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The Megaproject Forest City in Malaysia Is Reviving as a Stage for an Experiment, The Network School, by Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, That Teaches and Tests “Startup Societies.” Local Government Offers Tax Incentives and Demand Already Exceeds Hundreds of Students.
City built to be a “high-end urban paradise,” Forest City gained worldwide fame for its low occupancy and problems with its Chinese developer. The complex, budgeted at around US$ 100 billion, became synonymous with “ghost town” and an example of real estate excess.
Now, it returns to the news with a different proposal, attracting tech and crypto entrepreneurs to test new community models. According to Bloomberg and coverage in international outlets, the “unfinished” city has gained new utility by hosting a program that teaches how to build digital communities with physical ties.
The turnaround gained traction starting in August 2025, when it was reported that a hotel was transformed into a campus and began hosting programmers, founders, and investors interested in decentralized governance and “network nation” models. The narrative of “real estate failure” gave way to the social and economic experiment.
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The Network School Is the Program Ideated by Balaji Srinivasan, Author of The Network State and Former CTO of Coinbase
The proposal includes product sprints in the morning, classes in programming, seminars on economic history and governance, as well as a strong component of high physical performance. The meeting point is the Marina Hotel in Forest City, which has become a campus for participants.
According to Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times, nearly 400 students have already participated in the program, many of them entrepreneurs. The initial price is around US$ 1,500 per month, including accommodation and meals in a shared room, which, combined with the local cost of living, tends to lower entry barriers for those who wish to build projects during their stay.
The content ranges from Meiji Restoration and the entrepreneurial state of Singapore to decentralized governance mechanisms. There are also lectures and meetings with founders, investors, and researchers. The format aims to accelerate products while validating whether a shared ideology can sustain a community with its own rules.
Startup Societies and “Network State,” What Is Really at Stake
At the core of the project is the idea of startup societies: communities aligned by common values and goals, organized via the internet, that gain a physical presence in different places and seek recognition as legitimate political units. In The Network State and in public presentations, Balaji argues that the internet shortens the distance between values and governance, allowing voluntary arrangements that compete with the traditional State.
The practical vision appears in the curriculum and in the founder’s recent speeches, including at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong, where he compared choosing a country to choosing a university, reinforcing the idea that individuals can “choose their society” based on rules and incentives. The Network School would be the prototype to replicate the model in other cities.
Why Choose the “Ghost Town” in Malaysia
In addition to the occupancy cost and availability of spaces, Forest City gained a powerful attraction letter, the 0% exemption for Single-Family Offices that establish themselves in the Forest City Special Financial Zone. The design of the incentive was announced in September 2024 and detailed by consultancies and the regulator throughout 2025. The rule provides for exemptions on eligible income for up to 20 years, subject to criteria of assets under management, economic substance, and other requirements. For executives, there are mentions of a reduced rate of 15%.
This policy adds to the agenda of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), an agreement formalized in January 2025 to facilitate trade, mobility, and investments, bringing logistics and capital from Singapore closer to the lands and costs of Malaysia. The goal is to unlock high-value projects in advanced manufacturing, data centers, digital finance, and services. For initiatives like the Network School, being next to Singapore increases access to investors, flights, and infrastructure.
There is also the designation of a duty-free zone and the government’s attempt to revitalize the project criticized as a “white elephant”, which explains the convergence between public policy and the private bet to attract talent and capital.
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