Balaji Srinivasan

@balaji-srinivasan · 25 positions · 0 changes of mind

Co-founder of Counsyl and of Earn.com; a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz from 2013 to 2018 and chief technology officer of Coinbase from 2018 to 2019. Wrote The Network State, which he publishes free and in full at thenetworkstate.com, and writes at balajis.com.

Balaji Srinivasan did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

12 Jul 2026

Our reading
New laws often get enacted the way untested code is pushed to production: unread, poorly monitored, slow to show results, and hard to opt out of.

Their wordsnew laws are like code that is pushed live to production without even being read (let alone tested), often in the face of tremendous opposition, affecting millions of citizens, with minimal monitoring to ensure they’re producing the desired results, an extremely slow customer feedback cycle, and few ways to truly opt out.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 1st of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Strong encryption limits what governments can do in ways that legislation cannot.

Their wordsEncryption thus limits governments in a way no legislation can.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 2nd of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
The Network is becoming the next Leviathan after God and the State, because on key dimensions it is growing more powerful and more just than the State.

Their wordsIn this sense, the Network is the next Leviathan, because on key dimensions it is becoming more powerful and more just than the State.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 3rd of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
The blockchain is the most important development in history since the invention of writing, because it is a cryptographically verifiable, highly replicated, unfalsifiable, complete digital record.

Their wordsAs incredible as it may sound, the blockchain is the most important development in history since the advent of writing itself, as it’s a cryptographically verifiable, highly replicated, unfalsifiable, and provably complete digital record of a system.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 4th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Private networks like Uber, Lyft, email and SpaceX already outperform their state counterparts — taxi medallions, the USPS and NASA.

Their wordsAs mentioned before, Uber and Lyft are better regulators than the State’s paper-based taxi medallions, email is superior to the USPS, and SpaceX is out-executing NASA.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 5th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
The US establishment is not more ethical than the CCP on civil liberties, it is just less competent at exercising the same kind of power.

Their wordsthe US establishment is not more ethical than the CCP when it comes to civil liberties. It’s just less competent!

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 6th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
It is hard to name a country that is better off after a recent US military intervention.

Their wordseven the most committed American nationalist is hard pressed to name a country that’s better off after a recent US military intervention, something that wasn’t that hard to do from 1945-1991.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 7th of 25 in this piece

America
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Before the internet, most Americans had no practical freedom of speech unless they owned or worked for a media corporation.

Their wordsthe vast majority of Americans had no practical freedom of speech unless they owned a media corporation or were employed by one.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 8th of 25 in this piece

America
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Technology cannot let people escape politics, because politics arises from the existence of people who disagree with each other.

Their wordsUnfortunately, no, because politics is about people who disagree with you. If you’re working with computers, or robots, or pure math, you don’t have politics.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 9th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Producing moral, not just technological, progress requires introducing new moral premises that invert what people previously believed.

Their wordsIf you want to produce moral and not just technological progress, you’re going to have to introduce new moral premises that invert what people previously believed.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 10th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
The primary global political axis has shifted from capitalism-versus-communism to ethnomasochism-versus-ethnonationalism.

Their wordsThe primary axis is no longer the politico-economic axis of capitalism-vs-communism, but the ethno-cultural axis of ethnomasochism-vs-ethnonationalism.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 11th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
The world today is dividing into three poles: the American establishment, the Chinese Communist Party, and the global Bitcoin/crypto network.

Their wordsToday's world is becoming tripolar. It is NYT vs CCP vs BTC. That's the American Establishment vs the Communist Party of China vs the Global Internet.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 12th of 25 in this piece

crypto China America
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Establishment journalists claim to speak truth to power but never investigate themselves or each other.

Their wordsThe establishment journalist claims to speak truth to power, but somehow never gets around to investigating themselves or each other.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 13th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Bitcoin creates more upside and downside than traditional money because it makes users power users with no system administrator to fall back on.

Their wordsAnother example is Bitcoin. It’s the Unix of money. You can send millions with a keystroke or rm your entire fortune. That’s more upside and more downside, by making people power users, and taking away the system administrator.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 14th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin are substantially more capable than the officials at institutions like the Federal Reserve, a fact the US establishment fails to recognize.

Their wordsJust like Hollywood once compared Netflix to the Albanian Army, the US establishment doesn’t yet understand how much better Satoshi Nakamoto or Vitalik Buterin is than every apparatchik they have in the Federal Reserve system.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 15th of 25 in this piece

interest rates
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Most institutions that predate the internet will not survive it.

Their wordsFew institutions that predated the internet will survive the internet.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 16th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
The US federal government has lost the capacity to build basic infrastructure, let alone advanced military hardware.

Their wordsThis US government can’t build a bathroom in San Francisco, let alone a costeffective fighter jet, destroyer, combat ship, or aircraft carrier.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 17th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
The Bitcoin Maximalist premise that Bitcoin is the only legitimate coin and all other digital assets are illegitimate is mistaken.

Their wordsI disagree with the fundamental moral premise of Maximalism, which is that Bitcoin is the only coin and all other digital assets are sins.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 18th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Two-sided marketplaces show that not all economically relevant knowledge is local, contrary to Hayek's calculation argument.

Their wordsIf you run a two-sided marketplace, you’ll find contra Hayek that not all knowledge is local.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 19th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Micronations like Sealand fail because they start from territory and government rather than building outward from a people and shared culture.

Their wordsThis gives us a new perspective on why micronations like Sealand don’t work: they start backwards, from the territory and the government, rather than working forwards from a people and their culture.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 20th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Movements built around a shared moral cause outcompete purely profit-driven ones, in practice as well as in theory.

Their wordsmissionary societies outcompete mercenary ones, not just in theory but in practice.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 21st of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
A government is legitimate internally if the governed have consented to it, whatever form it takes.

Their wordsGiven the consent of the governed, any form of government is internally legitimate.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 22nd of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Digital finance has become a weapon of war, as shown by the financial deplatforming of groups like Canadian truckers and Russians.

Their wordsAfter the financial deplatforming of Western proles and foreign elites, of Canadian truckers and 145M Russians, it’s clear that digital finance is a weapon of war.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 23rd of 25 in this piece

Russia
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
An organization that demands trust ends up with less of it than one that shows its work instead.

Their wordsParadoxically, the organization that demands trust can get less of it, while the organization that shows their work - thereby not asking for trust - builds up more of it.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 24th of 25 in this piece
12 Jul 2026

Our reading
Law is tied to geographic location, so the ability to easily change one's location is the ability to change which laws one lives under.

Their wordsLaw is a function of latitude and longitude, so if you can easily change your latitude and longitude, you can change the law under which you live.

↗The Network Statethenetworkstate.com 25th of 25 in this piece