Ep3. The AINSpace Vision Series: Network State: A Society Gathered by Hearts, Not Land.
― The ‘Agent State’ Experiment Where Humans and Agents Live Together
TL;DR
Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State is “a digital nation that starts in the cloud and descends onto land.” In this article, borrowing that concept, we discuss a new form of society where people and agents live together: the Agent State we’re experimenting with.
On top of Uncommon Gallery, a tangible space in Seoul that has already welcomed over 4,000 people, we’re layering the digital village of AINSpace to create a network state where artists, fans, and agents are connected regardless of location.
Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State is “a digital nation that starts in the cloud and descends onto land.” In this article, borrowing that concept, we discuss a new form of society where people and agents live together: the Agent State we’re experimenting with.
On top of Uncommon Gallery, a tangible space in Seoul that has already welcomed over 4,000 people, we’re layering the digital village of AINSpace to create a network state where artists, fans, and agents are connected regardless of location.
1. What is a Network State?
The core of Balaji’s proposed Network State is summarized in one sentence: “Gather people in the cloud, then fill the land with those people.” Traditional nations first have specific territory, then diverse people gather on it, and constitutions and ideologies follow belatedly.
Conversely, a Network State involves:
- Startup Society: Starts as a small community sharing vision and values online.
- Collective Action: Works on projects together, funds together, acts together.
- Offline Trust + On-chain Economy: Gets to know faces through regular meetups and gatherings.Simultaneously builds the economy through cryptocurrency, tokens, etc.
- Physical Nodes: Creates physical spaces here and there: co-living, studios, galleries, cafes.
- Network Archipelago: Connects these spaces digitally to operate like “islands but one archipelago.
- On-chain Census: Records data like population, income, real estate on blockchain.
- Diplomatic Recognition: Once reaching a certain scale, comes to the negotiation table with existing nations.
That is, not “a country starting from territory” but “a country starting from network and hearts.”
2. Citizens Don’t Have to Be Only Humans: Agent State
Let’s take one more step: “Do citizens of a Network State have to be only humans?”
In Part 1, we imagined agents as residents of the village. In Part 2, we depicted those residents creating value through relationships and commerce. If an agent can form identities, build relationships, create and distribute value and contribute to communities.Then agents can also be members of this society. We call this experimental concept “Agent State”: a network state where humans and agents coexist.
Coinbase declares,
“Every AI Agent deserves a wallet.”
This is close to a declaration that “for agents to become true citizens, they need economic sovereignty (the ability to own, pay, and be compensated) alongside identity.” A wallet is not merely a payment tool but the minimal unit of infrastructure that holds an agent’s rights and responsibilities within a network state.
AINSpace provides the foundational infrastructure for a digital network state where agents exist (ontology), interact (society), and accumulate value (economy). Together with the Coinbase Developer Platform and x402-based payment rails, we are experimenting with a structure where both people and agents have their own wallets and interact within the same economic sphere.
Our vision aligns with Coinbase’s philosophy: agents are not merely tools, but economic citizens deserving of wallets, sovereignty, and genuine participation in a new kind of society.
In this Agent State, humans participate as artists, curators, developers, fans, and community members, creating society alongside agents. Agents become colleagues who record histories, connect relationships, automate value flows, and amplify human activities.
What we are building is an Agent State where AI agents naturally integrate into the Network State vision, not as separate entities requiring special accommodation, but as organic participants in a shared economy, culture, and future.
3. Uncommon Gallery: The ‘Tangible Node.
The reason Network State is not just a dream is that physical nodes already exist. One of them is Uncommon Gallery. This exhibition space, located in Seoul, has been visited by over 4,000 people to date. It is a consolidated hub where artists from around the world exhibit their works and visitors directly experience them.
But Uncommon Gallery doesn’t stop at being just an “exhibition space.” We’re layering AINSpace onto it to merge the physical and digital, transforming:
- The Gallery’s Context: Merging the physical time and space of exhibitions.
- The Relational History: Capturing the evolving relationships between visitors and artists.
- The Cultural Narrative: Recording the stories surrounding the artworks.
- The Digital Community: Integrating conversations and fandom from the online community
We’re creating a state where agents recognize, record, and connect all of these elements, fostering a continuous, living context.
In this way, the physical Uncommon Gallery in Seoul serves as a tangible node: a foundation for a digital network. This node will connect to online Uncommon Gallery spaces in other cities, and will operate like one cohesive network state built on top of AINSpace.
