A Field Report from Living Inside a Network-State Experiment - David Stancel

Transcript

Hey guys. Hope you can hear me well. Um Did Did you like the Balaji's talks? Like every time I hear him I I cannot get enough. Uh Uh it's been um Yeah, it's been always like a lot of new things that uh it's incredible the way he can like communicate his ideas. But today uh I want to talk about what it actually, you know, looks in the Network School. Uh disclaimer, I'm not a part of the NS core team. I'm just a resident there. So, I've been living there for the last uh over a year.

And I want to share with you today, you know, what's actually, you know, reality of living in the Network School near Malaysia. And I will try to cover, you know, basic, you know, information, data, you know, how it kind of looks there, weekly, monthly loops, and visas, and like what's what's life there like. Um So, let's start with the actual location. I hope you can see it well. Uh So, sometimes you can hear it's like almost in Singapore, but like not really. It's like right at the border of Singapore between Malaysia and Singapore. And this is There is this like beautiful artificially created piece of land, which is called Forest City. Uh you might have seen a bunch of YouTube videos where uh you know, like a

lot of YouTubers, you know, do a lot of content about it because it's like supposed like the biggest ghost town ever in the history of humankind. Uh it had like a hundred billion dollars budget. Uh it's not fully finished yet because it's been kind of abandoned. But uh I can definitely say that like over last year, you can you can definitely see the population there is like, you know, growing now. Because when I came there like April last year, you could not see any people on the beach, you know, you you could just see like literally like thousands of apartments that are uh very empty and there are no people there, no people on the streets, no people on the on the beach, and no stores or those that were there, they were primarily closed.

And but nowadays, it's it's changing. So, this is how it looks. Anybody has been there already? Raise your hands if you have. Okay, I see few faces that we met. Okay. So, right now, what's the network school? Effectively, the network school like rented this whole hotel there. Uh and uh there is currently like 400 people on the campus right now. And uh which includes also like 250 people who are like long-term residents. And uh so, majority of the long-term residents are occupying some of these apartments in some of these like you know, huge building blocks.

Uh so, yeah, there's like 250 long-term people and overall, you know, like roughly 400 to 550 people on campus in this big hotel here. So, that's like in a main venue and as you can see, like all these all these places here are like completely empty, like all the villas there. So, uh literally, I think 2 weeks ago, probably we saw like a first time there was like one build like one of these villas lightened up at night. So, I think there's maybe first person moving there. Um but you can like last weeks, you could definitely see much more activity on on the on the beach and um uh it's definitely getting more revived.

Uh and that's probably very much related to the like development of the mobility between the Singapore and and and Malaysia because this is actually like a common project of Singapore and Malaysia, like a special economic zone that you know, is trying to sort of uh it it provides a bunch of tax benefits for family offices and so on. There's like some other parts of the zones where are like provide benefits for certain industries, uh manufacturing and so on. And um so usually um it takes probably like an hour by taxi to get to the old town midtown Singapore and like 1 and 1/2 hour to the Singapore airport. And uh what you until very recently, until last week basically, you

couldn't order Grab. Uh it was not allowed. But from last week actually, you can. So that's like a very new thing that is kind of makes the entry to to transport to Singapore quite lower. You can take a bus. It's cost like 5 bucks to takes like 2 hours. And uh probably by the end of the year, you will be able to even take metro from you know, Johor Bahru, which is like a pretty big city. It's the second largest city in the Malaysia. 800,000 people. So even though we live sort of in abandoned island, you can uh if you really need, you know, like better groceries, hospitals, or any kinds of services, you just take a Grab and take go like 20 minutes uh north and you are

pretty much in a big city, a lot of facilities and a lot of you know, services and everything you basically want. So yeah, this is Forest City. So if you move in, this is what you get. This is like an average room in in the hotel. So most of the people who kind of come there usually come for a month or two and bunch of them decide to actually stay long term. That was my case as well. Initially, came there for 2 months last year and then I was like, "Okay, it's really cool to hang out with Balaji." He talks a lot of smart things often and uh it's it's cool to be around and uh as you could see like um um I think what he's saying is really makes sense. Like starting new societies, uh it can be definitely interesting venture.

