<story><title>What I think about network states</title><url>https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/07/13/networkstates.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Nextgrid</author><text>&amp;quot;Crypto&amp;quot; people need to understand one thing: the real world does not give a shit what your blockchain says. For your crypto-based project to have any effect on the real world, you need some physical, trusted party to reconcile the state of the blockchain with the state of the real world... at which point you may just let the trusted party run a good old database.</text></comment>
<story><title>What I think about network states</title><url>https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/07/13/networkstates.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Communitivity</author><text>Balaji sounds bizarre. The strangeness of the idea that Bitcoin is conservative is eclipsed only by the idea everything is run by the CCP, Crypto, and the NYT. I read Vitalik&amp;#x27;s take as a soft rebuke while trying to give honest consideration to the concept of a Network State.&lt;p&gt;However, for me &amp;#x27;Network State&amp;#x27; only seems to be a new term for a Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO) that provides services typically provided by a government. I would have liked a term that highlights this connection more, perhaps something like Governing Autonomous Organization (GAO). Due apologies to the Government Account Office (also GAO).&lt;p&gt;I think better than Balaji takes on the concept can be found in the works of two science fiction authors, Neal Stephenson and Charlie Stross.&lt;p&gt;Neal Stephenson&amp;#x27;s Snow Crash [1] (e.g., Distributed Republics [2]). May be of interest, but Stephenson is building a metaverse that may incorporate some of these concepts, called Laminal [3].&lt;p&gt;Accelerando [4], by Charlie Stross, takes the concept even further. It has literal distributed autonomous companies acting as shell corporations, executors, and more.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;B000FBJCJE&amp;#x2F;ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;amp;btkr=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;B000FBJCJE&amp;#x2F;ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] Perry, Richard Warren (2000). &amp;quot;Governmentalities in City-scapes: Introduction to the Symposium&amp;quot;. Political and Legal Anthropology Review. 23 (1): 65–72. doi:10.1525&amp;#x2F;pol.2000.23.1.65. ISSN 1081-6976. JSTOR 24497832.&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;decrypt.co&amp;#x2F;102646&amp;#x2F;snow-crash-author-neal-stephenson-is-building-a-free-metaverse-called-lamina1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;decrypt.co&amp;#x2F;102646&amp;#x2F;snow-crash-author-neal-stephenson-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Accelerando&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Accelerando&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>