Crypto and tech entrepreneurs are attending Network School, founded by Balaji Srinivasan in Forest City, Malaysia, to test his concepts about the Network State
Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg : LinkedIn: Anders Melin and Ryan Weeks Forums: r/Buttcoin and Slashdot LinkedIn: Anders Melin : Much has been written about Forest City, the troubled moonshot $100 billion development in southern Malaysia. Now a new chapter has begun: the Network School. … Ryan Weeks : In a hotel-turned-campus on a reclaimed island in Malaysia, crypto and tech entrepreneurs are building software, chomping down Australian ribeye … Forums: r/Buttcoin : Broken $100-billion dream city becomes refuge for tech utopians - Crypto Bros start cult community in Malaysian hotel. Slashdot : 400 ‘Tech Utopian’ Refuges Consider New Crypto-Friendly State
Context & Ripple Effects
Network School turns Balaji Srinivasan’s network-state thesis from an online-community proposition into a physical, participant-led experiment in Forest City. Earlier coverage described the model as communities crowdfunding land toward eventual nationhood; this is a concrete test of that land-and-community pathway.
The project follows other temporary crypto-tech communities, including Zuzalu’s co-living experiment in Montenegro, but is explicitly organized around testing the Network State rather than merely convening founders and researchers.
First-order effects
- Network School gives its attending crypto and tech entrepreneurs a shared campus in which to test community, software, and organizational practices tied to the Network State idea.
- Balaji Srinivasan and the Network School gain a live operational setting in Forest City, moving the concept beyond its prior theoretical framing.
Second-order effects
- Other network-state and crypto-community projects gain a visible reference point for whether an in-person campus can sustain participation and produce reusable organizational practices.
- Forest City becomes associated with an experiment in tech-led community formation, while the project’s outcomes may shape how prospective participants assess similar residency and accelerator-style programs.
Third-order effects
- If such campuses persist, network-state efforts may increasingly be judged on durable governance, resident commitment, and land-use execution rather than online membership or ideology alone.
- The pattern points to a broader attempt to combine digital-native communities with physical jurisdictions—an approach whose viability remains dependent on local rules and sustained participation.
The trend: Network-state advocates are shifting from online-first theory toward place-based experiments that test whether crypto and tech communities can operate as durable institutions.