Zcash and The Network State: Valocracy, Ipê City, and Private Money for New Societies
The Network State is no longer a book. It's a campus on an island near Singapore where 256 builders live and ship. It's a $25M seed round into Zcash's core wallet from Paradigm, a16z, and Balaji himself. It's a month-long pop-up city in Florianópolis where 500 builders from 10+ countries will prototype governance systems from scratch. And it's a question that nobody in crypto has answered well yet: if you're building a new society, what does the money look like?
Andre Froes and Casta (Rafael Castaneda) are answering that question. Casta is the author of the Valocracy Manifesto: a governance framework where political power is earned through contribution, not purchased with capital. Andre is a veteran startup investor and accelerator founder building the infrastructure to make it real. Together with Zcash Brazil, they're prototyping a system where ZEC (shielded, private, and fungible) serves as the economic layer beneath a new kind of governance where your voice grows with your work, and your money stays yours.
This session connects three live threads that are converging fast:
The idea: Valocracy splits economic power from governance power. You contribute effort, you earn governance weight. You get paid in ZEC. The two never collapse into each other which means whales can't buy elections, and contributors can't be surveilled. This only works if the money layer is private.
The manifestation: Ipê Village 2026 launches April 6 in Florianópolis (Brazil's largest pop-up city) with Zcash Brazil joining as an ecosystem partner. Andre will be there. This is where Valocracy gets tested with real people, real budgets, and real ZEC.
The players: Balaji just invested in ZODL. Zooko spoke at the Network State Conference. Zcash Brazil is partnering with Ipê City. The Zcash ecosystem and the network state movement are becoming the same conversation — and the people in this session are at the intersection.
Come with questions. This one's worth your Tuesday.
When: Tuesday, March 24 at 15:00 UTC Where: Zcash Discord Stage Recording: Available afterward via ZecHub / Zcash Brazil