Is it worth spending $1500 to join Network School?
Written by: June, Deep Tide TechFlow
Is spending $1500 to join Network School, an experimental community founded by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, just a tax on intelligence?
The author visited Network School located in Forest City, Malaysia, to find out.
Building a Network School in a Ghost Town
In August 2024, Balaji officially announced via Twitter that Network School would undergo a 90-day trial operation from September to December of the same year.
Balaji excitedly stated in a tweet: “Through the power of Bitcoin, we now have a beautiful little island near Singapore, where we are building Network School.”
This tweet quickly garnered widespread attention and discussion within the Web3 community, and Balaji's wording filled people with anticipation for this "beautiful little island." However, the reality is much more complex.
To be precise, Network School is located in Forest City, Johor, Malaysia, about a half-hour drive from the center of Johor Bahru.
Forest City is a large project developed by China's Country Garden, consisting of four artificial islands. However, as the real estate market has declined in recent years, this project in Malaysia has not been spared.
The city has even been referred to as a "ghost town" by the BBC, with numerous modern high-rises but few people, becoming an abandoned city. This is another reflection of the downturn in the real estate market and the difficulties faced by property companies.
Geographical Advantages
Undeniably, Forest City still has a significant geographical advantage.
It takes only about an hour to drive from Forest City to Singapore, and Network School provides dedicated round-trip transportation services for its members. On the other hand, it is separated from Singapore by a narrow strait, allowing for a relatively low cost of living. As an important international financial center and technology hub, many key activities and conferences in the crypto space are held in Singapore, providing excellent learning and networking opportunities for Network School members.
However, there is always a gap between ideals and reality.
Although the geographical location is advantageous, the convenience of daily life still needs significant improvement. Residents primarily rely on ride-hailing services like Grab to reach nearby city center areas, and public transportation infrastructure is relatively weak, which somewhat limits the activity range and convenience of community members.
This relatively isolated and desolate state also creates a unique atmosphere for the community.
Welcome to Network School
First-time visitors to Forest City may feel somewhat surprised by the scene before them.
Upon entering Forest City, one is greeted by a coexistence of modernity and desolation.
The lush greenery makes the area appear vibrant, contrasting sharply with the already closed shops. Each building's balcony is adorned with dense plants, just as its name "Forest City" suggests. Chinese elements are everywhere, with spicy hot pot restaurants, Chinese supermarkets, red lanterns, and familiar Chinese signage, making one feel as if they are in a small town in China. The empty streets and scattered shops are occasionally traversed by a few explorers who have come here from around the world.
For professionals in the Web3 field, this seemingly strange and stark contrast may not be unfamiliar.
Many people in China choose a "geographical arbitrage" lifestyle. For example, coding by the Erhai Lake in Dali, holding online meetings by the sea in Anaya, or maintaining remote work in Hegang at one-tenth the cost of a first-tier city.
The desolation of Forest City and the vibrancy of Network School resemble the Web3 industry itself: away from the mainstream view, a group of people is building something on the ruins.
The people gathered here mostly share similar trajectories: tired of the internal competition in traditional tech companies, believing in the future of Web3, and willing to exchange a lower cost of living for greater entrepreneurial freedom. They might attend Token2049 in Singapore and then return to this excessively quiet little island to continue coding.
This community, crafted by Balaji, is attempting to create an ideal Web3 utopia in the most unlikely of places.
Hello, welcome to Network School — an ideal city that is not defined by the mundane and is ambitiously trying to create a new era's Harvard.
Cost of Living and Accommodation Arrangements
The main community activities of Network School revolve around two locations: the community activity center and the hotel area.
The community activity center, located on the ground floor of an apartment, is equipped with meeting rooms and co-working spaces.
Network School's permanent base is situated in a seaside hotel, where short-term participants typically choose to stay in hotel rooms. Other public facilities, such as a gym, meeting rooms, a Network School-exclusive café, and a library, are all concentrated within the hotel.
In terms of living costs, the current monthly fee for a double room is $1500, covering accommodation, three meals a day, gym access, and participation in all courses. Network School remains open year-round, allowing participants to flexibly choose their length of stay based on their needs and plans.
Short-term participants, such as those planning to stay for just one month, will stay in well-equipped hotel rooms, while those opting for long-term residence will stay in better-equipped two-bedroom apartments, enjoying a more comfortable living space.
Regarding dining, the community provides complete three meals a day: breakfast and dinner are buffet-style, while lunch is provided in bento boxes. Notably, the community adopts a healthy eating plan promoted by Bryan Johnson (founder of Blueprint), focusing on nutritional balance and a healthy lifestyle.
The gym at Network School is also a highlight. It was built from scratch on the hotel's vacant land, equipped with various facilities, and members can also initiate fitness training activities independently.
The operational philosophy of Network School revolves around four core concepts: Learn, Burn, Earn, and Fun. A typical day here might look like this:
Morning: Wake up, exercise, breakfast following the Blueprint diet plan.
