The BlockchainGov Newsletter #29 | January 2026
Happy New Year! In January we launched the Network Nation Substack, published new research and released five podcast episodes. Also, some grant recommendations and our usual highlights. Come catch up with us:
I. Network Nations
This month, the Network Nations project, one of BlockchainGov’s main focus areas for 2026, made substantial progress.
Moving past the recent hype around “Network States,” we propose a more nuanced framework. We’re charting down the narrative path from Cloud Communities (2018) through Network States (the current dominant discourse) toward Network Nations - a framework that emphasizes functional sovereignty over territorial claims. It is more remixable and a lot more resilient as a political form. We define Network Nations as translocal communities united by collective identity, shared culture, and common purpose.
Unlike traditional states, Network Nations do not claim absolute sovereignty over particular territories. Instead, they aspire towards functional sovereignty: the capacity to govern their own affairs, mutualize resources, and manage specific administrative functions—such as identity, currency, digital infrastructure, or social security—with meaningful autonomy. Read more about the concept on the website.
The Network Nations Substack Has Launched
We’re excited to announce the launch of the Network Nations Substack, designed to translate emerging theory and practice into accessible insights for anyone curious about the future of our emerging political forms.
While the EUI Symposium from 2025 is the academic backdrop (make sure to check it out here) & the GreenPill Podcast drives ongoing dialogue (find it here), the Substack serves as our primary platform for sharing actionable and clearly communicated ideas with a broader audience.
The substack articles fall into three categories:
Theory: Deep dives into the foundational concepts that define Network Nations
Pilots: Case studies examining both the friction and success of experimental communities
Perspectives: Insights from external contributors offering diverse viewpoints on networked governance
Two articles are already live:
“Network Nations: From Theory to Practice“ by Primavera De Filippi & Felix Beer introduces the core framework and an open invitation to join in, exploring how translocal communities can achieve functional sovereignty through self-sovereign infrastructure, voluntary citizenship, and polycentric institutions.
“Meta-Jurisdictions“ by Jessy-Kate Schingler and Primavera De Filippi presents a novel concept: virtual jurisdictions constructed by strategically weaving together legal affordances from multiple existing legal systems, enabling communities to navigate governance challenges without requiring territorial control.
Subscribe to stay updated as we explore the future of networked governance →
January’s Network Nations Podcast Episodes
The Network Nations podcast released five episodes exploring the future of decentralized governance:
Episode 10: Burning Man with Erica Blair examined how the desert festival evolved into a proto-network nation, with its 10 principles binding a global community of burners across 85+ regional burns worldwide—demonstrating how shared values and intrinsic motivation create lasting kinship beyond territorial boundaries.
Episode 11: Let a Thousand Societies Bloom featured Vitalik Buterin reflecting on Zuzalu’s legacy and the explosion of pop-up villages it inspired, discussing the critical distinction between “zones” (territorial experiments) and “tribes” (value-aligned communities), and why lasting political communities require both diversity and extended time together.
Episode 12: From Politics to Protocols to Protocol Politics brought Santiago Siri’s decade-long journey from founding Argentina’s internet party to building DemocracyEarth and Proof of Humanity—revealing how protocols cannot escape politics but instead create new political arenas, and why identity remains “the mother of all battles” for network governance.
Episode 13: Intentional Communities & New Jurisdictions explored with Jessy Kate Schingler how physical nodes like the Embassy Network and special economic zones like Bhutan’s GMC could provide territorial grounding for network nations—bridging bottom-up intentional communities operating through private law with top-down jurisdictional innovations offering legitimate interfaces to existing legal systems.
Episode 14: Networked Diasporas featured Helena Rong discussing SeeDAO, a Chinese-speaking DAO spanning 25+ countries with over 1,000 contributors—examining how communities cultivate kinship and belonging at scale, and why “non-governance as governance” might be key to preserving space for uncertainty and possibility in decentralized organizations.
Thank you to all of our guests and to our ever-impressing hosts, Felix Beer & Primavera De Filippi!
II. Community Data Centers & Physical Infrastructure
This is a small nudge from us to you to keep an eye on emerging work from Tara Merk and Morshed Mannan exploring Community Data Centers (CDCs) and their relationship to cooperatives and network sovereignty. As digital governance conversations often abstract away the material layer—the servers, cables, and facilities that actually enable networked coordination, their research asks a crucial question: can communities achieve meaningful sovereignty without owning and governing the physical infrastructure beneath “the cloud”?
More to come throughout the year.
