Africa as a region is experiencing growth rapidly than any other region in the world leading to urbanization and increased need for infrastructure and technology, and at the same time the finances needed to achieve their goals. To the population of Africa, cities present opportunities to improve lives and livelihoods. From serving our most basic needs to enabling our most ambitious ventures in trade and technology, cities' infrastructure and services should aspire to support our well being and development.

African cities find themselves in a position demanding transformation in order to meet the needs of the residents as well as open up economies to the world. The modern narratives and systems of development and growth are failing in meeting these challenges. Design of African cities needs rethinking, remodelling and reworking to face the urgent challenges of sustainability. Cities function only if there is provision of public goods for all citizens, and if there is an institutional and regulatory framework, which can harness market forces for economic opportunities and well being for all.

While this is happening, Innovation, in decentralized systems and Blockchain technology continue to disrupt everyday life in cities across the world. However, African cities remain behind when it comes to adoption and utilization of such technologies and systems, citing the high level of risk involved.

Science and Technology Parks have become an established part of innovation infrastructure in many economies. The vision for these Science and Technology Parks is to develop a knowledge base and technical skill of communities for innovation growth in the economy.

The title of the paper is: The Role of Science and Technology Parks(STPs) and Areas of Innovation(AOIs) in promoting decentralized technologies in African cities. The paper seeks to argue that STPs and AOIs should play within a different technology and finacial regulatory framework, to provide an environment for experimentation with disruptive technologies such as Blockchain technology, before these solutions are rolled out at scale.

The paper delves into the conversation of the challenges facing African Cities, and residents, and the failing urbanization model. The narrative here is failing urban economic development. The paper also goes ahead to present a changing landscape of innovation globally based on Blockchain technology. Focus of the innovations are in three areas:

• Solutions for growth of African urban areas by improved investments

• Solutions for urban challenges in real life found on Blockchain

• Solutions for development of innovation and technology communities in African cities

Using global cities, African cities must take lessons on what to do and what not to do. As such, using global example, African cities can begin to understand their challenge and solution. Miami is a city with a population of about 6 million residents and a GDP of $151 billion. Nairobi is a city with a population of about 5 million residents and GDP of $15 billion. CityCoin, a Blockchain innovation just earned the city of Miami over $21 million in less that one year during the financial year 2021/2022. Think about the impact of such on economic density here in Nairobi.

The power of DAOs is also coming in very powerfully  and transforming how cities are build, owned, financed.

The theory is that African cities have low economic density ddue to the production of locally consumed goods and non-transferable goods and services that trap cities into low economic growth. This is further compounded by the 'Dutch Disease' which observes that cities relying on natural resources for growth often choke out other industries and sectors in the city since all services are directed to the natural resources.

If that is the case, then it is worth it to at least experiment with Blockchain technology and decentralized systems in the safely of STPs and AOIs as we seek solutions to the challenges facing African cities. STPs and AOIs need to act as sandboxes for urban development and growth in Africa.

Technology and innovations is today's global commodity and African cities are in critical need for these technologies and innovations.

That’s all for this week people.

Thanks for sticking around all the way to the end of this post.

You can always connect with us on our social media (Twitter / Instagram);

Our team email is: team@de-plan.net

If you have committed the cardinal sin of not subscribing yet, do that ASAP and we won’t disappoint; till then, bye’s!

The last two weeks have been about getting you up to speed with some foundational terms, introducing ourselves and communicating our work.Our plan this week is to get you acquainted with how our community works, what the intent behind our structure is and more about our structure.

Tokens are digital assets that represent some value. In our case, de_plan tokens represent how much of the community a member owns. Members earn tokens based on their contribution to the community and receive remuneration from our internal projects based on their token ownership.Tokens also dictate how our community is structured and how it operates; so it’s important to know how they work if you intend to join us or work with us.

Community Roles

DAO’s by nature are free flowing and loosely organized; in such environments, it’s hard to ensure an even distribution of resources and measure everyone’s commitment to the work being done. Community roles are designed to ensure that active participants in the community receive their due and are encouraged to continue their engagement.

Note: In no way does this structure represent a hierarchy.

