What is The Network State
The Network State is a network of tech and crypto cities, colonies and zones across the United States, Latin America, Africa and other parts of the world, financed by tech billionaires and venture capitalists.
The Network State is a global political project allowing venture capitalists to acquire land, build infrastructure, establish sovereignty and operate as a distributed world power. It is the rise of a global fascist state.
The Network State enables venture capital projects, including technological development, port acquisition, access to strategic military sites, mining, crypto adoption, medical experimentation, escape from taxes and regulation, geopolitical and trade agreements, and political corruption of host countries, as they work to install tech fascist politicians around the globe.
The Network State exploits Special Economic Zones (SEZs), areas that exist within a country but under separate laws, forming "states within states". The progress of the Network State is often minimized in the press, but its growth to date, and the scope of its projects, are alarming; the Network State already possesses key frameworks and infrastructure of a sovereign state.
The main financier of the Network State is a venture capital firm called Pronomos Capital, backed by the PayPal Mafia and Andreessen Horowitz. It is financed by Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, Patri Friedman and Balaji Srinivasan, as well as crypto firms like Coinbase and Paradigm. Sam Altman and the Winklevoss twins are investors in the Network State of Praxis.
There are many Network State sites in progress: in Honduras, Argentina, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Palau, the Philippines, as well as California and Texas in the United States. Greenland is a key target. The Network State has also looked at Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Greece, Montenegro and others as potential host countries.The Network State is touring the world for target sites.
The Network State is a serious project that is already under construction around the world. The Network State has a significant land footprint, mining projects, residential and office structures, schools, full-time residents, citizenship programs, a crypto economy, the participation of hundreds of startups, its own legal and regulatory frameworks, and its own medical facilities conducting unregulated human experiments.
An index of over 25 Network State projects can be found on this site. It is critical to understand the specific colonies being developed and their implications for so-called "host countries," and the world.
Functions of the Network State
The Network State serves key functions for venture capitalists:
Escape from regulations: Venture capitalists are massive investors in a number of "frontier" startups in crypto, weapons development and biotech. Regulations are a massive hurdle to them, requiring them to navigate costly and time-consuming processes. Escape from regulation is a key tenet of their accelerationist ideology -- the unchecked, rapid development of venture-backed technologies. The Network State allows them to escape nation-state control and influence so they can develop risky technologies with no oversight or accountability.
Exploiting new markets for cryptocurrency adoption. The CEO of Coinbase, an Andreessen Horowitz company, has stated "Crypto's destiny is to help create physical territories (special economic zones) in the world where freedom is preserved. This process has already begun." Latin America and Africa, key targets of the Network State, are massive markets for cryptocurrency. The Network State puts venture capitalists in key markets and establishes relationships with foreign heads of state that can be used to install cryptocurrency, as we see with "Bitcoin Country" El Salvador.
Creation of medical experimentation zones. Human medical experiments are a key motivator of Network State development, appearing over and over in Network State materials. Venture capitalists have thousands of biotech companies that face regulatory hurdles from the FDA and other bodies. The Network State book describes the creation of "the FDA-free society" and argues for “the absolute right for anyone to buy or sell any medical product without third party interference.” Attaining zones where there is no regulation on medical experiments is a key accelerant of venture capital portfolios, with significant implications for human rights and medical ethics. The medical community of Honduras has demanded that Próspera shut down its unethical human experiments, but has no enforcement power over Próspera despite its location on Honduran soil; the situation has only become more dire with the appointment of Trump-installed, right-wing president Nasry Asfura.
Industrial parks and manufacturing zones: As venture capitalists expand beyond software, they require factories and manufacturing plants to produce weapons, robotics, space technologies, medical products, nuclear power, satellites, data centers, bitcoin mining, 3D printing facilities and more. The cluster of venture-capital backed companies in El Segundo encompasses drone and defense factories, including those of Picogrid and Neros. Anduril is building a "hyperscale manufacturing facility" in Ohio, as Starbase in Texas continues to expand its space manufacturing operations. California Forever is proposing the "Solano Foundry", envisioned as "the largest advanced manufacturing park in America—a 2,100-acre, 40 million-square-foot ecosystem for the most innovative industries, including advanced transportation, robotics, energy, and defense."
