) can be approached to facilitate deals that modify laws in exchange for capital investment.

Bruno Macaes on Geopolitics, Technology, and the "God Mode" of World Building

Bruno Macaes presented the core ideas of his 2025 book, World Builders, focusing on how geopolitical power is fundamentally changing through technology.

The True Nature of Geopolitical Power

Macaes argues that when analyzing geopolitics, one must shift perspective from the agent (or player) to the programmer. The world is far more constructed and virtual than commonly perceived.

• Definition of Power: Geopolitical power is essentially the power to build a world or a virtual landscape that others are compelled to inhabit and operate within.
• Implicit Deception: Builders possess a powerful advantage if those operating within the system believe it is the natural or inevitable world, rather than a built one.
• The "God Mode" Concept: Geopolitical power is defined as the ability to enter the control panel of the global system and change its variables.
  • Political power is defined as playing the game.
  • God mode is defined as changing the variables of the game state via the control panel.
• Real-World Example: The blocking of $300 billion in Russian central bank reserves during the war in Ukraine demonstrated this "god mode," as the reserves existed merely as computer entries in Frankfurt or the New York Fed.

Technology and the Network State

Macaes stressed that technology builders must recognize that they are creating the framework within which human life and political life operate, not just "some gadgets".

• Coding the Game: The concept of the network state represents rising to the programmer's perspective—where a superpower codes the game, and a normal power plays the game.
• Fusion of Systems: Macaes asserts that geopolitics and technology are synonyms. The political system and the technological system operate in remarkably similar ways, noting the presence of key tech figures during events like Donald Trump's inauguration.
• Power Inside the Network: Macaes views established powers (like the United States or China) as existing network states, but ones controlled from outside the network. Balaji's network state concept aims to move power inside the network, promoting a structure that is decentralized and democratic.
• Origin of Ideas: The core ideas presented originated during a discussion Macaes had with Balaji while walking in Singapore approximately a year prior to the conference.

Multicurrency Mercantilism and the Shifting Global Monetary Order

Kathleen Tyson presented on the concept of Multicurrency Mercantilism. She noted that the idea, which was controversial when launched two years ago, is now considered mainstream. The fundamental transition in the global monetary order is recognized as real. The alternative to the dollar is defined not as a single replacement, but as "the dollar and all other currencies".

The Decline of Dollar Dominance and Geopolitical Accelerants

While monetary transition can be gradual and stable, war accelerates the transition. Current geopolitical turmoil, including the war in Ukraine and the conflicts in Gaza and attacks on neighboring countries like Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon, is escalating wider war risks. These wider wars are simultaneously escalating US deficits, prompting people to flee from funding treasury markets.

The dollar has demonstrated underperformance, having dropped 14% against other currencies and 45% in gold terms over the past year.

The Evolving Multipolar World

Tyson argues that China is not going to be the next hegemon. China is currently the leading trade partner of over 150 states but actively treats its partners as sovereign. It is comfortable allowing trade to occur in renminbi, dollar, euro, or the partner's own currency.

While countries in the United States and Europe perceive fragmentation because they are losing control, the other 7 billion people on the planet are experiencing unification, pacification, and collaboration. This process is accelerating development because these nations no longer require the West for capital, management, or education.

The Angel Paradox (the idea that sanctions harm the sanctioner as much as the sanctioned) has played out:

• Sanctions on Russia have resulted in Russia experiencing significant growth, making it the fourth largest economy on the planet.
• Meanwhile, Europe is rapidly de-industrializing due to energy costs that have doubled or trebled.

Technology, Reserves, and Stability Risks

Technology is advancing rapidly, evidenced by new innovations like Deep Seek and a new salt battery out of China that can last up to 25 years while costing only 5-10% of previous batteries. China is now completely technologically independent of Western dependencies and is sharing its technology globally.

Gold is seeing record prices, trading at $3,880 an ounce, with silver at $47. To bypass expropriation risks associated with London and New York, China announced it will use Hong Kong to vault official gold reserves purchased on the Shanghai gold exchange.

Regarding debt, private sector debt peaked in 2024 and is being squeezed out, which is bad for growth. However, public sector debt is still expanding at an accelerating rate. Instability is a serious risk, leading many countries to collaborate to preserve resiliency.

The capability exists for central banks to be multicurrency; the speaker affirmed they built a system operating in eight currencies across 12 depositories in real time. Central banks are expected to adopt this choice to spread risks and enhance systemic resiliency and liquidity.

Finally, the presentation concluded with a call for action: "Those who love peace need to learn to organize as effectively as those who love war".

Avik Roy on Expert Failure and Reforming Institutions via Exit

Avik Roy’s presentation focused on analyzing the widespread failure of experts as the root cause of the greatest public policy failures of the 21st century. Roy draws on his background as a biotech investor, policy advisor, and opinion editor to analyze this pattern.

The Repeatable Pattern of Expert Failure

Major public policy disasters driven by expert consensus include:

• The 2003 invasion of Iraq, fueled by intelligence experts convinced of WMDs.
• The 2008 financial crisis, linked to macro experts like Alan Greenspan who believed the housing bubble was not a "big deal".
• The 2020 shutdown of society, which caused irreversible harm to children due to school closures in the U.S..

This failure follows a repeatable pattern:

1. An expert cites an actually true fact (e.g., coronaviruses are dangerous).
2. A sweeping prescription is made based on that fact (e.g., shut down society to achieve zero transmission).
3. Experts then gather their peers to kick out dissenters from advisory boards and the media, creating an illusion of unanimity among the credentialed.
4. Policymakers act on this false consensus, leading to policies that ultimately "doesn't work out".

Roy notes this pattern also applies to less massive failures, such as dietary experts recommending 11 servings of carbs daily, or pain experts pushing opioids.

Necessary Reforms for Expert Success

To reverse this pattern, Roy argues for structural changes that foster success:

• Legitimate Dissent: There must always be a role for dissenters in any expert community to test ideas.
• Decentralized Policy Architecture: New societies need a system where people can experiment with different sets of rules and try various approaches to build innovative systems.
• Diversity of AI Models: Going forward, a diversity of AI models is essential to avoid the information control previously seen when Google and Wikipedia dominated access to information.
• Meritocracy: This prevents the compounding error where policymakers turn to the same experts who created a mess to fix it.

Roy suggests that building new institutions is often easier than reforming existing ones, referencing Elon Musk's sentiment that it is "easier to go to Mars than it is to reduce the federal budget".

Network States and the Expert Diaspora

Network states can take advantage of the expert diaspora leaving legacy societies to create better systems and economies. Specific areas for innovation include:

• Digital Assets: Since crypto will flow where it's treated best, network states can implement better rules, forcing jurisdictions like the U.S. to respond.
• Energy: Network states can implement models for abundant energy creation using a lower carbon way, challenging the dogma of simply using less energy.
• Customized AI: AI models should be tailored to the unique needs and idiosyncrasies of network states.
• Healthcare Reimaginaton: This is a key area for reform beyond the FDA. Network states can build new entities that allow for a more fluid way to take advantage of the workforce by changing credentialing for MDs and nurses in an AI-powered world. They can also redesign where healthcare is delivered, challenging the multi-trillion dollar hospital industry.

Experts who leave legacy institutions can build new entities and paradigms in a network state setting, allowing everyone to benefit.

Parag Khanna on the Age of Digital Nomads and the Passportal

Parag Khanna, the founder of the geospatial data science company Alpha Geo, discussed the physics of human geography and the intensifying global war for talent. Khanna, who has traveled to more than 150 countries, operates on the modified axiom that one should only trust what they experience firsthand.

The Physics of Human Mobility

Khanna’s research, detailed in his book Move, examines what happens when the "unstoppable force" of migration meets the "immovable object" of borders. Currently, all drivers of human migration—including geopolitical turmoil, labor shortages, economic/technological displacement, and climate change—are "in overdrive".

