The Most Powerful Crypto Bro in Washington Has Very Weird Beliefs

The man with the Tesla chip in his hand is Patri Friedman, a grandson of the economist Milton Friedman, the founder of Pronomos Capital, one of Próspera’s financiers. The company, backed by tech billionaires Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen (and advised by Srinivasan), says it is financing similar projects around the world, including in Africa and Asia. The basic idea: work with governments to create regulation-free, private territories that, over time, will negotiate full sovereignty (or bring massive lawsuits against their host governments, if Honduras’ experience is any indication).

Meanwhile, it’s not clear that politicians in Washington, who are among the least tech-savvy people in America, have any idea of ​​this Network State movement — let alone the underlying goals it shares with the crypto industry. Most of them probably don’t even understand how crypto works. I hate to admit it, but Peter Thiel was right when, in a 1999 speech predicting the rise of crypto politics, he said: “The people in DC are completely backwards, they don’t understand the technology and – even to the extent she cannot – it cannot be stopped.”

Of course, ignorance of a particular industry has never stopped members of Congress from carrying out their wishes. Within months, crypto has proven that it is powerful enough to buy the positions of politicians – either directly, through generous campaign contributions, or indirectly, by threatening to fund their opponents. There really is no stopping it, it seems.