Crypto moves beyond digital assets into community formation and price discovery

At TOKEN2049 in Singapore, Balaji Srinivasan, founder of Network School and a former chief technology officer of Coinbase, described how online communities can generate demand before capital is committed to physical infrastructure. Shayne Coplan, founder and chief executive officer of Polymarket, explained how blockchain-based prediction markets create prices for events and risks that previously lacked observable market values.

Their approaches apply crypto infrastructure to different economic functions. Srinivasan uses online networks to organise communities, coordinate investment and support physical development. Coplan uses blockchain infrastructure to establish markets and generate price information that can inform larger financial transactions. Both extend crypto beyond digital asset trading into the organisation of economic activity.

From an online network to a physical community

Srinivasan's central argument is that crypto can organise communities as well as facilitate the exchange of currencies and tokens. "Not just cryptocurrencies, but crypto communities," he said. "The ultimate real-world asset is a community, a city, even a country." Network School, established in 2024, is his attempt to apply that idea in practice. According to Srinivasan, the initiative attracted thousands of participants from more than 80 countries, initially operating in Malaysia before relocating to Kazakhstan.