Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and social innovation in popup villages across the globe.
Part of the Zuzalu ecosystem 🌞
We are incredibly excited to announce our next popup village: Edge Esmeralda!
It will be hosted in Healdsburg CA, June 2-29.
It is a place for people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen.
If you’re curious to join, read on!
Announcing: The Edge City Fellowship
For: Ambitious 18 - 21 year olds
What: Spend a month co-living and co-building with the world’s most impactful innovators.
Edge City is a new concept for gathering, living, and working together, with the goal of accelerating human flourishing.
If that sounds interesting to you, consider donating to the Zuzalu x Gitcoin Quadratic Funding round!
What an incredible ETH Denver week!
Thank you so much for your energy and participation.
We could not have imagined a better kick off, and we are so grateful to you for taking a chance and co-creating this experience with us.
Stay tuned for details of our next gathering!
Big news! We are going to bring 10 open-source builders to Edge Esmeralda; with free accommodation ☀️
Made possible with support from
@gitcoin
♥️
If you’re interested in being one of them, apply below!
We’re excited to share a few highlights from the programming calendar of Edge Esmeralda, our popup village in June! 🌞
The programs are diverse, ranging from community health to neurotech to AI and many other topics.
Link to the full calendar below! 👇
We have an amazing program lined up for Denver!
Instead of traditional sponsorships, we are working closely with institutions and upcoming projects whom we trust to cocreate a delightful experience.
We’re commemorating each with custom art ❤️ Details on program below!
We have quite a diverse set of venues planned for the June event in Healdsburg, including an old slaughterhouse and a beloved local theater.
You can check out a sneak peak in a blog post linked below.
And as always we'll add our own touch to make them even more special!🌞
How will housing work at Edge Esmeralda, our popup village in Healdsburg, CA happening this June?
We shared more details about lodging in an essay on our blog (linked below!).
Follow the blog for more detailed info 🌞
A key focus for Edge City is to create connection points between diverse areas of frontier technology 🌞
So we're incredibly excited to host
@protocollabs
and
@foresightinst
at Edge Esmeralda with a program on Neurotech, AI, XR, and BioTech & Longevity!
(more detail below)
Toby (
@tobyshorin
) has spent years studying how people find meaning and purpose together at
@otherinternet__
, and now with a new concept called Care Culture.
We spoke with him about this and the 'Concept Clinic' program he'll bring to Edge Esmeralda in June 🌞
Check it out!
Arjun is 17 and spends his time building
@getairchat
with
@naval
. He flew from Mumbai to join us at Edge City Denver.
We spoke to him to get his thoughts about the experience. Here he shares a great insight around the importance of these types of events✨
This week in Denver was one of the best weeks of my life. I got to spend time with some of the most interesting and ambitious people in the world
@JoinEdgeCity
. Meeting so many of my internet friends in person was very special.
Just the beginning though. Headed to SF tomorrow.
Can popup cities like Zuzalu and Edge City be crucibles for innovation in emergent industries?
Zac Williamson (co-founder and CEO of
@aztecnetwork
) on why scenes are valuable, the concept of 'scenius', and how all great ideas start out bad.
thank you
@Zac_Aztec
🌞
We are excited to share that we have now released the application form for Edge Esmeralda.
If you’d like to join us this June in Healdsburg…
➡️ Apply here (this is different from and more comprehensive than the interest form):
➡️Await your acceptance…
Well-designed community experiences should be full of magic moments, leaving people feeling optimistic and replenished 🌞
Mashal (
@arlery
from
@OctantApp
) and Timour (
@timourxyz
) discussing their experience at popup cities like Zuzalu and Edge City.
Fellows get:
1) A full ride to one of Edge City’s pop-up villages in Healdsburg, California (June) or SE Asia (starting Sept 22nd).
2) Access to and mentorship from the Edge City Community (including leaders at orgs like ETH Foundation, The Longevity Fund, NASA, and more).
Join us this Saturday for the Celestial Chase!
A beautifully crafted scavenger hunt through Denver.
Follow the clues, solve the puzzles. Do it fast to win.
In partnership with
@CelestiaOrg
Sign up here!
