TL;DR: Ayllu is a one month and a half pop-up city in Venezuela focused on governance/network societies, with an emphasis on systemic change and social impact, in partnership with diverse local stakeholders and hosted by the Ethereum Venezuela community.

The Invitation

There was once a fabled crypto nation, a land of faux democracy and hyperinflation, where once conquistadores got lost seeking El Dorado, and where the turn of the century saw every possible aspect of the human condition slowly collapse but the ability to dream (we call this “realismo mágico”), paving the way for every use case cypherpunks could ever imagine to be tested, from governance to finance, digital identity to privacy, where folks dreamt of transparency from illegally extracted commodities to humanitarian help, where the crypto mining lungs of the Americas were once filled, and where an appetite for risk is still part of our diet.

What can we learn from the Venezuelan story? You are invited to find an answer to this question alongside us.

The Proposal

We plan to host a one month and a half pop up city either in Caracas, Margarita Island, or a mix, with its focus on governance/network societies, and an emphasis on wellbeing, systemic change, and social impact, in partnership with local and international NGOs and grassroots organizations, private sector groups of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the Ethereum Venezuela community. The program’s focus will have a hands-on approach at the core with co-designed tracks alongside attendees matched with local leaders for guidance in maximizing impact. We believe a deep dive into these topics will be of great value to Zuzalu’s network.

Some of our goals include:

• Expose 50+ attendees to LATAM from the perspective of Venezuela and to the use cases that inspired the early adopters of crypto and blockchain technologies.
• Host work sessions twice a week to evaluate restarting the Margarita Network State Project producing a report and solid next steps after the residency.
• Explore alternative funding methods for cyber-physical public goods like parks and neighborhoods, running at least one pilot alongside local partners.
• Soft launch Ayllu (think Afropolitan for LATAM) alongside Ashoka Diaspora Networks.
• And more to be co-designed alongside participants.

This grant’s funds will be used to set up operations, develop our brand, launch our online presence, and continue to expand on the ideas presented here in an open way, allowing the community to take part in the design and have a say from day one in the programming, and choosing the specific location and dates of the gathering.

Why Venezuela?

An Early Network State Promise

Venezuela once had an independent digital jurisdiction plan very similar to how network states are envisioned today. The years are 2017-18 and the setting is Isla de Margarita. It is mostly unknown that in parallel to the regulation of crypto mining and exchanges and the creation of the government-sponsored “crypto-currency”, Petro, the local powers had the plan to turn the island Estate of Nueva Esparta and its core two peninsulas of Margarita, with its 1,151 km2 (444 sq mi) and almost half a million inhabitants into a fully digital jurisdiction with currency, governance, and identity blockchain systems. This plan came to be alongside governance OG crypto startup, Bitnation, but was canceled.

Sacred Nature & Healing

We’ve partnered with Eposak, the social impact branch of Grupo Maso, the most influential tourism operator of the country, to explore having an offsite to Canaima and visit Mount Roraima, one of Earth’s oldest geological formations, composed of Proterozoic age sandstone formed about 1.7 to 2 billion years ago and the inspiration for the Disney/Pixar movie Up. Alongside Eposak and Ashoka, our team leader (@kosmostasis) is currently exploring the use of web3, mixed-reality, and other technologies in generating alternative sources of income for local communities in the area.

Crypto-Savy Population

Greatly in part to achieving an overall inflation rate of 53,798,500% since 2016, Venezuela has commonly been known across the blockchain space since its early days, slowly declining in relevance but once hailed almost as the holy grail of crypto adoption. The country once held a top place across most indicators, from trading to mining, only to fall fast and hard after government regulation, but in parallel having crypto set front and center by this same government’s own token initiative, the (recently defunct) Petro. To this day, even if the average Venezuelan has a slight know-how of what crypto is, the population has moved 92.5% of total transactions to CEX’s, according to Chainalysis. And Binance and USDT are top of mind when chatting to locals. Regardless, and in the same Chainalysis report, you can find a dedicated section on “cryptocurrency as a weapon against authoritarianism” in Venezuela.

So, what changed and what can we learn from it?

Contact

You can find us at https://t.me/ayllufam