Do you look at the possibility of political turbulence ahead of November’s US presidential election and think: democracy could be in trouble? So does a group of tech entrepreneurs backed by big Silicon Valley money. And they love it.
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00:00Do you look at the possibility of political turbulence ahead of November's US presidential
00:04election and think, democracy could be in trouble? So does a group of tech entrepreneurs backed by
00:11big Silicon Valley money. And they love it. Imagine if you could choose your citizenship
00:16the same way you choose your gym membership. That's a vision of the not-too-distant future
00:22put forward by Balaji Srinivasan. Balaji who, like Madonna, is mostly just known by his first
00:29name is a rock star in the world of crypto. A serial tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist
00:35who believes that pretty much everything governments currently do, tech can do better.
00:40I watched Balaji outline his idea last autumn, at a vast conference hall on the outskirts of
00:46Amsterdam. We start new companies like Google, we start new communities like Facebook, we start new
00:53currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, can we start new countries? He asked, as he ambled on stage,
01:00dressed in a slightly baggy grey suit and loose tie. He looked less like a rock star,
01:05more like a middle manager in a corporate accounts department. But don't be fooled,
01:11Balaji is a former partner at the giant Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
01:17He has backers with deep pockets.