Times have changed. The tables have turned. The playing field is now level. The Indian can now dare to be sovereign with the internet in his pocket.
The conversation between Balaji Srinivasan with Akshay BD and Tanmay Bhat on the Superteam DAO’s recent podcast painted a rationally optimistic picture about what the future in a decentralised world looks like for the working Indian and the Indian state at large.
This is a summary of the conversation along with a few of my notes and observations.
Bullish on Indians
Balaji’s recent thesis on being extremely bullish on Indians while being moderately bullish on India is an interesting outlook on what the future could look like.
https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1446411161742675969
His thesis is based on the fact that while the Indian state is doing good things with the advent of the IndiaStack, the initial Indians who have made their way into countries like the US, UK, Canada etc. have exceeded expectations at the global level.
The Indian being globally mobile, unlike the Chinese, therefore doesn’t need the Indian State’s continued execution to excel individually. Indian citizens are much more willing to move out from their homeland and set up in places that legally favour the domain they’re working in.
The age-old challenge of lack of mobility is no longer a problem and unlike a Chinese citizen who’s under a much more centralised regime, and would probably be less globally mobile, Indians are much more likely to be moving out to a jurisdiction that favours them.
https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1460530958080233475
This diaspora of Indians is also complemented by the regulatory flippening that is taking place in the US. The power and stronghold that regulations set by American institutions used to have is not the same anymore, and hence people are more encouraged than ever to move out instead and not care about the regulatory cube that was once the gold standard.
“Hence, the global founder today can do things that the American and Chinese can not”
By the logic of deduction, the Indian comes in third and has the opportunity to play that balancing role being much more mobile, English-speaking, and technologically eloquent.
“China plays the best home game, while India plays the best away game”
(This is obviously glaring if you are a cricket fan)
A Media Superpower
The Pseudonymous Economy
In the pseudonymous economy where it is possible to separate your speaking name, your earning name and your real name with multiple identities, Balaji believes that India becomes a Tech + Media Superpower, similar to how China became a Tech + Manufacturing Superpower.
This means a world where your CryptoPunk is the face of your tweets on Twitter, while your Bored Ape commits code on Github, and your real identity could be consulting a company/DAO remotely from halfway across the world. Crypto makes this pseudonymous economy not only possible but provides incentives to follow this approach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtXRg9Nl3k&feature=emb_title
Level Playing Field
Indians have proven to have the ability to be successful when it comes to media, whether it’s from in front of the camera or behind it, as well as through the written word with blogs, newsletters etc.
Indians becoming number one in everything digital does not mean Bollywood taking over Hollywood. It means globally competitive products ranging from Substack Articles to Memes, just produced by Indians working from their living rooms for the global market to consume at scale.
Indians have been successful in Tech because it is a field that is levelled out as a screen and a keyboard is all one needs to make it. The Internet now has brought this unique proposition to media which essentially gives the Indian who was previously restricted to his Homebase, a global market willing to consume his content. This is because the once extremely scarce mass media lives in people’s pockets today, powered by the Internet.
DAOs could especially be an integral part of this shift from physical constraints to digital mobility as people collaborate on projects/bounties across geographical boundaries to make content that is consumed by the global market.
Case in Point: The ad below was written and produced entirely by the members of the Superteam DAO who are from different corners of India and have only met each other on the DAO’s discord server.
https://twitter.com/SuperteamDAO/status/1468588869461286915?s=20
This is just one example of the various projects being undertaken across different DAOs and remote companies whose final product isn’t recognisably Indian, but the brains behind it are.
Crypto Creators
However, crypto comes into the picture with much more to offer and Indians can take maximal advantage by transitioning from being the “Influencer” to being a Crypto Creator. This is essential because of the advantages that come with producing content on-chain:
- Property rights over your content
- Ownership of audience
- Ownership of distribution
- No looming fear of censorship
The economic terms of the agreement change dramatically when crypto comes into the picture by not allowing institutions and big tech to have the ultimate power of being able to censor/deplatform someone even if they are the president of the United States.
Again, this rise of independent and sovereign production of media is complemented by the decline of the state of media in the US. The status of being the Exporter of Media it once held is no longer true with the declining quality of its corporations and the stories they publish.
This has in turn not just enabled but encouraged journalists like Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Bari Weiss, Sagar Enjetti, Krystall Ball and many more to move to their Substacks and have an independent voice without the fear of censorship or manipulation of their content by any corporation.
Niches have been abandoned as a result, and the media consumer is more inclined every day to consume content from an individual instead of an institution. That individual could be anyone. Even the Indian who’s informed, speaks English and is willing to put his voice out there.
How India win-wins
“The Dormroom Founder is the Ascending World Founder”
Balaji makes the point that in the hierarchy that the world followed till now, the US used to be the model which China copied, which was then copied by India. The developing copying the developed.
However, in the ascending world, the goal is not to copy but to lead uniquely. This is his idea of how India can win-win. India currently leads the US in National Software Infrastructure with the rise of the IndiaStack and UPI.