• Global Talent Recruitment: Despite narratives of nationalism and xenophobia, governments are engaged in an intense war for talent. The past decade has seen an explosion in programs like RBI, CBI, Golden Visas (e.g., the UAE Golden Visa, which Khanna helped develop) and digital nomad programs.
• Relocation Trends: An estimated 2.6 million people are expected to relocate this year, of which about 150,000 are millionaires. This is creating a new geography of wealth as high net worth individuals move away from older centers. Alpha Geo, in partnership with Henley and Partners, is releasing a Global Investment Risk and Resilience Index to rank destinations based on stability and economic factors.
• The American Diaspora: The US now has a sizable diaspora of about 7 million people abroad. Europe is actively recruiting US-based talent, and the credo of these moving Americans is often described as liquidity, mobility, and optionality.
• Scale of Movement: There are already over 300 million people living outside their country of origin (the highest number ever), a number expected to surge.

Introducing the Passportal

Khanna noted that crossing borders remains the most overbureaucratized dimension of globalization. To solve this, he proposed the Passportal, a foundational platform for identity and mobility.

• Core Principle: The Passportal is built on the principle that your identity belongs to you.
• Function and Technology: It is envisioned as identity as a service meets mobility as a service. Its purpose is to function as the instrument for becoming a sovereign individual on the internet. It will assemble key components of societal identity into a secure blockchain ID wallet. The platform will utilize ZK (Zero-Knowledge) knowledge protocols for collecting credentials and attestations.
• Economic Impact: The Passportal is designed to most effectively match supply and demand for labor globally, a process that could potentially boost GDP by 25%.
• Monetization and Benefits: The platform will launch next year with pilot countries.
  • Individuals will pay a base user fee.
  • Governments can massively streamline application vetting, issue e-visas, and cut billions spent on consular services.
  • Corporates can use an AI matchmaking system to find desired workers.
• Platform Potential: The Passportal is a foundational platform that can support numerous added services, including insurance, relocation, healthcare, remittances, and skills training.

The End of Nation States: A New Era of Neo-Medievalism

Overview and Thesis

This presentation argues that the world is being ushered into a new era of neo-medievalism due to technological forces that are weakening the established power of nation states. The central idea posits that the rise and fall of political structures are determined by which technologies allow for easy control and taxation.

Historical Drivers: Fragmentation and Consolidation

The Fragmentation of the Middle Ages

One of the key reasons why Europe was fragmented during the Middle Ages was the nature of farming, which generated wealth across surfaces (land) that were very hard to monitor. This difficulty in centralized monitoring allowed local lords to hold considerable power. Simultaneously, the Church maintained a monopoly on information and thought.

Technological Drivers in the Rise of Nation States

Over subsequent centuries, this fragmented system disappeared, replaced by nation states. The following technologies facilitated the rise of powerful, central states:

• Information Control: The printing press generated a massive volume of content, which helped break the Church's control (or "chokehold") on information.
• Agricultural and Urban Shifts: The agricultural revolution resulted in the breeding of better horses and the creation of new inventions (like the horseshoe, horse collar, and heavy plow), leading to a massive increase in crop yields and population. The increased population migrated to cities, which are points rather than surfaces, making them much easier to control and tax.
• Transportation and Choke Points: Ocean fairing ships enabled new empires that traded through Atlantic ports, which were easily controlled and taxed as choke points. Later, railroads and roads were also easy for nation states to control because they are natural monopolies built upon physical networks.
• Financial and Military Power: Improvements in mining technology increased the silver supply by four to five times, with those controlling mines (points) making immense wealth (e.g., the Habsburgs had a near-monopoly on silver). The need for financiers (like the Fuggers or Medici) and the escalation of military technology (cannons strengthening against fortresses, and vice versa) meant that only the richest states could afford big armies to overwhelm smaller ones.
• Energy Localization: Energy shifted from distributed, sun-based sources in medieval times (water, wind, wood, human food, animals) to sources like coal and oil in the 19th and 20th centuries, which were localized in geography and thus much easier to control.
• Centralized Media: Technologies like TV stations and radio stations became easier to control, reinforcing state power.

The Weakening of Nation States

The same technological forces that once strengthened nation states are now making them weaker. This trend is leading the world toward a new system of neo-medievalism:

• Decentralized Connectivity: The internet can be beamed from anywhere.
• Global Communication: English is becoming the global language.
• Financial Freedom: The emergence of cryptocurrencies.
• Energy Decentralization: A shift back to solar as a source of energy.
• Geographic Independence: Remote work allows individuals to earn money while being uprooted from geography.

These modern forces reverse the historical trends, diminishing the control once held by centralized nation states.

Fireside with Animoca's Yat Siu: Funding Network States and Digital Ownership

I. Conference Context and Animoca's Structure

The discussion took place at the Network State Conference 2025, which Balaji characterized as "much more zen" and focused on "deeper talks," place at the Network State Conference 2025, which Balaji characterized as "much more zen" and focused on "deeper talks," contrasting it with the "blingfest" of the Token conference.

Yat Siu provided an overview of Animoca, describing it as a "gigantic digital conglomerate". Animoca is one of the largest investors in the areas of crypto, blockchain, and gaming, holding over 628 portfolio companies.

Crucially, Animoca is not a fund; it operates using prop capital (proprietary capital). While traditional tech giants (like Google or Apple) focus on extraction, Animoca’s model dictates that "every profit that we make goes back into the ecosystem to develop it out more," positioning it almost like an ecosystem fund or a network structure similar to the South Korean chaebols. Animoca thinks about its operations in terms of building an economy and using GDP as a metric.

II. Blockchain, Governance, and Self-Organization

The rise of crypto has fostered a deep, common culture across corporate boundaries, rooted in shared values like decentralization and self-sovereign keys.

Blockchain is seen as providing a scaling form of self-organization and a reliable enforcement mechanism for society. Everyone involved in crypto has essentially consented to the laws of crypto and the specific chain they use, creating a chosen jurisdiction.

A monumental achievement demonstrating this self-organization was the Ethereum transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake (The Merge). Balaji was "stunned" that this highly complex engineering feat occurred "seamlessly," defeating typical intuitions about how both software and human organization are supposed to work.

The underlying philosophy is that human organization, while driven by self-interest, ultimately aims to benefit most of society, which Balaji terms "win and help win," representing crypto at its best.

III. Gaming, Ownership, and Virtual Economies

The gaming industry is massive, engaging 3.4 billion people regularly. The panelists noted the historical significance of gaming: the entire GPU industry, essential for Bitcoin mining and today's AI technology, arose from the "whimsical experience" of wanting better graphics for games.

Key Concepts in Gaming as Network Societies:

• Scale: Games like Roblox (380 million users) and Minecraft (160–180 million users) are already massive network societies.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): The top two games (Roblox and Minecraft) rely on UGC and the ability for users to run their own servers and mod communities.
• Ownership: The core differentiator is ownership—the idea that players have a stake or a sense of ownership in the assets, which transcends mere content consumption.
• Macroeconomic Experiments: Games like Second Life and Eve Online have persisted for almost 20 years because they operate like "island states" with their own economies, communities, and ownership structures. Virtual economies have served as the first experimental subjects for macroeconomics, allowing simulations of entire economies.

The Problem of Inflation: Gaming companies often act as the "worst in QE" (Quantitative Easing) by constantly inflating their internal economy. This inflation causes games to "die" because new, casual gamers cannot afford the inflated assets, preventing the game from expanding beyond its core community. This economic challenge mirrors real-world systems, such as airline miles, which operate as a high-margin virtual currency business that in some ways subsidizes the physical airline operation.

IV. Digital Assets and Identity

Balaji suggested that the Web3 overlap might be better served by gamifying work rather than workifying games. Yat Siu confirmed that many Asian gamers want to own their assets.

Tokenization is a key mechanism that opens up the market structure. Tokenizing gaming assets is viewed as a form of RWA (Real World Asset) tokenization, even though it is digital-to-digital.

Digital Identity is deemed critical:

• ENS (Ethereum Name Service) and SNS IDs are seen as portable NFTs that are ready for prime time.
• Digital IDs allow users to export their reputation (e.g., Uber star ratings) between different platforms and ecosystems, unlocking reputation that is currently "locked in Apple, it's locked in Facebook, it's locked in Steam".

V. Funding the Future

Yat Siu affirmed that Animoca is actively looking at investments in startup societies and network states. He stated that "everything we do... is all about funding network states and network societies and making them grow," as they view this as the future.

Fireside with Jacqueline Poh, CEO of Singapore's JTC: Industrial Policy and Strategic Growth

I. JTC's Role and Scope

Fireside with Jacqueline Poh, CEO of Singapore's JTC: Industrial Policy and Strategic Growth

I. JTC's Role and Scope

JTC (Jurong Town Corporation) is Singapore's largest industrial landlord for business. It manages approximately $40 billion in assets under management (AUM). JTC effectively manages the real estate piece of Singapore's industrial policy.

