The Network State Podcast

Solana has become by some measures the #1 new ecosystem for crypto devs. Why? We talk with Akshay and Lily on how Solana is creating Internet Capital Markets, enabling micropayments, and building Solana special economic zones like Forma. If you're building on Solana, you should come to Network School. Apply online at https://ns.com.

India is now #3 in global unicorns, and was the #1 fastest growing economy in the world from 2015-2025. How did that come about? I'm joined by Hemant Mohapatra at Lightspeed India to give a quick survey of Indian tech for people who know nothing about India. We cover biotech, genomics, space, California vs India, and the game plan for the global technologist. If you're interested in global technology, you should come to Network School. Apply online at https://ns.com.

Jesse Pollak leads Coinbase Base, which enables 1 cent transactions on Ethereum. We discuss the motivation behind Base, monetization for creators & companies, local stablecoins, network states, and the Base Batches session at Network School. If you're building on Base, apply to Network School at https://ns.com.

Claire is the founder of Quillette.com, a digital magazine covering tech, culture, and centrist politics. We cover the rise of China, why Australia may indeed be this century's lucky country, and the realist take on American Empire. If you're interested in these topics, you'll be interested in Network School. Apply online at https://ns.com.

Benedict Evans is a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and runs a newsletter with ~200k subscribers. We discuss smart glasses, amplified intelligence, robot dogs, the decentralization of media, and how AI is disrupting the very concept of user interfaces. If these ideas interest you, we're working on this kind of technology at Network School. You can apply online at https://ns.com.

Jeremy Howard is the creator of fast.ai, perhaps the best way to get a running start in modern deep learning. We talk about AI research, decentralizing education, and funding the world's dark talent. If you're interested in these ideas, especially regarding AI-first education, come to Network School. You can apply online at https://ns.com.

Vitalik Buterin is the co-founder of Ethereum and Zuzalu. We had a fireside chat on the state of Ethereum, defi, prediction markets, AI, biotech, stablecoins, the Abundance Agenda, San Francisco, Zuzalu, and startup societies. If these ideas interest you, this discussion was held live at Network School. You can apply online at ns.com.

Jason Calacanis is the co-host of All-In and one of Silicon Valley's most successful angels. We discuss Network School, startup societies, voting with your feet, and strengthening democratic rights in a digital age. If these ideas interest you, we're building startup societies at Network School. You can apply online at https://ns.com.

Michael Saylor is the creator of the first Bitcoin treasury company, Strategy. He joins Balaji to discuss his new Digital Assets Framework, where he unveils a plan for how the US becomes dominant in digital assets. If these ideas interest you, we're advancing digital assets at Network School. You can apply online at ns.com.

Rudyard Lynch runs the popular YouTube channel WhatIfAltHist. We're both into applied history — namely, studying the past to forecast the future — and everything we spoke about fell under that rubric. We cover alchemy vs technology, left vs right, nature vs nurture, China vs America, communism vs wokeness, and (of course) networks vs states.Our overarching goal with the pod is to learn about the world to build new startup societies. If these ideas interest you, we're putting theory into practice at Network School, so do apply at https://ns.com.OUTLINE00:00 - Intro to WhatifAltHist and counterfactual history03:52 - The idea in alchemy: everyone is competing on vibes07:12 - Nature/nurture = hardware/software09:37 - Why the left often wins: equality builds scalable militaries11:30 - The idea from Balaji that most influenced Rudyard: God, State, or Network?13:25 - What is the most powerful force in the world: God, State, or Network20:28 - Only 4% of Democrats marry Republicans22:24 - The purpose of alchemy: how early alchemy lead to modern tech33:25 - We have entered the age of the phrase42:33 - The reading list: genetics books you should read43:07 - Communism was based on economics denial, wokeness is genetics denial50:49 - The Vitruvian Man: our moral responsibility to accelerate technology57:42 - We are on the verge of global instability1:20:43 - Internet community becomes physical community: The Network School (ns.com)1:23:08 - Both Soviet and American empires were built on false premises1:28:16 - Bitcoin is the strongest new identity1:32:55 - The total military dominance of the Chinese drone armadaLINKShttps://youtube.com/@nshttps://ns.com

