Exploring New Nations (2024)
In 2023 I wrote a braindump about my year in Network States just to reflect on my experiences and my thoughts on projects. A year later and I've mostly lived in popup cities so time for an update!
Introduction
I wrote an initial braindump on my experiences at Network States in fall 2023 about that year in popup cities just to reflect on my experiences and how I was evaluating which projects I liked or not. Its crazy that a year has flown by and I’ve mostly lived in popup cities and Network States since April 2024.
Read my 2023 Network State Experiences
I decided to write an update after many people in the space asked me to speak about my experiences across the different projects and I realized it has been an entire year since i published my last one (which took a month or two to write actually)
Writing this as part of my own reflections and understanding of the different projects but also as a general resource for the ecosystem. I think its useful for both potential coordination members figuring out which ones fit them best that they want to join and also the organizers of each to understand how members might be analyzing them and perceiving them in the wild as well as how they can better differentiate from each other.
I’m excited for this Network State / New Nation movement since i’ve been a digital nomad since 2017 and been traveling solo around the world looking for a new home. I’ve yet to find one but I’ve built a great network of amazing people in the process. Many people in my friend groups have been talking about a “global network of community homes” for years now and it is finally starting to become a reality with the help of some billionaire papis contributing financial and social capital. The past 18 months I’ve been living 50% in popup cities (zuzalu + FtC + zuconnect + vitalia + zuvillage), 25% hub cities (Berlin + Tokyo), and 25% adventuring in nature.
A quick meme explaining the archetypes of people involved across the ecosystem
There is no war with East Asia
“Network States” as a meme has continued to take off. Many people I know in the “Network State” space dislike the term for ideological and moral reasons for various reasons. Ironically many people don't like the Statist aspect as anti-state anarchists or libertarians while also many not liking the unnecessarily antagonistic rhetoric towards existing governments (mainly that they offer more benefits and operate better than any Network State). “Startup Societies”, “Network Societies”, “New Nations”, “CoordiNations” etc. other terms get used and tossed around but don't have the same mind share, mimetics, or funding magnetism. I prefer “New Nations” at the moment but I still use “Network States” for the more techno-libertarian projects that I don't like so much.
As a US citizen, I tried creating a corporate entity in Prospera and Catawba. After many days just trying to pass KYC on both and being continually denied, I gave up. Both were also charging hundreds of dollars for company registration. I went ahead and created a company on Stripe Atlas which was a faster process (minutes), lower price, and no KYC bullshit. Even if I had created a “Network State” entity, it would be isolated from the traditional banking world making it difficult to raise capital or even sell products. I haven’t tried making an entity in Liberland but I also don’t feel like paying the $5-10,000 to be a citizen.
So while these Network States are promoting themselves as libertarian economic engines for innovation, they have more hurdles and struggles for founders who already have access to traditional markets with more capital (a.k.a where the majority of innovation currently happens). Convincing existing/potential founders to defect their country is the growth strategy of Network States, yet these founders are better to stay where they are for now.
So far as an entrepreneur and a digital nomad, none of the Network States has seemed particularly appealing. To say nothing of the business environment, the general local environment is not a great value proposition with most having been on resorts in developing nations which have nice scenery but overpriced, at-best mediocre products and services available on site. I'm not a needy glamping bitch - I’ve hitchhiked, slept on streets, and lived in the jungle before - but why overpay for low quality in a competitive global market? Compared to my new life in Japan, I can’t see any Network State competing on cost of living, quality of life, and access to capital and culture in the foreseeable future. But sure you are “free” to not pay taxes there.
I would say so far Network States are losing the fight in terms of financial, natural, and cultural capital. While still losing in absolute terms, on a per capita basis they have much higher human, knowledge, social, political capital which are of course more valuable. They should start to turn the existing capital into the livable business centers that they say they are so the experiments can continue.
Popup Cities as tactical meta for New Nations
“A healthy lifestyle is also a technology—one which works best as a social technology—and this too improved quickly at Zuzalu...Technologies that have a heavy cultural component, where new software tools and new human habits are being developed at the same time, are likely a great fit for this approach…given that many now desire personal spiritual progress” - Vitalik Buterin, Why I Built Zuzalu
While not a New Nation / Network State, Zuzalu started the concept/genre of popup city with a 2-month event targeted at longer-term coliving without full-time commitment. the experiment was to see if we can better iterate on modes of living, daily habits, and new collaborative formats for exchanging/creating/building information and ideas. I wrote how my art project Jinni is gamifying life with cute tomogatchis to drive these lifestyle changes in startup societies.
I feel pretty confident saying popups are the new meta of New Nations. There have been ~5 popups in the past 18 months since Zuzalu. The format is spreading from the Zuzalu ecosystem to other communities like ShanHaiWu and now Balaiji’s own Balaji’s Network School at 90 days long (and at the exact same time as multiple communities takes over Chiang Mai for a massive collaborative popup city).
Popups have excelled as short-term coliving to build community momentum while prototyping culture, tooling, and startups. Build momentum and community, generate revenue, acquire social and financial capital, while figuring out location and strategy to acquire natural capital. The most successful New Nation / Network State projects in the past year in terms of IRL participants and VC dollars have followed the same model. With the 6+ popup cities happening simultaneously in Chiang Mai in October, some from new communities some from existing ones, I think next year in 2025 we will have more data and developments from how this model performs over time.
