Venice, now famous for its tourism, is not a large city, but historically it was an urban republic that lasted for thousands of years. It used one city to defeat many countries, the weak defeated the strong, and the small defeated the strong. Broad, had defeated many powerful opponents including the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, France, and Genoa, and had long dominated the Mediterranean.

For a long time, Venice was the country with the most developed economy and the strongest navy in Europe. At its peak, Venice had 36,000 sailors manning 3,300 ships and dominated commercial activities in the Mediterranean.

With the maritime trade that dominated Europe, the commercial profits of the Republic of Venice reached unprecedented levels. Its total income was once comparable to that of Spain and England, and it was truly as wealthy as any other country.

Similar to the United States, which was founded by a group of persecuted Puritans from England, Venice was founded by a group of refugees from the Roman Empire fleeing barbarians.

The Mayflower members who carried the spirit of the British Magna Carta inherited the political contract system from the United Kingdom and signed the Mayflower Convention, while the refugees from Western Rome inherited the Roman political system and The system and improvements were made to establish a peaceful Venice. The spirit of contract was maintained throughout the life cycle of the Republic of Venice:

The author of The Theory of Kings, Machiavelli once commented: The so-called aristocracy of the Republic of Venice was only in name. privileges. They did not live on income from real estate; their vast assets came from trade. None of them lived in a castle and had no superior judicial powers. Venetian nobles did not enjoy the privileges enjoyed by nobles in other countries.

At the same time, due to geographical constraints, Venice has almost nothing except fish and sea salt, and even fresh water needs to be supplied from outside. Therefore, Venice almost had to choose to build a country based on commerce from the beginning.

Venice's political system is also almost designed to facilitate business activities: the richest merchant families/guilds elect a parliament based on the merchants and the state, and the parliament ultimately elects a governor-general.

The multiple (interests) of family guilds and the collective governance and control of the state machinery under the network of acquaintances make the state machinery serve business. Its goals are clear, and it has become a system to maintain the continuous expansion of the commercial country. Base.

The partnership system in Venice is very similar to the partnership system of a modern company. It also has the prototype of separation of powers. Such a national system ensures that the state machinery serves high-productivity sectors (business), and organizations with high productivity can constrain the state machinery, thus allowing the Venetian Republic to last for thousands of years.

The DAO organization in the web3 world, and even the web3 country that is still in everyone's imagination, has many similarities with early Venice: 1. Early members had democracy, equal rights, independence and consciousness; 2. Resources Scarcity: Early DAOs often did not have many commercial resources, and web3 countries did not even have land, which forced organizations to think out of the box and constantly obtain resources from the outside; 3. The voting system of DAO organizations based on holding governance tokens can easily form a system similar to Venice. Partnership system, and a governance system in which the country is governed by elites and the country is a company

Venice’s elite politics also fully takes into account the interests of the people at the bottom. In order to fully unite ordinary citizens, Venice uses various commercial institutions to provide them with work to redeem their political rights.

For example, the Venetian Ordnance Shipyard, founded in 1104, was the largest industrial park in Europe before the Industrial Revolution. Its funding was provided by the Venetian government, its management was the responsibility of Venetian officials, and its ships and weapons were produced here. At its peak, 30% to 50% of Venetian citizens were employed here. By the 16th century, they even invented assembly line production and standardized parts, able to produce a ship in a day. These two inventions preceded Ford's invention of the assembly line by more than 300 years. At that time, it would take 2 months for other European countries to build the same ship.

It is precisely because institutions like arsenals provide jobs that Venetian citizens are willing to give up their political rights and accept aristocratic rule. As compensation, Venetian citizens can actually get a job under the generally scarce social conditions of the Middle Ages. Stable job. This is a typical bread-for-freedom political system

In an organization, most participants may be more focused on obtaining actual benefits without participating in governance. Therefore, in cases where the organization can provide value to these participants (such as wealth cryptography), it is not necessarily necessary to give all participants the same voting rights. There are even some senior participants who may be willing to give up their voting rights in exchange for cash rewards. Therefore, for example, the vote-buying system in the curve ecosystem is reasonable in future governance.

Venice’s success is the success of its system, which balances domestic freedom and equality well with its ability to obtain external benefits and maintain growth.

One of Dante’s teachers, Brunetto Latini, once commented when comparing the systems of France and Venice and other city-states, “the French people and almost all other The people of the country were forced to submit to the power of the king and other hereditary nobles" who had "little regard for the welfare and interests of their citizens." This is in sharp contrast to the system of "ruling cities by term" in city-states and states. The citizens of a city-state have the right to elect their own supreme consul. The result is that city-states such as Venice can choose those who serve the city-state and residents most effectively as rulers.

Judging from the sages’ evaluations of Venice, the service-oriented country mentioned in Balajs’ network state had already taken shape as early as the Republic of Venice. It is conceivable that if the Republic of Venice opened up immigration back then, there would be a long queue at the door of the visa office.

Finally, let’s talk about Venice’s national identity. There is a famous saying in Venice: Be a Venetian first, then a Christian. A country built on commerce seems to be a country that values ??profits and neglects loyalty, and will not have any national or national identity. But the fact is exactly the opposite. Dantonio Jr., the son of the governor Dantonio who conquered Constantinople, gave up his father's throne in order to maintain the system, but during the war he did take the initiative to join the front line and died on the battlefield.

His identification with China is reflected in his identification with the system, and maintaining the system means safeguarding China's interests.

The decentralized national identity in the Web3 era is entirely based on the recognition of the decentralized concept of DAO.

Will the new groups rapidly formed by pornographic knowledge in the enclave of the Internet form a new web3 national identity? Let's wait and see