Community Archipelago

These are notes I wrote in October 2020 when brainstorming the future of distributed and decentralized cities. These would go on to inspire crypto co-ops and Montanoso.

Assumptions

• Remote work is more common in the future.
• Desire for more community.
• Move away from poorly-run, high-cost metros.

Future vision

• Small communities built around shared values.
• Archipelago of neighborhoods designed, funded, and built by their members.
• Modern management incorporating ideas from Radical Markets.
• Potentially outside urban centers and even off grid.
• Connected via sparse road network and flying taxis.

Radical HOA

• Quadratic voting.
• Dominant assurance contracts for funding.
• Community values and rules and regs as a version-controlled doc.
• Community proposals for changes to software-based management, ala crypto governance.
• HOA owned by community as voting shares / governance coins.

Neighborhood design

• A community design language that is codified, potentially as software code.

Adjacent software / services

• Community water district management.
• Community electric / solar.
• Funding mechanisms (for constructing new shared amenities and buildings).
• Venue leasing / booking tools (for community areas, rental units, etc.).
• Community aesthetics / automated design.

Revenue streams

• Software licensing.
• Equity in HOA.
• Financial services / lending for new buildings / ventures.
• Cut of leasing / booking revenue.
• Add-ons such as water district management.