One of the least understood phenomena in crypto, Iâve become convinced, is the underlying networks that constitute them: âcryptonetworksâ. In an earlier piece I mentioned them in passing. Here I plan to delve a little deeper. So, without further preamble, what is a cryptonetwork? While there are many ways to get at their essence, fundamentally, a cryptonetwork is a community -- that is, a collection of human beings, and in the future, agents more broadly -- coordinating, via public key cryptography, around some shared source of value (i.e. a âtokenâ), mediated by a public blockchain. As of the present moment, they represent somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2T in economic value and some tens of millions of active on-chain accounts. What makes these networks so fascinating is that, at a high enough level of abstraction, they emulate a lot of the same properties as nation states. For instance, they have some built-in notion of property rights, a native economy mediated by its own sovereign money and monetary policy, and a citizenry that engages in all manner of social and economic activity. Another interesting point of overlap between the two constructs is the sense of patriotism they elicit. Just as one might feel a particular tribal affinity towards their country of residence, and even a sense of genuine community and belonging, cryptonetworks exhibit a striking capacity to ignite a similar sentiment amongst its participants. While there are parallels one may draw between cryptonetworks and other historical online communities -- traditional social networks, open source software communities etc. -- there is, it would seem, something fundamentally unique about the collective sociology of cryptonetworks. The source of this uniqueness is, I suggest, the sense of underlying mission and purpose that all of the most popular cryptonetworks convey. Bitcoin, for instance, exists to supplant the existing monetary order and establish in its place a far more equitable financial scheme; a system âfor and by the peopleâ. Ethereum extends this spirit beyond finance to include the entire Big Tech order as well, while Solana seeks to do more or less the same only better, cheaper, faster. While these are fundamentally secular endeavours, there is something palpably religious about the psychology of these networks. Amidst a broader societal crisis of meaning and identity, the epidemic of loneliness, people are finding many of the same virtues of religion in these online communities instead. Where religions and cryptonetworks diverge, however, is that you can actually own the latter, which adds considerably to the fervour.