Uh and I think, you know, like lately, the whole space has been uh gaining a lot of momentum also because of Prospera. Anybody heard of Prospera as well? Few people. Cool. It's a special economic zone in Honduras. A great place. Probably going to be booming in the next few years because of the changes in the government in Honduras lately. But yeah, so uh this is what you get when you when you move in. And here are some basic stats. Uh so Network was actually launched in September 2024. That was like a trial V1 uh period for like 3 months. They were like crafting first 100 people. I couldn't make it then, so I make it to the V2, which start started in March

2025. And uh that's basically when we all the people like started to kind of also move in permanently. And um yeah, I was riding Prospera uh when I saw the Balaji's tweet about, "Hey, we are starting the V2. Everybody should come." So next day I was booking the flights and and and and um to to Singapore. And uh yeah, I was uh very curious to check it out. And as you can see, uh it's definitely an interesting place. Uh really really really really charming place. Lots of different uh and interesting things happening there.

And right now um I saw the numbers. Um what is interesting, many people don't usually expect families in these kind of places, but actually Balaji and his co-founder Donovan, they are really trying to make it like a family-friendly place as well. So if you have uh uh right now there are like 20 kids on campus sort of permanently. Uh I think the number grew in the last two three months like uh quite a lot. I think still by the end of last year it was like not not not so great. There were like just few kids. Balaji himself has like five kids and Donovan has three kids and like So there are like more people now bringing actually their families. So there is a daycare there for for for for kids as well.

Um on the island directly there is also like a school. And so there are And of obviously if you want to have like a better international school, it's like not too far either. So it's just like you know 20 minutes by by taxi. And uh so yeah, family-friendly. There are increasingly more things that are making it, you know, like uh more welcoming for families. If you come there with family, you can actually also get even on short term, you can actually get the apartments in the some of these buildings that were shown in the picture before. Right now, there is roughly 75% male uh to female ratio. So, there's something that we are like The Network School is trying to improve.

Um but largely still like a tech bro kind of community, but uh hopefully we can improve on that uh soon. And there have been some measures uh done recently that kind of uh I think improve it, you know, like ladies got their own lounge, and they got their own sauna, so they kind of feel more safe, and they have like their own uh spaces for for themselves. So, that's uh that's been like uh development on the on the last uh few weeks and months. Yeah, I think Balaji mentioned some like key key numbers, because a lot of people uh ask me like how much it costs to live there. So, as you could heard, it's like 1,500 bucks a month if you want to share the room with someone, and it's 3K if you want to have it on your own. And

this includes basically all the meals, you know, Balaji likes to call it, you know, like Brian Johnson as a service, because you get like all the blueprint core share, uh very nutrition-wise rich food that is provided to you like all day. Um it's very streamlined, no logistics, you don't have to think about anything. And um And if you sign up long term, there are some extra perks that I will mention later that uh that are related to this. So, you have included meals, you have included co-work. Um uh it's like 10 minutes walk from The Network School, so it's pretty pretty pretty easy easy easy walk. And I think from next month, there will be like a new co-work opened um right next to the hotel. So, uh it's going to be even

closer. Uh will share like a few pictures like right behind the slant. And there's a lot of events happening every day literally from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. You have you know Jiu-Jitsu, salsa, briefing, yoga, all kinds of things. So, basically everybody can find whatever kind of hobby they like. You can also organize it yourself. Like a lot of these events are like community-driven. So, basically you know, if you if you have a cohort when people who come in they are into BJJ, they do a lot of BJJ events. So, and pretty much when you ask Network School to provide any kind of like, you

know, equipment or or something like that, usually they really are responsive and like, you know, they they they will get it for us. You know, so last year we were asking for sauna, they so they got us sauna. We had to build it ourselves, but like it was worth it. And so yeah, they're pretty pretty responsible and and they're trying to accommodate all kinds of needs from the community. What Balaji didn't mention is that actually there is obviously there's a it's a great place for builders and Balaji is providing a bunch of like funding also for people who want to, you know, like pre-seed stage in their companies and they want to come and he's providing fellowships, which means he gives you like some 100k for a

piece of equity in your company. And so a bunch of people are receiving that. And what is interesting as well is that um there are a bunch of L2s being now, you know, like built in Network School. One of them is like Arc, which is like a starters charter city project that is actually also opening right now. I think it's already public like a new accelerator there. So, it's another kind of layer two, you know, option opt-in thing that you when you move into Network School, you can be part of that.

