Week 2: Reality Reinvented
A closer look at week 2 programming across d/acc, hard tech, governance, and techno-humanism
Tickets are still available. Apply now—once accepted, you’ll choose your week and purchase your ticket. Prices rise every Monday.
Information on day and weekend passes is now available here.
Week 2 of Edge Esmeralda, Reality Reinvented, looks at reality as something built, and asks how we reclaim agency in its reinvention. We’ll examine frameworks for progress, philosophies of technological acceleration, intentional infrastructure, and new governance models. Across four tracks, participants will engage with the tools and principles that will allow us to build resilient, desirable futures.
This week spans:
Hardtech
Techno-humanism
D/acc
Governance Games
Below is an overview of each track: what to expect, who’s involved, and who it’s for.
d/acc week
June 2–6 · Decentralized, democratic, and defensive acceleration
d/acc stands for decentralized, democratic, differential, and defensive acceleration, a framework for advancing technology without concentrating power. Popularized by thinkers like Vitalik Buterin, d/acc asks: How can we accelerate innovation in ways that strengthen resilience, preserve openness, and promote human agency?
This week brings that question to life through collaborative workspaces, philosophical salons, speculative builds, and the launch of Shift Grants, a new funding initiative supporting early-stage projects across biosecurity, cyber defense, information resilience, infrastructure, neurotech, and social technology.
Schedule:
Sun, June 2: Welcome reception and robotics installation opening by Vitaly Bulatov
Mon–Thu (June 3–6):
Morning Builder Space — open coworking for collaboration, dialogue, and prototyping
Afternoon Sessions — Shift Grant lightning talks, philosophical salons, and worldbuilding exercises
Evening Programming — includes a fireside conversation with Bulatov + robot, podcast tapings, a VIP sponsor dinner, and a sci-fi film night with Long Journey
Thu, June 6: Final synthesis session and closing toast
Who’s involved:
Aleksandra Smilek & Lou de K (NODES), Joscha Bach (Liquid AI) ( Vitaly Bulatov (Robonomics), Foresight Institute
Who this is for:
Anyone building in one of d/acc’s six core domains, and anyone passionate about shaping decentralized, democratic, and defensive futures.
Tomorrowland: Hard Tech’s World’s Fair
June 1–June 5 · Applied innovation in robotics, energy, synbio, space, and food systems
Tomorrowland is a weeklong exploration of tangible progress in hard tech, inspired by the spirit of the World’s Fair. Builders working across energy, space, robotics, and synbio will share breakthroughs, test ideas, and connect.
Expect lightning talks, hands-on workshops, house parties, and live demos; from autonomous drones to smart kitchens.
Schedule:
Talks & Workshops — on futurism, applied skills, and lessons from past innovation
Optimistic Film Festival — screenings and panels on visionary futures
House Parties — themed evening mixers with robotics, climate tech, and nanotech demos
Tomorrowland Spectacles — autonomous systems, food robots, self-driving cars in action
Who’s involved:
Cameron Wiese (World’s Fair Company)
Who this is for:
For anyone building in hard tech or real-world infrastructure—or curious about the systems shaping the physical future.
Roots of Progress
June 2–6 · Techno-humanism and the future we want to build
This track explores a practical and collaborative philosophy of progress—seeing science, technology, and industry as tools for human flourishing. Led by writer and researcher Jason Crawford of Roots of Progress, it focuses on identifying the high-leverage, high-agency problems most worth solving and the futures we want to realize over the coming decades. Rather than speculative forecasting, the emphasis is on clarifying priorities and developing a grounded vision for progress.
Schedule:
Morning writing sessions (7:00–10:00am, Hub Boardroom 4))
Daily group discussions (10:00am–12:00pm, Hub Boardroom 4)
Each day will explore a different domain—such as AI, health, energy, or materials—and its implications for human-centered progress
Who’s involved:
Jason Crawford (Roots of Progress)
Who this is for:
Curious individuals and generalists looking to develop a clearer worldview around technological progress.
Governance Games
June 2–6 · Mechanism design, capital allocation, and collective decision-making
GG EE is a live experiment in collective intelligence, capital allocation, and decentralized governance by Butter—focused on advancing Ethereum’s long-term growth objectives.
Over five days, we’ll explore how Conditional Funding Markets (CFMs) and other governance mechanisms can address the Ethereum ecosystem’s growth objectives. Through working sessions, strategy games, and high-context discussions, we’ll design and prototype a CFM to fund Ethereum’s most promising growth initiatives.
The result: a first-of-its-kind governance game, designed, played, and launched by us at Edge Esmeralda.
You can find more information here.
Register your interest in attending GG EE here.
Schedule:
Daily Talks and Workshops on incentive design, forecasting, futarchy, cryptoeconomics, and capital allocation
Unconference Blocks for agenda co-creation throughout the week
Forecasting Bootcamp with experts from Good Judgment—interactive workshops to improve predictive reasoning and strategic decision-making
Hands-on governance wargames using Butter’s Conditional Funding Markets, Michael Zargham’s Polycentric Games, and Network Institutes’s Negation Games
Evening social hours and informal coworking throughout the week
Who’s involved:
Butter, Good Judgment, and contributors from Polygon, George Mason University, University of Colorado, Stanford, Ethereum Foundation, and Harvard.
Who this is for:
Builders, researchers, and ecosystem contributors working on protocol governance—including voting systems, incentive design, forecasting frameworks, funding models, and decision-making infrastructure.
Join us
We have an incredible group joining us for Week 2. If you’re developing a new protocol, writing about progress, designing mechanisms, or figuring out what’s worth building next, you’ll be in good company.
Have questions? Reach out to info@edgeesmeralda.com, we’re happy to help.
— The Edge Esmeralda Team ☀️