We are grateful to the
@HealdsburgTrib
for highlighting what we’re bringing to life this June to the beautiful Sonoma town:
“Healdsburg City Councilmember Ariel Kelley, who’s been in the loop and shown her support for the past few months, thinks of Edge Esmeralda as a cross…
How do we continue to develop social technology alongside hardware and software?
This is what we aim to figure out at Edge City 🌞
Richard from the ZuPass team gives us the builder's perspective on the importance of social tech.
@richardyliu
@ZupassProject
@StanfordCrypto
@cabindotcity
@dripsnetwork
To finish off the week, we're thrilled to host Mask Network for Social Oneness Day, a day of talks and hacking on all things decentralized social—in partnership with leaders of the top web3 social media orgs, including Farcaster.
@realMaskNetwork
Most fellowships mainly offer financial support, but often, what young people need is an empowering community, a healthy lifestyle, and being part of a breeding ground for innovative ideas.
The Edge City Fellowship was launched to fill these gaps.
What is Edge City?
Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe. A lab of experimentation for new ideas, technology, culture, and organizations, all dedicated to accelerating human flourishing.
For programming at Edge Esmeralda, we have several design parameters:
➡️ Maximizing surface area for serendipity
➡️ Collaboration rather than just consumption
➡️ Diversity of disciplines
Programming will be emergent, coming primarily from the community ✨ read more below
Huge thank you to everyone who participated in this round, and
@VitalikButerin
and the
@gitcoin
team for making it happen 🌞
These types of rounds are a great way to add energy into a new movement. We are incredibly grateful for the support we received ❤️
🚀 Big shoutout to the incredible Zuzalu community for completing their QF program earlier this year on
@grantsstack
. Here’s a snapshot recap of the the two rounds that focused on:
Technology 🎉
Events 🎉
With a total matching pool of 250 ETH (~$820k at the time of writing),…
We are thrilled to partner with
@devonzuegel
on this event, who is building a permanent new town called Esmeralda, inspired by her childhood experiences of going to Chautauqua.
This gathering will be a prototype for this long-term vision.
Chautauqua is one of my favorite places in the world, because it is an idea embedded into a place.
It's a place that leaves me with some questions, and I'm excited to research some answers!
We're excited to support Backdrop Build V3!
Open source tech is a key part of our philosophy – if you’re interested in building next-gen apps for network cities, community governance & identity, health tech, or social tools, come build with us!
Applications open until Friday.
Build has been incredible. In V1 and V2 we helped launch hundreds of projects and distribute $140k+ in grants.
It’s time to run it back. Today we’re announcing Build V3 🚀
Can't wait for the "Living Better, Living Longer" track at Edge Esmeralda!
Organized by
@JuliaLipton
&
@jwmares
June 3-7, it's a week of health assessments, daily workouts, & evening salons
We intend for everyone to leave EE healthier than they arrived! 💪
We are grateful to receive a grant from
@Optimism
to feature some pieces from their ‘We ❤️ The Art’ campaign at the Edge Esmeralda event this June. 🌞
We'll be working with W❤️TA contest winner
@earthbits__
as the curator for this program!
More info below 👇
Edge City gatherings are IRL experimentation labs for projects to run tangible experiments.
During our weeklong gathering at ETHDenver this year, we're so excited to work with some incredible teams building novel tech.
Get to know them below ⚡️
@denisalepadatu_
is a rising star in longevity.
She is building LongX, a platform to support young people in their journey in this field, from education to career opportunities.
She co-organized the LongevityxBio conf at
@VitaliaCity
and has published writings since age 9 ✨
Curious what the first week of a popup village is like?
Janine and Timour give a quick rundown of what to expect at the start of Edge Esmeralda and why the first few days are often attendees' favorites 🌞
@JanineLeger
@timourxyz
@StanfordCrypto
Join us on Saturday for our Community Day, co-created by Edge City with great partners like Cabin DAO and Drips,
The day will include unconference sessions, lightning talks, and opportunities for meaningful connection.
@cabindotcity
@dripsnetwork
We’ll have several topic areas of interest, although we’ll actively discuss and experiment with many others.
If you’re building at the frontiers of any of these areas, we’d love to hear from you.
This will be the best place for you to bring your research or project to life!
