proto-corporations like the knights templar owned small amounts of land but had huge political and finance influence. 

Is owning significant land a pre-requisite for geopolitical sovereignty? would they have been admitted to the united nations?

Monaco!

And yes, that makes sense. It’s interesting to think about the relative power of companies like Apple in the context of smaller countries, like will de facto power be in the hands of protocols, network states, corporations? Has the transition already started?

I come from the second smallest country in the world (I’ll let you guess) and in fact all the smallest countries have their seat at the UN.

In fact, a problem with the UN is the disproportionate power of small countries whose UN votes can be bought by larger powers (e.g. China in the Pacific islands and Africa). 1/3