Shwe Kokko’s 'blockchain smart city' promised Silicon‑Valley‑style innovation with private utilities, Starlink internet, and an on‑chain payments app used by most merchants. In practice, it became a protected base for cyber‑scam factories run with trafficked labor, showing how 'exit' zones without accountable governance invite criminal capture.
— It challenges charter‑city and network‑state visions by showing that tech and private governance alone, absent legitimate state capacity, can produce lawless criminal sovereignties.
Johann Kurtz
2025.12.31
50% relevant
The article’s call for a closed, vetted aristocratic network to build local power and 'manipulate perceptions' echoes the risks noted in the startup‑city item: private governance initiatives without accountable public oversight can create enclaves of concentrated power that pursue their own agendas and invite capture or illicit outcomes.
2025.10.06
100% relevant
Yatai New City in Myanmar: Fincy app adoption (~90%), Starlink reliance, private security, and documented scam operations with abducted foreign workers.
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