Last month, venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan announced the Network School, a three-month learning retreat marketed to people interested in “network nations,” a kind of utopia for the anarchocapitalist set. The inaugural class is 150 people. It starts today.
Details about the school have been shrouded in secrecy, even for the applicants. Aspiring Network School participants put down deposits of up to $2,000 without even knowing the Network School’s location. Srinivasan has still not disclosed it publicly, although social media posts and WIRED reporting indicate that it’s Forest City, Malaysia.
The Network School is one of the most ambitious projects yet for people interested in creating what Srinivasan calls a “decentralized country.” The goal is for people dissatisfied with their own society to band together and create a movement spawning “parallel” societies, special economic zones that have alternative education systems, media institutions, and currency—as well as wealth-friendly tax laws. A crucial step is having physical territory, and the Network School clears that bar. On Sunday, Srinivasan said he is working to “build out the real estate” with the goal of “scaling the school.”
While Srinivasan has still not publicly disclosed the Network School’s location, he’s been more clear about its values, to which he says students should conform. According to his Substack post introducing the Network School, these requirements include an admiration of “Western values,” seeing Bitcoin as the successor to the US Federal Reserve, and trusting AI over human courts and judges.
“It is for those who believe in technology, harmony, internationalism, and capitalism,” Srinivasan’s Substack post reads. “It’s for those who want Silicon Valley without San Francisco.”
Srinivasan added that the school is open to artists, athletes, and technologists from any country.
On the application for the school, people are asked to rate a series of things in different categories on a scale from negative 10 (not favorable) to positive 10 (favorable). The topics include “protocols” such as Solana and Bitcoin maximalism, “politics” such as Karl Marx and Jordan Peterson, “technology” such as AI accelerationism and military tech, “places” such as Dubai and Israel, “culture” such as tattoos and traditional masculinity and femininity, “policies” such as Drag Queen Story Hour and carbon credits, and “progress” such as artificial general intelligence and space exploration.
On X and Reddit, several people said they were accepted to the Network School and had to pay for the first month’s rent upfront within two business days of being accepted or risk losing their place. The time crunch, and not knowing where exactly they would be staying, caused stress for some people.
One tech worker who was accepted to the Network School tells WIRED that he’s very on board with the school’s premise, but that sending money without knowing key details was a bridge too far.
“I chatted about it with some friends, and they were like, ‘Wow, that sounds so dodgy’—and then I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’” says the applicant, who asked for anonymity, citing privacy concerns.
In terms of day-to-day life at the Network School, Srinivasan says in his Substack post that students will complete daily problems in mini classrooms. These will involve a combination of coding and posting on social media, and earning “proof-of-learn” NFTs upon completion. Srinivasan says students can also compete for daily “crypto prizes” worth $1,000 “for open source projects, AI content creation, and microtasks.”
