Site for Balaji Srinivasan's book and idea of the Network State, startup communities organized online that gain real-world recognition.
HN commenters link it in discussions of tech-driven politics. Some read it as heading toward techno-feudalism, while others find the idea appealing.
> Succeed at what?
Dismantling government. Look up the "network state":
* https://thenetworkstate.com/preamble
> All of these men see themselves as the heroes or protagonists in their own sci-fi saga. And a key part of being a “technological superman” — or ubermensch, as the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche would say — is that you’re above the law. Common-sense morality doesn’t apply to you because you’re a superior being on a superior mission. Thiel, it should be noted, is a big Nietzsche fan, though his is an extremely selective reading of the philosopher’s work.
> The ubermensch ideology helps explain the broligarchs’ disturbing gender politics. “The ‘bro’ part of broligarch is not incidental to this — it’s built on this idea that not only are these guys superior, they are superior because they’re guys,” Harrington said.
[…]
> The so-called network state is “a fancy name for tech authoritarianism,” journalist Gil Duran, who has spent the past year reporting on these building projects, told me. “The idea is to build power over the long term by controlling money, politics, technology, and land.”
* https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/395646/trump-inauguration-broligarchs-musk-zuckerberg-bezos-thiel
Also:
* "Why big tech turned right": https://www.vox.com/politics/397525/trump-big-tech-musk-bezos-zuckerberg-democrats-biden
* "The crypto bros who dream of crowdfunding a new country": https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyl171lyewo
Have you ever read cyberpunk,…
First page of search results for "remittance" & "crypto" has numerous examples. At random, here's a referenced article covering Africa, South America & Asia: https://thenetworkstate.com/crypto-remittances
I invite you to use the amazing powers we have at our fingertips to find them yourself, and understand why something valued at two pizzas 13 years ago just had its max institutional hold increased from 1% to 2% by the BIS:
https://investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/bis-allows-banks-to-hold-2-of-their-reserves-in-cryptocurrencies-2966647
> I'm curious if he is expecting an anarcho-capitalism type system or he's predicting wildwest/dystopian.
I believe he likens it to BLM Riots:Jan 6 every day, type of dystopia.
> I am intrigued about the cloud country. It almost feels like Estonia might be that place? Or perhaps their attempt?
He is super bullish on Estonia, IIRC.
The Network State is free as a PDF or to read online if you're interested: https://thenetworkstate.com/
"if Bitcoin goes to $1M, Balaji gave up the opportunity to buy 37 BTC at a price of $27,000. He will thus wind up winning 1 BTC but losing 37 BTC" but that's not really losing the big picture. If BTC goes to $1M in the next 90 days https://thenetworkstate.com/ is happening!
Balajis new book "Network State" has an entire chapter on stuff like this: https://thenetworkstate.com/if-the-news-is-fake-imagine-history
List of stuff he points out: https://thenetworkstate.com/if-the-news-is-fake-imagine-history#distortion-of-the-present
The mechanics of regulation will guarantee that the government gets to read all your email.
https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1397773092169031693
https://thenetworkstate.com/god-state-network#negative-syntheses-usg-ccp-monopoly