Vitalik Buterin Calls Pop-Up City Experiment a Success, Yet Governance Issue Remains
Vitalik Buterin hailed the initial success of his pop-up city concept. | Credit: Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels
Key Takeaways
- Ethereum’s co-founder reflects on the pop-up city experiment and says it was a success from an experience point of view.
- The experiment was conceptualized in 2022 and started in 2023 with 200 people.
- Vitalik Buterin claimed they still need to solve the governance and membership issues.
Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin reflected upon his dystopian sci-fi experiment, the pop-up city or nation-state, which was first conceptualized in 2022. Buterin noted that he first came across the concept in 2022 while reading Balaji Srinivasan’s book.
During his address at the Network State Conference 2024 in Singapore, Buterin called the first iteration of his pop-up city concept a success. However, he added that to make it work, they need to solve the governance issue and membership complexities.
What Is the Pop-up City?
The pop-up city, or network state, is an experiment where about 200 people from three sectors were brought together in May 2023. The experiment had people from the Ethereum community, longevity and biotech and people interested in new governance.
The experiment’s goal was to bring online communities together in a physical setting and try to achieve political autonomy.
“We had so many discussions around building crypto cities, new cities, and blockchain societies, so I thought of taking it forward and running an experiment,” Buterin said.
Despite the experiment’s positive outcome, they refrained from experimenting with its regulatory aspect as it requires existing relationships with governments, and there is much work. However, the primary focus was observing the innovation’s cultural aspect, which doesn’t need the regulatory side.
The Ethereum co-founder noted that the experiment was a success from a cultural and technological point of view. It incubated technologies, such as Zupass, for identity systems and biomarker testing. Buterin said that the experiment focused on testing the human aspect, and the people enjoyed it:
“As an experience, it is successful, but it is unclear what the next step Zuzalu implied. Also, governance is not solved.”
The experiment tested the possibility of decentralized cities where crypto could support network states, and we can have autonomous and decentralized societies in the future.
Governance and Membership Complexities
During his conference address, Buterin noted that the network state experiment currently has two main issues, i.e., governance and complexities.
“Pop-up city has market-fit products, but we need to address governance and membership issues more. To move further from here, the path depends on the goals; even if we have different objectives, we should strengthen cooperation and carefully consider how to collaborate,” Buterin explained.
Buterin noted that governance and membership are interwinds, and the community members will determine the governance structure. Still, a regulatory framework is needed to include those members.
The Ethereum co-founder is known to discuss and propose new ideas around decentralization, such as decentralized societies or voting systems. While the pop-up city experiment is at its very early stages, it has ignited the concept for people and companies to work on.
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