The former Coinbase exec laid out a vision of future communities driven by blockchain

The Dutch city of Amsterdam – no stranger to international conferences on cryptocurrencies, blockchain and decentralization – recently hosted the Network State conference, which explored decentralization on a completely different level.

Speakers and participants of the conference gathered to discuss and debate whether it is possible to create a new decentralized state.

The meeting began with an energetic host, Balaji Srinivasan, entrepreneur, investor and Chief Technology Officer of Coinbase, leading the crowd to sing and shout before entering to deliver his keynote speech. In his first speech, Srinivasan asked, “Are New Countries Even Possible?” he asked.

In his book The Network State, Srinivasan proposed that new nations could be created through a new digital society, where members use blockchain and cryptocurrencies to manage their social and economic institutions, and whose borders are at the edge of the crowded land. Community nodes.

A node may start with a small group of friends, the idea being that this small community organizes itself to raise money, expand, and eventually form a viable network node. When you have many well-coordinated community nodes, regardless of their geographic distribution, you have the foundations of a network state.

There are many goals among network proponents who want to build a parallel social infrastructure as a “competing product” of what state-level social, political, and economic institutions think are broken systems. It describes their ability to leave the prevailing social structures inadequate to their needs and desires.

Frustration with the establishment was a common theme among attendees, Ivy Astrix, a member of Vibecamp and a long-time supporter of Srinivasan, told Cointelegraph. “Society, USA, these tight-knit communities – can they still work? I don't think they can,” she said.

Amid growing discontent with existing social structures, Asterix says the network can “improve ordinary people's lives.” […] Because they encourage a co-creative approach to life rather than immersing yourself in what's here, because it's the ‘best' or ‘least embarrassing' choice.

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The connection between network states and blockchain technology is undeniable, as both rely on autonomous nodes that come together to form a network of agreed upon rules. For the concept of the network state, crypto-rails are the gold standard of ethics, especially when it comes to finance.

Galactica Network's Frederick Zwilling spoke to Cointelegraph about the feasibility of the alliance:

The users will not move to the network mode for themselves unless they are attracted to the many benefits or things they want to do in this network.

Zwilling adds that crypto-based decentralized solutions are important for the governance of community groups — especially those seeking a social infrastructure analog at the nation-state level.

Physical implementation of network status

Infrastructure development based on the network state concept has been underway for several decades, with projects such as Prospera, Cabin, and Praxis focused on community building, fundraising efforts, and building physical locations (nodes) that can eventually create a real-world network environment. .

Many of the speakers opened an exploratory dialogue with various existing ethnic governments regarding land ownership, borders and the establishment of special economic zones.

Still, no society has achieved autonomy from legacy systems advocated by network state theorists.

Prospera's flagship startup city, St. John's Bay, comes close to meeting these criteria, but is still largely under the jurisdiction of traditional institutions, in this case the Honduran government.

Establishing parallel communities is a task that will take decades to complete, and to achieve the desired network outcomes for a low-income community, the process must begin with community building as demonstrated at the conference.

The quality of the physical infrastructure in terms of the initial stage of the network states is impressive, and the concept itself sounds good, but to scale beyond the control of the rich holiday entertainment areas of the future, a lot more time, money and human infrastructure are needed. Be a viable option.

The democratization of governance through technology, particularly blockchain, is a central pillar of the Network State concept and critical to the real-world infrastructure presented at the conference.

“It's about bringing ways to facilitate democracy and democratic values ​​on an immutable and trustless blockchain,” Dom Ryder, founder of Vemp Studio, told Cointelegraph. That's a clear use case. [of network states] for me.”

The challenge, Ryder continues, is getting the technology out of poor public perception and developing blockchain's value into the “normal” so that its benefits can be integrated into the lives of ordinary people.

Adapted individuals

One might be excused for thinking that many of the speakers at the Network State Conference were simply presenting new methods that fall under the umbrella of “virtual community building,” but this line of thinking perhaps reflects a common but dynamic nature. Goals.

Proponents of the network state do not suggest a one-size-fits-all approach to social networking, but rather an open system where you get what you put in, with as few intermediaries as possible between action and outcome.

Community is the basic building block of all societies, and history has proven that a critical mass of community with a common goal will at least reach the point of goal implementation. Success is never guaranteed, but the power of network effects cannot be denied.

The virtual communities at the conference, from X-based Vibecamp, a decentralized autonomous organization infrastructure, and the fully digital nation-states of Plumia and Galaxy Network, all share a community-first approach to practice. Their vision of the state of the network.

The participants are trying to achieve the critical mass of humanity needed for a parallel society and to provide the necessary digital infrastructure to meet some or all of humanity's basic needs, financially, politically or socially.

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The State of the Network conference was a crossroads for people and ideas challenging the status quo and a small hole in humanity's journey of progress.

A pragmatic mind can move towards the inevitable truth that the state of the network depends on the adoption or severe failure of existing social infrastructures.

However, the sheer will and great human effort on display here has given us enough reason to suspend disbelief – at least for the time being.