home is a protocol. are you verified?

How to sell network socity and don’t sound like cult recruitment.

404Embassy://Transmission_Log_#3 [TEXT]
Signal_Source: Ray Svitla // svit.la
Status: Broadcasting...

The architecture of the new state is a series of wormholes, not walls.

i keep explaining this shit

last week, i tried to explain “network society” three times:

> to a hedge fund founder chasing impact alpha
> to a recruiter for a network society foundation
> to a friend syncing kick drums near a dj booth

each time felt like debugging across timelines.
one heard tax optimization.
one heard religion for nomads.
and one just nodded while the mix peaked at 146 bpm.

Balaji’s¹ vision? copy-pasteable by builders. but luck some human touch
Vitalik²? brilliant, but often feels like a philosophy seminar inside a dune fanfic.

so here’s the real question:

is the network society a billionaire’s toy — or a real democracy update?

---

disclaimer

we’re all evangelists in our own way.
so here’s my version – explained through three lenses that don’t sound like cult recruitment.

---

lens 1: “bro, it’s just a trillion-dollar market.”

The $800B market is built on the 404 errors of the old world.

there are over 35 million digital nomads globally³.
not counting refugees, expats, or people living semi-legally between timezones.

if they were a country, they’d be poland — but with better english and no żubrówka in żabka.
and they’d generate $787b+ in annual economic output.⁴

most earn above the u.s. median.
many are voluntarily leaving countries with:

> broken healthcare
> skyrocketing rent
> democracy that now feels like stage acting

this isn’t fringe. it’s an emerging class.

you could raise a series b just offering health insurance, kyc, or basic legal identity to this tribe.

73 countries now offer “digital nomad visas.”⁵
nomadistan is real — and it’s scaling.

---

lens 2: governance as a product

Governance is a design space. The map is not the territory; it’s the user interface.

ever heard of belarus’s hi-tech park (HTP)?⁶

it was a legal wormhole inside a dictatorship:

– english common law
– crypto before europe
– convertible notes
– enforceable contracts

...all in belarus.
wild.

by 2018, it made up 5.5% of gdp.
by 2021, computer services = 30% of total exports.

and it’s not unique.

the number of sezs globally jumped from 79 in 1975 to over 7,000 in 2022.⁷
dubai is basically one giant sez.
honduras has zedes.
africa is experimenting with charter cities.⁸

The OS of the physical world, now with version control. 7,000+ nodes and scaling.

governance isn’t just a political question — it’s a design space.

blockchains added version control.
so why doesn’t your jurisdiction have an official github?
(taiwan does.)⁹

---

lens 3: home is a protocol

My identity as digital kintsugi. The breaks are where the protocols go in.

my passport isn’t a key. it’s a countdown.
five years. four. three.

soon, i’ll have to apply for what they literally call an alien passport.

so forget utopias.

network society isn’t a new state.
it’s a new layer of belonging.

it lives in:

– encrypted group chats — digital hearths flickering across continents
– diaspora mutual aid networks that ship faster than governments
– github repos, multisigs, ethereum wallets, discord servers

we’re building minimum viable nations.

some will get acquired by legacy states (imagine dubai absorbing a solana-based zone).¹⁰
some will get ddos’d by regulators.
some will fork themselves into irrelevance.

but a few will offer new protocols for living.

and that, operators,
is where the real impact alpha lives.

---

so — is network society a billionaire’s fever dream?

or a legitimate upgrade to governance?

depends on who holds the keys.
and who writes the smart contract.

The old architecture had keys. The new one has smart contracts. and who holds the admin rights?

---

🛠️ building something?

not just curious — but building?

this essay is both my blueprint and my pitch deck in prose.

if you’re hiring, funding, or collaborating on:

> campaigns that activate nomads, diasporas, or network-native citizens
> protocol-aligned marketing/gtm for sezs, crypto cities, or digital id stacks
> research or narrative that bridges policy and product

then let’s talk.

📬 dm me or email → ray@svit.la
📎 portfolio, projects & protocols → https://svit.la

1. The Network State” full book by Balaji Srinivasan – https://thenetworkstate.com/

2. Foundational essay “Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul” by Vitalik Buterin et al. — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4105763

3. WYSE Travel Confederation industry report citing ≈35 million digital nomads in 2022 — https://www.wysetc.org/2023/01/growth-and-developments-in-the-digital-nomad-market-since-covid-19/

4. NewlandChase 2024 white paper estimating US$787 billion annual economic value — https://newlandchase.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/en-us-NC_Digital-Nomadism_WP.pdf

5. Citizen Remote 2025 tracker listing 73 visa-issuing countries — https://citizenremote.com/blog/digital-nomad-visa-countries/

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_High_Technologies_Park

7. UNCTAD press release noting alliance representing 7,000 SEZs — https://unctad.org/news/new-global-alliance-special-economic-zones-boost-development

8. Charter Cities Institute — leading think-tank on charter-city governance — https://chartercitiesinstitute.org/

9. g0v GitHub organization showcasing Taiwan’s open-source civic-tech projects — https://github.com/g0v

10. DMCC press release on Solana Foundation partnership establishing a blockchain zone in Dubai — https://dmcc.ae/latest-news/solana-foundation-joins-dmcc-crypto-centre-as-ecosystem-partner-in-dubai