GreenPill

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐 In this episode of the Network Nations mini-series, host Felix Beer is joined by Nick Srnicek (author of Platform Capitalism and Silicon Empires) and Sofia Cossar (BlockchainGov) to explore the emerging concept of Network Sovereignty. They unpack how power is shifting from nation-states to digital networks, why platforms now function like political infrastructures, and how algorithms, protocols, and platforms increasingly shape governance, speech, and economic life. The conversation examines platform empires, AI infrastructure, state power, civil society strategies, Web3, cooperative platforms, and what it would take to reclaim networks as democratic commons rather than extractive systems. A foundational episode for anyone trying to understand sovereignty, power, and governance in a networked world. 🌱 greenpill.network 🌐 networknations.network  @owocki @greenpillnet https://x.com/nsrnicek?lang=en https://x.com/CossarSofia   ⏱️ Timestamps  00:00 – Welcome to the Network Nations mini-series 01:30 – What are Network Nations? 02:10 – Introducing today's topic: Network Sovereignty 02:45 – Guests: Nick Srnicek & Sofia Cossar 04:30 – Living in the network age 05:35 – Platforms as infrastructures, not just tools 07:40 – Is there an "outside" to the network? 09:45 – Modulating participation instead of exiting 11:10 – Platform capitalism & concentrated power 13:30 – From markets to empires: platforms as political actors 15:55 – Rule-making, enforcement & taxation by platforms 18:15 – AI, data centers & physical infrastructure power 20:20 – States vs platforms: dependency and conflict 22:20 – Civil society as a third force 24:30 – Three strategies for reclaiming network power 26:25 – Data centers, environment & local resistance 28:25 – Open-source AI & alternative pathways 30:30 – Workers, AI & political leverage 32:40 – What is Network Sovereignty? 35:00 – People, space & governance in network entities 37:15 – Historical examples of network sovereigns 39:05 – Platform empires vs network communities 41:20 – States reasserting control over networks 43:35 – Civil society building its own infrastructure 45:55 – Web3: political potential and risks 48:20 – Exit vs entrance as a political problem 50:05 – Cooperative platforms as real alternatives 52:20 – Why states must support alternatives 54:25 – Accelerationism, work & political power 56:40 – Technology for liberation vs profit 59:05 – Organizing movements in platform-dominated spaces 01:00:50 – Projects and researchers to follow 01:02:30 – Closing thoughts & what's next  

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐 In this episode of the Network Nations mini-series, host Primavera De Filippi speak with Morshed Mannan (European University Institute) and Neil Walker (author of Sovereignty in Transition) to explore one of the most challenging ideas in political theory today: Functional Sovereignty. They discuss whether sovereignty can be unbundled into separate functions like identity, finance, and dispute resolution — and what it means when digital communities begin exercising these powers without controlling land. Together they examine historical precedents, overlapping authorities, private platform power (Amazon, Meta), self-determination, legitimacy, polycentric governance, and how decentralized infrastructure may enable network nations to achieve real autonomy. A foundational conversation for understanding how communities can self-govern in the networked age. 🌱 greenpill.network 🌐 networknations.network 🐦 @owocki  @greenpillnet  https://x.com/MannanMorshed Timestamps  00:00 – Cold open: "Functional sovereignty is an oxymoron. 01:34 – What is functional sovereignty? 02:18 – Introducing guests: Morchette Mannan & Neil Walker 03:48 – Traditional sovereignty vs non-territorial sovereignty 06:14 – How communities govern identity, finance & dispute systems 07:20 – Unbundling sovereignty into multiple functions 08:25 – Historical evolution of sovereignty (dynastic → modern state) 10:50 – Early cracks: EU autonomy without exclusivity 13:09 – Examples of functional sovereignty (EU, monetary union, etc.) 16:42 – Guild socialism & industrial self-governance 18:20 – Decentralized constitutionalism in Yugoslavia 19:08 – Citizens as the sovereign, not territory 20:44 – Are Big Tech platforms (Amazon/Facebook) functional sovereigns? 23:24 – Digital proximity & affinity in network communities 25:29 – Declarative vs constitutive sovereignty 27:18 – Corporate sovereignty vs democratic sovereignty 29:33 – Power vs authority: who is the real sovereign? 31:58 – Sovereignty as a discursive claim 33:48 – Why Network Nations seek functional, not declarative, sovereignty 35:50 – Self-determination vs sovereignty 37:00 – The paradox of self-constitution 39:24 – How multiple sovereigns overlap (polycentricity) 41:34 – Managing conflict in overlapping jurisdictions 43:15 – Constitutions and polycentric coordination 45:21 – Who decides who decides? 47:42 – Multi-level governance & territorial scaffolding 49:36 – Functional domains: art, science, data, digital systems 51:38 – How functional sovereignty works in practice 53:22 – Cooperatives as real examples of mutual self-governance 55:43 – Cross-border recognition & legal frameworks 58:05 – What law can and cannot do in digital governance 01:00:06 – Why Network Nations require hybrid (digital + physical) presence 01:02:29 – Decentralized infrastructure as sovereign infrastructure 01:04:08 – Can network nations coexist peacefully with states? 01:06:20 – States' anxiety about digital communities 01:08:42 – Politics, culture & technological migration 01:10:00 – Closing

