You Already Know Something Is Wrong.¶
The systems that should be solving our shared challenges—economic, political, social—are stuck in loops that make the problems worse. You see it.
And you are done just watching.
Maybe you've marched. Maybe you've signed petitions. Maybe you've donated, argued at dinner tables, lost sleep over it.
That energy is exactly what we need. But aimed at something testable.
The Research Question
The crisis is not a lack of knowledge or technology. It is a structural mismatch: the wrong people own the tools, the wrong incentives drive the decisions, and the wrong voices are in the room.
What if we changed the room itself—and measured whether it works?
Smartup Zero is that room. But it is not a movement. It is an open scientific experiment.
We are testing three specific structural changes—democratic ownership, shared institutional memory, and constitutional autonomy—to see if they measurably improve a community’s Collective IQ, against the eight indicators defined by Douglas Engelbart.
We're building it in public, with every decision logged, every euro tracked, and every voice counted equally. You don’t just join. You become part of the data that answers the research question.
This Experiment Is for You If…¶
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You have a skill and want to use it
Design, code, writing, science, strategy, operations. Every talent generates experimental data. You earn Smartup Credits (SC) for completed tasks— a real claim on the treasury.
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You have a voice and want to use it
The experiment needs to be visible. Storytellers, campaigners, community builders—amplify the research and earn Social Karma (SK), the reputation currency that unlocks governance.
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You want to observe, learn, and vote
Not ready to jump into tasks? That is valuable. As a citizen-observer you have full transparency into the live experiment and one equal vote in every governance decision.
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Your organisation wants to participate
NGOs, research institutes, collectives—your organisation gets one seat at the table. Not one per member. One. Equal. Vote. One data point in the governance telemetry.
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You want to start your own experiment
The research programme is open and replicable. If you have a mission aligned with the SDGs and a community ready to test the hypothesis, you can launch a Smartup.
What Makes This Experiment Different¶
There are many projects asking for your energy. Here is why participation here matters for science—and for you.
In Smartup Zero, money buys you a licence—not a louder voice. Every owner has exactly one vote. Whether you contributed €0 or €5,000.
Influence is earned through Social Karma (SK)—a reputation score built by showing up, doing the work, and being recognised by peers. It decays if you go quiet. It cannot be purchased.
The person with the most governance weight is the person who served the most. This is not a value statement. It is an experimental condition.
Every euro in the treasury. Every task completed. Every SC earned. Every vote cast. All of it is logged in an append-only ledger and published here on this site—automatically, in real time.
No backroom deals. No hidden equity. No founder shares. The ledger is the experimental record. You can audit it yourself.
Smartup Zero has no headquarters, no national jurisdiction, no "local chapter" gatekeeping. If you have internet access and a skill to contribute, you are eligible to participate.
The experiment is global because the problems it studies do not stop at borders.
The organisation's mission is constitutionally locked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It cannot be pivoted away by a founder, an investor, or a majority vote.
This is the external intervention we are testing: does a locked mission improve long‑term planning and coordination (Indicators 7 and 8)?
How You Enter the Experiment¶
You do not need to understand the full apparatus to get started. Here is the minimum you need to know.
flowchart LR
A["1. Choose a licence\n(from €0, via Open Collective)"]
--> B["2. Get onboarded\nA captain creates your identity.\nYou connect via Matrix."]
--> C["3. Take your first action\nVote. Claim a task.\nAmplify a story."]
--> D["4. Generate data\nYour actions are logged in the ledger.\nThey become experimental telemetry."]
--> E["5. Earn influence\nSK unlocks governance.\nCaptains are elected, not appointed."]The Goal of Onboarding
By the time you complete your first action—a vote cast, a task claimed, a story shared—you should feel one thing:
"I contributed to something real."
Not filled out a form. Not joined a mailing list. Something real, logged permanently in the experimental record, that moved the research forward.
Where to Go Next¶
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Ready to join the experiment?
The practical steps: from Open Collective to verified owner. Everything you need to know before you commit.
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Already in? Find your way around.
Your map to the entire system—governance, work, ownership, and what to do when you are lost.
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What does a normal day look like?
One participant, one day, every layer of the system— in the order you will actually encounter them.
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Want to start your own experiment?
The research programme is open. If you have a mission aligned with an SDG and a community ready to test the hypothesis, you can launch the next Smartup.
One More Thing¶
This is a scientific experiment. Not a startup pitch. Not a movement with merch.
We do not know if the Smartup model outperforms the traditional startup. That is the hypothesis we are testing.
What we do know is that the traditional model—where ownership concentrates, power compounds, and decisions drift away from the people affected by them— is not working for most of the planet.
So we are running an experiment. Carefully. Transparently. With your help.
You will not be a user. You will not be a customer.
You will be a participant in the research. And an owner of the lab.