“Farewell to Westphalia” Explores Blockchain as a Model for Post-Nation-State Governance

BitcoinWorld “Farewell to Westphalia” Explores Blockchain as a Model for Post-Nation-State Governance Zug, Switzerland, September 19th, 2025, Chainwire Logos Press Engine has announced the release of “Farewell to Westphalia: Crypto Sovereignty and Post-Nation-State Governance”, a new book by Jarrad Hope and Peter Ludlow, available in print and online starting September ￰2￱ publication examines the historical foundations of the modern nation-state and argues that its governance model, formalized in 1648, is no longer suited to contemporary digital ￰3￱ its place, the authors introduce the concept of the “cyberstate”, a new political model enabled by blockchain technology and voluntary digital ￰4￱ Hope , Founder of Logos , a movement and technology stack dedicated to preserving digital freedom, and Peter Ludlow , Director of the Research Institute for Philosophy and Technology , are releasing their radical collaborative project, Farewell to Westphalia: Crypto Sovereignty and Post-Nation-State Governance , on September ￰5￱ by the Logos Press Engine , the book argues that the modern nation state has become obsolete, with its successor lying in a surprising place: the ￰6￱ and Ludlow envision a future belonging to cyberstates and communities organised around blockchain, new political entities tailored to the digital age, and the increasingly global issues we face ￰7￱ entities leverage blockchain technology, the same infrastructure supporting Bitcoin, to enshrine trust, accountability, and civil liberties, while reducing corruption and the power of unelected intermediaries at all levels of human ￰8￱ concept of a cyberstate, first introduced by early cypherpunk communities, is now receiving renewed attention due to recent advancements in blockchain ￰9￱ authors define them as “online communities”, which “carry out functions usually associated with traditional nation states”.

They might provide security, assist with healthcare, sponsor arts and culture, or support business through negotiating trade agreements and encouraging business ￰10￱ nation states, however, the book explains that cyberstates should be organised around shared values and voluntary membership rather than “arbitrary political boundaries”. They describe them as “geographically unencumbered” with a cyberstate’s territory defined by “its footprint in cyberspace”–“unlimited in scope and scale”. Furthermore, and most radically, cyberstates would conduct all governance activities using blockchain technology, a shared, digital ledger permanently recording information across a network of ￰11￱ as anyone can view the full history of cryptocurrency transactions on such a ledger, so too would all votes, policies, and communications undertaken by a cyberstate be viewable on one too, ensuring complete transparency.

“Governance, whether it comes in the form of public governments or other forms of human governance, is absolutely critical to every aspect of our ￰12￱ trouble is that it often seems to be broken”, the authors write in the book’s opening pages. However, for Hope and Ludlow, “crypto shines a bright light on activities that today take place behind curtains and in smoke-filled rooms with little to no accountability”, providing the “tools that make government activity transparent and immutable and our personal business personal and private.”- Hope and Ludlow. “Farewell to Westphalia makes it crystal clear that the nation-state is no longer the best governance system for today’s digital ￰13￱ important than formulating the problem is to develop an alternative societal governance system that serves citizens, and this is exactly the main strength of the ￰14￱ imagines a future society built on blockchain technology, creating what is desperately needed today: a human society.” – Bob de Wit, author of Society 4.0 and Emeritus Professor of Strategic Leadership at Nyenrode Business University.

“It’s a compelling manifesto on the future of governance. A critique of the nation-state and a visionary look into blockchain-based political systems. It’s mind boggling how well-researched and multidisciplinary it is.” – Frederico Ast (Kleros Founder). The collaboration of these two foundational voices in post-nation-state theory is dedicated to Julian Assange and the memory of pioneering developer and activist Hal ￰15￱ such, Farewell to Westphalia is steeped in cypherpunk and hacktivist culture, establishing itself as an essential text for the future of such ￰16￱ demands serious consideration from anyone interested in the intersection of technology, politics, and human ￰17￱ governments worldwide grapple with declining public trust and the challenges of governing in an increasingly digital world, Farewell to Westphalia offers a timely and provocative roadmap for the ￰18￱ and Ludlow’s vision of blockchain-powered communities and cyberstates goes further than theoretical speculation, marking out a blueprint for a future where communities seeking alternatives to traditional governance structures can build new networks that serve their ￰19￱ can learn more at ￰0￱ Farewell to Westphalia will be available in print and online on September 18th, marking a pivotal contribution to ongoing conversations about governance in the digital ￰20￱ is published by Logos Press Machine and will be licensed under Creative Commons to encourage free remixing, redistribution, translation, and copying, with attribution to the ￰21￱ can learn more at ￰1￱ About Jarrad Hope Jarrad Hope is a pioneering developer in blockchain technology, as well as being one of the earliest contributors to Ethereum; he has since founded Logos to build digital systems to protect civil liberties, digital freedom, and practically support the building of future ￰22￱ Peter Ludlow Peter Ludlow is a philosopher specialising in linguistics, digital technologies, and virtual ￰23￱ edited the classic MIT Press anthology Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias (2001), which explored the early political structures emerging on the internet in the 1990s as laboratories for new societies and ￰24￱ Logos Logos describes itself as “an open source movement to create a self-sovereign network state”.

It provides a decentralised technology stack that enables the formation of autonomous digital ￰25￱ embeds privacy directly into its technology, ensuring transactions and governance remain censorship-resistant and ￰26￱ doing so, Logos is working towards the cypherpunk vision of enshrining user sovereignty and privacy in technology by ￰27￱ Public Relations Laura Guzik Logos – Status laura@status. im This post “Farewell to Westphalia” Explores Blockchain as a Model for Post-Nation-State Governance first appeared on BitcoinWorld .