The Pragmatic Apocalypse with Balaji Srinivasan - WBD679

Balaji Srinivasan is an angel investor, tech founder, and author
of ‘The Network State’. In this interview, we discuss the idea of
starting new countries ("network states”), based on social
networks built around a shared ideal that can monetize
effectively. We also talk about how and why the media ignores
major global news stories, and how to prepare for the coming
collapse.


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In the past 14 years, we have seen a powerful global community
built around a shared ideal. Bitcoin is obviously much more than
a technical innovation: it is a vision of building a new economic
paradigm from the bottom up, which shifts the centre of power
from the state to the individual. Being open-sourced, leaderless
and decentralised, it has proven that there are new ways for
people to connect, contribute and collaborate to build new
systems.


Balaji Srinivasan’s latest book takes this revolution one step
further, and explores the idea of starting new countries, or what
he calls "network states." These network states can be formed by
a group of people connected through a social network, with their
own income, real estate, and even their own ideological
platforms. It's like a political party, but working outside of
the limits of national boundaries.


The measure of success for these network states lies in their
ability to materialise their online presence into the physical
world: “You do meetups and eventually you go from crowdfunding
brunches to crowdfunding buildings.” It challenges the
traditional notion of what a country is and opens up
possibilities for new forms of governance and community-building.


As legacy nations resort to ever more authoritarian methods to
protect the fiat system, the importance of allocation, location
and organisation to individuals will become more apparent. But,
this is more than a theory. Balaji is allocating a material
amount of capital to funding startup ‘Network State’ communities.
The aim is to create frontier societies, providing alternatives
to failed states and attracting ambitious individuals seeking a
new kind of society.


 


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