Where do you legally set up your DAO or web3 organization? You might check out the Marshall Islands. They recently passed a new bill that's a model for global crypto regulation. The Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Act of 2023 has several major features: it allows DAOs to be set up in 30 days, limits DAO liability for open-source, and makes clear that governance tokens are not securities. Joining Balaji today are the architects of the DAO law as well as the founder of MIDAO (https://midao.org), an organization which allows anyone to set up a DAO in the Marshall Islands. OUTLINE 00:00 - The Marshall Islands DAO Law 02:00 - About the Marshall Islands 04:05 - Decentralized Autonomous Organization Act of 2022 09:17 - Visiting the Marshall Islands 10:48 - Overview of the DAO Law 20:56 - Legal Bridge Between Web2 and Web3 23:41 - Banking with Marshall Islands DAOs 27:09 - Updating the DAO Act 31:50 - Marshall Islands fully supports DAOs 34:23 - DAO Law is like the new Ship Registry 37:01 - Private Islands as Special Economic Zones 40:08 - Recap and overview of the DAO law VIDEO YouTube: https://youtu.be/ojbWm9HqVj0 SOCIAL https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/30/marshall-islands-further-strengthens-law-that-made-daos-legal-entities/ https://midao.org https://thenetworkstate.com/podcast https://twitter.com/adamjgmiller https://twitter.com/balajis

Joe Lonsdale is one of the most prominent investors in technology. He's the co-founder of Palantir, 8VC, Addepar, and the Cicero Institute — and one of Balaji's longtime friends. We have fun talking about education, longevity, space, and the little matter of completely reforming all governments with the internet. OUTLINE: 00:00 - How Silicon Valley got expensive 09:18 - Tech founders as philosophers 17:39 - 100% Democracy and .01% Democracy 28:51 - Internet Values vs Western Values 36:05 - How Academics Become Capitalists 46:40 - Red States, Purple States, Foreign States for AI 58:11 - Thoughts on Space, Robotics, Longevity VIDEO YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ny93ZjlR93g SOCIAL https://ciceroinstitute.org https://www.8vc.com https://thenetworkstate.com/podcast https://twitter.com/JTLonsdale https://twitter.com/balajis

Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, joins Balaji to talk about the new Solana Phone (https://solanamobile.com). The idea of the crypto phone is one where balances, encryption, privacy, and property rights are built into the very fabric of the operating system. Anatoly talks about how they did it. OUTLINE 0:06 - The Solana Phone 2:08 - Anatoly's Origin Story 6:03 - Solana Proof-of-History Algorithm 12:10 - Hardware Scales Global Consensus 16:13 - Different Chains Do Different Things 19:55 - A Self-Custody Phone 30:38 - Instant Bank Accounts 38:20 - Any OEM Can Make a Solana Phone 43:26 - Solana Phone Takes on Google and Apple 54:22 - 1% Share Changes the World 57:39 - Protocols Give Initial Userbase 1:01:18 - Starting Small Counterintuitive For Phone Companies 1:07:27 - PKI Interactions Become Routine 1:19:04 - What Anatoly's New Country Would Look Like VIDEO YouTube: https://youtu.be/QIoXKWl4c4s SOCIAL https://solanamobile.com https://thenetworkstate.com/podcast https://twitter.com/solana https://twitter.com/balajis

Bryan Johnson founded Braintree and sold it for $800M. Then he plowed the proceeds into eternal life. He turned himself into the world's most measured man, got completely jacked, wrote a book, and just launched the Blueprint store (https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com) for the world to copy what he's done. Now Balaji and Bryan talk about how we can extend lifespans through better technology. OUTLINE 0:00 - Bryan Doesn't Skip Leg Day 5:46 - Witnessing Brain Surgery 9:31 - Measuring the Brain 18:26 - How Bryan Got Into Longevity 22:27 - Bryan's Algorithm for Health 27:21 - Every Calorie Had to Fight for Its Life 32:16 - Measuring Intervention 37:26 - Blueprint for Nutrition 42:11 - Don't Die 48:55 - No One Paid Attention Till Proof of Workout 52:05 - The Five Stages 1:03:53 - What Do Ideologies Have to Offer 1:14:12 - Spoilers for Bryan's Book "Don't Die" VIDEO YouTube: https://youtu.be/YvSX0rLyERs SOCIAL https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/ https://linktr.ee/bryanjohnson__ https://www.amazon.com/DONT-DIE-Zero-ebook/dp/B0CNDDHR79 https://thenetworkstate.com/podcast https://twitter.com/bryan_johnson https://twitter.com/balajis

