Could new countries really be founded on the internet?

A network state is a country that "anyone can start from your computer, beginning by building a following" - not unlike companies, cryptocurrencies or decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOS).

- Sam Venis

In The Network State, a buzzy new book by Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, poses a devious question: how do you Larp (Live action role play) a country into existence? Released provocatively in the US on 4 July, the book presents Srinivasan's case for a new model of digital statehood run and managed in the cloud. A network state, as he describes it, is a group of people who get together on the internet and decide that they're going to start a country. With a social network to connect them, a leader to unite them and a cryptocurrency to protect their assets, Srinivasan says a country can be born with laws, social services and all.

A network state is a country that "anyone can start from your computer, beginning by building a following" - not unlike companies, cryptocurrencies or decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOS). Srinivasan asks, could such a state achieve recognition from the UN? Just when we need leaders to solve our problems, Balaji argues, they are failing, and the reason isn't just corruption or incompetence - the reason is technological. Central government is no longer capable of addressing our needs because the world for which it was designed has changed. The internet has made place less important, so national borders seem arbitrary.