You can get some additional funding there from a bunch of VCs that are in the network. And uh they have also their separate uh you know, co-work and um also pretty interesting, you know, group of people. Uh great funding opportunities and uh yeah, hopefully also in soon also like a new new city that they want to build. If you have read Balaji's blogs, you might have, you know, encountered this um this metric. And it's I think it pretty much like well summarizes like where we want to go with Network School. And obviously, so we are now in the V2, which is basically, you know, hundreds of people that are kind of permanently based there uh for, you

know, uh you know, few months most of them, but like uh some of us like are there for a year. The goal, I know Balaji wants to, you know, like push this up and like, you know, scale probably like to like 1,000 people by end of this year who live there permanently. And uh and you know, once we get to the 1,000, it's very feasible that we can get to 10,000 as well. And that's when we can get actually more also like a political leverage um when negotiating either with Malaysia, Singapore, and also other countries. So um I know uh you know, it's like there will be more nodes. Network School is like kind of first node in in in Malaysia, but like there will be more nodes you

know, popping up in the future in different countries. We don't know where yet, but uh it will be announced at some point. So um yeah, I think that this this pretty cool. Uh one of the main motto of Network School is like earn, learn, and burn. And recently, they added fun. Uh so, it's a nice uh it's a nice uh uh way also to kind of earn some money if you are, you know, a builder. There's like a often times like a bunch of tasks that they are put in place and they play some bounties on top. So, you can see like you know it's like around like 1,000 bucks for some of the bounties and people can you know freely you know

submit their their work and it will be evaluated and and the reward will be split you know to like top three people. And it's not always like the coding, it's sometimes the content production or like even some in the community stuff. Lots of people build like lots of different community tools to make the life at NNS easier and obviously also that some of these tooling can be used by other communities and pop-up cities elsewhere. Um so this is like a library that is in the hotel.

Uh this is the co-working space that accommodates like probably like 200 people right now. So, it's it's pretty it's pretty big. And yeah, like a lot of the events are happening in this library here. Um yeah, a lot of lectures. And obviously if you were coming there with a team, there are opportunities to rent your own office and have your own space for a month or even just like for for for a few days if you want. So, they're trying to build and more spaces that can accommodate like larger teams as well. This is like a I think this is much cooler with audio. So, just imagine some up-tempo music with this but it's really not well made video, you know, I think capturing the essence and the wipe and

that was cool. So, obviously burn like you know, burn your calories is like a very very much like a focus and emphasize in the community. So, you have a basically three times a day you have a a gym session with a coach with a military coach that guides you. And obviously the gym is 24/7 so you can go on your own but like if you want to have you know supervision and a coach, you can just do it three times a day. Um so the gym is pretty cool, they built it from scratch. Um it's it's pretty big. It accommodates a lot of people. A lot of fun stuff are happening there. This is a glimpse from yesterday's uh agenda. Like uh so, you can just see like what kind of stuff are

being like, you know, done there by the community. You know, like coffee brewing workshops, VO2 max testing, and you know, like uh morning pages. People just come together, write their their diaries, and so on. So, a lot of different things. These are just like some personal pictures from like how it looks there. People are doing a lot of, you know, tea tea ceremonies and like funky stuff. This is like the beach by the hotel. So, uh it's actually not many people swim in there. For a long time, there was a sign that there are crocodiles in there. They removed it recently. So, I guess they're not there anymore. I heard they're like

further uh to the north, so not here. So, there's a pretty good chance that you are not going to get eaten if you swim. But, like usually no one no one tries. Um but yeah, so this is this is you can see Singapore port here. So, yeah, it's like literally like 1 km from Singapore. So, you could swim over, but you would probably get arrested. Um but like what's what what they're trying to get uh an arrangement with Singapore now is that like pretty soon, hopefully, we will be able to get a boat from from here to uh to the to the border of Singapore and to the old town. So, that should happen in the next few months, supposedly. So, let's see how about let's see how about that.

