Continuing from our previous post about Singapore, we'd want to share something not directly related to investments or crypto, but more rooted in ideology.
Our core team entered the crypto space at its inception and still consider ourself largely a Bitcoin maximalists. It’s fascinating to watch how the community has evolved, starting as an underground movement and now going mainstream on Wall Street. Looking at the people we've met at Token2049, they’re clearly very different from those early meetups back in 2013, where people wore t-shirts with slogans like “Fuck the government.”
It got us thinking — have we abandoned the ideals of our founding fathers? :)

After all, this community was born from the cypherpunk movement, whose mailing list was where Satoshi first announced Bitcoin. They were the early adopters, and without them, crypto likely wouldn’t exist as it does today.
Timothy May’s manifesto predicted the creation of dark markets protected by cryptographic technologies, and we all know how that played out. Governments, with their strict AML/KYC regulations, now oversee and control the flow of cryptocurrency transactions. It’s like the famous saying: “If you can’t beat them, control them.”

If crypto was originally designed to free people from government control, now we’re seeing the rise of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), which, in many ways, feel like the illegitimate offspring of crypto and the state, taking the worst aspects of both. With CBDCs, governments can decide when, how, and how much people can spend, effectively tracking every individual’s behavior with alarming precision. This level of surveillance could lead to deep intrusions into personal privacy, almost like a dystopian system—reminiscent of China’s social credit system. Step out of line, and you might not be allowed on a plane, or even into Disneyland.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Shortly after Token2049, the Network State conference was held in Singapore. The idea is compelling: in essence, people can unite based on shared values and beliefs, rather than geographic location, and start building a new kind of “networked state.” Gradually and peacefully, these communities aim to replace outdated governmental institutions. Of course, they’ll need a physical hub to organize—and they’ve already found one: a beautifully ghost city in Malaysia, where these guys are starting to gather and get things moving. So, the whole Network State idea reminds us of “Nomad Capitalist” concept—go where you’re treated best. But the Network State idea goes even further. Their plan is to create a meritocracy based on libertarian principles.
It’s definitely something to keep an eye on.