Pinned
I just witnessed a rare civilisational-level conversation.
@VitalikButerin builds Ethereum.
@balajis predicts the collapse of old paradigms.
These are 10 predictions they made. A 🧵:
Marine l MC² Finance
366 posts
Marine l MC² Finance
@VCMarine
The Network State
Joined May 2014
- Trump’s new tariffs may look like a trade war. But Balaji Srinivasan disagrees... I am here at @thenetworkstate & @balajis says this is a 4 layered problem. This is what he disclosed to us: A 🧵:
- Replying to @VCMarine4: Meet Arbitrage & Zero-One cities. a) Arbitrage. Exploit existing gaps (tax, crypto) but stay inside old systems. b) Zero to One. Rethink everything: economics, governance, even moral assumptions. Are we iterating...or inventing?
- USA🇺🇸 & China🇨🇳 copy each other more than they admit. That is what @balajis & @psychosort think. We got exclusive access to their talk. These are 7 key insights they gave us. A🧵:
- Replying to @VCMarine8: DeSci = the DeFi of medicine. Today’s health system profits from illness. DeSci flips that. Truth-first. Peer-verified. Science as code, not pharma marketing. Balaji’s bet: DeSci is the real alternative to institutional decay.
- Replying to @VCMarine2: Balaji says: “China copies America on the way up. America copies China on the way down.” Both systems now centralize control: -Censorship -Capital -Social narratives Different ideologies, but the same mechanisms.
- Replying to @VCMarine1: Both nations face deep structural rot. a) Military is focused on domestic control b) Housing prices out the young generation. c) Status obsession is killing chivalry. Same struggles, different branding.
- Replying to @VCMarine6: The new frontier = a talent market. Every network state becomes a recruiter. To win: - Offer real differentiation. - Build systems people want to live under. - Attract thinkers & builders who opt-in. Without this it is just jurisdiction hopping.
- The richest people I have met all have one thing in common and it is not what you think…you know why? Because there is a huge difference between the rich & the ultra wealthy. The ultra wealthy think in a really, really different way because they don’t chase salaries and they
- Replying to @VCMarine3: There is a huge risk here. Network states could just replicate these same problems. Chau raised the key question: "Are we truly building something new, or just remixing the old playbook?" Who plays God, online?
- Replying to @VCMarine7: History shows us that: - The USSR collapsed copying America. - America now copies China’s surveillance & control. What now? New systems must be antifragile & diverse. 1000 experiments so no single state can “copy all of them.” Who is building for this?
- Replying to @VCMarine5: Balaji had a sharp warning. “If we recreate the same political + economic dynamics as the US & China, we’ve failed.” Startup societies must break out of the mold. They should not just slap a new brand on old hierarchies. Otherwise? We get Chimerica 2.0.
- Replying to @VCMarine1: Balaji calls Ethereum the center-left of crypto. Vitalik builds public goods. He wants programmable equality, decentralized institutions, and fair coordination. Balaji is center-right. Wants opt-outs, exit, sovereignty. Ethereum becomes the home for the “technocratic left.”
- Coming from 10years+ TradFI experience let me assure you that they love paperwork which amounts to nothing and very little gets done (Always!). A 50 page strategy deck can take three weeks to draft then take another two weeks for approvals so by the time it reaches the board,