There are immense benefits to building technological development parks among companies with shared funding sources, driving faster development, allowing innovation to spread quickly, and fostering collaboration; as California Forever states: "Incorporating lessons from China’s hardware clusters, the Solano Foundry enables advanced transportation, robotics, energy, and defense start‐ups to co‐locate R&D, prototyping, and scaled production on a single campus." Tariffs on China open manufacturing opportunities to venture capitalists, while government contracts expand their ability to grow in new verticals.Escape from taxation. By operating out of special economic zones with self-determined tax codes, venture capitalists and their companies are able to escape taxes on their significant wealth and plundering. Moreover, their relations with fascist heads of state like Milei in Argentina and Bukele in El Salvador provide them with numerous tax and investment perks.
Network States as investment product. With the Network State, the creation of new colonies and tech/crypto cities are investment products in themselves, attracting global capital and eventually generating revenues and returns. Cities are sources of capital accumulation and represent a new, expansive investment product to venture capitalists and their partners.
Speaking at the 2025 Network State conference, Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz discussed how the Network State functions to "unify all the technology", integrating online communities, Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and stablecoins with physical space. Asked if aspiring Network States should come to Andreessen Horowitz for funding, he said "For sure, we're very interested in it. We believe in the whole thing, from the sovereign individual on up”.Maneuvering great power conflict with China. The Network State is a form of counter / competitor to China's Belt and Road Initiative, particularly the build out of infrastructure in Latin America and across Africa. Through the Network State, tech venture capitalists are able to set up strongholds in key sites of cold war with China across the global south, establishing colonies, extracting resources, building infrastructure and competing for favorable agreements with nation-states.
Access to ports. In Honduras, the Network State of Próspera has a mainland port site "to ensure access to essential goods and remove China as a potentially critical point of failure." The Network State project Metropolis operates in the Freeport Area of Bataan in the Philippines. California Forever, the Network State in California, is proposing a shipbuilding hub.
Presence in strategic military locations. The venture capitalists behind the Network State are significant investors in a new era of autonomous weapons systems and are key actors in aggravating geopolitical tension with China, with the cold war accelerating across Latin America and Africa. Existing and proposed Network States are in sites of strategic military significance. California Forever is located near an Air Force Base and advertises "Protecting and strengthening Travis Air Force Base." The Network State project Metropolis also operates out of Palau, a strategic maritime military location in tensions between the US and China.
Mining ventures. In May 2025, Andreessen Horowitz published "It's Time to Mine", arguing that venture capital needs to move into "the complex process that transforms rocks into global supremacy," critical minerals that "sit at the heart of... electric vehicles, satellites, precision-guided weapons, batteries, and more." These efforts are situated in competition with China, stating "In the last twenty years, in fact, only China has produced new mining giants." New mining companies from venture capital include Mariana Minerals, focusing on copper, lithium, nickel, and eventually cobalt, aluminum, graphite, uranium and rare earth metals. Bay Area company KoBold Metals is a mineral exploration company leveraging AI, and operates in multiple locations including Zambia, stating it "invests over $100 million annually across our 70+ projects on 5 continents". In 2023, KoBald used AI tools to discover a massive copper deposit in Zambia, estimating "their find is likely the largest copper discovery in more than a decade", and "the mine would produce at least 300,000 tons of copper a year once fully operational. That corresponds to a value of billions of dollars a year, for decades." They are currently in the middle of a large-scale exploration looking for lithium in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Network State sites like Itana in Nigeria and Próspera Africa can provide entry to Africa, the richest sources of many minerals in the world. Mining has been a major factor in historical and ongoing exploitation and colonization of Africa, including uranium sourced from the Congo which was "the source for nearly all of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project".