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐 In this episode of the VDAO × Greenpill Anti-Fragile Network States mini-series, host Kris Miller talks with Gardner, a tech founder exploring how local resilience and self-sovereignty can be built without going off-grid. Gardner shares his hands-on journey of transforming a suburban home into a more resilient system  from rainwater harvesting and food forests to community reciprocity and mindset shifts. They discuss why resilience doesn't mean bunkers or isolation, how small actions compound, and why investing in community, not fear, is the real path to anti-fragility. A grounded, practical conversation for anyone curious about building resilience right where they live. 🌱 greenpill.network 🌐 vdao.org 🐦 https://x.com/JoinVDAO 🐦 https://x.com/Gardner 🐦 https://x.com/greenpillnet  Timestamps  00:00 – Cold open: collapse, bunkers & "the power is still on" 01:08 – Gardner joins & his "why" as a builder 02:21 – Building a better future through local resilience 03:50 – IRL + URL coordination and finding your tribe 06:04 – Self-sovereignty vs community: not opposites 08:55 – Suburban fragility & reliance on centralized systems 10:18 – Resilience doesn't mean going off-grid 11:30 – First steps: rainwater harvesting at home 12:38 – Water ethics, pools & responsibility 14:25 – Learning by doing: how much water you can actually catch 16:16 – Nature's ability to self-filter water 18:06 – Reducing water demand through hardscaping 19:55 – Destruction as a forcing function for better design 22:36 – Upcycling, free resources & neighbor collaboration 24:31 – Food forests, edible ground cover & rethinking lawns 26:30 – Growing food as "printing yield" 28:31 – Optimism, effort & real sacrifices 30:38 – Family trade-offs & finishing the project 32:58 – "Should I be building a bunker?" 35:19 – The reality behind fast YouTube tutorials 39:06 – Action over fear: doing something tangible 41:02 – Investing in community through shared spaces 43:04 – Turning lawns into food forests at scale 45:06 – Scaling local resilience: resources & accountability 49:07 – Why people think about collapse but don't act 50:54 – Fear vs empowerment in suburban resilience 52:46 – Vision for communal learning spaces ("Wee Woods") 54:07 – Closing thoughts: start small, build, and be free

