Tour des Ecovillages part 1: Traditional Dream Factory
Foreseeing a future where traveling and living become one
- Abela, Portugal
- August 6, 2022
- Florijn de Graaf
An open-source model for the community of the future
Our first stop on the ‘Tour des Ecovillages’ is a newly started regenerative eco-project in the heart of Portugal. Founded by people with roots in the cryptocommunity, their goal is to establish a ‘Decentralised Autonomous Community’, or DAO, within a network of similar projects (called OASA). This allows people to travel and live without losing their sense of community, while retaining an eco-friendly lifestyle away from the busy city life. An innovative new living model that seems perfect for the new class of environmentally conscious remote workers that is rapidly emerging.
Restoring the soil
Like most ecovillages, a key focus of TDF is to restore the land through what the people at TDF like to call stewardship. Taking care of the land to restore biodiversity through restoration of the soil. Proper water management is key to achieving this in the arid Portuguese interior landscape. Various solutions such as greywater recycling, composting toilets, and permaculture gardens are being implemented here, allowing TDF to grow their own food, while restoring the land at the same time.
A sense of community with strangers
During our short stay at TDF, roughly only 1/3rd of people we met were staff members, the rest were all temporary residents staying anywhere from only a few days to a few weeks. Even though there is a large continuous influx of strangers, it does not necessarily feel that way. The value-driven framework underpinning the project attracts the right kind of people to create a warm and trusting environment in which it is easy to connect with others. The excellent shared lunches, the possibility of volunteering, and option to join in on workshops further contribute in creating a pleasant living environment.
Crypto-inspired social structure
TDF is set up to become a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation. This means that members of the DAO can vote on proposals, where the weight of each members’ vote is determined by their Proof of Presence, that is, the longer you volunteered for TDF, the more of a say (in the form of tokens) you get. This allows for a digitally trackable social organisation in which many future innovations such as smart contracts can be implemented.
Room for improvement
TDF has only been recently founded and even though they have managed to achieve a great deal of progress since its inception, there is still a lot of room for improvement. A sense of ‘anything is possible here’ is what makes TDF such an exciting space for creativity and collaboration. It is the reason why SmartHoods will be joining forces with TDF in order to exchange experiences, concepts and ideas to help improve the project. We are very much looking forward to getting inspired and learning from all the amazing people and ideas floating around at TDF, and we will keep you updated about our progress.