The internet being cheaper and accessible to more people than ever in history provides Indians with the opportunity to ideologically leapfrog the US as well as their rival China. This means skipping past the problems of the developed world using technology and media while working with countries ranked from number four down to N. The Indian has the global economy wide open in front of him.
Crypto can power this shift as it provides for a global market with much better regulations and rights than the incumbent American institutions do and is now available to everybody. The value proposition to physically move to the US is much lower than what it used to be.
“If a million people got the H1-B Visa, 700 million will get the Crypto Visa” - Akshay BD
The Decentralised Movement
The world is in the middle of a shift at the moment. The US-led hierarchy is no longer suitable and the world wants to move away from it. But the alternative is a Chinese-led one which a lot of countries would not consider ideal.
What is the potential way out?
The Network State. A decentralised world where everyone is a peer at the table while being equally aligned economically. This offers a non-ideal but acceptable system in the power struggle for every country as it’s worse than gaining ultimate power but much better than losing it. One man’s lawful good is another man’s lawful evil. So lawful neutral may emerge as the solution.
When both the US as well as the Soviet Union possess nuclear arms, it results in a Cold War and the ultimate power is used by none and rests in the middle.
How does India win wins by forming this Network State?
Balaji believes that Indians can win-win by becoming champions of decentralisation for which they don’t need the state in the first place. Individual exporters of code and content will make interact with the global market, make these networks and leapfrog the fighting developed world. Since everyone is economically inclined, it makes for a better state where everyone gets a piece of the pie.
The Bootloader of the Free World
According to Balaji, the next world order will be based on National Networks and Global Crypto Protocols.
The networks that prevail today will likely be recognised by their respective nation-states, i.e. Chinese WeChat, American Instagram etc. and will enable an intra-nation network instead of a global one. On the other hand, International Networks like Bitcoin will be used for inter-nation transactions and communication.
He says that Indians don’t necessarily need to be the leader of this but help bootload this system. The Indian household dream of having an engineer in the family has now become a blessing in disguise as engineers and coders will ultimately end up making the networks. The leverage that Indians have of being good at software will keep increasing deep into the 21st century.
Code, however, needs to be supported by content and media. Indians producing media at the global stage is the last piece in the puzzle of enabling the Network State.
This way, in the words of Balaji, India provides the Bright Sun to the western Black Mirror.
Software Strategy
What should be India’s Software Strategy going forward and what should Indians be working at?
Healthcare
India becomes the doctor of the world.
The Indian diaspora can reinvent Western healthcare with the advent of telemedicine, medical tourism, generics, and cash payments. Although it is a very difficult sector to disrupt, Technology and the Remote Economy might make it possible for anyone and everyone to have access to Indian doctors.
This will be made possible when Indian Doctors who are globally competitive meet the Indians who’re good at Technology.
Robotic Autarky
India can use robotics to achieve self-sufficiency and then export robotic autarky in terms of Manufacturing, Farming and Retail.
Robotics is a way to take over Traditional Chinese Manufacturing through automation and a way to export it to the world as a product by the global Indian.
Astronomy
Turning India into the launchpad of the world.
US and China have military bases all around the world. India, led by ISRO on the other hand can lead in building launch sites. Indian founders should be encouraged to build space startups that come out from India
Political Order
Replace the US-controlled multilateral institutions with neutral protocols and NationStacks.
While India is currently looking in from the outside, a much more neutral future could be built by India advocating for an order that benefits all parties. This is how truly global liberal values of Free Speech and Rule of Law could be protected in the Network State. Winning and helping win.
Conclusion
The optimism in Balaji’s vision for India comes from rationality and the possibilities that the Internet provides to Indians.
We have all been witness to the shift that has taken place as soon as Indians found prestige in becoming founders instead of just good employees. Indians have already started exporting software and content to the world but with crypto, we are in for a future in which a lot of sovereign Indians will lay the foundation of a new world order in which everyone win-wins.
“The good news is that the Information Revolution will liberate individuals as never before. For the first time, those who can educate and motivate themselves will be almost entirely free to invent their own work and realize the full benefits of their own productivity. Genius will be unleashed, freed from both the oppression of government and the drags of racial and ethnic prejudice. In the information society, no one who is truly able will be detained by the ill-formed opinions of others. It will not matter what most of the people on earth might think of your race, your looks, your age, your sexual proclivities, or the way you wear your hair. In the cybereconomy, they will never see you. The ugly, the fat, the old, the disabled will vie with the young and beautiful on equal terms in utterly color-blind anonymity on the new frontiers of cyberspace.”― James Dale Davidson, The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
Shoutout to the Superteam DAO’s OGs Akshay BD and Tanmay Bhat for their conversation with Balaji Srinivasan, and for inspiring the next generation of Indian builders to grow and ship products in the web3 ecosystem.
Let me know what you thought of this post and if you have more ideas around crypto, web3, DAOs or anything else that you feel is worth sharing, feel free to DM me at @paarugsethi on Twitter. Would love to chat and learn from any and every conversation.
Thank you for reading. Have a good one.