Network states & crypto states … I first came across these terms a while ago whilst contributing at Status, I never gave it much thought until recently as tensions across the world escalate, privacy shrinks, authoritarianism increases and I’m slowly but surely noticing more & more that nation-states are constantly fighting to compete for the monopoly on violence.

Network states & crypto states are the new or at least new to me buzzwords being thrown around in the blockchain/web3 space, however, it’s far more than a new trend & idea to capitalise on. It’s more accurate to say it’s a social movement towards a new way to organise & coordinate a collective group of people, which before may have been referred to as a Nation State or country, such as USA, UK, Germany, etc.

Balaji Srinivasan is a prominent figure on this topic, having a book, website & several talks explaining his views & approach to the topic The Network State. His simple explanation of this concept is:

A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.

Another figure is Jarrad Hope, a crypto OG with the ability to break down concepts into smaller understandable chunks that are both engaging and invite you to want to know more as well as adding a sprinkle of crypto-anarchism for good measure. He’s done a few recent presentations on Crypto States, his focus is very much on creating a movement as he states in a recent talk:

We need a movement to create a self-soveriegn crypto network, a decentralised technology stack that maximises the cost of surveilance and coercion while minimising the cost of Exit, Voice & Loyalty.

This definitely sounds familiar, so I’d like to explore what differences and similarities this version of an alternate society/state, is it the same or different…

Similar things have been tried before, either by focusing on owning land across different areas, building & sustaining communities or as having small online communities often labelled as Start-Up Societies.

Simply put or from my limited knowledge, these can be new communities that have a unique way of governance, usually, each experimenting with a mixture of old and new structures as well as processes - There are different categories such as:

• These can include new cities that can provide infrastructure needs specific to that area such as clean (or as clean / less pollution creating) transportation & renewable energy, then intentional communities are simply communities that are formed with specific intent & purposes like Polestar Village in Colorado that focus on love, friendship, yoga & self-Realization, a bit of a hippies paradise but damn that sounds great & ecovillages which focus on living in harmony with the environment in small & engaged communities, usually using green tech to be able to live as respectfully towards the environment.

• These are communities that focus more on the legal side, meaning they can provide different policies, laws, regulations and rules for people and entities within the community, these are allowed by the surrounding country to promote industrialization and structural transformations, these zones can also be categorised from free-trade zones, enterprise zones, high tech zones, etc.

• They’re pretty much a small area within a country that has one way or another negotiated different policies, such as Hong Kong, AUE, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, the list is endless as a large selection of nation-states have SEZs.

• This sounds close to network states or crypto states right?

• As the name implies these are virtual communities, they’re ran on digital platforms and protocols that allow for communication, coordination & governance.

• In the recent past, these platforms have been mostly growing on social media platforms such as FB, Twitter, Amazon, Reddit, ect.

• However, with the uprising, popularity & increasing accessibility of web3, these communities are growing faster than ever, some consider themselves DAO’s.

• These combine a mixture of virtual & physical communities, which doesn’t sound all that different as that sounds like bringing wifi to the neighbourhood or using a neighbourhood watch type of app…

• Some cities include Sondo (China) who integrated a community garbage disposal system for all residents, among other high-tech features. ‍

• Edmonton (Canada), launched the Open City Initiative which uses big data to promote local businesses & publish information online periodically so people can access, be educated/aware & also take part in the communities’ online projects.

• Montevideo (Uruguay), they have a beach monitoring systems

• Digital Economic Zones

• Free Economic Zones

• Private Residential Communities

• Integrated Startup Societies

A bonus mention goes to the Parallel Polis which is a socio-political concept created by Czech political thinker and dissident Vaclav Benda, a similar space of thought which is about creating a parallel society within a nation-state to support areas that were missing at the time across the existing structures. These areas included specific areas which were law, culture, education and science, information networks, the economy, and foreign policy.

I can’t cover start-up societies without covering Outlaw societies, no I’m not talking about cowboys although this section does cover the Bad and the Ugly 🤠

What differentiates start-up societies from outlaw societies is that the former follows a legal framework as well as abides within the local legal frameworks of the nation-state that they inhabit or get sued & in the case of special economic zones then lose access to those benefits.

So Outlaw societies, as the name indicates, don’t follow the legal framework of the nation-state or the jurisdiction of the region.

On the other hand, they claim absolute sovereign authority and it’s not uncommon for them to operate in a tight-knit community acting in secrecy & developing cult communities. Some well-known examples include the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Donetsk Special Economic Zone in Ukraine and Jonestown, to name a few.

So does this mean we should stop the idea & technology building blocks to form & sustain start-up societies, nation states or crypto states … Probably not, if we stopped anything that had the potential to do bad then we would never have progressed as far as we have…

My point is that in most cases a collection of technologies isn’t inherently good or bad, mostly neutral and therefore it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be available. After all, depending on your purpose & POV, you could use most technology for good and bad purposes.

• So does that mean we should ban communication protocols like VOIP, TCP, UDP or IP, etc because they can be used by criminals to communicate?

• Should we ban social media platforms because they can prey on human phycology & emotions (well, maybe FB & TikTok but that’s another discussion…) and can be used for cat-fishing, scams and grooming groups?

• Should we ban transportation vehicles like cars, trains & planes because they can be hijacked to cause mass injuries/deaths?

… All because they can be used by criminals?

Sounds silly right, maybe, but then again we see this fear-mongering and in some cases, straight-up outlandish lies as justifications for why certain technologies should be banned to keep us safe via privacy stripping censorship machine preserving our safety & freedom … Incoming censorship machine 🤫 🤐 🤖