Vitalik on ZUZALU - Exploring Cyber ​​Nation and Connecting Online and Offline Communities

My name is Jazzy, and as an engineer at Matters Lab, I was honored to participate in Zuzalu's co-living experience in Montenegro. In fact, Zuzalu is a two-month crypto city experiment with topics including longevity, core Ethereum themes, cyber-states, and synthetic biotechnology themes. The topics of concern in this group are different. On the one hand, the mainstream from the United States has begun to explore the possibility of combining zero-knowledge proof with machine learning; the builders from Zimbabwe are still looking for the simplest and usable infrastructure in Web3. encrypted wallet.

For two months, I felt deeply empowered, and I was extremely grateful for the bodhisattva-like devotion of the core team. However, after spending the first month, I began to feel the social pressure and exhaustion brought about by the geographical isolation, and my mind was crowded with the desire of various people to bring various opinions. At the same time, I was able to distance myself and start a moment of reflection and precipitation. I and K from the Uncommons community began to interview other residents of Zuzalu.

In this interview, I had the pleasure of talking with Vitalik, the main founder of Ethereum, and my impression of him is: Bodhisattva. At breakfast on our first day, someone came up with the topic of longevity, so I said to him, "There is a Chinese proverb: If you hear the Tao in the morning, you can die in the evening." He is fluent in Chinese and can even read traditional characters. Later, when I saw him on many occasions, I would not take the initiative to bother him. I asked him what was the longest time he was alone in Zuzalu, and he replied four hours, which was when he walked alone. Once at a community dinner, he took the initiative to join our table. I noticed that he was a little tired, so I said: "Hey, I can see that you are very tired today. You don't need to be pressured to talk. Take a good rest." Every time we met, he always offered to say hello. I invited him to do an interview about the Zuzalu community, and it just kind of happened.

Vitalik on how ZUZALU came to be

I started thinking about Zuzalu about six months ago, and I've been thinking about a lot of similar ideas before that. Last year I reviewed Balaji's book "Network Nation", which I read and wrote about; at the same time I started thinking about crypto cities, both of which are topics of great interest to me: for example, creating a new City? Or bringing an online community to the offline world, trying to bring people together, what difference does each mean? I want to make cryptocurrencies more practical and less abstract for the general public. Seeing the challenges many face in finding a new home in 2022, I thought those ideas were too theoretical, and to bridge the gap between theory and reality, I wanted to conduct an experiment that was both ambitious and manageable. Build bridges between the Ethereum community and other groups across the globe, reminding them they are part of a larger world. As someone who is passionate about decentralized governance ideas, cryptography, and philosophy, I wanted to see what these concepts would look like in a brick-and-mortar community. Creating a community that embodies the intersection of these ideas was a natural next step.

create network effects

Balaji's book, Cyber ​​Nation, tells the story of an online community gaining autonomy and diplomatic recognition, eventually becoming a new nation. I've realized that trying to gain sovereignty is difficult. There are often simpler solutions, such as gaining autonomy in one area, or having a more open immigration policy. Creating network effects in countries that are already conducive to what I want to do may be more practical than building a sovereign entity from scratch. Through experimentation I found the necessity of the network state, especially considering a situation like the Russo-Ukrainian war, the most basic foundation is the community. Think about people who have been forced to leave their hometowns, not knowing where to go or who to trust. The community solves the most basic problems for them.

Zuzalu autonomy

In terms of autonomy, Zuzalu's experiments demanded very little from the Montenegrin government. We tried to make it easier for people from non-western countries to participate on issues such as visas, but most of the time it didn't work, it required more planning in advance. Other than that, the experiment was just finding a space to bring 200 people together to create a community of intent over two months. I believe in taking a pragmatic approach to problem solving and ensuring that community-building work solves or responds to real problems in society.

Vitalik offline community experience

In the early days of my nomadic life, I participated in two offline communities with different political leanings, and had practices similar to the concepts mentioned above. One is the Capitalist Liberal Community in New Hampshire, also known as the Free State Project. Their goal is to bring together 20,000 people of liberal faith to move to New Hampshire to influence policy and make it the most liberal state in America. Back in 2013, I rented an apartment from someone I found on a bitcoin forum and paid for it in bitcoin. I interacted with the community and even participated in an outdoor camping event called Pork Fest, where there were conferences, vegan restaurants that accepted Bitcoin as payment.

Another community, called Calafou, is located in Spain and is part of the Catalan Integral Cooperative. They have left anarchist beliefs and aim to replace the basic functions of the existing government. They started running their own schools and hospitals, had houses for people to live in in rural areas, and even produced furniture. I spent about a month and a half in an abandoned factory, which was divided equally between the people there and the returnees from traditional farming. While I'm a bit critical of certain aspects, there's also something fascinating going on there.

Organized the core team and settled in Lustica Bay in Montenegro

The Zuzalu idea was developed from my own reading and thinking, and working as a team helped me fill in the details quickly. In fact, inspiration does not come from specific articles or books, but from personal experience . I contacted my acquaintances: Miloš, Nicole and Vincent to form the core team. They later brought more people. Nicole brought in young developers, and Vincent knew the kind of professionals he could invite in the longevity field. I asked Miloš to handle the logistics and he suggested to do it in Montenegro because Montenegro is open to being crypto and tech friendly, so the idea was to create a partnership between Montenegro and the Ethereum tech community. Why choose Lustica Bay, is not to make it luxurious. I would actually prefer it to be more affordable financially if I could, I don't want to do something that only benefits a few people, but there are too many restrictions. In order for this experiment to be successful, I know we must have a high quality of life. If the quality is low, discomfort can distract people from important things.

Highlights of life at Zuzalu

Highlights of living in Zuzalu include the events that pop up, independently organized by members of the community, and the joy of spending extended periods of time with people I want to talk to. In fact, it was the first time since college that I had been in one place for an extended period of time, a stark contrast to my usual nomadic lifestyle.

However, this one-off experiment, organized very quickly, also caused certain problems. For example, it was still expensive and required subsidies to operate. Educationally it was challenged, while some topics were introduced, there was not enough spaced repetition to solidify knowledge. While it has been successful with exercise and food, tracking biomarkers has not lived up to expectations. In the end, despite the joy and some positive outcomes of the campaign, there was a lack of understanding of its long-term goals. It may not be worth repeating this activity every year without a clear purpose.

Wishlist for the next Zuzalu

On a scale of 0-10, I would rate my Zuzalu experience a 9. I hope we can achieve many things in Zuzalu: more cryptocurrency payment scenarios, stronger artistic elements. I also hope to introduce more topics such as computer privacy and safe use of devices. When it comes to health, we have countless dimensions to explore. A more ambitious goal is to develop Zuzalu into a crypto-friendly, eco-friendly and foreigner-friendly city in Montenegro. Maybe even extend this concept to other small countries willing to adopt innovative and friendly policies. What I don't want is for this event to become an annual gathering with no real impact.

The last and scalable product left by Zuzalu should be Zupass, and now the Ethereum wallet can be verified from within Zupass. I also envision a future where people can reset their Zupass using their Ethereum wallet, which could make private key management much easier.

What? Do you want me to recommend vegan dessert recipes for community dinners? it's here: