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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:

Your voice:

Leadership:

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:

Doing the work:

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:

Your license:

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:

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 ```