JTC is responsible for creating and managing extensive industrial and mixed-use districts, including:

• one-north: A mixed-use district home to companies like Grab and Razer, and the location of Launchpad, Singapore's largest startup ecosystem with over 700 startups.
• The Punggol Digital District.
• Jurong Island: Where a massive data center park is being constructed.
• Facilities dedicated to biomed, medtech, and wafer fab parks.
• The electronics and semiconductors sector makes up 7% of Singapore's GDP.

II. Economic Strategy and Governance

Singapore, a relatively young nation celebrating its 60th birthday in 2025, is currently undergoing a significant economic strategy review. The government is questioning whether solely relying on MNC-led growth is sustainable in a more fragmented and deglobalized world. The main aim is to build and headquarter globally leading companies in Singapore to provide good jobs and benefit from the country's innovation ecosystem.

Key attributes of Singapore's governance supporting this strategy include:

• Agility: The government is highly "joined up" and linked together, which enables it to provide a strong proposition.
• Pro-Business Environment: Companies can be registered in about a day or so (sometimes while the founder is in transit at Changi Airport).
• Technology: The digital identity app, SingPass, is cited as a very functional government technology product.
• Long-Term Planning: Singapore has a roughly 30-year head start on industrial policy compared to other countries that only recently adopted it.

III. Attracting Global Talent

Singapore views global tech talent as a competitive advantage. Initiatives specifically created to draw in founders and capital include:

• Tech Pass and One Pass: Balaji was the first recipient of the Tech Pass. This scheme was later expanded into the One Pass, which is a five-year visa with no residency requirements.
• Spousal Employment: The One Pass allows individuals who are founders, VCs, or capital holders to bring their spouses, and the spouses are permitted to work on the same visa.

IV. Economic Pillars and Conscious Management

Singapore maintains a complex and diverse economy:

• Manufacturing accounts for 20% of Singapore's GDP. This includes high-value, high-tech manufacturing, such as semiconductors, bio-pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, often utilizing high robotics and digital twins.
• Finance is only 15% of GDP, despite Singapore being one of the world's top five financial hubs.

The government consciously manages the economic ecosystem, leaning against the natural market tendency for the high salaries in finance to draw away all top engineers and talent. This commitment to manufacturing is sustained because the government believes it is important for resilience and diversity.

JTC focuses on attracting companies in key tech areas:

• AI: Singapore produces 100 AI PhDs a year. AI is expected to transform manufacturing, logistics, and port/airport operations. The government is increasingly using AI for competitive analysis and consciously managed processes.
• Autonomous Vehicles (AVs): Singapore is undertaking a "big push" on AV deployments.
• Biotech and Medtech.

V. The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ)

To overcome limitations in land and manpower, Singapore partnered with Malaysia to develop the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ).

• Connectivity: The border between Johor and Singapore is the world's busiest land crossing. A Rapid Transit System (RTS) train will soon connect the two, carrying approximately 10,000 people an hour in 5–10 minutes. JTC is developing the Singapore side, the Woodlands Gateway.
• Scope and Resources: The zone covers most of Southern Johor, an area many times the size of Singapore. This arrangement is complementary: Singapore provides trust capital, the financial center, innovation, and top universities; Malaysia provides manpower and land.
• Goals: The partnership is committed to over 50 projects to attract companies that would not have considered either country alone. The goal is to create at least 20,000 jobs in Johor.

A Network of States: Operationalizing the Network State via Network Cities

I. The Core Problem with Network States

The presentation addresses the fundamental challenge facing the network state concept as originally conceived: the need for public goods and scale.

• Public Goods: A dispersed human network cannot easily provide essential services like infrastructure or physical security/defense; these are typically provided by host countries.
• Scale: A traditional state needs scale for crucial elements like investment, trade, and attracting skilled professionals in a globalized economy.

II. The Solution: Network Cities (A Network of Hong Kongs)

The proposed solution is the concept of Network Cities. These cities are envisioned as a global network of semi-autonomous communities or entrepôts that coordinate via the internet.

• Model: The concept is inspired by pre-2019 Hong Kong. Hong Kong successfully operated under a one country, two systems arrangement, giving it its own laws and own currency—it was autonomous but not independent.
• Scale: If enough cities join, this single network state would encompass over 100 million people, creating an incredibly powerful network state globally.
• Ecosystem: This large network state would create the space for the other human networks (the communities originally envisioned by Balaji) to exist inside it.

III. The Symbiotic Relationship with Host Countries

The relationship between the Network City and the host country is designed to be symbiotic (a "win-win situation").

| Entity | Role/Incentive | Support | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Host Country | Provides security and national defense. The host is incentivized because the city routes massive trade and investment to them. | Examples: Every country—including Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, and the EU—could host one (like Macau is hosted by China). | | Network City | Provides its own internal public goods and infrastructure. | The city builds its own trains, water systems, sewage systems, and telecom. |

The network state in this symbiotic model is not seen as parasitical but rather mutually beneficial.

IV. Mobility and Network Enforcement

Free Movement

A critical feature is the free movement of people, capital, and everything like that between the Network Cities.

• Internal Mobility: Residents of one Network City would be free to move automatically to any of the other cities around the world (e.g., in Brazil, Europe, or anywhere else).
• Restricted Mobility: Movement (population mobility) would be restricted between the city and the mainland of the host country.

Network Punishment

To mitigate the risk of a host country absorbing and conquering its Network City (as China did to Hong Kong in 2019):

• The large global network of entrepôts would coordinate to reroute trade and finance around the offending country.
• This network punishment would cause the host country to lose out on investment and trade brought by the city.
• Historical Precedent: This defense mechanism is modeled after the Hanseatic League (1200s–1400s), a league of German merchants who used their network power to famously punish the city of Bruge for blocking their trade.

V. Operationalizing Finance and Governance

A large holding company could be established, potentially headquartered in Singapore or operating on the blockchain, to coordinate investment and trade finance between all the Network Cities.

The creation of the Network of Cities is seen as a combination of the ideas of network states and charter cities, solving all the "thorny questions" of network state operation simultaneously. It opens the possibility for a new kind of state to coexist peacefully with existing traditional states in the age of the internet.

El Salvador: From Homicide Capital to Bitcoin Country

I. National Rebrand and Economic Strategy

Stacy Herbert, the Director of the National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador, highlights the country's transformation as "one of the greatest rebrands in history". El Salvador went from being known as the homicide capital of the world to being recognized globally as Bitcoin country. The shift in public perception is described as " known as the homicide capital of the world to being recognized globally as Bitcoin country. The shift in public perception is described as "crazy".

The country's economic focus is on building capital markets on Bitcoin. This strategy is based on the recognition that a country cannot become a global economic powerhouse without capital. El Salvador views Bitcoin as providing a competitive advantage. Despite initial "blowback from the global powers" when Bitcoin was first adopted as legal tender, President Bukele maintained this vision.

II. Attracting Builders and Global Talent

El Salvador is actively working to attract global digital nomads and tech startups through several initiatives:

• Tax Incentives: The country is offering 0% tax for industries that establish themselves there.
• Government Responsiveness: The government is described as "very responsive, fast acting" and able to quickly address the needs of entrepreneurs.
• Immigration: El Salvador is introducing easy pathways to citizenship. Tourists can easily visit and stay, as the standard tourist visa allows one to stay for 180 days.

III. Governance Model and Optimism

The presentation emphasizes two key aspects of the country's governance:

• Security Model: The "Boulli model on security has swept Latin America," suggesting that its disciplined approach is inspiring other countries.
• Regulatory Framework: El Salvador has a trailblazing pioneering brand and reputation. For instance, the regulatory framework for AI is "super streamlined," with a simple law accompanied by regulations that are just 13 pages long. This streamlined technological framework is explicitly noted as inspiring other countries.

For builders and those interested in network states, El Salvador offers a huge sense of optimism. This environment, where people are generally happy and building, contrasts sharply with places where people may feel depressed or that things are getting worse. The Director encourages people to abide by the phrase "don't trust, verify" and to come and visit El Salvador and build there for themselves.