Ultimately, the Network State means that venture capital will rise as a sovereign global power, with all of its pillars: sovereign land, a military, an intelligence function, its own currency and financial system, manufacturing centers, a medical system, access to earth minerals, ports and geopolitical relationships -- all run by the same central power.
Network State Development
The most advanced Network State location is in Honduras, on the island of Roatán, where the Network State has established the colony Próspera. Próspera has full-time residents, multiple buildings, a Bitcoin school, and clinics performing unregulated human medical experiments.
The government of Honduras, under Xiomara Castro, took significant steps to expel Próspera; Próspera retaliated by suing the country for $11 billion, ⅔ of its annual budget, as the Supreme Court declared the special economic zone unconstitutional. During Honduras' 2025 election period, President Donald Trump backed a right-wing politician, Nasry Asfura, threatening to sever relations with Honduras if he was not elected; from the Guardian "Trump has conditioned continued US support for one of Latin America’s poorest countries on Asfura winning. 'If he [Asfura] doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,' he wrote on Friday on his Truth Social platform, echoing threats he made in support of the Argentine president Javier Milei’s party in that country’s recent midterms."
Asfura was elected in a highly contentious election, and is now taking steps to secure Próspera's dominion. Emboldened by the new government, Próspera takes additional steps towards establishing its sovereignty outside of the Honduran state, declaring itself as a separate customs territory, as reported by La Pauta Honduras.
In Próspera, at least one worker has died constructing a 14-story structure, though the rest of the island is limited to far fewer stories. Próspera's construction plans to bring in 38,000 new residents from the tech and crypto class; the island currently has a population of about 80,000 - 100,000. This influx of wealthy members will profoundly re-shape this sovereign island and threatens Afro-Indigenous people. Próspera is additionally developing a port on the Honduran mainland, stating it is "expanding in La Ceiba, Honduras to create the world's most business-friendly zone for manufacturing and nearshoring."
In 2024, Próspera announced Próspera Africa to build new Network State sites on the continent. Another Network State site is Itana, in Nigeria, where indigenous people have been displaced for the special economic zone. The Network State project Afropolitan also plans to have locations in Africa and eventually around the world. An ambitious Network State project called Alpha City, spanning multiple countries -- including Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe -- is led by a founding partner of Pronomos Capital, Bradford Cross.
With the election of Trump -- backed by Network State venture capitalists -- there has been serious movement on development of the Network State within the United States. OpenAI has announced “AI economic zones”, and Elon Musk incorporated a new city in Texas. Trump’s “freedom cities” -- another term for tech elite Network States -- are taking major steps forward. According to Wired: "the goal of these cities would be to have places where anti-aging clinical trials, nuclear reactor startups, and building construction can proceed without having to get prior approval from agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency."
In Solano County, California, a cartel of venture capitalists associated with Andreessen Horowitz bought up over 65,000 acres of rich, fertile farmland using secretive and threatening methodologies, including suing local farmers. They plan to build a city there with weapons development and manufacturing, aerospace and robotics companies, shipbuilding, homes and schools. This Network State site is called California Forever. While California Forever was roundly dismissed by journalists and analysts, it has now signed the largest construction labor agreement in history. This case demonstrates how the rampant minimization of the Network State as a material project costs valuable time for resistance and misleads the public about the imminent reality of the project. The overwhelming focus on Network State ideology at the expense of material developments, obscures its emergency nature.
In California, there has been additional discussion by Network State operatives of taking over the Presidio in San Francisco, and there is a Network State planned in Sonoma County; its founder is a "former" Pronomos Capital venture capitalist.
Network State operatives are involved in ongoing efforts to buy or take over Greenland, making a trip in 2023 in an attempt to purchase the territory; forays have been ongoing. Greenland has been looked at as a potential site for the Network State Praxis. Praxis is funded by Pronomos Capital, Sam Altman, Joe Lonsdale, the Winklevoss twins, Balaji Srinivasan and other top crypto VCs. The website openly states they are building a new nation and "sovereign network" to "reclaim the west". It has images and video of its flag, while claiming to be “The Next America.” Its CEO, Dryden Brown, has been associated with esoteric fascism.