Studio Contributor (S)

How to become one : Invite / Application The studio is where everyone starts. Studio contributors can work on projects and research; but their tokens do not translate into voting power and remuneration privileges until they qualify to become members.

Member (M)

How to become one : Min. Token Holding + At Least 1 project sourced into the community + At Least 1 active project within the community. Members form the core of de_plan. They are participants in all decisions and have an active role in all organizational functions.

Core Members (C)

How to become one : Min. Token Holding + At Least 1 project sourced into the community + At Least 1 active project within the community +  Part of the team that developed the community. Core Members are the same as Members for all intents and purposes. The role exists however to direct and manage the work of the DAO in its early stages.

Apart from the community roles, we have a number of other roles that members often take-up to help the community grow. You can learn more about these roles here.

What does this structure mean?

In essence, this structure is a governance model. This structure helps us determine a few things:

1. Who has contributed to the DAO regularly ?

2. Who is a reliable member to lead a new internal project ?

3. Whose contributions have enabled us to grow internal projects ?

And this lets us reward members for their contributions fairly, and to devolve decision making in a gradual manner to these trusted members. It also means that all members have skin in the game, and their actions that help the community are incentivized.

Web3 Work

While we do IRL projects as part of our three vertical areas of focus (check here); our internal work is geared toward bringing Web3 solutions to cities. Collectively, the DAO is working toward building solutions that allow communities to take control of their future and develop their neighborhoods as they choose. And the teams working on these projects are building value for everyone in the community in the long-term; naturally this means that they get rewarded financially and also in the form of tokens.

Simultaneously, the teams working on other projects are bringing in the funds that support the work teams do in Web3 (for now).

It makes sense therefore, for us to pool all the funds we generate from Web3 work and share them evenly based on token holdings every so often.

How are tokens valued ?

Our token’s value is tied directly to the amount of funds generated by the community. Members receive a 1:1 match in tokens for how much they earn as part of the community. So at any point in time, the value of one de_plan token is equal to

Total Community Product / Total No of Tokens held by members

Can tokens be purchased to gain membership ?

This is a decision we believe is best taken by the community at large, and we will be voting on it soon. Subscribe and we'll keep you posted.

Isn’t this a complicated process just to keep track of contributions ?

Having a token based system allows us to keep voting, reimbursement and payments on chain. Since the community is global, this allows us to maintain trust and operate via smart contracts.

That’s all for this week folks. Thanks for sticking around.

We’re working on something exciting, so we kept this post short. Next week, we’ll tell you more about our work; we’ll start with the first project post and introduce the members working on it (without doxxing them).

If you are going to be at the Solana Hacker House in Bengaluru next week, come say hi!

You can learn more about what we’re buidl-ing and how we plan to develop Web3 tools for cities.

You can always connect with us on our social media (Twitter / Instagram);

Our team email is : team@de-plan.net

If you have committed the cardinal sin of not subscribing yet, do that ASAP and we won’t disappoint; till then, byes’s!

Let’s Go

The textbook definition of a blockchain is: A digitally distributed, decentralized, immutable public ledger that exists across a network. Which Is quite a mouthful.

Let’s break it down

Simply; A blockchain is a system for recording information(ledger) in a way that makes it almost impossible to change(immutable) or hack the system. Blockchain being decentralized and distributed has implications beyond crypto and finance.

1. Greater Trust

2. Enhanced Security

3. Greater Efficiency

What’s a Smart Contract?

A set of rules- commonly referred to as smart contract is stored on the blockchain and executed automatically. A smart contract can define conditions for several things like legal bond transfers, insurance payments, voting and proposals and much more. Expanding on what we discussed above, the concepts can be applied to any multi-step transaction where traceability and visibility is required. Some of the popular use cases include Supply Chain, Healthcare, Government, Retail etc.

Before we move further,here are a few terms to clear things up:

1. Block: Blocks are data structures within the blockchain that store all the transactional data permanently.

2. Node: Nodes are the computers/servers that are a part of the blockchain network. Ideally, a blockchain consists of numerous blocks of data and these blocks of data are stored on nodes.

3. Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that is used as a medium of exchange through a computer network without having any central authority for maintenance. Transactions are carried out with the help of cryptocurrencies like eth, sol etc.