Expo City Dubai: Pioneering a City Operating System and Open Platform

I. Expo City Overview and Special Economic Zone Status

Rashid Mohammed, the CTO of Expo City Dubai, introduced the project, noting that the site previously hosted Expo 2020, which attracted over 24 million visits. The infrastructure was purpose-built, and approximately 80% was retained when the site was converted into Expo City Dubai.

Expo City Dubai is an ambitious city with a strategy aimed at changing the way cities live and move forward. A key feature is that it is the newest created free zone in Dubai, making it a special economic zone within the UAE. This status grants the city the ability to change or set its own laws.

II. The Open Platform for Innovation

Expo City functions as an open platform for companies to come and test innovations. It is designed to be an ecosystem that supports startups and innovative companies that serve a city.

• The city comprises a huge cluster of 163 buildings.
• Startups can replicate and test technologies within the city.

III. The Aspiration for a City Operating System (City OS)

Rashid Mohammed emphasized that the logical element (the operational stack) of city management and buildings is outdated. Expo City aspires to change this by creating a fundamental new system for city operations.

The goal is to develop a City Operating System (OS). This OS would be:

• Open-source.
• Not locked.
• Hardware-agnostic, supporting all protocols.

This open OS would allow pure software startups with ideas (e.g., facial recognition, power recognition) that are connected to an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system to easily deploy their innovations, even if they do not own the hardware.

IV. Focus on Human-Centric Services and Lifestyle 3.0

The underlying technological overhaul is necessary because existing management stacks are built for office workers, not for the people who run the city on the ground.

The CTO stated that, in the coming years, the most expensive piece will be the physical person moving from point A to point B to perform a task or move equipment. The technical infrastructure needs a granular level revamp that has never been done before.

Expo City aspires to transition to a human-centric, intuitive service. The project seeks to define lifestyle 3.0 in a city, contemplating whether this future is still an app or if the service becomes intuitive, requiring no app at all. Expo City is seeking collaboration, potentially from network schoolers, to help build this City OS.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM): A Pioneering, Agile Financial Regulator

I. Overview and Founding Context

Wai Lum Kwok presented on the role and journey of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial center of Abu Dhabi.

• Establishment: ADGM was set up in October 2015.
• Legal Framework: It operates under English common law.
• Mission: ADGM was established to support Abu Dhabi's economic diversification strategy.
• Starting from Scratch: When ADGM began in 2015, the regulator had the opportunity to start from scratch, meaning they had no legacy issues and could build regulations by importing best practices from around the world.

The regulator noted that, unlike some equivalent bodies, it does not fulfill a central banking role.

II. Pioneering Crypto Regulation

ADGM recognized early on that the future of financial services would be technology-enabled. ADGM was one of the earliest regulators globally to regulate the crypto space, issuing its framework in June 2018.

• Addressing Risk: At the time, the global conversation was focused heavily on money laundering and financial crime. ADGM benchmarked its efforts against the New York Department of Financial Services and Japanese regulators.
• Institutional Approach: Institutional investors indicated they would only enter the space if all risks were addressed.
• Regulatory Framework: ADGM's framework extends traditional financial regulations to carve in crypto assets by treating them as "just another asset class".
• Ecosystem Growth: Today, ADGM hosts a young ecosystem that includes broker-dealers, exchanges, custodians, stablecoin issuance, and prime brokers.
• Sovereign Support: The Abu Dhabi government's sovereign wealth funds played a role by investing in key foundational players to establish the base layer of the crypto ecosystem. This includes dipping their toes into mining, which helps create risk capital for borrowing and lending.

III. Regulatory Innovation and Agility

ADGM employs three pillars in its development, with the first being anticipating the future and remaining agile.

• Yield-Bearing Stablecoins: ADGM deliberately allows for yield-bearing stablecoins. While most other regimes prohibit this purely from a financial perspective, ADGM realized that institutional investors prefer using them as a form of collateral.
• Formalizing Regulation: ADGM continues to formalize rules, with a consultation paper for staking recently released, and plans to formalize rules for VA borrowing and lending in the next two quarters.
• Industry Reliance: ADGM moved away from a strict approval-based regime for crypto assets toward greater reliance on the industry to conduct their own due diligence.

IV. The Regulatory Sandbox

A key tool for ADGM's ability to adapt and adjust policy is its sandbox. This is a designated place for the regulator to experiment with policies.

• On-Chain Innovation: ADGM currently hosts a firm that issues on-chain credit where everything is native (e.g., auction processes, borrowing, and lending occur in the on-chain environment). This firm bypasses the need to tokenize paper-based real-world assets.

V. Global Engagement

ADGM participates in global standard-setting bodies like IOSCO and BCBS. It exercises thought leadership by bringing global regulators together to converse and seek regulatory harmony.

ADGM organizes the Abu Dhabi Finance Week every year to connect traditional finance (TradFi), new finance (NewFi), and sustainable finance on the same platform over four days. This event typically occurs after the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi race in early December.

The Pulsation of the Commons: A Historical Vision of Web3 and Cosmolocalism

I. The Historical Thesis: The Pulsation of the Commons

The presentation introduces a historical vision of Web3 and crypto based on the study of macro historians. The core hypothesis is the "pulsation of

The presentation introduces a historical vision of Web3 and crypto based on the study of macro historians. The core hypothesis is the "pulsation of the commons," which argues that civilization has forgotten about the commons—the third most important institution, alongside the state and the market.

• Cyclical Nature: Historically, markets and states are seen as perpetually switching dominance ("back and forth"). However, the health of the commons operates cyclically: when markets and states do well, the commons go down. Conversely, when markets and states start functioning less and go down, the commons go up.
• Hegemony in Dark Ages: Most interestingly, when a dark age occurs and markets and states almost completely disappear, the commons become hegemonic. This is evidenced by the role of monasteries in the revival of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, and Buddhist monastics in China and Japan.

II. Historical Forms of the Commons

Throughout history, the commons served to balance the "extractive exaggerations" of the market and state, which constantly compete with each other and overuse their land base.

| Historical Period | Form of Commons | Details | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Indigenous Period | Communal shareholding and the gift | These were the main value exchange systems; markets and the state were marginal or non-existent. | | Pre-Capitalist/Medieval | Common land (Physical Commons) | In the European Middle Ages, common land was managed by the village and was crucial alongside the lord's land and the farmer's own land. | | Modernity (16th Century) | Enclosures/Statification | The physical commons were destroyed by the enclosures of the 16th century. Displaced farmers moved to cities and created the social commons (e.g., welfare organizations of labor), which subsequently underwent statification to become the welfare state. |

III. The Digital Commons and Revival

The commons experienced a major revival starting in the late 20th century:

• 1993: Digital Knowledge Commons: The democratization of digital networks created vast digital knowledge commons, bringing the concept back into the consciousness and practice of millions of people.
• 2008: Urban and Rural Commons: Following the financial crash, loads of young people facing high unemployment (30% to 50% in some European countries) created a massive amount of urban and rural commons. One study noted that a single city went from 50 urban commons to 500 in just ten years.

IV. Cosmolocalism and the Role of Crypto

The presentation concludes with the concept of Cosmolocalism and a proposal for integrating Web3 with local regenerative efforts.

• Definition: Cosmolocalism is the combination where "everything that's heavy is local, is relocized, and everything that's light is global and shared".
• Critique of Crypto Exit: The speaker views crypto primarily as an exit strategy, which is "very dangerous" if only used for arbitrage of territory and moving around. If crypto communities are not seen as an ally of local people, they risk rejection during civilizational change.
• Proposal for Integration: The movement needs to create a link between the coordination capacity of code and capital of Web3 and the regenerative efforts of millions of people locally who are trying to heal their land and soil.
• Vision: The goal is to establish some form of fragmented or fractal capital that would allow investment of crypto capital into local regenerative projects that are "commons compatible".

Fireside with Polychain's Olaf Carlson-Wee: Why Now is the Time for Network States

I. The Network State as a Post## Fireside with Polychain's Olaf Carlson-Wee: Why Now is the Time for Network States

I. The Network State as a Post-Bitcoin Evolution

Olaf Carlson-Wee, the founder of Polychain, approaches the concept of network states and startup societies from an investment perspective and a cryptocurrency mechanism design perspective.

