Ipê News #10 - Digital Access Zone, California Forever, Brazil & Crypto, and more
Your weekly update on what is happening in the Startup Society ecosystem.
Hey builders! Welcome to our 10th edition of the Ipê News.
Every week, we’ll explore the most compelling concepts and projects emerging in the Network State space, from new communities and cities to innovative governance protocols and parallel institutions.
This time you can watch AI reviewing the Newsletter! Let us know if you like this format.
Subscribe for free to receive it weekly in your inbox and join our Discord Server.
🏘️ Community Updates
Highlights from Ipê City, partner communities, or aligned initiatives.
This week in Startup Cities Live, we explore our co-host Kim’s project, Onchain City, her journey into the space, and how bringing countries on-chain will accelerate the emergence of Network States.
We also saw Tools for the Commons launch its platform, bringing company incorporation to the digital era. Using the Digital Access Zone, you can now register, complete KYC, and issue invoices within minutes, from anywhere in the world, with crypto-fiat on- and off-ramps, all legally managed in Zanzibar.
The future of digital entrepreneurship is here. If you are a nomad, a crypto-native, or you’re simply always looking for the best tax jurisdiction for your company, you definitely want to keep an eye on their progress.
🏫 Learning section
A learning segment to upskill and be able to build the tools of the future.
We mentioned shielded transactions when we learned about Zcash, but did you know you can shield your votes, too? Encrypting the votes during the voting period guarantees no one can influence the votes, only showing who voted, but not how much or for what.
This is what Snapshot, the most popular DAO voting platform, implemented a few years ago with the support of Shutter Network, which is developing privacy solutions. They made an encrypted mempool system to avoid MEV attacks like front-running, currently only available on the Gnosis chain, but soon on Ethereum.
Shutter Network also offers an API, allowing any dApp to benefit from privacy tools, encrypting votes, trades, bids, bounty submissions, time-locked gifts, and more. You can try and test it by making an encrypted prediction.
🌐 Network Societies Update
A quick pulse on emerging cities, nomad groups, and experiments shaping the future of network societies.
California Forever is the name of a proposed city project in California, one hour north of Silicon Valley, in Solano County. Their ambitious plans include Solano Foundery, a massive manufacturing park, and Solano Shipyard, a shipbuilding hub. The downtown city will offer a walkable neighborhood for 400,000 people, with more than 175,000 houses for homeowners over the next 40 years.
Like any innovative project, it didn’t come without its share of controversies. However, the team persevered and managed to get the support from Suisun City, a small town looking to expand, and become part of their Suisun Expansion Project.
Keeping a third of the area for nature, greenways, and parks, the company is not planning for architecture yet; instead, they’re planning to design a parcel fabric to allow builders to co-create the city over time. Learn more about the founder’s vision here.
⚖️ Governance Tools
Exploring mechanisms for coordination, decision-making, and digital governance.
Brazil has been accelerating the digitization of its financial services, aiming to become one of the world’s leading fintech ecosystems. Recently, Valor Capital Group released a report on the Brazil Stack. highlights how the implementation of Pix, Open Finance, a unified digital ID system through gov.br, and early developments of blockchain-based financial infrastructure are preparing Brazil for digital governance.
The country has been working on tokenization and RWA for years, paving the way for digital assets, Stablecoins, and CBDCs. Further development will integrate programmable money, a.k.a smart contracts, and enable AI-driven automation, including agentic finance.
For the builders at the crossroads of crypto and AI, Brazil has 188 million internet users with a penetration of 87%, way above the world average. If you are building on-chain, consider joining us in March 2026 for Ipê Village on the magic island of Floripa.
🛠️ Web3 Tools
Tech shaping decentralized living, finance, and identity.
A16z’s latest State of Crypto report marks a turning point: crypto is mainstream. The total market cap passed $4 trillion, with over 700 million holders and 40–70 million active users transacting on-chain.
Major financial institutions, Visa, BlackRock, PayPal, JPMorgan, Stripe, and more, now operate crypto products, while stablecoins processed $46 trillion in annual transactions, rivaling Visa’s volume.
Emerging markets like Argentina, Nigeria, and India lead in wallet adoption, while the U.S. and South Korea dominate speculative activity. The report highlights Solana and Ethereum (including Base) as the most attractive to developers, and a growing convergence between AI and crypto.
They detail a lot of important topics we covered, from x402, to decentralized identity protocols. If you prefer to explore these numbers through visuals, check out the A16z dashboard.
🌍 Other Interesting News
Broader movements and stories from the frontier of digital-first governance and societies.
A new documentary about Ethereum and crypto hacks just got released worldwide, asking the interesting question of what happens if the code is really law when someone finds a vulnerability. Is it legal to hack?
In 2016, The DAO Hack created a precedent to actively revert the chain with a hard fork (now called Ethereum Classic), but since that time, nobody has ever considered it again. So is Code now Law?
The documentary isn’t free, and neither is Vitalik: an Ethereum Story, but both are available on paid plans with Apple TV and Amazon Prime. But if you’d like a free documentary about Ethereum, head to YouTube to watch Built on Ethereum.
💡 What is Ipê City?
A Techno-Optimist Community and Governance Lab
Ipê City is an innovative, techno-optimist community and social laboratory dedicated to exploring and experimenting with new ways of self-governing. It serves as a real-world testbed for decentralized and futuristic social models, blending technology, community, and governance in a unique way.
Reply to share your project, join the community, or let us know what you think
Join us:
Love this!
This article comes at the perfect time; it truly made me refelct on the complex future of digital comunities.