Read Write Own (readwriteown.com) is a new book by Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and founder of the largest crypto fund in the world. It's an important work that is simultaneously the best crypto tutorial for newcomers and an accessible reference for experts. Balaji and Chris are long-time friends and worked together at a16z for years. Here they discuss Read Write Own and the state of crypto in 2024. OUTLINE 00:20 - Chris Introduces Read Write Own 05:04 - Why Books Are Harder than Essays 11:43 - Overview of Read Write Own 18:01 - The 2000s: Open RSS vs Proprietary Social 25:36 - Every Protocol Now Gets Global State 31:29 - Web3 Versions of Web2 Apps 35:10 - Proprietary Networks Are Locking Down 38:30 - Crypto Subsidizes Creatives 42:34 - Virtual Goods and Online Status 43:56 - Own Usernames Like Domain Names 47:35 - What Digital Ownership Means 48:32 - Tech Giants' Power and User Leverage. 58:08 - Collaborative Storytelling 01:01:07 - Digital Identity and Work with Web3 01:09:16 - Conclusion VIDEO YouTube: https://youtu.be/_nIQztk5KWY SOCIAL https://readwriteown.com https://thenetworkstate.com/podcast https://twitter.com/cdixon https://twitter.com/balajis

The $16B acquisition of Flipkart was the largest in Indian tech history. Balaji speaks with Flipkart founder/CEO Binny Bansal on how he built the company from scratch when Indian startups weren't even a thing — and how Flipkart's rise parallels the rise of India itself.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss talk with Balaji about how Washington, DC is losing crypto, while other countries like the UAE and Japan are winning web3. OUTLINE 0:00 - I'm 6'5", 220, and there's two of me! 0:58 - Crypto flippening from America to Asia 7:15 - Crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the US: Wyoming, Tennessee 8:10 - The SEC is a failed regulator 18:45 - Crypto-friendly jurisdictions worldwide: Japan, Hong Kong, Dubai, El Salvador 27:31 - Winklevosses expanding in India 33:25 - What comes out of crypto? 35:45 - Flashback to 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt 37:01 - Crypto and AI, without the buzzword bingo 44:14 - The Winklevoss city LINKS 1) Gemini: https://www.gemini.com/careers 2) Wyoming DAO law: https://legalnodes.com/article/wyoming-dao-llc 3) Tennessee DAO law: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/beyond-reasonable-daoubt-tennessee-s-limited-liability-statute-decentralized 4) UAE Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA): https://www.vara.ae/en 5) Japan Web3 support: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/04/06/japan-releases-web3-white-paper-to-promote-industry-growth-in-the-country 6) 2013 TechCrunch with Balaji, Naval, Winklevosses: https://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/disrupt-sf-13-bitcoin-panel VIDEO YouTube: https://youtu.be/STbYujxjk1E SOCIAL https://twitter.com/cameron https://twitter.com/tyler https://twitter.com/balajis https://thenetworkstate.com

The President of Palau and Balaji discuss how the tiny island country is becoming a digital leader, experimenting with everything from on-chain identity to drone delivery.   Despite having less than 20,000 citizens, Palau is a full UN member state. Its path to diplomatic recognition holds many lessons for aspiring founders of new communities. Joining Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. in this chat is William Wang, founder of rns.id, the Palaun government’s crypto identity partner. OUTLINE  0:00 - Intro  2:03 - The Republic of Palau  6:18 - Palau's path to sovereignty  8:35 - How Palau is using crypto  10:40 - The President's background  16:51 - Returning to Palau  18:42 - What is RNS.ID? 25:08 - Palau's government structure  27:23 - Partnerships in Palau  34:15 - Diplomatic relations  36:29 - The advantages of small countries  42:00 - Palau's developing technologies  45:04 - Gaining diplomatic recognition  48:59 - Outro   VIDEO  YouTube: https://youtu.be/3FuQvG2dmM4 CREDITS  Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep Images: twitter.com/elijah10t  SOCIAL  twitter.com/Surangeljr  rns.id  twitter.com/balajis  thenetworkstate.com/podcast