He asserts that the movement is transitioning from a "pre-Bitcoin sort of startup society ecosystem" to the equivalent of "really Bitcoin". Historically, before Bitcoin, there were prototypes (like ecash, hash, bit gold, and Liberty Reserve) that were directionally correct but lacked the key components needed to succeed. The network state movement is now at that tipping point.

Balaji characterizes this movement as the "third kind of thing" after internet companies and internet currencies, calling them internet communities.

II. The Dramatic Shift to Internet-Native Populations

A major "macro tailwind" driving the current opportunity is the shift in generational adoption of the internet:

• 150x Growth: Between 1995 and 2010, the number of people who grew up with an internet connection grew by 150 times.
• Internet First: This "new generation" is genuinely internet first, viewing the internet as their home or "native place".
• Smartphone Ideology: Balaji notes that 20th-century ideologies were based on the assembly line; today, every ideology must start on the smartphone.

This shift explains "why now". Since more people are organizing via online networks instead of geography, the reliance on geographically organized systems—like fiat money and regulatory frameworks—becomes increasingly odd for online businesses. This situation is likened to having region-locked electronics or a region-locked Gmail account when crossing borders.

III. Speedrunning the Dubai and Singapore Models

The success of Dubai and Singapore proves the demand for a model based on governance and trade. These regions, which lacked natural resources, became the highest-growth economies by opening themselves up to globalization, free trade, and making themselves good places to live and do business.

The difference now is the availability of the internet and cryptocurrency, which provides incentive design and mechanism design. Network states can now speedrun the story of Dubai and Singapore significantly faster, potentially achieving similar growth in 10 or 15 years, rather than multiple decades.

The massive scale of modern internet communities (e.g., WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok are "billion person apps") shows the potential for groups to organize and materialize physically, which "would change the world".

IV. Monetary Decentralization and Future Community Design

Currency and Unit of Account

The young generation often views cryptocurrency as their "native unit of account," having to translate back to dollars. Bitcoin, in particular, has become the benchmark for returns in the space.

In macro terms, the world is moving away from Western denomination, marked by the decline of US Dollar (USD) dominance in global trade settlements (now under 50%). This shift is not leading to a replacement by the Chinese yuan, but rather to greater decentralization. This "global patchwork economy" creates more opportunity for an internet-native state to grow aggressively.

The Concept of the Network School

Carlson-Wee expressed strong optimism ("very bullish") about the Network School concept. He notes that it is difficult to explain using comparative metaphors (e.g., "imagine you had Stanford but it was just starting") because it is defining a "new category"—the "secret third thing"—much like Polychain defined a new category of crypto funds.

If Carlson-Wee were to found a network state, it would be aesthetically based. He values the "vibes" and would prioritize editability over luxury. He suggests that these communities should be built as "startup communities," like a "pirate ship," prioritizing potential over immediate perks.

1517 Fund: Shorting the Higher Education Bubble and Scaling the Mutant Movement

I. The Thiel Fellowship: The Original Decentralized School

The speakers, Danielle and Michael, describe themselves as builders of "decentralized schools for the gifted" (whom they call "mutants") speakers, Danielle and Michael, describe themselves as builders of "decentralized schools for the gifted" (whom they call "mutants") over the past 15 years.

• Co-Founding: In 2010, they co-founded the Teal Fellowship with Peter Thiel.
• Structure: This was the "world's first grant program for mutants", offering a $100,000 grant to 20 people per year.
• Conditions: Applicants had to be 19 and under and were required to drop out of school.
• Success: The Teal Fellowship became known as one of the "greatest startup accelerators". Notable fellows include Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Dylan Field (Figma), Laura Deming (longevity funds), and Retesh (Oyo Rooms). The number one indicator of becoming a billionaire is now having been a Teal Fellow.
• Criticism: The initiative faced backlash from experts, including Larry Summers (President of Harvard, Treasury Secretary), who called it the "most misdirected philanthropy of the decade".

II. The 1517 Fund: Shorting the Higher Education Bubble

The speakers view college as pushing people into "massive debt"—student debt is currently at $1.7 trillion—and decided to start a VC fund to "short the higher education bubble".

• Nomenclature: The fund is called 1517, named after the year Martin Luther nailed his thesis to the church door to protest the sale of indulgences.
• The Diploma as Indulgence: The speakers equate the diploma to the "modern indulgence"—a piece of paper the establishment sells, claiming it is the only way to succeed. They believe this premise is "bullshit".
• Investment Thesis Success: By pursuing this thesis, the fund has invested in many companies, including Loom and Luminar, both founded by dropouts. On $18 million invested, they have returned $219 million to their investors.
• Future Returns: They anticipate that their company Lambda Labs will likely go public next year, bringing their total returns to investors somewhere close to "a billion or more".

III. Scaling the Movement (Fellowship 2.0)

The 1517 Fund is also known as "Fellowship 2.0" and represents a way to scale the previous work of the Teal Fellowship.

• Going Younger: They recognized the need to start working "younger and earlier with makers".
• Programs: As a venture capital fund, they still run programs for young people, such as a "teen camp" out of San Francisco.
• Core Question: Their work suggests that the answer is "no" to the question of whether one needs to spend "$400,000 and four years" taking required courses to reach the frontier of knowledge in science and technology.

The speakers invite mutants, makers, and founders to connect with 1517, and encourage investors who wish to short the higher education bubble to find them.

a16z's Ben Horowitz on Netscape, Bitcoin, and the Rise of Network States

I. Parallels in Technological Development

Ben Horowitz, speaking at the Network City Conference, drew parallels between three major technological developments: Netscape, Bitcoin, and Network States.

• Netscape (The First Internet Company): Horowitz was a key figure at Netscape, which he characterized as the first internet company. Before Netscape, many internet pieces existed (like FTP, TCPIP, Gopher), but Netscape served to "unify all the technology," hitting the "knee in the curve" when the integration happened. Critics at the time mistakenly viewed it as "just putting an interface on it".
• Bitcoin (The First Internet Currency): This was identified as the first internet currency that followed the rise of internet companies.
• Internet Communities (Network States): Balaji characterized Network States as the "third kind of thing," following internet companies and internet currencies.

II. The Network State as Integration

Horowitz views the development of the Network State movement as being highly "parallel" to Netscape's origins.

• Unifying the Pieces: The network state movement currently has all the "primitive building blocks of community"—including Discord, WhatsApp groups, Bitcoin, and stable coins—but "nobody's put the whole package together" yet.
• The Power of Integration: The key to unleashing the potential of network states is this integration, which is where the movement will truly "hit the knee in the curve". The pieces, as individual elements, are not the final product.

III. Future Communities and Physical Dimensions

Horowitz expressed interest in seeing the ideas around network states "multiply".

• Multidimensional Communities: While primitive communities currently center around a single idea (e.g., the LLM community), the future could involve communities formed around the "intersection of many ideas," finding all the like-minded people in the world and putting them together into a "very powerful thing".
• Physical Incarnation: Many existing primitive communities (like WhatsApp groups) are lacking because they have no physical dimension and no virtual reality dimension; all they can currently do is chat. Horowitz would like to see these communities become "much more highly dimensional".

IV. The Two-Sided Market and Investment

Horowitz expressed a vision for facilitating the growth of network states through a two-sided market approach:

• Two-Sided Market: One side would consist of a "conference of small countries and progrowth jurisdictions". The other side would be composed of "tech founders and venture capitalist". The goal is to put them together.
• Conference V1: The current Network State Conference is seen as the "V1 of that" concept.
• Investment Interest (a16z): Horowitz confirmed that founders building a network state or subsidiary community should "for sure" pitch Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). He stated that a16z is "very interested in it" and "believe[s] in the whole thing from the sovereign individual on up".

AngelList's Founders Cafe: Building a Physical Space for the Founder Community

I. AngelList's Role and Scale

Avlok Kohli, who has been leading AngelList since 2019, provided an overview of the company's background and mission.

• Mission who has been leading AngelList since 2019, provided an overview of the company's background and mission.

• Mission: AngelList builds products designed to drive more capital to startups.

• Positioning: AngelList operates at the infrastructure layer of the startup ecosystem.

• Customers: Their customers range from early-stage venture funds to many large venture funds, and the company also provides products to founders to help them raise capital.

• Scale: AngelList currently supports $171 billion in assets. Kohli also noted that he runs a large fund on AngelList at Balaji.com.