We're so excited to work with the folks at the Uniswap Foundation and
@keighstone
on GovSwap to continue to drive forward the broader conversation around protocol governance🦄
I'm thrilled that GovSwap is the 1st grant we're making under UF's evolved strategy.
@keighstone
+
@JanineLeger
+
@joinedgecity
will curate a number of events in 2024 to bring together delegates and community members IRL.
We are inspired by two pioneering experiments: Chautauqua and Zuzalu.
☀️ Chautauqua is an idea embedded in a place: a beautiful town that spawned a lifelong learning movement since 1874.
☀️ Zuzalu was our solarpunk popup city experiment, which spawned dozens of similar events.
Like all of our gatherings, this will also be a ‘society incubator’—a lab of IRL experimentation for new ideas, tech, culture, and organizations dedicated to accelerating human flourishing.
Read more and sign up here:
This is our next step towards a flourishing global community of people who are working to create a better, more beautiful, future.
If that is exciting to you, please reach out!
1/ We're now just over a week away from BASS Denver, which kicks off at 9:30am on March 1st
@EthereumDenver
! Register here:
Here's a thread of all the event info: 🧵
Edge Esmeralda will be the healthiest and most productive time of the year for our attendees.
It is a place to go deep in your work and learn from experts in other fields, while incubating novel tech and new ways of living.
Co-organizing a week at Edge Esmeralda in June! I’m super excited for it - basically a summer camp w/ longevity people into the hardcore science part of it, full of thought experiments and doodling tech trees
DM me if you’re interested in coming, w/ an interesting bio thought…
We had a chat with Eric Alston about his experience at popup villages, as well as:
- speedrunning governance (or not)
- Putnam's bowling alone
- implications of ZK on gov
- what to wear to a video interview
Insightful as always, ty
@IncompleteRules
(youtube link below) ❤️
The experience is a combination of a multigenerational community, a startup incubator, and a college campus.
Key design principles include:
☀️Focus on creation
☀️Default healthy living
☀️Build a multigenerational community
☀️The importance of social technology
As a reminder, the Edge City Fellowship is a program for ambitious 18-21 year olds.
Our fellows spend a month at our popup villages, co-living and co-building with leaders from frontier fields.
Announcing: The Edge City Fellowship
For: Ambitious 18 - 21 year olds
What: Spend a month co-living and co-building with the world’s most impactful innovators.
Week 2 will be focused on LabWeek, a collab between
@protocollabs
,
@foresightinst
and Edge City.
We will assemble leaders from frontier fields for a week of progress talks, deep dives, salons, experimental labs & carte blanche, as well as plenty of unconference programming!
@pygmo_
researches AI alignment, developing frameworks for cooperation among superintelligent agents and advancing 'perfect rationality.'
He used to drive 1.5 hours to the best math school in his area and dropped out after finishing the entire curriculum ahead of his peers ⭐️
We're excited to partner with Summer of Protocols on their 2024 program! ☀️
Protocols are a key first-class concept for thinking about the world.
If you're thinking deeply about protocols, apply below!
And stay tuned for more details about our combined irl gatherings.
On Thursday, Guild leads the day with discussions about Onchain Communities.
We'll also host a special event for Women in Ethereum Protocol, a new initiative from the Ethereum Foundation focused on supporting women in building the core protocol.
@guildxyz
@ethereum
During Week 4, the Summer of Protocols team will host Protocol Week, a program focused on futures and world building with protocols, in collaboration with
@0xPARC
!
We share more about our guiding philosophy and why we’re so excited to host this event in Healdsburg in an essay that we wrote with Devon. Read it here:
And of course, no party would be complete without Jokerace 🔥
Contests for communities to run, grow, and monetize — live on 76 chains.
We ran a contest to see who the community wanted to hear in a series of lightning talks at our community day this Saturday!
@jokerace_io
❤️
16 days until the Opening Ceremony of Edge Esmeralda! 🌟
Enjoy a special dinner & fun community activities led by
@manishvora18
, founder of Museum of Ice Cream.
You’re invited if you have *any* EE ticket (not just Week 1!), so come enjoy & help us set the tone for the month!
We partnered with Cursive to create an interactive treasure around Edge City.