Morning: Head to the Co-working Space, each focusing on remote work.
Afternoon: Book club, Vibe Coding, discussions on the current state of AI, DeFi 101 courses, or freely arranged side projects.
Evening: Community dinner, spontaneously organized small events.
A Gathering Place for Dark Horses
“Many people see Network School and instinctively think it’s a school, but essentially it’s more like a community for like-minded Web3 individuals. There’s no fixed curriculum; learning is free,” Nikki explained.
Nikki (@nikkideyy) from the Philippines has been living here since June of this year, for a total of four months.
Network School does not have a course schedule or unified learning tasks. However, the community occasionally throws out interesting learning challenges, such as discovering technical vulnerabilities on websites or creating promotional content and shooting short videos. The "education" here resembles a continuous process of joint exploration.
According to Nikki, the current cohort has 270 people, making it the largest group to date. Network School has gone through two development phases: the first phase is a 90-day trial operation from September 23 to December 23, 2024.
The second phase will officially begin on March 1, 2025, known as "Society-as-a-Service," aiming to systematically train "social builders" and prepare for a future permanent campus.
“Some people are digital nomads, while others have moved their offices here, along with various accelerator and incubator projects, such as Solana Superteam and Monad Residency, which have made this their operational base.”
The Solana Superteam Singapore team conducted a six-week Ignition incubation residency at Network School from May to June, while Monad Founder Residency held a three-week residency program here in August.
For participants of Network School, the most important aspect is probably the community atmosphere. Living, learning, and communicating with like-minded individuals is the biggest highlight here. Nikki resonates with this, saying, “I am at a crossroads of wanting to create something and wanting to join something, and Network School has given me a perfect opportunity to explore what I truly want to do in the future.”
Her feelings also reflect the core value of Network School: it is a gathering place for Dark Talent, those who have not been accepted by traditional education systems but are eager to create the future. These talents possess innovative thinking and a spirit of practicality, but may be overlooked in mainstream systems due to their non-traditional backgrounds.
Different people utilize this platform in various ways. Some have moved their offices directly here, while others use it as a transitional stop to explore what to do next.
Network School is gradually becoming a crossroads for Web3 culture and entrepreneurship.
The View from the Presidential Suite
The hotel’s lounge has now become the activity center for Network School members. Nikki also took us to tour the presidential suite, which features the largest lounge. The hotel is located by the coast, and standing on the balcony, one can clearly see Singapore across the strait, as well as overlook the landscape of Forest City, with towering buildings in the distance and a large, well-planned residential area. However, it is regrettable that most of these buildings remain vacant.
View from the presidential suite, photo by the author
In this regard, Nikki candidly shared that she once went for a morning run with friends in the nearby residential area, only to find that most of the houses along the way were uninhabited. Nikki joked that what was supposed to be a routine running experience turned into a peculiar adventure.
In fact, the spectacular scenery of the location where Network School is situated is a unique selling point in itself. As one drives into Forest City, the sight of towering buildings lined up along the road, contrasting with the relatively flat terrain, is particularly striking. At the entrance of the hotel, a prominent sign for Network School is displayed, and upon entering the hotel lobby, one is greeted by the modern NS Cafe set in front of a large floor-to-ceiling window.
NS Cafe, located in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, offers members free coffee and drinking water.
Author's Postscript
Before setting out, I had already heard a bit about the story of Forest City. The most memorable was the widely circulated "ghost town" video on social media two years ago. In the video, Forest City appeared dilapidated and dark, with shop signs long gone, making the entire city look like a ghost town.
Because of this, I was very curious about the choice to establish Network School here.
As I drove into Forest City, the first thing that caught my eye was the row of towering buildings, resembling a scene from a movie. Upon entering Forest City, I first visited the community activity center located beneath the apartment building. The activity center's brand-new appearance seemed very out of place compared to the surrounding abandoned shops.
At that moment, I couldn't help but wonder, is this really what Network School is all about?
It wasn't until I arrived at the permanent hotel of Network School that my perspective completely changed. Upon entering the lobby, members were quietly working in the café, with a stunning blue sea view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. Nikki led me to tour the meeting rooms, dining area, library, yoga studio, and gym. All facilities are open to all members, and they can also independently establish clubs or organize sports activities.
Nikki, along with fellow Pudgy Penguin holders, established Pudgy NS and organized the Pudgy Party event.
Since moving in June, Nikki also mentioned that more and more shops have started to open recently. After the on-site visit, I found that Forest City is not as abandoned as the internet claims; it is not dirty or chaotic, with staff everywhere cleaning up leaves, security personnel guarding the buildings, and maintenance workers taking care of the facilities.
So, is it worth spending $1500 to join Network School?
Perhaps the answer does not lie in the high or low fee standard, but in whether you are willing to build a utopia of the digital age together with these "Dark Talents."
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
