Submitted by istegerjf t3_11foe5k in Futurology
The most well-known work of nonfiction on this is a book by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan called "The Network State."
It defines a Network State as follows:
A network state is a social network with a moral innovation, a sense of national consciousness, a recognized founder, a capacity for collective action, an in-person level of civility, an integrated cryptocurrency, a consensual government limited by a social smart contract, an archipelago of crowdfunded physical territories, a virtual capital, and an on-chain census that proves a large enough population, income, and real-estate footprint to attain a measure of diplomatic recognition.
Since the book's publishing last July, there have been about two dozen efforts to start building one (full disclosure, I'm part of one for creators called cabin.city). There are all kinds of other interesting attempts. There's a network state for the African diaspora (Afropolitan) and one for van lifers (Kift life). The list goes on and on, I've written about them a few times/interviewed some leaders on my podcast.
Generally, they have a very solarpunk ethos, attract techie folks, and tend to be male-dominated (we're trying to fix that, obviously). Wondering what others feel about if we even need new countries or if this is tech bros being too Utopian?
istegerjf OP t1_jakc0h4 wrote
Submission Statement: What barriers are there for network states growing? What are some ideals that network states might even be organized around? Is this a realistic way that humans might coordinate as a people in our future?