The Digital Nomad Network State

How digital nomads need to unify to rise as a impactful community

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The Network State - book by Balaji Srinivasen

Just finished Balaji Book, The Network State. 

I love the concept and agree with the need of creating more decentralised communities with a centralised online presence and stronger influence in the world.

As I am working hard with NomadX to build

It has some nice overlap with a book that helped me embrace community leadership, Tribes by Seth Godin.

In his book Tribes, Seth Godin argues that people are naturally drawn to tribes, or groups of people who share a common interest or belief. Tribes can be small or large, formal or informal, but they all provide a sense of belonging and identity.

Godin argues that tribes are essential for human connection and collaboration. They can help us to learn new things, solve problems, and make a difference in the world.

The Network State is similar to a tribe in many ways. It is a community of people who share a common interest, in this case, the desire to live a borderless and nomadic lifestyle. The Network State can provide digital nomads with a sense of belonging and identity, as well as access to resources and opportunities.

In addition, the Network State can help digital nomads to collaborate and solve problems together. For example, the Network State could create a platform where digital nomads can share information about visas, work permits, and other resources. The Network State could also help digital nomads to find co-working spaces, accommodation, and other services that are still behind an information barrier.

But let’s dive deeper in Balaji's book, The Network State and why it makes sense to the nomad community. 

What defines a network state? 

“A network state is a political entity that is defined by its digital infrastructure and its community of users. It is not limited by geography, and it can exist anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection. Network states are governed by their users, and they are more efficient and effective than traditional nation states.”

Here are some of the key features of a network state:

• It is a digital polity, meaning that it is governed by its users through digital means. - This would be key to grow a stronger voice for the nomad community

• It is borderless, meaning that it is not limited by physical geography. - Our community is borderless already.

• It is more efficient and effective than traditional nation states, because it can pool resources and talent from a global pool of users. - We don’t need to be dependent on nation states but collaborate with them as a strong unified community, with economic and political power.

• It is more democratic and inclusive than traditional nation states, because it gives users more direct control over their government. - Built by us for us. 

As a community we have shared values of freedom, personal growth, positive local impact and a curiosity for the world.

We don’t move between locations, We move between communities. - Gonçalo Hall

While most of these communities are not organised and are not owned by us, the social aspect to it definitely made some bells ring in my head. 

Especially as we at NomadX are building these communities from scratch, with local governments, digital nomads and the locals, creating the perfect conditions for our community, integrating them in the local community and making sure we have the local government's full support.

We may be on the way to build what Balaji calls “archipelagos”

Building “Archipelagos” - The power of physical communities

What is an archipelago according to Balaji?

“An archipelago of crowdfunded physical territories: The network state should have a physical presence in the world, even if it is limited to a few small territories. This will help to anchor the network state in reality and make it more legitimate in the eyes of other states.”

While for now we just seek to create communities in territories that will gain with our presence, making sure that we integrate the local economy and have a positive impact, in a mid term scenario, with the “nomad economy” growing and becoming stronger (accommodation, services like coworking and insurance, and other services from the community to the community) we will probably see the rise of communities in locations build from scratch.

Projects like the Cabin City are transforming this vision into a reality.

Cabin.city is a global network of beautiful properties in nature for remote workers seeking meaningful connections. They offer coliving opportunities or work/stay residencies at their properties, which are all located in stunning natural settings. Cabin.city's mission is to "create a world where remote workers can live, work, and grow together in beautiful, inspiring places."

Online Societies - Introducing Plumia

An example on the online society is Plumia.

Plumia is a proposed internet country that is designed to be a borderless, digital nation state. Plumia's mission is to "build a borderless future through a country on the internet.

Plumia’s roadmap is very interesting and specific.

There’s a real need to grow specific services to borderless people, Safety Wing, the company investing and pushing Plumia vision is doing exactly that, from Health insurance to a future pension scheme for borderless humans.

NomadX at the community level, Cabin city at the building level and Plumia at the digital nation level are leading the movement to actually make Balaji vision a reality inside the nomad tribe. 

The Challenges

There are some challenges to creating a network state for digital nomads, we are quite a decentralised community today for example, the main challenges are:

• Establishing a sense of community: Even though digital nomads are often drawn to communities, they can also be a transient population. This means that it would be important to establish a strong sense of community within the network state in order to keep people engaged.

• Defining the boundaries of the network state: It would also be important to define the boundaries of the network state. This could be done by establishing a set of criteria that would determine who is eligible to be a member of the network state.

• Developing a governance system: The network state would also need to develop a governance system that would allow its members to make decisions and resolve conflicts. This system would need to be democratic and inclusive in order to reflect the values of the digital nomad community.

I do believe that we as a community need to be more unified yet decentralised. 

Why is it important?

Why does it all matters? Why is this important?
This is important:
In order to gain voice and push countries to create policies that facilitate the nomadic lifestyle
In order to create a unified community that pushes back against lies spread in the media about us.
In order to have more and better services to our community, better accommodation, better working spaces, better global internet.
In order to finally figure ou taxation and tax regimes that are nomad and local friendly
In order to solve loneliness and homesickness, by creating a strong tribe where you will always feel you belong.
In order to have a common currency we can use in all our communities.

Imagine having 100 well managed digital nomad communities spread around the globe, where you have a community manager helping you feel at home from the day you arrive, that offers you accommodation with a desk, a monitor, a nice chair and fast internet, that has daily events for you, that connects you with NGOs so you can volunteer, that organises free workshops from different field experts to everyone in the community, and where all this is easy to book and access through a centralised system. 

That’s the world we are building with NomadX and the other projects mentioned here. 

Picture from Nomad City Festival in Agaete, Gran Canaria.

Conclusion

I believe that the digital nomad community has the potential to create a network state that is more efficient, effective, democratic, and inclusive than traditional nation states. However, there are some challenges that need to be addressed in order to make this a reality. I call on the digital nomad community to come together and work towards creating a network state that will benefit us all.

What's next?

I think the next step is to continue the discussion on Discord and develop a plan for how we can create a network state for digital nomads. We need to come together and share our ideas, resources, and expertise.

Together, we can create a future where digital nomads can live, work, and thrive.

I hope this is helpful!

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