4. Token: A token is a digital asset that does not have a native blockchain. For example, Solana is a blockchain and its native coin/cryptocurrency is sol. However, there are tokens like serum for example that operate on this blockchain.

5. Protocol: A protocol is a crucial component of Blockchain that enables secure and reliable data sharing automatically across cryptocurrency networks.

What is Web3?

Web3.0 is an internet powered by blockchains. Let us take the example of internet browsing. The traditional Web2.0 is an internet of databases i.e., databases present at a central server to send and receive information. Web3.0 on the other hand, is decentralized, meaning that instead of availing services mediated by tech giants like "FAANG"; individuals own and govern the internet all by themselves. Web3.0 makes use of blockchains to store information. Interconnecting data in a decentralized manner would be a huge leap forward to our current generation of the internet, where data is mostly stored in centralized repos.

Let us take a step ahead and try to understand what DAOs are. DAO is abbreviated as Decentralized Autonomous Organization.

A DAO is like a collective/community typically operating under a shared goal, with equal decision-making capabilities. DAOs are flat and fully democratized organizations with full transparency. The backbone of any DAO is its Smart Contract. DAOs have built-in treasuries that no one has the authority to access without the approval of the group. Decisions and Strategies are governed by proposals and voting to ensure everyone in the organization has a point to make.

A few examples of DAO include:

1. Uniswap: An efficient DeFi protocol for altcoin exchange and also the largest DAO in the market today.

2. Invictus: Invictus DAO aims to build a reserve digital currency for the crypto world.

3. Honey DAO: Honey DAO is a decentralized VC firm. Teams and developers submit projects on their website and community members will vote on whether or not to fund the project.

How do DAOs work?

The smart contract is what dictates the functioning of a DAO. The contract defines the rules of the organization and holds the group's treasury. Once the contract is live, no one can change the rules except by a vote. If anyone tries to do something that's not covered by the rules and logic in the code, it will fail. And because the treasury is defined by the smart contract too that means no one can spend the money without the group's approval either. This means that DAOs don't need a central authority. Instead, the group makes decisions collectively, and payments are automatically authorized when votes pass. This is possible because smart contracts cannot be tampered once they go live on blockchain.

What does all this mean for us?

de_plan is built in the Solana chain. Our smart contract defines how decision making in the community works, how money is allocated and how the treasury is utilized. It also defines the scope of our native token. Our native token defines how much of the community is owned by each member and how much weight each member's vote has.

That’s all for this week folks.

Thanks for sticking around all the way to the end of this post.

Next week we will take this discussion further and explain our community roles, incentives and how we distribute organizational work. 

You can always connect with us on our social media (Twitter / Instagram);

Our team email is : team@de-plan.net

If you have committed the cardinal sin of not subscribing yet, do that ASAP and we won’t disappoint; till then, bye’s!

Welcome to de_plan;

The web3 world is new, it's hard to understand and if you’re from a Design or Planning background, you know that we’re not a particularly tech savvy industry. So for the next few week’s we’ll spend some time breaking down how things work here, what we do and eventually introduce you to our whitepaper and roadmap. For the purposes of these first few deep dives, we’ll assume that your knowledge of DAO’s is almost minimal and try to build from there.

Before we get to that, we’d like to start by explaining the purpose of this ‘blog’. This blog is central to all our work, we share everything we work on here, we update people about the proposals we are currently considering and share snapshots of life and work in our community. If those are things you’d be interested in, please subscribe and to support our work, use the link on this page.

So, let's go.

Who are we?

de_plan is a collective of architects, planners and professionals engaged in the urban realm. But more importantly we’re a Decentralized Autonomous Organization or a DAO.

DAO’s are web3 native organizations that run on self-executing pieces of code called smart contracts. In simpler terms, they’re new age versions of cooperatives built on the blockchain to ensure accountability, traceability and transparency. They’re often described as an online community with a collectively managed bank account. DAO’s have been around since 2017, but they really picked up steam in 2021.

What do we do?