Look for NFC cards to start collecting collecting private interaction data! You generate a ZK proof that you’ve completed the requirements without revealing anything else!
@cursive_team
❤️
Week 1 will kick off with the Live Better, Live Longer healthspan track with
@jwmares
!
This is an opportunity to go deep on health and wellness practices, touching on the latest in how to optimize human performance and increase healthspan using the tools of today!
We are grateful to
@LongJourneyVC
for sponsoring this fellowship and enabling us to bring so many talented builders!
Young makers, learn more about their grant program:
Daimo is a self-custody stablecoin wallet that lets you send and receive USDC and store it using secure hardware on your phone.
At Edge City, Daimo we use for tap-to-pay payments for the coffee bar and by participants splitting their dinner bills on-chain.
@daimo_eth
❤️
That week we'll kick off several month-long programs, including:
The Concept Clinic with
@tobyshorin
, a behavioral health studio with events and low-cost or free behavioral health services to visitors and residents throughout the month.
Week 3 will feature a lot of programming around Human Organization, including the Coordi-Nations program with
@yaoeo
!
This program will cover the changing concepts of ‘sovereignty’ and commons-based approaches in the development of Coordi-Nations.
ZuPass is a ZK data manager that stores records of social activity, including attendance of daily events, participation on community votes, and even fun collectibles like cryptographic frogs 🐸
@ZupassProject
❤️
That weekend, we’re incredibly excited to host
@LauraDeming
for a Replacing Aging workshop with talks ranging from immune system issues to xenotransplantation!
this is going to be awesome - dates are confirmed for 6/14 - 6/17, will be a 4-day workshop focused on tech trees in replacing aging
planned talks
- immune system issues for replacing aging strategies
- transplant surgeon's perspective
- xenotransplantation + artificial organs
-…
We’re inviting 10 builders focused on OSS to come to Edge Esmeralda, a monthlong popup village for people building a better future.
They’ll join us for a month of learning and collaboration with the world’s most innovative minds. ⭐️
Stanford Blockchain Club will host their BASS Conference on Friday.
They're bringing an incredible group of speakers. Make sure to stick around for the party in the evening!
@StanfordCrypto
@pygmo_
@ansonyuu
is a host at
@socraticainfo
, a weekly event that has grown to +30 cities for young builders & creatives to work together.
When Anson isn’t cheerleading her friends & community, she works in hard tech to make our energy infrastructure more resilient. ⚡️
Lemonade are no-code tools for sovereign communities to build & coordinate on chain!
They have seamlessly powered our ticketing experience for ETH Denver.
@_lemonadesocial
❤️
Week 4 will also feature the Real World Ethereum program, a salon-style event focused on discussion and building for real-world applications of crypto.
Supporting builders is our core focus.
We aim to be a society incubator — a place where the big ideas from crypto, AI, science, and social innovation can be put into tangible practice IRL.
Our weeklong event in Denver is just the beginning! Follow along for more ❤️
The first week will be capped off with the Hard Tech Weekend.
This will be an unconference focused on energy, transportation, aerospace, defense, and manufacturing, led by
@elidourado
🚀
The LabWeek Field Building program will feature leaders from these fields who will share their progress at our popup city this June.
This will be a rare view into what the near-future holds, from the people creating it.
👉
Week 3 will also feature a Cities of Tomorrow track led by Devon Zuegel, the co-organizer of Edge Esmeralda.
Devon is working on a permanent community called Esmeralda, and many of the lessons we’ll learn together in June will inform that project!
Building in the open has been a core principle of our community since the early days of Zuzalu, and we’ve maintained it at Edge City.
@gitcoin
was one of the earliest supporters of the popup city movement, championing the open-source ethos✨
We’re excited to pay it forward.
Week 4 will end with a series of closing salons to cap off everything we learned this month, as well as a traditional closing ceremony 🌞
This list is just a small snippet of the emergent programming throughout the month. We can’t wait to see what we all cocreate!
@pygmo_
@ansonyuu
@socraticainfo
@lizatrykin
has coded since age 9 and has built various projects in biotech from synthesizing breastmilk to a web-app to simulate a bioreactor.
She worked at a YC-backed company before finishing high school and will be building a new biotech project while at Edge Esmeralda ☀️