Web3 Sovereign Stack for Network Nations
Discussion
Primavera de Filippi and Felix Beer:
" The flourishing of Network Nations hinges on developing robust self-sovereign infrastructure that enables these communities to coordinate effectively while maintaining independence from both state control and corporate capture. This is where Web3 technologies play a crucial role: as the building blocks for new infrastructural systems that are collectively owned, transparently governed, and resistant to external control, they offer a practical pathway toward self-determination in the digital age.
Web3 is a term used to refer to a wide variety of open-source, permissionless, and decentralized technologies—ranging from blockchain networks to peer-to-peer protocols, distributed file storage, and verifiable identity frameworks. Together, these tools provide the necessary foundation for programmable governance architectures that are privacy-preserving, censorship-resistant and transparency-enhancing. In doing so, Web3 technologies have the potential to power self-sovereign networks that can operate independently from centralized intermediaries (De Filippi et al., 2024).
For Network Nations, Web3 is not just a toolkit—it is a precondition for functional sovereignty. By leveraging these technologies, they can make collective decisions, manage shared resources, and coordinate actions across jurisdictions—with minimal external interference. In this way, Web3 empowers the creation of a new generation of borderless social, economic, and political institutions that are rooted in voluntary association and shared accountability.
Moreover, Web3 technologies make it possible for Network Nations to develop, manage and fund shared resources—or commons (Ostrom, 2005)—in ways that go beyond the constraints of both markets and nation-states. Mechanisms such as blockchain-based tokenization, programmable incentives, and protocol-based governance enable the design of new forms of value creation, while ensuring that the value generated can be transparently and equitably redirected toward public goods—such as open-source software, community services, or knowledge repositories. Network Nations can utilise these programmable mechanisms to encode commons-based governance systems directly into their infrastructure, automating access controls, contribution logistics, and dispute resolution (Bennett, 2025).
At the same time, Network Nations should regard their Web3 stack as a commons in its own right. Every layer of the stack—from consensus mechanisms to user-facing applications—constitutes shared infrastructure that is essential to their community’s capacity for self-governance (Li & Chen, 2024). Indeed, if these foundational protocols were governed opaquely by centralized actors or captured by rent-seeking actors, Network Nations would risk losing the very sovereignty they aspire to establish. Collective stewardship of this stack is therefore not optional, but foundational to their long-term autonomy, legitimacy and resilience.
A key advantage of Web3 infrastructure is its modularity. The stack is composed of interoperable layers—settlement, execution, data, identity—each of which can be independently swapped, upgraded, or forked (Schneider et al., 2021). This flexibility and adaptability ensure that Network Nations are not locked into static technical systems but can remain responsive to their communities’ evolving needs, values and circumstances.
However, infrastructure alone is not enough. While Web3 tools are essential, they do not guarantee the emergence of legitimate or enduring Network Nations. True self-determination also depends on a community’s ability to cultivate collective identity, uphold legitimate governance, and sustain resilient institutions. Technology provides the scaffolding—but social cohesion and political agency remain the foundation (De Filippi et al., 2024).
The Web3 stack serves as the enabling substrate for Network Nations. Its contributions align with the three core pillars of any sovereign system."