Entrepreneurs flock to Johor to explore creating sovereign states via Network School, blending technology, digital currency and ideology
They have descended on Forest City to attend Network School, the brainchild of former Coinbase executive and The Network State author Balaji Srinivasan. In this troubled megaproject once envisaged to house some 50 times its current population, they are conducting a real-life experiment of sorts with Srinivasan’s vision of “start-up societies” defined less by historical territory than by shared beliefs in technology, cryptocurrency and light regulation.
Techno-utopian ideas have circulated in Silicon Valley and the cryptocurrency community for well over a decade, with few signs of gaining wider acceptance. Yet Srinivasan is doubling down on his bet that the world is ripe for his brand of nation-state disruption, and is making Forest City a testing ground for plans to roll out the movement globally.
“Just like at age 18 you choose your college, at age 18 you’ll choose your country,” Srinivasan said on Thursday in a keynote speech at the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong. “And it’s already starting with the start-up societies.”
Recent events have provided some tailwind for the quixotic effort. The election of US President Donald Trump and the cryptocurrency-friendly policies he has pursued have rapidly pushed the asset class into the financial mainstream.