Tobi Lütke (Shopify Founder & CEO), Kaz Nejatian (Shopify COO), and Balaji review how Shopify rose from tiny startup to $180B+ global economy, with an annual GMV on par with the GDP of New Zealand. In the process they touch on Hayek, the Hanseatic League, merchant cavemen, the history of the corporation, and the optimal level of platform decentralization. OUTLINE 00:00 - Introduction 02:39 - Shopify has the scale of a small country 08:49 - Lifestyle businesses take up your whole life 20:52 - SMBs can be harder than startups 27:13 - Shopify could invest in its merchants 32:23 - Shopify's economy is on par with Greece or New Zealand 38:40 - Money, time, risk, attention 39:55 - Is all retail a form of arbitrage? 47:14 - The history of the corporation informs the development of smart contracts 56:57 - Founders start as lead engineer, end up as chief psychiatrist 1:00:27 - Shopify is not just technology but community 1:06:26 - The concept of computational context 1:14:34 - Shopify as a dashboard for the global economy 1:22:48 - Atoms are so much more complex than bits 1:28:41 - Balancing centralized vs decentralized at Shopify 1:43:26 - If they could start a new country, what would Tobi and Kaz build? 2:03:28 - Kaz on working at Shopify 2:04:31 - Tobi's parting thoughts LINKS 1) 100 true fans: kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ 2) Gobekli Tepe: smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665 3) Shopify active merchant: github.com/activemerchant/active_merchant 4) Fall of Civilizations: youtube.com/@FallofCivilizations 5) Founding vs Inheriting: thenetworkstate.com/founding-vs-inheriting 6) Shopify careers: shopify.com/careers VIDEO YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=DfrhCGpRCPI CREDITS Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep Images: twitter.com/elijah10T SOCIAL twitter.com/tobi twitter.com/CanadaKaz twitter.com/balajis thenetworkstate.com

A discussion between Vitalik Buterin and Balaji Srinivasan on starting new countries, improving yourself, and upgrading Ethereum. OUTLINE 00:00 - Introduction 01:27 - A brief history of Ethereum 16:54 - The DAO hack 20:32 - The Devcon 2 attack 33:24 - The Merge 35:52 - Ethereum Roadmap 47:41 - The de-OFACization of Ethereum? 1:06:18 - Starting new countries 1:22:20 - Svalbard 1:27:29 - Network effects 1:33:12 - Regulation as a bounding box 1:35:42 - What new country would Vitalik start? 1:39:39 - Network states and social networks 1:43:19 - Advice on leveling up 1:51:17 - How Vitalik learned Chinese 1:55:14 - Learning by doing LINKS 1) Ethereum Average Block Time: https://ycharts.com/indicators/ethereum_average_block_time 2) What is EIP-1559: https://consensys.net/blog/quorum/what-is-eip-1559-how-will-it-change-ethereum 3) Quadratic Hash problem: https://bitcoinclassic.com/devel/Quadratic%20Hashing.html 4) The merge: https://ethereum.org/en/upgrades/merge 5) MEV watch: https://www.mevwatch.info 6) Sousveillance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance 7) Best weather cities to live in the US: https://wired.com/2014/02/see-u-s-cities-get-least-days-pleasant-weather 8) Global passport ranking: https://passportindex.org/byRank.php?ccode=cn 9) Longyearbyen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longyearbyen 10) Demography of the Roman Empire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_Roman_Empire VIDEO YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xhPqZZYJSE CREDITS Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep Images: twitter.com/elijah10t SOCIAL thenetworkstate.com twitter.com/VitalikButerin twitter.com/balajis