Author: Scof, ChainCatcher
Editor: TB, ChainCatcher
On April 3rd, Vitalik Buterin once again supported what he believes in through action. 274 ETH, approximately $500,000, was directly transferred to the experimental project developers of Zuitzerland. Without massive publicity or a grand financing round - just his typical style: supporting something he deems worthy.
What is Zuitzerland? What is its relationship with Zuzalu and Edge City that V has previously supported? Why are so many builders, researchers, and creators paying attention?
What is Zuitzerland?
Zuitzerland is an experimental project dedicated to exploring potential paths for future society. It combines cutting-edge technology, decentralized governance, and real institutional advantages to construct a "network state sandbox", providing a real social experiment platform for global builders, researchers, and creators.
The project was initiated in Switzerland, known for its 700-year tradition of local autonomy and direct democracy, with robust institutions and high social trust, representing a rare "sustainable governance" example in reality. Zuitzerland hopes to leverage this institutional soil, combined with Web3 technology, to practice a replicable and verifiable new social structure.
In essence, Zuitzerland is a continuation and evolution of the Zuzalu concept. Zuzalu was a pop-up city experiment launched by Vitalik in 2023, attracting pioneers from global Web3, AI, and biotechnology fields within two months. Its influence far exceeded expectations, giving birth to extension projects like Edge City, while Zuitzerland takes a further step - establishing a long-term permanent node, grounding Zuzalu's spirit into real governance systems.
Through residency programs, city pop-up events, hackathons, and other forms, the project provides a co-creation and testing platform for participants, focusing on cutting-edge directions like Web3, AI, biotechnology, privacy computing, and brain-computer interfaces. It attempts to answer a key question: Can a technology-driven, distributed yet resilient society truly operate in the real world?
Zuitzerland's Practical Paths
1. Transforming "Governance" from Concept to Reality
Currently, many decentralized projects and organizations face governance challenges: advanced concepts, but lacking real application scenarios and effective experimental platforms. Zuitzerland provides a small-scale, controllable real environment where new social structures and governance mechanisms can be genuinely tested. This is more than discussing how "DAOs" operate - it's about letting people live, collaborate, and self-govern in a real space, continuously optimizing institutions.
Switzerland's institutional foundation provides a solid reference here. Zuitzerland draws from Swiss democratic experiences, such as national referendums, local autonomy, and small-scale trust networks, offering a real template for decentralized governance.
2. Providing a Landing Platform for Innovators from Different Backgrounds
Zuitzerland targets three core groups:
- Builders and Activists: Such as Web3 developers and DAO participants who can test new tools and build communities here.
- Experts and Researchers: Policy makers, economists, and sociologists can observe or participate in real social prototype experiments.
- Creators: Artists, philosophers, and cultural narrative creators who inject humanistic depth into technological constructions.
Zuitzerland doesn't pursue "mass appeal" but provides a space for "deep interest participants" willing to personally engage in future experiments.
3. Promoting "Safe Technology Acceleration"
Zuitzerland advocates the "Defensive Accelerationism (d/acc)" concept, where technological acceleration must simultaneously consider safety, boundaries, and long-term resilience. In the current rapidly changing technological environment, how to maintain basic order and avoid systemic risks while innovating is a core issue. Switzerland's stability makes it an ideal experimental ground for d/acc.
4. Providing Limited but Real Support and Opportunities
The project will open applications, prioritizing applicants with genuine participation intentions but limited financial conditions. Some scholarships will support accommodation costs (excluding transportation), and applicants must demonstrate long-term participation willingness and capability.
Additionally, Zuitzerland uses Non-Fungible Token holders as part of the support screening, where participants can support the project through Juicebox and gain priority, a method consistent with the project's community-driven logic.
Future Project Plans
Zuitzerland's activities will start from May 1st and continue throughout May, featuring a series of themed weeks, workshops, summits, and hackathons centered on community co-building, Swiss governance, network states, cutting-edge technologies, and future lifestyles. The participation fee ranges approximately from 650-2500 Swiss francs per week.
Participants will collectively explore social prototypes, technological applications, and institutional innovations, with a project development and achievement showcase in the final week. The entire process progresses from conceptual exploration to practical prototypes, forming a complete experimental closed loop.
(This article only introduces the early-stage project and should not be considered investment advice.)
