Bitcoin News Australia

After a long day of doomscrolling, who among us hasn’t texted the group chat to propose starting a commune off the grid?

While we might be all talk, some movers and shakers are actually making their dreams a reality. Or, at least, they’re trying:

• Serial entrepreneur and VC Balaji Srinivasan thinks society should found new countries — or “network states” — the way it does tech startups, per BBC.
• Network states would start the way most online tech communities do, around shared interests, before acquiring IRL land and implementing laws.
• While Srinivasan says network states could exist among real states for now, the final frontier would be replacing the government altogether.

If you’re packing your bags…

… Hold on a second. Plenty of eccentric billionaires are working on similar concepts — you might as well do your homework:

• Neom, the $500B desert utopia headed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, includes a ~106-mile-long city called The Line. The city’s original goal of having 1.5m residents by 2030 has been reduced to ~300k, as the project faces ongoing human rights concerns.
• The East Solano Plan backed by California Forever, a company composed of tech billionaires, aims to build a walkable city for up to 400k people on a stretch of farmland ~60 miles outside San Francisco.
• Elon Musk has allegedly purchased thousands of acres of Texas farmland to build his own town, Snailbrook.
• Billionaire Marc Lore wants to build Telosa, a “15-minute city” in the middle of the desert that would house 5m residents by 2050 in eco-friendly structures.

Notice that none of these cities of the future have become cities of the present? Good eye.

Turns out, building an entire city — or country — from scratch isn’t the easiest job, and has plenty of obstacles.

We’re holding out for whichever community normalizes nap time for adults and three-day weekends.

~800 miles: How far Rayne Beau, a cat, traveled to return to owners Benny and Susanne Anguiano in a real Homeward Bound tale. The couple lost the cat while camping in Yellowstone after it was startled by a sound. Two months later, he showed up on the streets of Roseville, California, where his microchip notified his owners. It’s unclear how Rayne Beau completed his epic journey, but he’s now safe at home.

$3.2B: Value added to Major League Soccer teams following star player Lionel Messi’s 2023 transfer from Paris Saint-Germain to Inter Miami, now the most popular American sports team on social media. But for how long? Messi, at 37, is past the typical retirement age for his profession, and his contract expires next year, per Bloomberg.

60+: Music festivals canceled in the UK alone this year, a trend spotted across the US, Australia, and elsewhere in Europe. NPR notes the obvious: skyrocketing production costs, slumping demand, and oversaturation. Yet another theory involves a changing youth: Unlike generations who’ve aged out of their fest-going days, Gen Z isn’t nearly as into drinking, drugs, or sex, and is too anxious and isolated in a post-pandemic world to go out.

$2.2B: How much the National Association of Theatre Owners reports its members across North America plan to invest in theater upgrades this year. Buoyed by box office successes like Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine, theater owners are looking to update things like concessions and sound systems, and add experiences like arcades and bowling. NATO (no relation to the intergovernmental org) represents the eight largest movie theater chains in the US and Canada, and its plan would refresh ~70% of North America’s screens.