Balaji Srinivasan

Principles are our summary of their public statements.

• Leverage Decentralized Identity

  Technology

  The blockchain acts as a public users table, allowing developers to build applications without being siloed by Big Tech's gatekeeping.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source The Billion User Table, 2021  (opens in a new tab)

• Leverage Spatial Affordances

  Product

  Design interfaces that use intuitive spatial relationships to suggest how they should be used, mimicking real-world navigation.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Spatial Interfaces, 2021  (opens in a new tab)

• Borrow UX from Gaming

  Creativity

  Look to gaming for advanced spatial environments and interaction models that can be applied to non-game business applications.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Spatial Interfaces, 2021  (opens in a new tab)

• Identify Ascending Pockets

  Strategy

  Focus on regions or projects that are pushing technology forward, regardless of their country's overall economic status.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source The Ascending World, 2021  (opens in a new tab)

• Decentralize through technology

  Strategy

  Use tools like blockchain and remote work platforms to bypass geographic constraints like high rents and the need for physical proximity to investors.

  Supporting quotes

  • “the blockchain has not just made it much easier to start your own currency in your drawing room; it has also made it much more easy to start your own marketplace.”

    “in open source, bugs are expected. Reproducibility is a function of your ability to execute the source code. Everything is fundamentally transparent because it's all published.”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Telepresence as Economic Arbitrage

  Strategy

  Advancements in robotics and VR will enable workers to sell their labor in high-wage jurisdictions without needing to physically immigrate.

  Supporting quotes

  • “I think that, on balance, it's more upside, more downside, like everything technology is doing. That's my one-liner for the future: more upside, more downside.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Solve Shared Problems First

  Marketing

  Before proposing a radical solution, ensure there is agreement on the underlying problem statement to avoid being seen as eccentric or causeless.

  Supporting quotes

  • “The only reason I did Network School is as a prototype of a startup society, to prove out the concept, and enable hundreds of other startup societies to follow that template.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Digital First Physical Later

  Strategy

  Start by building a networked community online to establish a base before investing in expensive physical infrastructure.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Synthesis, 2022  (opens in a new tab)

• The Mobility of Everything

  Technology

  As infrastructure and services become computerized and on-demand, individuals can relocate without losing access to their work or social networks.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Software Is Reorganizing The World, 2013  (opens in a new tab)

• Leverage Low-Friction Tools

  Productivity

  Use environments that eliminate setup time to focus entirely on creation and problem-solving.

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Replit Discord, 2021  (opens in a new tab)

• Use blockchains for shared state

  Technology

  Blockchains are superior for applications requiring shared state between multiple economic actors who need to trust the data's integrity.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Yes You May Need A Blockchain, 2019  (opens in a new tab)

• Recognize the sovereign debt trap

  Risk

  Understand that governments may eventually treat private household assets as collateral to pay off uncontrollable national debt.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source All It Takes Is All You Got, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Look for scalable fundamentals

  Technology

  When evaluating solutions for massive problems, prioritize technologies that have a proven track record of safety and the physical capacity to scale.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Nuclear, 2021  (opens in a new tab)

• Incentivize Early Adopters

  Marketing

  Use token issuance to turn early customers into stakeholders and evangelists, accelerating the path to product-market fit.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Crypto In The 2020s  (opens in a new tab)

• Centralized vs Decentralized Cycles

  Competition

  Markets often partition into a premium centralized player and a more open, decentralized alternative; businesses should choose their side based on the incumbent's position.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Going Meta, 2023  (opens in a new tab)

• Acknowledge technical reality

  Technology

  Understand that digital assets based on math and distributed networks cannot be seized or stopped without destroying all communication infrastructure.

  Supporting quotes

  • “Bad actors would not obey a ban, people with the means to do so would move themselves or their money abroad”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Leverage Decentralized Infrastructure

  Technology

  Founders should utilize decentralized networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum to bypass legacy systems that impose unfair costs on users.

  Supporting quotes

  • “Crypto remittances have been talked about as an answer to this problem for most of the last decade. The idea was interesting but always premised on global crypto adoption. Over the past few years, it has actually begun to work.”

    “Banks and other institutions that act as critical nodes in the international payments network are perfectly positioned to collect fat tolls on all that remittance money, and they exploit that position to the fullest.”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Incentivize Education for Ecosystem Growth

  Marketing

  Offer financial rewards for high-quality tutorials to lower the barrier to entry for new developers and improve the platform's documentation.

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Solana, 2021  (opens in a new tab)

• Anticipate Platform Resistance

  Technology

  When building products that rely on third-party data, expect those platforms to actively block or mislead your collection efforts.

  Supporting quotes

  • “If enough of the right people believe that inflation is going to happen, it will.”

    “The ultimate version of the smart contract would allow you to pick some weighted basket of goods to get a personal inflation calculator.”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• True Digitality Means Portability

  Technology

  A currency is only truly digital if it can be downloaded, held locally on a device, and transferred peer-to-peer without a corporate interface.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Add Crypto To Indiastack, 2021  (opens in a new tab)