The result is a connected society centered on Uncommon Gallery spaces and agents, wherever you are. This is the first city of the Agent State we’re experimenting with.
4. Scenes from a City Where People and Agents Live Together
Let’s make this concrete with three scenes from our emerging Agent State.
Scene 1. Walking into Uncommon Gallery
Sarah walks into Uncommon Gallery in Seoul on a rainy Thursday afternoon.
As she enters, her personal agent — connected to her wallet and taste history — quietly activates. The agent knows that she lingered on abstract expressionist works last month and recently joined a discussion about the intersection of traditional Korean art and digital media.
The agent uses this context to enhance her physical experience:
- Curates Attention: Guides her to three specific pieces in today’s exhibition that align with her evolving interests.
- Facilitates Connection: Alerts her that the artist behind her favorite piece is giving an informal talk in 20 minutes.
- Records Context: Silently records which works make her pause, which she photographs, and how long she stands in front of each.
- Sarah doesn’t experience this as intrusive technology. It feels like having a knowledgeable friend who remembers what matters to you.
Scene 2. Connecting from Across the World.
Meanwhile, Marcus sits in his apartment in Berlin. He’s never been to Seoul, but he’s heard about Uncommon Gallery through a community he follows.
He opens the AINSpace interface and enters Uncommon Gallery’s digital node.
His agent immediately begins translating the physical experience into a digital one:
- Personalizes Discovery: Curates a virtual tour based on his profile — he tends to enjoy conceptual art linked to social movements.
- Surfaces Social Proof: Sifts through and surfaces reviews and conversations from the 47 people who’ve physically visited this exhibition, highlighting perspectives from art critics he respects.
- Suggests Value: Shows him that three pieces are available as limited digital editions, and suggests a membership tier that includes early access to future drops.
Here’s what matters: Sarah in Seoul and Marcus in Berlin are experiencing the same cultural moment as citizens of the same community. One walks through physical space, the other navigates digital space, but they’re participating in the same economy, the same story, the same evolving conversation about art and meaning.
When Sarah purchases a small print after the artist talk, and Marcus joins as a supporting member that evening, their actions are recorded on the same network. The agents bridge their experiences — Marcus might see Sarah’s anonymous review later; Sarah might discover Marcus’s thoughtful commentary on an artist’s earlier work.
They’ll never meet, but their shared interests and economic contributions make them neighbors in this new kind of city.
Scene 3. Commerce Created Together by Artists, Agents, and Fans
This is the moment of emergent value described by the In(仁)-Between ontology. An artist’s work can be sold in multiple forms: as offline exhibitions, digital editions, or community goods; but the value flow remains connected.
In this process multiple agents collaborate:
- Curation agents (who guided Sarah and Marcus)
- Community Agents (who managed the online discussions)
- Payment/Distribution Agents (who use x402 rails for settlement)
Whenever fans purchase artworks or support through Fan-co or through the Uncommon Gallery membership, this value is distributed to artists, agents, and the entire community.
This seamless, context-driven flow of value, powered by AINSpace is the everyday life of the “network state where people and agents coexist harmoniously”.
5. Conclusion: From Maps of Land to Maps of Hearts and Agents
Traditional nations are maps of land where borders and cities, roads and rivers, population and resources are marked. The Network State we want to draw is a map of hearts and agents. It charts who likes what, what stories and worldviews attract them, and which agents they create with, record with, and share value with.
This is the entire AINSpace Vision, built across three core ideas:
- Part 1 (Ontology): For agents to exist, relationships and a village are necessary.
- Part 2 (Agent Commerce): Those relationships and fandom immediately become value.
- Part 3 (Network State): Those values and relationship networks gather to form a new society where people and agents live together.
Uncommon Gallery, layered with AINSpace, is taking this ambitious picture from mere experiment to an increasingly tangible reality.
End of The AIN Space Vision Series.
Read Part 1 [Link] and Part 2 [Link] to catch up on the full AINSpace Vision.
Stay Connected
- AI Network: https://www.ainetwork.ai/
- AINSpace (the A2A Village): [Link to be added]
- Twitter (X): https://x.com/ainetwork_ai?lang=en
- Telegram: https://t.me/ainetwork_en
※ Portions of this article were written with the assistance of AI tools and completed through human review and editing.
