Part 1: The Design of Extraction — Strategic Position Asymmetry as the Core Mechanism

Extraction is not about greed; it's about strategic position asymmetry. This part diagnoses how information advantage + leverage + enforcement + positional control creates extractive systems across every era.

Part 2: How to Recognize Extractive Patterns — Reading Which Force Is Winning

Regeneration and extraction coexist in every system. Learn the diagnostic framework through four case studies (Gitcoin, Lido, Uniswap, Octant) that show what structural regeneration actually looks like.

Part 3: The Architecture of Prevention — Six Layers That Make Extraction Structurally Harder

The six interdependent layers of Prevolutionary Architecture: sensemaking, regenerative capital, transparency with comprehension, distributed governance, hardening constraints, and culture. Each one strengthens the system when exercised.

Part 4: When DAOs Snap — Aave's Crisis as a Tensegrity Problem (And How to Fix It)

Theory meets practice. Aave's fee-switch crisis exemplifies how implicit tensions snap under load. Four concrete engineering fixes (fee splitter, constitution, mediation council, information automation) show how to design organizations that evolve through balanced opposition.

Extraction is a design problem, not a moral one. Every system—DAOs, protocols, companies, cities—cycles through: extraction intensifies → backlash happens → disruption resets everything → new extractors emerge. We call this devolution: rotation without evolution.

This series shows a third way: Prevolution. Pre-engineered structural evolution that upgrades the system before crises force it. When capital regenerates instead of depletes, when mechanisms mathematically favor many voices over few, when contradictory forces are balanced explicitly rather than hidden- extraction becomes a worse strategy than building.

This is a field guide for protocol designers, DAO builders, founders, and anyone scaling systems that need to stay regenerative.

• For the quick framework: Start with Part 3 for the six-layer architecture and how to instantiate it.

• For the foundation: Begin with Part 1 to understand the mechanism that everything operates against.

• For the full arc: Read 1 → 4 in order. Each part builds conceptually, and Part 4 shows how all three prior parts solve a real organizational crisis.

• Strategic Position Asymmetry: Information + leverage + enforcement + position as the extraction mechanism

• Devolution: The extraction-backlash-disruption cycle that repeats across eras

• Prevolution: Structural evolution before crisis, not crisis-driven adaptation

• Regenerative Defense: Protective mechanisms that strengthen the system when exercised (vs. degenerative defense that just holds back erosion)

• Tensegrity: Maintaining integrity through balanced opposing forces, applied to organizational design

• Integrity Through Motion: Organizations engineered to deform under load, rebalance, and strengthen

• Six Layers of Architecture: Sensemaking, capital formation, transparency, governance, constraints, culture

Each part stands alone but the series is a conversation. If you're building systems with these frameworks, designing governance that needs to resist capture, or seeing these patterns in your protocols and organizations—the work matters.

The field needs architects who can make extraction structurally harder than regeneration.

Part 1: The Design of Extraction — Strategic Position Asymmetry as the Core Mechanism

Extraction is not about greed; it's about strategic position asymmetry. This part diagnoses how information advantage + leverage + enforcement + positional control creates extractive systems across every era.

Part 2: How to Recognize Extractive Patterns — Reading Which Force Is Winning

Regeneration and extraction coexist in every system. Learn the diagnostic framework through four case studies (Gitcoin, Lido, Uniswap, Octant) that show what structural regeneration actually looks like.

Part 3: The Architecture of Prevention — Six Layers That Make Extraction Structurally Harder

The six interdependent layers of Prevolutionary Architecture: sensemaking, regenerative capital, transparency with comprehension, distributed governance, hardening constraints, and culture. Each one strengthens the system when exercised.

Part 4: When DAOs Snap — Aave's Crisis as a Tensegrity Problem (And How to Fix It)

Theory meets practice. Aave's fee-switch crisis exemplifies how implicit tensions snap under load. Four concrete engineering fixes (fee splitter, constitution, mediation council, information automation) show how to design organizations that evolve through balanced opposition.

Extraction is a design problem, not a moral one. Every system—DAOs, protocols, companies, cities—cycles through: extraction intensifies → backlash happens → disruption resets everything → new extractors emerge. We call this devolution: rotation without evolution.

This series shows a third way: Prevolution. Pre-engineered structural evolution that upgrades the system before crises force it. When capital regenerates instead of depletes, when mechanisms mathematically favor many voices over few, when contradictory forces are balanced explicitly rather than hidden- extraction becomes a worse strategy than building.

This is a field guide for protocol designers, DAO builders, founders, and anyone scaling systems that need to stay regenerative.

• For the quick framework: Start with Part 3 for the six-layer architecture and how to instantiate it.

• For the foundation: Begin with Part 1 to understand the mechanism that everything operates against.

• For the full arc: Read 1 → 4 in order. Each part builds conceptually, and Part 4 shows how all three prior parts solve a real organizational crisis.

• Strategic Position Asymmetry: Information + leverage + enforcement + position as the extraction mechanism

• Devolution: The extraction-backlash-disruption cycle that repeats across eras

• Prevolution: Structural evolution before crisis, not crisis-driven adaptation

• Regenerative Defense: Protective mechanisms that strengthen the system when exercised (vs. degenerative defense that just holds back erosion)

• Tensegrity: Maintaining integrity through balanced opposing forces, applied to organizational design

• Integrity Through Motion: Organizations engineered to deform under load, rebalance, and strengthen

• Six Layers of Architecture: Sensemaking, capital formation, transparency, governance, constraints, culture

Each part stands alone but the series is a conversation. If you're building systems with these frameworks, designing governance that needs to resist capture, or seeing these patterns in your protocols and organizations—the work matters.

The field needs architects who can make extraction structurally harder than regeneration.