The Owner's Guide¶
You have your Passport. Here is your map.¶
This page does not explain concepts — the site does that. This page tells you where to find everything, what to do when you're lost, and who to talk to when something goes wrong.
Bookmark it.
How We Govern¶
Smartup Zero is a democracy. Not a corporate one — a real one. Every owner has exactly one vote, regardless of license type or contribution size. Power is earned through service, not purchased with money.
Here is how it works in practice:
The foundation:
- The 8 Ground Rules — the inviolable principles everything else is built on
- The Constitution v2.1 — the full living rulebook. Read at least once.
- Governance rules — how decisions are made, who can make them, and how they're recorded
Your voice:
- Social Karma (SK) — the reputation system that determines your governance weight
- SK privilege thresholds — 50 SK to propose · 100 SK to run for captain · 200 SK for mission leader
- Voting weight — base 1.0, max 1.5 at 500+ SK
Leadership:
- Teams and roles — how captains are elected, what mission leaders do, how teams self-organise
- Our teams right now — live view of the 7 teams and their captains
- Democratic by nature, military in execution — the philosophy behind how we lead
The lazy consensus rule
Most decisions use 48-hour lazy consensus: a proposal is posted, and silence for 48 hours means consent. Only contested proposals go to a full vote. Constitution amendments always require an explicit vote.
How We Work¶
Work in Smartup Zero is structured, paired, and transparent. Nothing happens outside the ledger. Every task is logged, every session is recorded, every credit is traceable.
The operating system:
- The ADM Triangle — Attacker executes, Defender oversees, Midfielder coordinates. Every task, every team, every scale.
- The Buddy System — why you never work alone and what that means in practice
- Tasks and assessments — how work is scored: Effort + Learning + Collaboration (1–10 each)
Getting paid:
- Smartup Credits (SC) — how SC is earned, validated, and what it represents
- The dual currency model — SC (wealth) vs SK (power) — why they are deliberately separate
- Assessment payout table — Excellent 95% · Good 85% · Adequate 70% · Poor 40% · Fail 10%
- Treasury and the 3× rule — why SC redemption has safeguards
Doing the work:
- Current open tasks — live task board
- Current objectives — what we're working toward right now
- Engelbot command reference — every command, grouped by permission level
Your workflow as a contributor:
!open_roles → find a role that fits
!apply → submit your application
!my_tasks → see your assigned work
!start_work → clock in (paired session begins)
!stop_work → clock out (session goes to review)
!wallet → check your SC + SK balance
How We Own Together¶
You are not a user. You are not a customer. You are an owner. That word has specific, constitutional meaning here.
What ownership means:
- Identity and ownership — your alias, your UUID, your Passport. Permanent and auditable.
- The Book of Owners — every owner, publicly listed by alias. Your entry is in here.
- Transparency rules — what is public, what stays private, and why
Your license:
- The 5 license progression — how licenses relate to trust, contribution, and governance rights
- License rights in the constitution — the exact rights and responsibilities of each license type
- From Smartup to market: the ownership model — what collective ownership looks like at scale
The bigger picture:
- The experiment — what Smartup Zero is actually testing and why it matters
- The hypothesis — the three structural adjustments we're making to the standard organisational model
- External subsystem — why this is borderless, SDG-locked, and beyond national jurisdiction
I'm Stuck — Help¶
Things go wrong. Processes are unclear. Engelbot doesn't respond. Here is what to do.
First, check these:
- Contact the researcher — Robbert Schep, founder. Direct contact for anything that can't be resolved otherwise.
- Contact page — general contact options
- Our teams — find the captain of the relevant team
Common situations:
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Haven't received onboarding email after 48h | Contact via Open Collective directly |
!ratify isn't working |
Message a captain in the Matrix workspace |
| Task stuck in wrong status | Message your team captain — only captains can move stuck tasks |
| Disagreement with an assessment | Raise it with your captain — the constitution allows appeals |
| Want to propose a rule change | You need 50 SK first, then use the proposal process in the General Forum |
| Want to recall a captain | Requires a formal governance proposal — see constitution section 8 |
| Something feels unconstitutional | Cite the specific rule, raise in General Forum, request a vote |
The escalation path:
Engelbot → Team Captain → General Forum → Founder
Start at the bottom. Most issues resolve at the team captain level.
Engelbot is not a decision-maker
Engelbot routes and enforces — it never decides. If Engelbot blocks an action and you think it shouldn't, the issue is with permissions or ledger state. Talk to your captain, not the bot.
Quick Reference¶
Everything important, one scannable list.
| Document | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Constitution v2.1 | The full rulebook |
| The 8 Ground Rules | Inviolable principles |
| The Hypothesis | Why this exists |
| The Experiment | What we're testing |
| Methodology | Scientific grounding |
| Page | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Book of Owners | All owners, live |
| Objectives | Active missions |
| Tasks | Open and in-progress work |
| Teams | Team structure |
| Roles | Open and filled roles |
| Financial Transparency | Treasury health |
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
!whoami |
Your identity, roles, status |
!wallet |
SC balance + SK score |
!my_tasks |
Your assigned tasks |
!open_roles |
Available roles |
!apply |
Apply for a role |
!show [ID] |
Look up any entity by ID |
!start_work |
Clock in to a task |
!stop_work |
Clock out, submit for review |
!cancel |
Cancel any active command |
!help |
Full command list |
| Component | What it is |
|---|---|
| SmartupOS Overview | The full laboratory |
| Forgejo | The ledger |
| Element | The workspace interface |
| Engelbot | The middleware bot |
| Serverside | The infrastructure |
| Concept | Where to read |
|---|---|
| Currency system overview | SC + SK explained |
| SC in the constitution | Rules and redemption |
| SK in the constitution | Thresholds and decay |
| Treasury rules | The 3× safeguard |
| Open Collective | Financial home |
Lost and none of this helped? → Contact Robbert ```