III. Decentralization Research Center Grant
The Decentralization Research Center has launched its inaugural research grant program, offering three $5,000 awards to support teams exploring decentralized technology, governance, and policy. Open to interdisciplinary teams of two or more from anywhere in the world, the program seeks research that provides actionable recommendations for policymakers navigating the decentralization landscape. Recipients will receive funding, publication support from the DRC, and the opportunity to publish their work open access while retaining full rights. This initiative reflects the DRC’s commitment to amplifying diverse voices and ensuring emerging ideas reach those shaping technological policy. Applications are due by March 1st, 2026.
Learn more and apply here →
IV. New Research: Regulatory Equivalence in Blockchain Systems
Primavera De Filippi, Morshed Mannan, and Kelsie Nabben have published “Tornado Cash, Flashbots, and Regulatory Equivalence: Alternatives to Regulatory Compliance or Avoidance in Blockchain Systems” in the new Public Governance volume edited by Usman Chohan and Sven Van Kerckhoven. The chapter explores regulatory equivalence as a middle path between strict compliance and outright avoidance, examining how blockchain protocols can achieve regulatory objectives through technical design rather than traditional legal frameworks. By analyzing cases like Tornado Cash and Flashbots, the authors propose alternatives that preserve decentralization while addressing legitimate regulatory concerns—suggesting that code-based mechanisms can deliver functionally equivalent outcomes to conventional regulation without sacrificing the core properties that make blockchain systems valuable.
V. Ethereum Foundation Use Case Lab: Verifiable Cities Open Call
Phygital infrastructure is becoming a serious site of applied research. The Ethereum Foundation’s Use Case Lab has announced “Verifiable Cities,” an open call for implementations exploring how cryptographic primitives and public blockchain properties can expand civic and state capacity without increasing state power or vendor lock-in. The initiative follows the same problem-first, field-embedded methodology that Sofia Cossar & Lovisa Björna developed for the Argentina Onchain Residency together with Ori Shimony. A very compelling direction for applied research.
The initiative addresses a critical question in government digitization: how to modernize public systems while preserving citizen autonomy and avoiding centralized control. The landscape brief identifies high-priority use cases across urban systems—including privacy-preserving data management, service delivery, infrastructure funding, policy execution, and cross-agency coordination—with a focus on narrowly scoped deployments that offer clear learning pathways and scalability. City and regional governments, builders, and organizations engaged in municipal innovation are invited to submit expressions of interest over the coming months. 🔗 Full details →
VI. New Oxford Volume: Foundations of Decentralized Organizations
Oxford University Press has released The Foundations of Decentralized Organizations, edited by Kevin Werbach, Bianca Kremer, and Eva Micheler—a comprehensive examination of how DAOs interact with established legal principles. The volume brings together leading scholars from blockchain law and corporate law to address fundamental questions: Do DAOs require bespoke legal structures or can existing forms adapt? How do fiduciary duties apply to decentralized network participants? What happens when DAOs encounter bankruptcy proceedings or cross-border disputes? Contributors employ diverse frameworks—from New Institutional Economics to Ostrom’s commons theory—revealing that DAOs are too diverse for generalizations, with each arrangement requiring individual legal analysis.
Primavera De Filippi and Morshed Mannan contribute a chapter titled “The Fiduciary Duties of Network Participants of Blockchain Systems,” arguing that extending traditional fiduciary duties to blockchain network participants risks constraining innovation and undermining financial stability. The chapter challenges conventional legal frameworks that seek to impose traditional trust-based obligations on decentralized systems designed to operate without intermediaries. The volume marks a significant step in moving DAO analysis from idealism to pragmatic engagement with corporate law.
🔗 https://global.oup.com/academic/product/foundations-of-decentralized-organizations-9780198946113
VII. Walk the Talk: Esen Esener on Web3’s Talent Problem
In her latest “Walk the Talk” post, Esen Esener tackles why Web3 keeps losing senior legal talent. Drawing from recent hiring experiences, she identifies systemic issues: ambiguous role definitions, shifting job specs mid-process, case studies that blur into free consulting, and prolonged interview loops with minimal communication. Her point is sharp—senior legal professionals who can navigate regulatory complexity are rare, and losing them through disorganized hiring practices damages the entire ecosystem. Her solution: define roles before advertising them, align internally on expectations, and treat interviews as two-way diligence. As Esener notes, blockchain’s most consequential affordances are fundamentally public sector tools—but realizing that potential requires professionalizing how the space attracts and retains the expertise needed to bridge innovation with legal frameworks. Read her posts here.
That’s all from this months newsletter,
Thank you for reading and see you next month!
👀🕸️
The BlockchainGov team