This is like a breakfast area. The hotel is pretty impressive. Uh this is the pool area. Uh heavily underutilized. Not many people actually spend time in the pool. They usually hustle. And uh yeah, so but it's it's it's pretty pretty amazing. One of my most favorite spots there. Uh obviously, often times you have like all kinds of really cool and stellar speakers. And you know, Vitalik stops by um once in a while. Um Base just opened their office there. Um there are a lot of community events.

On the 13th floor, there's like a bunch of these kind of rooms that we call them VIP rooms. They're initially made for karaoke, but now they are used for all kinds of stuff. Sometimes we are raving there. So, we have one DJ here Red Bull neck was raving there um a lot last few weeks. Um it's a very intense in terms of like hackathons. Basically, every week you have some kind of hackathons. There were the most famously like web coding hackathons where you could where you had to do like a lot of physical exercises while web coding. Um these are pretty wild events, but they're like um it's basically almost every every every week uh right now. Um

so there's like a lot to do. Uh yeah. Uh right recently, there was this new tradition of like NS fairs where all kinds of like, you know, layer two projects or like initiatives just like community initiatives and network schools are being, you know, presented. As you can see, there's like sports, you know, like sports group, longevity group is going uh pretty strong recently. So, if you are into longevity, you can lately also, you know, experiment with peptides and like all kinds of stuff. So, uh you we like they they took one of the pods in the cafe and there was a red light now. So, you can, you know, buy an additional membership and have a red light therapy every day and these kind

of things and like blood testing and so, it's um they just streamline for people these kind of stuff and services. So, it's pretty cool. Um as I said, families uh are very welcome and in greater numbers increasingly. So, there's a lot of us like music events. This is Omega. She's a music teacher. She teaching a lot of people know how to do music and sing, but also you know like how to speak publicly as well. So, there are like a lot of these kind of initiatives there.

And uh monthly and weekly loops. So, every time basically there's like a biorhythm of the whole place. The people usually come on the first of the month always you know like first of May, April, June. And so, there's like a lot of things aimed at these people who are just coming you know like orientation you know sessions. Uh pictures and showing around and like um there there like a lot of people go through some like um it's not compulsory, but there's like a psychology assessment test so we know like what kind of people are in the in the place and like um this uh it's from Ray Dalio one of the type of personality typology uh test. So, yeah.

Uh lot of other events happening there basically on a weekly basis you know cloth the Anthropic recently did an event there. Zcash hosted a residency. Ethereum hosted residency. Right now these days there's like a robotics track demo day there. Uh yeah. Oh, this video doesn't work. Okay, good. I don't have much time anyways. So, it should be fine. Yeah, lots of robots around especially lately. And lots of supporting events basically every month there's like NS cup where people just come together and do like tournaments in different sports football, volleyball, um pickleball, tennis, ping pong, everything. So, it's this is Veronica.

Yeah. And of course you can hang out with Balaji. You have like a weekly sessions with him on different stuff like where he you know talks about updates about Network School or other notes or or what what whatever is going on. And maybe the last thing try if you're becoming long-stayer, there are some additional benefits. You get your own apartment. Um you get some more visa support, even though Malaysia's pretty immigration friendly. You can be part of like brand transformation, which means that they you know cook exactly your meals like and they count the calories, they give you the boxes, so you don't have to care about anything and you just like get it and like you have exactly what you need and nutrition-wise.

Uh recently there was a Ministry of uh economy in uh visiting that first school. So, it's getting like a lot of attention now from the government as well. And yeah, ladies lounge. Recently we upped our security. So, right now if you want to access certain areas, you have to you know tap a card. And um Okay, another video that doesn't work. Okay, never mind. And yeah, that's all from me guys. If you scan this link, you get one week for free there. And uh yeah, if you want to follow I post about this my life there, uh you can follow us on X and uh Instagram. And yeah, thank you and I'm happy to take some questions.