Governance infrastructure for a new kind of country.
A network state starts as an online community and grows toward land and recognition. Every step of that path is a governance problem. Solon is built to carry it from the first member onward.
What a network state is
Srinivasan's path runs from a startup society to a network union to a network state — "cloud first, land last, but not land never." No network state has been recognized yet. What exists today are the early stages, and they are exactly where governance decides whether a community holds together.
Solon does not take a side on any community's cause. It is neutral infrastructure: the same rules engine and the same open record for any group that wants to govern itself.
“A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.”
The path, and what each step needs
- 01
Found a startup society
A founding record and a roll of members.
Found the organization and take the first seat; every later admission is on the record.
- 02
Organize for collective action
A way to decide together that members trust.
Proposals, votes and counting methods the community chooses — and can change by vote.
- 03
Build trust offline and an economy online
Open books and money that moves without a bank.
Open treasuries on Solon; payments and funding through OrangeCat.
- 04
Crowdfund physical places
Pooled money spent only as the members decided.
Spending decided by vote, carried out through OrangeCat, receipts on the record.
- 05
Connect them into an archipelago
Local groups that govern themselves and decide some things together.
Groups of groups: each place its own organization, all members of a larger one.
- 06
Take an on-chain census
A membership count anyone can verify.
A signed roll: members who sign their seat can be counted without trusting a clerk.
- 07
Seek recognition
Evidence of legitimate, accountable self-government.
Years of decisions anyone can recount. Recognition is political; the record is how a community earns the conversation.
What works today
- Start an organization
Anyone with an OrangeCat account can found one in a minute and take the first seat.
Available now - Signed votes
Members who want to can sign with their own key, so anyone can recount without trusting Solon.
Available now - A record that only grows
Every step is written once and published; every decision comes with everything needed to recount it.
Available now - Open books
Register the group's Bitcoin addresses and every member sees the balance, read straight from the chain.
Available now - Admission by vote
Someone asks to join; the members decide, and the record shows who admitted whom.
Planned - Rules you change by vote
The group's own rulebook — who votes on what, by how much — amended through the group's own votes.
Planned - Groups of groups
Organizations join a larger one as members, each voting by its own internal decision.
Planned - Leave with your record
Export the whole signed history and take it to another host, where it can be checked again.
Planned
A place to start
Solon's rule template for this kind of group sets who may vote on what, how votes are counted, and how many must agree. It is a starting point: your group changes it by vote.
Compare the templatesHow this works in detail
Srinivasan's own definition includes "a consensual government limited by a social smart contract". Solon's approach to that phrase is deliberately plain: the rules are data the members can read and amend by vote, every decision is published with the evidence to recount it, and the executors — money and work — act only on a verified decision.
Two cautions carried over from history. A majority can wrongly decide who counts — Appenzell Innerrhoden's assembly refused women the vote until a federal court intervened in 1990 — so decisions about membership are reserved to people and recorded in full. And software is not sovereignty: Solon can make a community legible and accountable; it cannot make a border move.