What is build_?
This is essay #2 of 7 as part of The Tech Progressive Writing Challenge. Join the discussion with build_ in the Discord.
Since the release of the open-sourced whitepaper in July of 2021, the build_community has seen an influx of nearly 600 members, 39 City NFTs claimed, and 4 physical hubs committed to the network. Despite this, we often get asked “what exactly is build_?”
The shortest tangible answer today is that it is a network of physical build_hubs (coworking spaces) with a global digital community layer (gated Discord for now).
The longer answer lies in our mission statement to “build, accommodate, and invest in a collective of innovators vested in the best interests of their respective localities.” Let’s break this down piece-by-piece:
- “build” refers to the community building of innovators.
- “accommodate” refers to the physical build_hubs established for said innovators to work together in.
- “and invest” refers to the capital investments into projects in the build_network.
- “in a collective of innovators” refers to the type of members we seek to attract. This definition is broad and includes the engineers, designers, founders, writers, financial modelers, etc. and anyone else who identifies with the ethos of building something new or even improving something old.
- “vested in the best interests of their respective localities” refers to the offline community development of the cities a member calls home.
While all of this this may not be as clear-cut of a definition such as buying an NBA team or purchasing NFTs, it does accommodate a wide enough boundary that allows for the most potent attribute of all, community vision.
Community Vision
Community vision encompasses the emergent philosophies, ideas, plans, and developments that are driven by the build_community. These are equally essential to the success of build_ as the founding vision outlined above.
Since inception, the community vision has spanned an incredible diversity of possibilities to include some of the following:
“How do we buy an island?”
“Will the passport NFT double as a work visa?”
“Can we fund city infrastructure with the build_ DAO?”
“How do we get a build_hub in Antarctica?”
The answer to all these questions lies in another two part Q&A of “How do we achieve this?” and “Let’s go!!!”
The ending result lies in an honest assessment of what is achievable today with the resources available to the DAO and how to apply those resources towards incremental progress of the defined mission that accommodates as much of the community input as possible.
Phased Approach
In order to accomplish the goals set forth by build_, it is imperative that phases of execution are established on a milestone basis rather than a hard timeline that is difficult to adhere to in such a nascent space as web3. For example, the ideal implementation of phase 3 includes a real estate investment DAO that allows for any and all investors in the DAO to obtain economic rights to the return of the given real estate portfolio. This is not as feasible today (at least in the US) until there is further regulatory maturity/clarity around securities laws for DAO participants. As such, this objective is placed in a later phase of the DAO. That being said, it is entirely possible that a phase 3 objective could be met in a country/region where the regulatory environment allows it while in other regions may be operating longer in phases 1 & 2 for example.
Network Republic
So what does all of the above amount to for build_? In essence, by creating a locally-driven but globally connected collective of innovators, build_ begins to emerge as a “Network Republic” of sorts, with its own governance and economic protocol that connects its build_citizens (NFT passport holders) together. This is done by collectively thinking on a 50+ year time horizon coupled with a sprint-by-sprint approach to driving incremental progress. Are we gonna make it? There’s only one way to find out…