II. The Founders Cafe Concept

Kohli discussed the motivation behind the Founders Cafe, a new physical space built specifically for founders.

• Inspiration: The idea originated from a personal observation: when Kohli was a founder, there were few great places to work. Traditional coffee shops often had poor Wi-Fi, bad coffee, and closed early.
• Solution: The Founders Cafe was designed to be a dedicated space where founders can "lock in and get great work done". It features great Wi-Fi and great coffee.
• Hours: The cafe is open seven days a week until midnight.
• Location: AngelList repurposed the first floor of its office to open the space up to founders.

III. Operational Model and Community Engagement

The Founders Cafe utilizes an invite-only model:

• Founders within the AngelList community and those in the local area can request access.
• AngelList reviews these requests before granting access.
• The reception to the cafe, which launched two weeks prior to the discussion, has been described as "great".

IV. Justification and Strategic Benefits

AngelList is not attempting to make money from the Founders Cafe. The investment was justified by two key strategic benefits:

1. Employee Energy and Empathy: The physical space allows AngelList to "bring the founder energy" directly to its employees. The constant presence of founders who are "locked in, working away, passionate about their ideas" helps to motivate and energize the team. This proximity also improves employee empathy and understanding of their customers.
2. Community Connection: The cafe serves as a way to gather AngelList's founder community and the founders who have started funds, enabling them to connect with each other. Kohli noted a customer benefit to this physical gathering.

Kohli also credited the influence of the network state and startup societies movements on the decision to create the physical space, citing an appreciation for the physical spaces built in places like Singapore.

Blueprint, Diagnostics, and the Longevity Network State

I. The Evolution of the Blueprint Movement

The discussion opened with Brian Johnson (BJ) summarizing the evolution of his Blueprint initiative, noting its progression from initial skepticism to widespread acceptance.

• Initial Reception: The movement faced a "tsunami of hate" followed by a phase of "quasi curiosity" questioning its legitimacy.
• Current Status: There has been a "gradual acceptance" that the initiative is legitimate and interesting, and the hate has "tapered off substantially".
• Global Impact: The movement has transitioned into a deeply engaged component of the "world order", fueled in part by a Netflix documentary released in January that had a deep global impact.

II. The Need for New Jurisdictions and Innovation

Balaji proposed that the medical field is exiting the FDA era, which focused on minimizing side effect size, and is re-entering the era of large effect size.

• Proposal: Balaji offered a million-dollar longevity prize for individuals who take interventions and successfully secure their legality in specific jurisdictions, aiming to enable interesting developments in bio.
• Jurisdictional Barrier: BJ agreed that this focus on new jurisdictions is necessary because it is "very hard to innovate in the United States". Over time, bureaucracy tends to own the situation, leading to a "paralysis state".
• Goal: Both participants affirmed the need for safe, efficacious therapies that demonstrate large effect sizes.

III. The Path to a Longevity Network State

Balaji suggested that the initial focus should be on diagnostics due to their unique advantages:

• Safety and Speed: Diagnostics usually cannot hurt the person and allow innovation to move much faster, close to the "speed of computer science".
• Informed Intervention: Diagnostics can arguably create the room for therapeutics because the intervention is informed.

The proposed path forward is to start with a longitudinal diagnostic network state first, leading toward a full longevity network state.

The Longitudinal Diagnostic Plan

BJ confirmed the plan to execute the diagnostic network state by:

1. Gathering a cohort of people together.
2. Investing the capital required to conduct high-fidelity characterization.
3. Collecting time series longitudinal data (even if the data is not useful for 5 or 10 years).

This longitudinal data provides a much better chance for future trials, specifically by helping to identify what therapies people will and won't be responsive to, and by revealing off-target effects. The final step would be to leverage this data within appropriate jurisdictions to introduce "fast-track safe high effect size therapies".

Andrew Huberman: Cortisol Management and the Ideal Health-Optimized Community

I. Core Philosophy and Health Principles

Andrew Huberman's approach to health focuses on anchoring advice in science and providing actionable tools (hacks and heuristics) that distill complicated information into memorable steps. He emphasizes giving people tools that work very quickly so they can feel the benefits and get "hooked by taking good care of themselves".

While Huberman primarily promotes behavioral tools for change, he also believes strongly in the role of nutrition (which he places under behaviors) and notes that supplements and peptides are very valuable.

II. The Foundation of Health: Cortisol Management

Huberman identifies one critical piece of knowledge that, if understood, could make people 10 times healthier: understanding the management of cortisol.

The goal is to optimize the timing of cortisol release:

• Cortisol should be high in the first hours after waking. A higher morning peak leads to more energy, focus, and ability to learn during the day.
• Cortisol should be low in the evening.

Key behavioral tools for cortisol control:

| Timing | Action | Effect | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Morning | Viewing bright light (especially in the first hour after waking). | This will amplify the morning cortisol peak. | | Morning | Exercise, caffeine, and cold exposure. | These do not increase cortisol but merely prolong that peak a little bit. | | Evening | Reducing the amount of bright screen light. | Lowers cortisol. | | Evening | Long exhale breathing. | Lowers the heart rate and cortisol. |

Huberman states that if a person gets this cortisol timing right, "everything else becomes 10 times if not a thousand times easier".

III. The Ideal Huberman Community and Technological Innovation

In response to the concept of engineering an ideal environment or "Huberman community" (like a Network School), Huberman asserted that such an environment is an "incredible idea". People need to know "what to do when" to set the foundation of alertness and focus.

He highlighted significant opportunity for technology development in this space:

• He would like to see a real-time cortisol sensor.
• This sensor should be linked to an AI-based feedback system that tracks one's activities and advises "what to do and when" to improve things, including sleep.

If he had a "magic wand," Huberman would create light cycles that are collaborative with human health. This would involve buildings (using natural or artificial light) being regulated to ensure there is enough bright light early in the day and throughout the day, and that the environment is dimmer and darker at night. He suggested this concept as the "human health zone for living" and wished it were a law.

Huberman strongly endorsed the Network School movement, stating he is "totally on board" because it involves changing the "whole community framework around medicine and healthcare".

Replit: From Global Developer Platform to AI-Powered Network State Builder

The discussion features Amjad Masad, CEO and co-founder of Replit, and Balaji, an early seed investor, who share a long-standing interest in leveling up developers, particularly those in the developing world who are gaining access to smartphones.

I. Hypergrowth, Value Creation, and the AI Agent Shift

Replit has achieved massive scale and rapid financial growth.

• Scale and Growth: Replit has approximately 40 million users worldwide. In about 10 months, its Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) grew from $2 million to $150 million.
• Surplus Value: The speakers emphasize that the platform's ability to create value for users is more impressive than Replit's own growth. Replit has created "billions of dollars in surplus value for the world". One example is a user (a VC CFO) who built a portfolio management app on the platform, eventually reaching 5 million euros in ARR.
• The AI Agent: Replit spent 10 years building the necessary components—IDEs, package managers, deployment, databases, and community—so users could go from nothing but an idea to deployed, scalable software. Around 2023, Replit shifted its focus: the primary developer is now the agent built on the platform. Users interface primarily with this AI agent, collaboratively describing what they want built (like data analysis). This abstraction eliminates the difficulty of coding and managing environments, which previously required dealing with frustrating "IT side quests".
• Openness Principle: Replit is founded on the principle of openness; it uses open standards and open source code. Users are able to download their code and host it elsewhere if they choose, as the layers of abstraction can be peeled back.

II. AI's Transformation of Education and Management

The ability to program computers massively increases a person's reach on the internet, enabling not just startups, but also activism and freedom of speech. Replit is viewed as transforming education, which is currently "melting" under the weight of AI.

• Bloom's Two Sigma Problem: Historically, the most effective educational intervention has been one-on-one tutoring, which provides a "two standard deviation impact" from standard lecture styles. AI is the ultimate solution, capable of providing one-on-one tutoring for everyone and training new educators.
• Real-World Impact: * A startup called Magic School, built on Replit, reached $10 million ARR by helping overworked teachers quickly generate assignments and improve their impact.
  • In Jordan, an entrepreneur built an AI tutor for the country's curriculum in four days using Replit, and it is now scaling to 2 million people.
• Managerial Training: Since most people cannot afford to hire an engineer, using Replit agents acts as hyperdeflated managerial training, forcing users to clearly communicate, break down complex ideas, and manage an agent.
• Apprenticeship Model: The speakers suggest replacing the factory-model education system with an apprentice model (like the craft apprentice of the 1700s). Kids could start doing bounties earlier, learning the "true game of life". Earning through creation teaches freedom, responsibility, and economic power, leading to less conformity than dependency on parents or bosses.
• Universal Seed Funding: Replit functions as an "almost like a universal seed funding check" by reducing the cost of building an app from $100,000 to approximately $100.

