Lessons in Permanence from Network School

With intertwined philosophical and practical ancestries, Zuzalu and Network School have much overlap; if I had to put it in one sentence: techno-optimistic intentional communities experimenting with building parallel systems, with heavy focuses on cryptographic and decentralized technologies (and often health).

Zuzalu began with an ephemeral 2-month experiment in 2023, and since then has had dozens if not hundreds of subsequent "pop-up" city experiments around the world. It is by no means a monolith, and my experience is colored by the fraction that I participated in or organized.

Network School distinguishes itself most in its permanence. It opened in September 2024 for three months, re-opened in March 2025 and has been open ever since, now over a year in operation.

Most of the Zuzalu residencies continue to be ephemeral, with a few exceptions that include permanent coworking spaces, and even fewer that maintain coliving as part of a permanent project. Since 2025, however, many Zuzalu projects have been working toward putting down roots in their respective jurisdictions to build a permanent crypto city.

A permanent coliving project yields opportunities and complications of a different kind.

Most importantly, the stakes are higher for a permanent project. You need healthy, longterm relationships with your neighbors, with the government, with the landowners and business owners you are living with. You need fair and trusted, let alone trustless, systems within your community to handle all the colors of life and human coordination. Therefore your freedom to experiment is necessarily limited, and every step taken (whether app, promise, or process) ought to be done cautiously.

Ephemeral Zuzalu residencies are often thriving with experiments in technology and society only possible in aligned techno-optimistic communities. By being temporary, the dice can be re-rolled constantly, which enables rapid iteration and lower stakes. I would argue that even temporary pop-up crypto city experiments, as well as short conferences, should think seriously about the longterm effects of their presence in localities. But if you seek to grow something for years, let alone generations, the local connections and impacts ought to be one of the first and most important priorities for a project.

Interestingly, Network School has maintained an element of "pop-up" in its structure. In addition to the growing longterm community of residents who commit to a full-year, several hundred join each month for monthly cohorts. Analogous to tourists, some choose to stay longer, permanently, while others choose to move onto their next destination. Infinita in Prospéra first proved to me the value of extended pop-up residencies in seeding and growing population in permanent projects, and experiencing it at Network School deepens my conclusion that any permanent project ought to include extended residencies in its programming, especially at the start. It is a significant decision to choose to move somewhere, and being able to try a place and its community helps people make such a decision. It also enables breadth for the longterm residents while they build depth in their connections with one another.

As Zuzalu projects put down roots in permanent spaces, hosting extended residencies is a good strategy for bringing people to the space initially, and providing variety as people stay longterm. It also enables high concentrations for specific fields and interests, such as the upcoming Ethereum Month at Network School this May or the Valley of the Commons pop-up at the Commons Hub in Austria this fall.

Finally, I've already written in depth about the necessity to "make it somewhere people want to live." If you seek to build a coliving project, regardless of the technological or societal innovations, it must be a place people want to live. Temporary projects can provide novelty once, maybe twice, but unless it is a good place to live, and people feel they get their money's worth, it will be difficult to replicate let alone grow something permanently. Of course, living at the "frontier" necessitates a level of sacrifice of convenience or preference that existing cities and communities offer. But I have been impressed with Network School's rapid improvements and refinements in the living experience since I first visited on Opening Day in 2024. Every time I have returned to NS, it has been markedly better than my previous visit; growth of this kind I think is only possible when a project puts down roots permanently and focuses its efforts on building a city.