The Network State Podcast

Balaji Srinivasan
The Network State Podcast

What comes after Google, Facebook, Bitcoin, and Ethereum? Perhaps it's the startup country — the network state. Balaji interviews tech founders and policymakers from around the world on managing billions of dollars and millions of people, as well as what it might take to start a new kind of state.

Episodes

  1. 4D AGO

    #11 - Applied History with WhatIfAltHist

    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. OUTLINE 00:00 - Intro to WhatifAltHist and counterfactual history 03:52 - The idea in alchemy: everyone is competing on vibes 07:12 - Nature/nurture = hardware/software 09:37 - Why the left often wins: equality builds scalable militaries 11:30 - 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 Network 20:28 - Only 4% of Democrats marry Republicans 22:24 - The purpose of alchemy: how early alchemy lead to modern tech 33:25 - We have entered the age of the phrase 42:33 - The reading list: genetics books you should read 43:07 - Communism was based on economics denial, wokeness is genetics denial 50:49 - The Vitruvian Man: our moral responsibility to accelerate technology 57:42 - We are on the verge of global instability 1:20:43 - Internet community becomes physical community: The Network School (ns.com) 1:23:08 - Both Soviet and American empires were built on false premises 1:28:16 - Bitcoin is the strongest new identity 1:32:55 - The total military dominance of the Chinese drone armada LINKS https://youtube.com/@ns https://ns.com

    1h 37m
  2. 02/15/2023

    #2 - Tobi Lütke & Kaz Nejatian on Shopify's Country-Sized Economy

    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

    2h 7m
  3. 02/07/2023

    #1 - Vitalik Buterin on Starting New Countries, Upgrading Ethereum, and Improving Yourself

    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

    1h 58m
    4.9
    out of 5
    105 Ratings

    About

    What comes after Google, Facebook, Bitcoin, and Ethereum? Perhaps it's the startup country — the network state. Balaji interviews tech founders and policymakers from around the world on managing billions of dollars and millions of people, as well as what it might take to start a new kind of state.

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