III. The Physical Frontier: Programmable Spaces and Robotics

The network state is described as a "docker image for new communities". The next step for Replit is materializing the platform into the physical world.

• Programmable World: The speakers advocate for building the world of tomorrow by focusing on training people in robotics and creating programmable robots and programmable spaces.
• The "Read Only" Problem: The physical world is often considered "read only" (e.g., requiring many permits to move a stop sign or build a shed). Making it programmable—with autonomous drones and robots—is the key to future innovation.
• Starting Small: Early projects could involve robots for kids (similar to the MIT Media Lab's physical turtle for Logo), as physical embodiment helps children learn programming better. The ultimate goal is creating platforms for difficult industries like factories and science experiments.
• Modularization and Network States: Balaji envisions a process where a "bill of materials" is used to have robots lay out modulars and set up solar panels. The simple rack-and-stack nature of solar panels makes starting gridless technologically feasible.
• The Vibe Coding Lounge: Amjad expressed the desire to drop a modular Replit-themed "vibe coding lounge" anywhere in the world, almost "from a press of button," enabling the physical presence of the community without complex coordination. This physical form could be like a hacker house representing the spirit of Replit.

Fireside Discussion: AI, History Recreation, Solopreneurship, and the Future of Social Media

The AI Revolution in Storytelling and History

The conversation highlights the dramatic acceleration of video creation enabled by AI.

• Past vs. Present Production: Nine years ago, creating a one-minute video cost 15 hours of labor (five hours for the idea, five for shooting, five for editing). The creator's company has since pivoted to be 100% AI-dependent.
• Rapid Technological Advancement: The video models are improving at an astonishing rate. The V3 technology, described as the "chat GPT moment for video," launched just 170 days prior to the discussion. Now, Sora, which is only two days old, is described as 10 times more realistic than V3.
• The Power of Recreation: AI allows for the recreation of history and complex concepts in an engaging visual format. For example, a video explaining exponential growth through the ancient story of the grains of wheat on a chessboard, which typically is boring in a math or history book, garnered 15 million views using AI visuals that were impossible a year prior.
• Reanimating History and Culture: The goal is to bring past historical and religious episodes to life, moving beyond the "boring boring collection of dates and names and stuff" typically taught in school. This process is likened to Jurassic Park, where historical stories are reanimated. This new visual medium allows people to understand the original gripping nature of foundational narratives, such as the Bible, which used to function as a form of "TV" or the "Marvel stories" of their time.
• Impact on Communication: Packaging a message in video form yields exponentially greater reach (10 million views) compared to text (100 views) or images (1,000 views).

Applications and Controversies of AI

The speaker identifies four main applications for the AI revolution in content creation:

1. Business Applications: Creating marketing ads in five seconds.
2. Political Aspirations: Recreating history through any political lens.
3. Religious Aspirations: Bringing religious stories back to life.
4. Educational Aspirations: Focusing on historical education.
5. Entertainment Aspirations (not the speaker's primary interest).

Despite the creative potential, the use of AI faces immediate backlash; the top comment is often "Why AI i hate AI ai slop," though the speaker insists "AI slop is the future". The perspective is that what is considered "slop" today will rapidly improve in quality due to models like Sora.

Focus on Solopreneurship and Economic Models

The core interest of the creator is enabling solopreneurship—a future where individuals can run a one-person business, potentially generating $100,000 a month, without needing traditional labor.

• AI as Labor Replacement: The "real bottleneck is not the history books, it's labor," as finding good marketers, designers, or copywriters is "borderline impossible". AI allows a solopreneur to "do any job reasonably well". The future envisions managing four AI agents instead of four human employees.
• The Monetization Challenge: The speaker has not found direct monetization from media, religion, or history projects, noting losses (e.g., losing $100,000 on the AI history series).
• Government/Cultural Funding: It is suggested that governments (like the Spanish government for Catalonian history) or religious organizations should pay for the recreation of their history and culture, viewing it as a consumption good rather than a production good built for resale.

The Crisis of Organic Reach and the Rise of Paid Ads

A major theme is the dramatic decline in organic reach on mainstream social media platforms, forcing content creators toward paid advertising [13,e.g., losing $100,000 on the AI history series).

• Government/Cultural Funding: It is suggested that governments (like the Spanish government for Catalonian history) or religious organizations should pay for the recreation of their history and culture, viewing it as a consumption good rather than a production good built for resale.

The Crisis of Organic Reach and the Rise of Paid Ads

A major theme is the dramatic decline in organic reach on mainstream social media platforms, forcing content creators toward paid advertising.

• The "TikTokification" Effect: Due to the TikTok algorithm spreading across Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, social media platforms have pulled the rug on content creators. It is now impossible for a creator with 100,000 followers to reliably reach 50% of their audience.
• Loss of Audience Ownership: Creators no longer own their audience; social media has captured all monetization. Brands now pay Facebook or Instagram to find an audience, rather than paying an influencer to reliably reach their followers.
• The Necessity of Paid Ads: The speaker concludes that paid ads are the "only reliable way for solopreneurs to reach customers," as platforms immediately throttle organic reach when a creator attempts to sell something. This shift has been evidenced by the creator's own experience, where 15 recent events were filled through paid ads after the initial three were organic.
• The Paradox of Discovery: While TikTokification allows small creators to be discovered and gain "15 seconds of fame," it simultaneously makes large creators' followers mean less, diminishing the weight of follower counts as an algorithmic signal.

Blockchain as an Alternative Channel (Ownership Network)

Balaji suggests that blockchain-based messaging is emerging as a potential alternative channel to combat intermediation and ownership loss.

• Decentralized Messaging: Protocols like XMTP allow messages to be sent between owned addresses without intermediary throttling.
• Farcaster as the Current Best Option: Farcaster is highlighted as the current best example of a viable decentralized platform. Farcaster offers unique advantages due to its programmability and open backend:
  • Mini Apps: Tweets are not programmable, but Farcaster supports mini apps, which provide a 10x reason for adoption.
  • Open State/Execution: Farcaster provides open state and open execution, meaning the backend and database are open for data analysis, allowing users to script and analyze interactions (e.g., seeing everyone who interacted with a post) in a way impossible on platforms like X (Twitter). This feature attracts "nerd energy".
• Ownership vs. Discovery: Blockchain is recognized as an ownership network, not a discovery network, but the open indexing of addresses (like ENS) based on NFT ownership presents opportunities for future targeted outreach.

Creator Perspectives on Survival, Community, and the Future of Media

The Challenge of Content Creation Longevity

Sustaining a media career requires constant reinvention. The speaker, who has been creating content for 10 years, acknowledged reaching a point of wanting to stop. This reflection was catalyzed by a three-month national ban (cancellation) earlier in the year.

The focus is now on building for the next 20 years, leveraging the community established over the last decade. The speaker's career path involved transitioning from fitness content to coaching men on relationships (similar to the movie Hitch), and then into podcasting, having recorded with over 900 people. Now, the speaker admits to being "bored of it" after hitting everything in that sphere.

The Shift to Raw Content and Community Building

User behavior is being heavily influenced by the advent of AI. In places like India (representing a large mass of the world), people now turn to platforms like ChatGPT to learn things, where two years prior they would have searched on YouTube.

This shift has driven content toward extremes:

1. Raw Content: There is a demand for really raw conversations. Content is moving toward long-form documentaries (e.g., 10-hour videos) of a creator's normal, yet interesting, day, focusing on high personality and watchability.
2. Highly Researched Video Essays.

Due to these changes, it has become increasingly difficult to grow in the content world. The long-term goal for survival is to grow a really strong community and then build something in the real world off of this community.

The Return to the Physical World and Network States

There is a sense that the physical world is becoming a "break from the internet". Physical communities are considered less fickle and less flaky compared to online environments.