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐 In this episode of the VDAO × Greenpill Anti-Fragile Network States mini-series, host Kris Miller talks with Steph Curdy — Bitcoin early adopter, Wolfram researcher, and real-world resilience builder who traded city life for a hands-in-the-soil permaculture experiment. Steph shares how Bitcoin shaped his understanding of asymmetry, how COVID exposed the fragility of urban systems, and why he decided to buy land, build food and energy resilience, and grow a local community around it. They explore anti-fragility, decentralized systems, gradients, permaculture design, skepticism, community trust, and why people — not tomatoes — are the real value in any resilient ecosystem. A grounded, practical and inspiring look at how digital builders can become real-world resilience builders. 🌱 greenpill.network 🌐 vdao.org 🐦 https://x.com/JoinVDAO 🐦  https://x.com/Steph_Curdy 🐦 https://x.com/greenpillnet ⏱️ Timestamps  00:00 – Cold open: "The real value is community, not tomatoes." 01:24 – Welcome to the VDAO Anti-Fragile Network State season 02:19 – Steph Curdy joins the show 02:44 – Steph's "why" as a builder 03:50 – Bitcoin, energy & curiosity 05:48 – What anti-fragility means to Steph 07:30 – Bitcoin as asymmetric exposure 08:55 – COVID revealing urban fragility 09:38 – Searching for land & building resilience 11:35 – Bitcoin as a "Cambrian explosion" of economic primitives 13:32 – Returning to foundational systems: food & nature 15:46 – Steph's background: Tesla → finance → Wolfram 17:31 – Discovering permaculture 19:11 – Emergence: crypto, permaculture & meta-crisis spaces 20:56 – Sensemaking through energy gradients 22:52 – History & first-principles thinking 25:05 – Using gradients to understand Bitcoin 26:55 – How Steph thinks about skeptics 28:51 – Money as information & coordination 30:27 – Listening as a core civic skill 32:25 – Crypto insecurity & ecosystem overwhelm 34:44 – Quality-of-life benefits of resilience 36:24 – Buying land: the practical journey 38:46 – Turning a junk site into regenerative opportunity 41:10 – Building trust with neighbors 42:58 – Year-by-year development of the land 45:02 – Insight: community is the real value 47:29 – Mushroom systems, events & collaborative building 49:28 – Crypto × permaculture: bridging the worlds 51:51 – Polarization & public perception 54:30 – Digital + physical sovereignty 57:03 – What Steph learned building in real life 59:49 – Closing thoughts 01:00:32 – Outro

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐 In this episode of the Network Nations mini-series, Primavera De Filippi & Felix Beer speak with Audrey Tang, former Digital Minister of Taiwan, and Nathan Schneider, professor and author of Governable Spaces. Together they explore Meta-Politics — the foundational design of digital infrastructures that shape how civil society governs itself online. Audrey and Nathan discuss how platforms today constrain collective action, how democratic protocols like alignment assemblies can counter online harms, and why new governance substrates must embed values such as plurality, civic care, interoperability, and entanglement. They also examine decentralized identities, freedom of movement, DAOs, religion as governance, and how network-native communities can evolve into political actors. A powerful conversation about the next layer of digital democracy — and what it takes to build civic technologies that empower global communities. 🌱 greenpill.network 🌐 networknations.network  @owocki  @greenpillnet @audreyt  @ntnsndr  00:00 – Cold start 02:18 – Introducing Audrey Tang & Nathan Schneider 03:07 – Nathan: "Why I worry about the word meta" 05:10 – Nation-states as fragile historical accidents 06:15 – Self-governing online networks as new politics 08:16 – How today's platforms limit civic life 10:22 – Blockchains break the server–client power structure 12:17 – Nation-states reacting to decentralized governance 14:33 – Audrey: Democracy as a "social technology" 16:37 – Deepfakes, alignment assemblies & Taiwan's model 18:33 – Crowdsourced policymaking at national scale 20:49 – Freedom of movement & interoperability design 22:48 – What Network Nation aims to build 24:52 – Audrey's "Six-Pack of Care" 27:13 – Embedding civic care into protocols 29:21 – Bridging systems & depolarization 31:33 – What values can — and cannot — be encoded 33:28 – Forking, polycentric governance & metastability 35:52 – Norms vs code: where power really lives 37:41 – How decentralized tech forces governance innovation 39:51 – Why cooperatives aren't enough for politics 42:13 – Religion as a governance model for network nations 45:17 – Open movements & global political power 47:15 – Civil society as a political actor 49:40 – Verifiable credentials & protecting deliberation 51:52 – Avoiding dystopia & VC-dominated "network states" 54:17 – Funding, incentives & getting there first 56:43 – Poison pills & preventing bad governance 58:39 – Scaling across vs scaling up 01:00:44 – Fractal scaling & mutualization 01:02:53 – Naming as the first political act 01:05:59 – Different starting points for network nations 01:08:15 – Diversity, plurality & collective action 01:10:29 – Making conflict fun through bridging 01:12:41 – Innovation amnesia & protecting past wins 01:14:42 – Values vs opinions in political communities 01:16:37 – Civic care vs individual virtue ethics 01:19:00 – Entanglement as cohesion 01:21:11 – Building a narrative that reaches real people 01:23:25 – Applying meta-politics to global crises 01:25:46 – Everyday tools already enabling the future 01:26:51 – Closing