"Weaving wisdom for a new era - Ancient Wisdom, Modern Knowledge, and Planetary Minds".

xBound is a highly curated gathering that brings diverse voices and fosters deeper dialogue about decentralized governance with participants from the East and West + Rest.

While there is a growing interest in decentralized organizing and governance, the predominant dialogue in the past 10 years focus solely on software tooling, token design, intellectual/academic frameworks, and have mostly been Western centric worldviews. Our industry overlooks the crucial human component or "humanware" and the centuries of wisdom ancestors have spent experimenting with decentralized coordination, community building, and governance. Many of these aspects still live in different cultures in the East, but are overlooked.

xBound emerged in 2023 to convene builders, researchers, theorists, and practioners from very diverse background to get below the surface level dialogue and get into the practicalities of decentralized organizing, the philosophies that influence our work, and the inner and collective work needed to make Web3 ecosystem successful.

We intentionally focus on diversity of backgrounds and experiences in crypto and create a safe space to invite all types of participants to share their wisdom about collective practices and challenges.

Our ultimate goal is to formulate an inclusive narrative around Web3, explore ways to make it less biased, and seed new research + initiatives that further explore human centric design. Without this approach, we risk repeating past errors and potentially creating a scarier system devoid of any soul. We hope to see more events beyond xBound that focus on intentional human and cultural bridge buliding.

✨ Why We are Building it

“The blockchain ecosystem is generally focused on western historical contexts. What can we learn from historical parallels from outside the western tradition?” - from EF Academic Grants Round 2023 Wishlist.

• East & The Rest:

A Global PerspectivexBound challenges the notion that the 'world' in 'world-changing technology' is synonymous with the West. It recognizes the vast and varied landscapes of the East and other regions, emphasizing the need for a mosaic of values, stories, and narratives to create vibrant and thriving ecosystems. By bringing together drivers of decentralized organizing (with software and in real life) from all corners of the globe, including Asian communities and those curious about decentralized organizing outside the traditional Western sphere, xBound aspires to build a truly inclusive and globally representative platform.

• Ancient Future: Learning from the PastContrary to popular belief, Decentralizations are not a novel invention. xBound stresses the importance of learning from the decentralized organizational technologies and knowledge practiced by our ancestors.

By understanding and applying these ancient principles to contemporary challenges, we can forge a path that honors our past while innovating for the future.

• Transformative Journey: Embracing DAOism

It is more than a normal residency; it's a transformative journey that emphasizes culture, connection, and community. xBound offers an immersive experience, fostering connections that engage the mind, hand, and heart. Attendees will find themselves in a setting where sovereign individuals engage with collectivist, relational cultures. They'll have the opportunity to meet local community builders, discuss various approaches to common challenges, and collectively seek solutions.

🖼 Residency Design

The sessions will be co-designed and facilitated with participants through a mix open spaces and curated anchor conversations. Participants will have spacious time for their own work, research, and resting during the residency. From past experience, we have found that embedding ourselves in the local culture and historical context creates a richer experience.

We use AoW (Art of Weaving) framework to design the space.

✅ What we've done so far

We have already completed several events, including SeoulBound in South Korea with an aim to connect wisdom and learning across East and Rest with an aim to center local perspectives in facilitating decentralized governance.

👫🏻 Participant Curation

We focus on bringing a very diverse group of people, that goes beyond the usual scope of crypto gatherings, adding perspectives from practioners in the worlds outside of crypto. These include: community organizers, researchers, developers, DAO initiators, political leaders, ecosystem drivers, educator, artists, activists and folks building tools.

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