Two Network State financiers, Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen, have served on an advisory board for NEOM, the "futuristic" new "mega city" project in Saudi Arabia and part of the Saudi Vision 2030 project; 21,000 workers have been killed and 20,000 indigenous people displaced as of 2024. NEOM shows a model for Network State sites, implicating sovereign wealth funds, technofascist geopolitical alliances, and large-scale human rights abuses for the enrichment of investors.
Additionally, several major crypto projects have indicated they are building their own Network States, including Solana and Cardano. In these cases, crypto communities and crypto capital form the basis of the Network State project. There is also a Network State school in Forest City, Malaysia.
The current status of various Network State projects can be found here.
Ideology
The concepts behind the Network State are not new among venture capitalists.
The seasteading movement is an important precursor and ongoing goal. Patri Friedman of Pronomos Capital previously founded the Seasteading Institute in 2008. Very much an active project, the website proposes "ten thousand startup countries, our best chance for liberty." The institute works "to enable seasteading communities — floating cities — which will allow the next generation of pioneers to peacefully test new ideas for how to live together..."; to "test new ideas for government" and "secure political autonomy for all seasteaders." The Seasteading Institute has been supported by Peter Thiel, investing at the inception of the institute.
In a 2013 fireside chat with a media outlet funded by his own firm, Marc Andreessen stated "I think there is going to be double, triple, quadruple countries in the next couple of years... You're going to get a much larger number of countries... The transition is going to be very painful but I think ultimately it’s going to be very healthy."
In 2016, Y Combinator announced a project "to study building new, better cities." From a blog post co-authored by Sam Altman, then the head of Y Combinator:
"A high leverage way to improve our world is to unleash this massive potential by making better cities... Some existing cities will get bigger and there’s important work being done by smart people to improve them. We also think it’s possible to do amazing things given a blank slate... . We’re seriously interested in building new cities and we think we know how to finance it if everything else makes sense."
These ideas have crystallized over the years, culminating in a fully realized ideology of the Network State, and canonized in the publication of the book by the same name. The Network State is authored by Balaji Srinivasan, "former" partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former CTO of Andreessen Horowitz crypto behemoth Coinbase. It was published in 2022. The book has become the catalyst for significant organizing and funding, with conferences held in Amsterdam in October 2023, and in Singapore in September 2024 and October 2025.
From the book:
"A network state is a social network with a moral innovation, a sense of national consciousness, a recognized founder, a capacity for collective action, an in-person level of civility, an integrated cryptocurrency, a consensual government limited by a social smart contract, an archipelago of crowdfunded physical territories, a virtual capital, and an on-chain census that proves a large enough population, income, and real-estate footprint to attain a measure of diplomatic recognition."
The biggest goal of the Network State is to gain diplomatic recognition as a sovereign. This is clearly stated in Network State materials, where the 7th and final step of the Network State, referred to as “the main event” is:
“Gain diplomatic recognition. A startup society with sufficient scale should eventually be able to negotiate for diplomatic recognition from at least one pre-existing government, and from there gradually increased sovereignty, slowly becoming a true network state… As the population and economy of a startup society grow comparable to that of a legacy state, with millions of citizens and billions in income, it should eventually be able to attain recognition from existing sovereigns — and ultimately the United Nations.”
Sovereignty – the ability to escape the control, regulation and obligation of the rest of the world, to form a technological superpower – is the primary goal.
Israel is cited repeatedly as an inspiration for the Network State, stating “Herzl’s work is a major inspiration” and referring to the desired venture capital state as a “decentralized Zion”. The Network State book finds a kindred spirit to the violent establishment of their own state, praising Israel’s achievements: “Their status as a nation state changed with time. The Jewish people were once a stateless nation, a diaspora group united by common ancestry and tradition without a land or government to call their own. Then, within living memory, they founded the state of Israel.” The same money behind the Network State (Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund) is also building a massive arsenal of weapons startups, many of which are confirmed in use in the genocide in Gaza.
Explore the status of over 25 Network State projects on this research site.