Start Here¶
From curious observer to active participant — in four steps.¶
This page is for people who are ready to stop reading and start generating data. It tells you exactly what happens when you enter the experiment, in the order it happens. No surprises.
Step 1 — Choose Your Licence on Open Collective¶
Everything starts at one place:
opencollective.com/smartup-zero
Open Collective is the experiment's financial infrastructure. It is an open, transparent platform where every transaction—every licence purchase, every expense, every euro in the treasury—is publicly visible. No hidden accounts. No mystery funds.
When you contribute there, you are not buying a product. You are funding the research programme and receiving ownership in the experiment in return.
Open Collective Is the Treasury
The euros you contribute sit in the Open Collective treasury. They are the real-world backing behind Smartup Credits (SC). Every SC earned by a participant represents a future €1 claim on that treasury. The redemption mechanism is being built transparently, in the open, as part of the experiment itself.
The 4 Licences¶
| Licence | Contribution | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | €0 | Tell the story of the experiment. Earn your Watch or Work licence by gathering Social Karma (SK). |
| Watch | €100+ | Vote in governance. Full transparency into the live experimental data. |
| Work | €200+ | Join a team. Claim tasks. Generate telemetry by doing real work. Earn SC. |
| Organisational | €5,000+ | One institutional seat. One equal vote. Appoint delegates to participate. |
Minimum contributions, not fixed prices
These are minimums. You are free to contribute more—and many do, because they believe in the research. But contributing more gives you no extra votes, no extra power, no extra shares. One participant. One voice. That is the experimental condition.
On the Founder Role
There is no Founder Licence to buy. Founders are not investors— they are people who have proven their commitment through sustained contribution and peer-granted Social Karma. If you want to become a founder, start with a Work Licence and show up consistently. The community will recognise you when the evidence supports it.
Step 2 — Watch Your Inbox (Within 48 Hours)¶
After your Open Collective contribution is confirmed, two things happen:
Immediately: Open Collective sends you an automated confirmation email. It contains instructions for the next step—how to register your identity and what information to prepare.
Within 48 hours: A team captain processes your information and runs the onboarding script that creates your identity in the SmartupOS ledger. You will receive a follow-up message with your next instructions.
This is currently a human-in-the-loop process
We are in Pre-Validation phase—building the laboratory, not yet running the fully automated experiment. The 48-hour window is our commitment to you. If you have not heard anything after 48 hours, reach out via Open Collective.
Step 3 — Ratify Your Identity¶
Once your captain has created your ledger entry, you will be invited to join
the Matrix workspace at owners.smartup0.org.
Matrix is the experiment's communication layer—a federated, open-source, EU-sovereign alternative to Slack or Discord. Think of it as the room where all the work happens and all the data is generated.
When you join, you will find Engelbot waiting for you. Engelbot is the automated middleware that connects your Matrix identity to your ledger record. Your first command will be:
!ratify
Engelbot will walk you through a short confirmation sequence. At the end of it, your Smartup Passport is issued—a permanent, cryptographically-linked record that ties your Matrix alias to your participant identity in the ledger.
From this moment, you are a verified participant in Experiment #1.
What the Passport Means
Your Passport is not a PDF or a certificate. It is a markdown file in an append-only ledger, timestamped and signed, permanently auditable by anyone. It records your licence type, your alias, and the moment you entered the experiment.
It cannot be revoked, altered, or deleted. It is a permanent data point in the experimental record.
Step 4 — Take Your First Action (Generate Your First Data)¶
This is the step that matters most. Not because the action is large— it probably will not be—but because it is real.
It will be logged. Permanently. In a transparent ledger. Alongside every other action taken by every other participant, going back to the first day of the experiment.
What your first action looks like depends on how you entered:
Your first action: Find an open communications task and claim it.
You are here to tell the story of the experiment. That might mean writing a post, creating content, reaching out to a community, or translating material into your language.
Type !my_tasks in the workspace to see what is available.
Type !open_roles to find a role that fits your skills.
Every completed task earns you Social Karma (SK)— the reputation metric that, over time, can grow into governance authority. Your actions generate data for the Authority Concentration Index (Indicator 4).
Your first action: Cast your first vote.
You have full visibility into the entire experiment. Every objective, every task, every euro—you can see it all. And when a governance proposal comes up, your vote counts exactly as much as anyone else's.
Type !whoami to see your profile.
Type !show 5_0 to see the global research overview.
Explore the General Forum to understand the current proposals.
Your vote becomes a data point in the Decision Participation Rate (Indicator 4).
Your first action: Apply for a role and claim your first task.
Type !open_roles to see what teams are looking for.
Type !apply to start a role application.
Once assigned, type !my_tasks to see your task queue.
Then: !start_work → do the work → !stop_work.
That cycle—start, work, stop—logs a work session, moves the task to review, and sets you up for your first Smartup Credits (SC) assessment. Your task becomes data for Contribution Velocity (Indicator 3) and Task Assessment Distribution (Indicator 8).
Your first action: Register your organisation's delegates.
Your captain will guide you through the group onboarding process. Once your organisation is registered in the ledger, you can appoint individual members as workers—each of whom joins the same workflow as any Work Licence holder.
Your organisation has one vote in governance. Always. Individual workers you appoint contribute and earn on their own merit. This structure tests whether institutional participation changes governance dynamics (Indicator 4).
The Short Version¶
flowchart LR
A["💳 Choose licence\nopencollective.com/\nsmartup-zero"]
--> B["📬 Check email\nInstructions arrive\nwithin 48 hours"]
--> C["🤝 Join Matrix\nRun !ratify\nPassport issued"]
--> D["⚡ First action\nVote, claim a task,\nor tell the story"]
--> E["📊 Generate data\nYour actions become\nexperimental telemetry"]Questions Before You Enter the Experiment?¶
That is completely reasonable. This is not a newsletter signup. You are entering a pre-registered scientific experiment in collective governance. Take the time you need.
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Understand all four licence paths
Rights, responsibilities, and earning potential for each path into the experiment.
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How does SC work?
How credits are earned, validated, and what they represent as a claim on the treasury.
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What is Social Karma?
The reputation metric that separates wealth from governance authority. This is one of the key variables we are testing.
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Understand the research first
Why does this experiment exist? What hypothesis is being tested? Start with the observation.
When you are ready to enter the experiment:
Ways to Participate¶
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Join Smartup Zero
Become an participant in the first experiment.
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Start Your Own Smartup
Take SmartupOS and run your own experiment.
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Sponsor the Research
Support Timeline0 and Smartup Zero through funding.
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Collaborate as Researcher
Work on the research programme itself.