Why Build a Network State?: An Introduction
Voluntary, non-territorial governance services would lead to greater freedom, accountability, and a more peaceful future
PARALLEL SOCIETY
CONGRESS
Building beyond the nation state
As nation states lose their grasp, innovation emerges to imagine alternatives. Tap into the next wave of leaders, builders, and pioneers on the most important frontier of all. Expect activations, talks and workshops on building network states, pop-up communities, charter cities, decentralised governance and the technology that sustains it.
SPEAKERS
Angelo Alessio
Founder
build_cities
Angelo Alessio is the founder and protocol architect at build_cities, a protocol for economic development. Prior to build_cities, Angelo was a Director of Product at Acorns following an acquisition of his previous company Harvest, which automatically negotiated bank fees for consumers using AI. Before Harvest and Acorns, Angelo consulted for various startups in the product and growth domains. Angelo holds an MBA from New York University and is an army veteran.
Arnaud Deville
Full Stack Engineer
Codex
Arnaud Deville is a full-stack developer with 12 years of experience in a variety of programming languages, including TypeScript, JavaScript, React, and Go. Currently, he is part of the Institute of Free Technology, working on the Codex project as a full-stack developer for the website and the protocol's marketplace component. Over the past decade, he has contributed to various sectors, dedicating three years to health projects and four years to education. His most recent engagement was in fintech, where he worked on developing an alternative currency system based on gold.
Aqeel Mohammad
Product Strategy
Codex
Aqeel Mohammad is a product strategist and designer focused on leading market adoption for emerging technologies and democratising their production. Currently, he is a contributor at the Institute of Free Technology, working on the Codex project.
Audrey Tang
Founder
Shan Hai Woo, DRK Lab
Audrey Tang founded DRK Lab, which actively supports blockchain public goods development through grants and support for research and developer communities. It also fosters Web3 industry growth through initiatives like the Shanhaiwoo community and has launched the Web3 Young Scholars Program and Web3 Scholars Conference to drive industry development and collaboration among scholars, researchers, and practitioners. Audrey has over eight years of experience in the blockchain industry and draws on a background in investment, project strategy, ecosystem development, and brand expansion.
David Casey
Director
Funding the Commons
A four-time founder, David Casey enjoys working at the ecosystem level to engineer systemic change and currently is a Director at Funding the Commons, which aims to accelerate blockchain-based public goods funding. In 2013, David became interested in blockchain technology's utility for cross-border payments within one of his own companies. By 2015, he deployed his first blockchain-based asset using Bitcoin’s Colored Coins protocol. Within the blockchain industry, David has worn multiple hats, including roles as a founder and CEO.
Federico Ast
Co-Founder
Kleros
Federico Ast earned degrees in economics and philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires and holds a PhD in management from IAE Business School. He is the co-founder and CEO of Kleros. A pioneer in the field of decentralised justice, Federico has lectured at prestigious universities, including Stanford and Oxford, and spoken at international organisations such as the United Nations. He is passionate about leveraging exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing, and blockchain to drive social innovation.
Guy-Louis Grau
Program Lead
Keycard
From a young age, Guy-Louis Grau has been passionate about hacking electronic devices, turning household gadgets into his personal playground. He graduated as an electronics engineer from École Centrale Paris and led the development of innovative consumer electronics at various companies for more than 15 years. His introduction to Ethereum in 2017 lit a fire under him and sparked an obsession with crafting software and hardware to uphold user sovereignty. Currently, Guy-Louis is leading the development of Keycard, an open-source, principle-backed hardware wallet, for the IFT.
Jarrad Hope
Co-Founder
Logos, IFT
Jarrad Hope came to Bitcoin in early 2011 through agorism, counter-economics, and crypto anarchy. Seeing that Bitcoin could operate a monetary policy in a hostile environment, he began to view public blockchains as a voluntary social order, one that did not depend on a monopoly of violence. From there, he participated in early attempts to generalise the Bitcoin script to advance institutional libertarianism, ultimately becoming an early contributor to Ethereum. While advancing privacy technologies through the development of the e2e and p2p private messaging client and super app Status, Jarrad realised that privacy technologies are not enough and now advocates for self-sovereign crypto networks and the realisation of a latent cypherpunk dream, the cryptostate.