The vision for the speaker’s community (Ranveer network state or village) would be based on what people associate with India: lots of yoga, meditation, and fitness. The speaker noted that Indian culture used to be a knowledge capital for the world and is moving back in that direction, particularly in spiritual and ancient studies, requiring a "young cute face to send".

Balaji Srinivasan shared his philosophical vision for his old age, centering on achieving:

• Infinite Frontier (expansion into space/Mars and the mathematical frontier).
• Immutable Money (like Bitcoin).
• Eternal Life (longevity, understanding stem cells and regeneration). He noted that his personal desire is often to simply "sit and do math" (his activity for the first 30 years of life), but he feels compelled to work on larger issues like competitive governance because "no one is coming to correct it".

Lessons from Failed Physical Communities

The discussion touched upon Auroville, an experimental city in India built around scientific research on spiritual concepts, which had its own currency and self-sustaining government.

The mistake made by Auroville that led to a lack of sustainability was that they didn't encourage a culture of startups and hard work. While the quality of life is high and the community is funded by high taxes on a few existing businesses, the newer generations have everything paid for and "nothing to work towards". Learning from these failures is crucial when pursuing the creation of new cities and countries.

The Impact of AI on Media Careers

In the long-term view, a media career is compared to venture capital (VC), requiring agility and receiving very quick feedback from comment sections.

• Prediction Window Shrinks: AI has made it difficult to predict societal trends over a three- to four-year period; now, predictions are often limited to the next six months.
• Fiction Democratization: The speaker believes that by this time next year, agentic AI softwares will be common for creators, leading to the democratization of fiction (movies, TV, OTT). Teenagers will be creating films that will shake up the film world globally, potentially competing with studios like Warner Brothers.

However, Balaji offered a counter-view on AI's limitations:

• Sigmoiding Quality: He observes a sigmoiding of model quality, meaning the leaps and bounds of improvement are slowing down, and people adjust to amazing technology quickly.
• Screenwriting as the Bottleneck: He doubts that AI will produce long-form Hollywood movies from a simple prompt, as they may feel generic. He learned that the screenwriting part (the thought part) is actually the difficult bottleneck, while the professional special effects and visuals (production) are relatively easy.
• Writing is Thinking: Writing great fiction is always a reflection of what's happening in the world. If the idea is not "crisp," it is hard to write. The complexity of plotting a mystery novel with multiple timelines and resolutions is something AI struggles with currently.
• Shorter Context is Better: AI performs better with shorter context; long context tends to "drop off".
• Prompting Limitation: AI's biggest impact may be in the physical world (robotics/drones), but in creation, it will be more prompting limited than expected. AI handles the production phase "middle to middle, not end to end," requiring human prompting and verification.

Advice for Aspiring Creators: The AI Arbitrage

The current state of content creation is described as very hard. However, the speaker believes it will get slightly easier next year as AI models improve.

The opportunity right now is in AI arbitrage: the thing that is currently underpriced relative to followers is AI.

Key advice for aspiring creators:

• Focus on Writing: Everyone needs to be a writer and work on their writing skills.
• Pre-Allocate Effort (Reps): Set a bounded but real duration or number of "reps" (e.g., 50 to 100 pieces of content) before quitting. This prevents getting discouraged and quitting too early (e.g., at rep 12). Improvement comes through iterations and agility.
• Collect Ideas: Write 50 to 100 pieces of content you genuinely want to tell the world, collect them in a diary, and gradually execute on them next year. This is the hard work; having success is luck.

The Catholic Church: The Original Network State and the Foundation of the West

Monotheism as the First Transnational Network

The concept of the network state originated with monotheism. Before monotheism, polytheism was tied to the household and the city; gods were specific to tribes, and victory in battle was attributed to one tribe's god defeating another's.

With the introduction of one universal God, adherence was no longer dependent on membership in a particular tribe. This led to the formation of the first transnational networks, including Judaism and Islam. The focus of this discussion, however, is on the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church: More Than a Network State

The argument is that the Catholic Church was, and potentially still is, more than a network state. It is characterized as a network of network states.

The Church is credited with fundamentally shaping the West:

• Social Cohesion: Catholic marriage law, by making cousin marriage illegal, contributed to the end of clanishness. This shift is cited as a reason Western people became more rule-oriented.
• Rationalism and Science: Catholic philosophy is argued to have led to rationalism and science.
• Financial Innovation: The Church sponsored crucial, practical innovations such as transnational banking. The Knights Templar created the first real bank, allowing crusaders to deposit property in exchange for funding and money at their destination—an action described as basically "tokenizing assets".
• Capitalism and Governance: The limited liability company (LLC), which made capitalism possible, is also attributed to Catholic origins. Furthermore, the Church helped in the foundation of the state, challenging the common narrative that the modern state was founded against the church.

Crucially, the Catholic Church never attempted to become a superstate, unlike entities such as the Islamic caliphate.

The Need for a Network State Operating System (OS)

Every network state requires an OS—a sense of group cohesion and shared purpose. This purpose is encapsulated by the word 'asabiyyah' (a term from the 14th century that is difficult to translate).

Different methods of creating this asabiyyah have been attempted:

• Nationalism: Argued to have failed.
• Ideology: Attempted in the 20th century, but "that didn't really work".
• Cults: A popular Silicon Valley idea, but some cults go wrong. Extreme rationalism is considered "insane" and has led to "dark network states".
• Dark Network States: Examples like the Bolsheviks (an international group with shared purpose that founded a state) and ISIS (a network of people online with shared purpose attempting to create a caliphate) demonstrate the risks of pursuing non-traditional foundations.

Traditional Religion as a Refined OS

The core argument is that traditional religion is the most effective OS because it has been refined over time. It is likened to Linux; though the code may seem "hairy," it represents thousands of edge cases that have been found and fixed over centuries, ensuring its stability and functionality.

Traditional Islam, as practiced in tolerant Muslim countries like Malaysia, is cited as an example of a successful, enduring tradition.

Ultimately, the speaker proposes Catholicism as the ideal platform for the network state—the existing "network of network states"—given its historical success in launching entities like the Knights of Malta and supporting countries like England.

Christianity, Cultural Decline, and the Original Network State

The Descent of American Christianity

Christianity has been in a period of descent in America since the 1960s, characterized by declining church attendance and personal adherence. While there are some indications of a recent "tick up in religion especially among young people," it is currently too early to determine if this trend will persist.

The period of decline is divided into three distinct eras, or "worlds":

1. The Positive World (1964–1994): During this time, Christianity was descending but still viewed positively by society.
2. The Neutral World (1994–2014): Christianity was neither viewed positively nor negatively.
3. The Negative World (Since 2014): Official elite culture now views Christianity negatively or skeptically.

Christian Proto-Network State Responses

In response to this period of decline, Christians have begun creating "protoetwork state startup societies". These communities are quintessentially localist, relying on face-to-face interactions in a specific geographic location.

Examples of these communities include:

• An Evangelical Protestant community in Moscow, Idaho (4,000 people).
• A Catholic community in St. Mary's, Kansas (6,000 people).
• Ave Maria, Florida, a Catholic real estate development.
• Hyattsville, Maryland, a community that emerged around a church.
• Founder-led models, such as Gainesboro, Tennessee.
• Organic models, such as Celane, Idaho.

Limitations and the Need for Investment

These localist initiatives currently lack two critical components required to be considered true network state initiatives:

1. A Virtual Network: They need to be connected virtually across their multiple centers.
2. Integrated Cryptocurrency: They lack an integrated cryptocurrency, which is necessary both to instantiate the virtual network and to make the communities investable, as they are mostly bootstrapped.

The community in Moscow, Idaho is cited as the most impressive example to visit, having built a college, a school, a church, a media company, and acquired a lot of real estate in the town center. This acquisition is notable as Moscow is the site of the state flagship university and is considered a "liberal dot in the conservative state".

The Church as the Original Network State

The argument is made that the Christian Church, particularly the one in the West, was the original network state. This historical claim is supported by fitting the Church to a definition of a network state:

• It had a founder (Jesus Christ).
• It possessed a moral innovation (the gospel).
• It ultimately achieved sovereignty when the Catholic Church was recognized as a sovereign entity under international law (extending beyond just Vatican City).

Given this history, the conclusion is that Christians need to start embracing and implementing concepts related to the network state and network state communities.