We do a bunch of stuff, being as diverse as our community. But for simplicity we like to describe our work along three parallel streams:

(Note: IRL is In Real Life)

1. IRL Services

   This the most straightforward and obvious form our work takes. We work with IRL clients who want design and planning services. Unlike legacy org’s we provide these services by dynamically forming teams based on project needs and ensuring equitable compositions.

2. IRL-Web3 bridging

   We work with IRL clients who want to explore the potential of Web3 in solving their design and planning problems. Our aim is to help these IRL entities transition their design and planning related operations into a Web3 space. This includes, cities, non-profits, private clients and anyone else interested in exploring the intersections of Web3 and Cities.

3. Web3 Work

   We work with other Web3 native organizations that operate in similar realms and are interested in collaborating on design and planning solutions.

In all these verticals, we plan to equip ourselves, our clients and our collaborators to solve emerging urban and design problems for the present day and future Web3 city.

Why DAO?

Why indeed. We like to answer this by saying why not.But more seriously, there are a few reasons why we think going DAO is the most logical route for the profession.

1. The Atelier Model is Unequal at its Core

   The DAO is essentially a means to address the problem of misaligned incentives and organizational rigidity. Any group of people can come together, pitch for a project and work on it. We remove the organization, add in the ability to compose teams with a variety of expertise and improve the overall output as well. The DAO can pool in enough resources to purchase software, provide web infrastructure and allow the teams to function at their creative best.

2. Practices are no longer geared to innovate

   To go beyond the abilities of a regular firm, the DAO needs to provide more than just solutions. It needs to innovate. And in our case, the innovation comes from the guiding framework of the DAO. 10% of all our revenue is gathered into a treasury, dedicated to research and innovation. These funds are available for all members to use for any projects that they believe will provide a new direction to the DAO, its work, or the profession as a whole.

3. Design practices are hugely limited by location

   Offices in Bangalore find it difficult to work in New York and vice-versa. The DAO, by its very nature, solves this problem. In-fact, the ability to be located in many places enhances the creative performance of a DAO.

4. In the face of all these concerns listed above, do we really think that legacy firms are equipped to deal with a Web3 world ?. To promote decentralization ?. To work on urban planning using digital clones ?.

5. And many more…

Where are we right now and What’s coming up?

We started off building our contracts, working through the idea and developing the project in December 2021. We launched our website, our community discord and our community dashboard recently. So we’re quite young at the moment. But we’ve come quite far in the past few months,

Community

Currently, we’re focused on building a diverse community, composed of talented individuals. For now, we’re selective about providing access to our Discord, but we do hope to make it public in the near future. If you are interested, you can always apply to Join Us.

Work

In the past few weeks, we’ve started work on new projects and will be publicly launching them very soon. You can watch this space, follow us on Twitter or Instagram to learn more about our work as it starts coming out.For starters however, we’re currently working on Exploratory Research around Web3 cities, IoT tools for Web3, Design projects, NFT’s and Open RFP’s. At the moment, our work is focused on India and Africa, however we are in the process of making a small footprint in Europe, a significant next step as we plot world domination.If you’re a client interested in hiring us, please reach out here: Hire Us!.

What’s Coming Next

This blog is of-course going to become more active, we’ll be releasing new things here every week and the frequency might increase as we move forward. You can expect more of our work to be shared here, call’s for contributors and open research grants to come out over the next few months.**But most importantly, we’ll be releasing our Whitepaper and our Roadmap.**The whitepaper, if you’re not familiar with this; will be a document that outlines our thinking behind the DAO, our purpose, how we’re built and other specifics about our operations and our tech. The roadmap will be our guiding document, outlining what our goals are for the immediate future, how we hope to achieve them and what metrics we will use to measure our performance.

We are also planning on doing a short FAQ session on social media. If you have any specific questions you’d like to see addressed, please reach out to us there. You can also leave your questions here.

In the next post, we will get down to brass tacks and explain how our smart contracts work, what they mean for the community and how we are structured to enable this.A lot of this already is or will be on our Wiki, but the post will attempt to make it more accessible.

Thanks for sticking around all the way to the end of this post.

You can always connect with us on our social media (Twitter / Instagram); Our team email is : team@de-plan.net

Stick around for longer by subscribing and we won’t disappoint; till then, bye!