Janine Leger
Founder
EdgeCity
Janine Leger is the Co-founder of Edge City, an organisation that convenes builders across tech, science and society in pop-up villages around the globe. She's one of the co-creators of Zuzalu and led the Public Goods Funding team at Gitcoin.
Mark Lutter
Founder and Executive Chairman
The Charter Cities Institute
Mark Lutter is the founder and Executive Chairman of the Charter Cities Institute, a nonprofit building the ecosystem for charter cities. He is also the founder and CEO of Braavos Cities, a charter city development company. He has a PhD in economics from George Mason University and has been published or quoted in the New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, and other publications.
Peter Ludlow
Author
Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias
Peter Ludlow entered the world of philosophy through a deep interest in linguistics, the philosophy of language, and digital technologies. His early work in artificial intelligence and natural language processing showed him the cooperative part of language comprehension – an idea explored in his book, Living Words. This led him to make significant contributions to our understanding of how meaning is a shared, collaborative enterprise. As a leading voice in the philosophy of mind and language, Peter has authored and contributed to influential works on the intersection of technology and society, including the seminal anthology on how cyberspace is poised to impact human organisation, Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias. His current focus is on the potential for digital platforms to foster self-sovereign communities and new, decentralised yet collaborative social orders.
Tom W. Bell
Author
Your Next Government
Professor Tom W. Bell earned his JD degree from the University of Chicago and then practised law in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC before joining the faculty of Chapman University Fowler School of Law in Orange County, California. He teaches Constitutional Law, all of the first-year common law courses, and electives in IP, technology, and business law. Tom has published widely on special jurisdictions, copyrights, Internet law, prediction markets, and the Third Amendment. His books include Intellectual Privilege: Copyright, Common Law, and the Common Good and Your Next Government?: From the Nation State to Stateless Nations. As a consultant, Bell has an active practice designing, installing, and supporting legal systems for special jurisdictions.
Veronica Schrenk
Founder
ZuVillage Georgia, Zuzalu.city
Veronica Schrenk is the co-initiator of ZuVillage, organised the ZuVillage Georgia experiment this summer, and leads operations at Zuzalu.city, the decentralised and open-source platform powering the Zuzalu ecosystem. With a background in education and the rationality community, she seeks to infuse truth-seeking into Zuzalu as it evolves. Current side quests include the AI critical thinking tutor Socratic.bot and the UChicago Alumni Free Speech Alliance.
Yann Aouidef
Researcher
Paris Center of Law, Kleros
Yann Aouidef is building the mechanism design of Kleros, considering law and economics, game theory, social choice theory, and economic experiments. Yann is a PhD candidate at the Paris Center in Law and Economics. His topic thesis is "Economics and Law of the Blockchain: Applications To Decentralized Justice Mechanisms".
Collaborators
Logos
build_cities
Charter Cities Institute
Kleros
Funding the Commons
Codex
Keycard
IFT
Waku
Logos Operators
About
Parallel Society Congress
The first Parallel Society Congress is an invitation to discuss some of the most pressing questions we face as a civilisation. What will succeed the waning 400-year-old nation-state technology? How can we unlock the value latent in inefficient governance and its institutions? Is this how crypto can live up to its initial promise?
Inspired by Eastern European dissidents living under repressive regimes, instead of fighting a rigged system head-on, we are creating state-of-the-art technology, alternative media, autonomous physical communities, and parallel educational institutions that operate independently of centralised authorities – protecting human societies through technology and innovation.
To support this nascent coalition, our partners will host activations, talks, and workshops. Join us at the bleeding edge to build free and prosperous alternatives for humanity.
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Logos
Logos is a cultural movement to reimagine the future of human governance beyond the nation state. Rooted in the blockchain revolution, Logos is building a decentralised, politically neutral technology stack that supports the creation of parallel institutions and self-sovereign digital communities.
Our vision is to bring greater freedom and prosperity by providing the next generation of governing services, public goods, and social institutions to anyone with an internet connection.
Read our Manifesto for a deeper dive into our ideals and technology.
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Articles
State of the Logos Network: August 2024
Your roundup of recent developments from the Logos ecosystem
From Offline to Online Piracy: A Genealogy of Logos
Considering the origins of Logos, the rationale behind each protocol of its technology stack, and its potential to reshape the social order
How To Ethically Build Public Goods Infrastructure
Adhering to our principles is not an easy route, but it is necessary for ethically building public goods
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