The “Decentralization” of Zuzalu
Its more like a fragmentation or pollination than “decentralization” in my opinion. Zuzalu was intentionally disrupted abruptly by the founder Vitalik Buterin to prevent political capture and centralization from the community that was trying to latch on to the social and political capital that was accrued during the event. I would say “Zuzalu is dead” and was just a moment in time and space. Today it feels more like a concept than a community to me, especially after Vitalik said there would be “no official Zuzalu event in 2024”. Infighting and squabbling for grant funding, lack of quality control in events, lack of clarity on community autonomy or governance, competing socio-political cultures, etc. etc. have further ensured that “Zuzalu” as a singular entity no longer persists.
It has turned into a bustling ecosystem of interconnected communities around the world with dozens of events in the year since it happened though. “Zuzalians” and the fresh blood into the ecosystem are voting with their feet by choosing which popups they go to, who they live with, what they do there, and who they refer their friends to. Instead of arguing “should Zuzalu do this event or that event” as was seen with 2024 in Thailand vs other locations like most community/DAO “governance” turns into, all events are operating independently happening whenever they want. An ideal outcome imo but one that didn't necessarily require the community fracturing and fighting in the way it did
While Zuzalu itself hopefully fades into irrelevance, I can also see it becoming the biggest and most successful New Nation if it can find a way to be more collaborative across the popups its spawned. The main thing really missing from Zuzalu ecosystem is a feedback mechanism for popups to learn from past mistakes and successes. They need a way to learn what operational process worked, what types of venues/accommodations are most conducive, which residents provide vs extract value, rating organizers by residents for future attendees can understand quality before deciding, etc.
New Nations I’m (still) Exploring
The list has only grown, despite my bearish intro I haven’t counted anyone out yet! As last time I would still say all the subject CoordiNations have pretty well defined cultures, even if that culture is an intentional mixture of cultures through mandated diversity or agnostic ideology. Zuzalu has the most mindshare but exists as a standalone event that has now branched off into many popups and projects. I like AKIYA the most because while they are open to technology they definitely are not “tech first” an absolutely not the standard “tech bro” vibe at other New Nation projects and also more intimate, creative, get shit done together while the others are larger and I inevitably slip into socializing instead of working after a few weeks (my own fault for not having self-control I know).
The people I met at Zuzalu and other New Nations over the past 18 months have become some of my closest friends, helped me advance myself in ways i didnt know I needed, and generally made my life way more amazing and exciting than I thought possible after 7 years globe trotting and making millions.
The spreadsheet has gotten too big to really share here so go to the link for an indepth review.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MvR23yGSRuBAwEqaZjOvKaxARNnmz4_sXrBYYSFfIb0/
While I havent gotten official financial statements from the organizers yet, this is an average cost for the major popups based on anecdotal polling of ~20 residents that have been to multiple events.
My New Home Nation - Japan
I’ve been a fulltime digital nomad with no homebase for about 7 years now. I’m really starting to feel how much effort it takes and how disruptive my life is having the inability to stay in one spot and have a routine. So last year I decided to buy a house in Japan and move there again which is when I came across AKIYA COLLECTIVE. Why Japan? I’m hella bullish (with low certainty) on Japan’s economy after visiting and living there over the course of 10 years.
AKIYA and I were both in a vibecheck stage for the past year but after helping them get a grant from Zuzalu, living there a couple weeks helping clean and restore the house, it seems we’re both down for me to buy a house near them and join the community fulltime. I mainly want to live with them to work on my art project Jinni which is related to Network State/New Nations/Startup Societies. I also made a post in Zuzalu’s private members forum that Akiya and other permanent villages are an experimental form we should be exploring more and enable us to try more things faster, at lower costs, and retain knowledge between experiments better.
I’ve had so many friends say they want to buy a house near me that I am starting my own permanent popup village separate from AKIYA to preserve their lowkey art vibe and I have more freedom to develop my own community. This dual-node approach should allow for us to do comparative analysis of IRL operations, community health metrics, governance models, etc. providing data for New Nation theory and praxis.
Conclusion
Looking back at last year's New Nations thoughts and analysis I’m surprised how accurate they have turned out to be. I'm even more surprised that all the projects still exist today in some form. I’m also super surprised how much of my life has been consumed by this New Nation movement and how revolutionary the people I’ve met have been to my way of living and thinking.
Now that multiple popups are happening year-round, sometimes at the same time and even in the same city, we need more cross-event ticketing between popup cities.If I pay up to $5k to stay one month at a popup city, why would i not be able to go to another one in the same city for a day or two for meetings? The obvious next step is a subscription-model pay $X and go to anyone you want. We can do even better than that.
We need POPOUTs. Moments of collaboration, not another popup city/village. Popouts could be a party, camping trip, hackathon, or any cross popup moment. At the very least popup cities should be co-funding parties in the same city as an interstitial space and cultural and information exchanges like World Fairs. We don't need “congress” that try to unify and come to agreements, just connect the social fabric and let this amazing community of builders do the rest.
I’m super excited for what 2025 will bring to this space and even more excited for what I can contribute. And I can't wait until we can all live in the village we buy together in Japan ;)
I appreciated the comparative spreadsheet you created and am, as you know, interested in learning more about your work in Japan. Thanks for sharing your ideas and insights.