Philosophical Foundations of Eden
The initial concept of fractal democracy was created by Daniel Larimer, a visionary innovator who interacted with Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 and invented the concept of DACs (aka DAOs) as Decentralized Autonomous Companies in 2013. Daniel is a prolific founder who created the world’s first decentralized exchange (Bitshares), the first stablecoin (BitUSD), the first Web3 social media app (steemit/hive), and designed the software for the largest ICO of all time (EOS).
Each of these projects were among the world’s most successful blockchain projects for a period of time and continue to grow today with decentralized, autonomous communities of countless talented builders. These innovations provided immense inspiration for industry leaders and paved the path for the largest sectors of Web3 today. You can learn more about each of these projects and Daniel’s outstanding track record in this infographic.
In 2021, Daniel Larimer published "More Equal Animals: The Subtle Art of True Democracy," establishing essential principles for genuine democratic governance. This work established essential properties that true democratic systems must possess to maintain legitimacy and resist capture:
- Independence of participants with protected minority rights
- Resistance to covert control by powerful interests
- Aggregation of wisdom from local knowledge and deliberation
- Transparent processes for detecting and correcting failures
- Clear pathways for reaching new consensus via sortition
These insights provided the theoretical framework for developing practical coordination systems that could scale while maintaining democratic principles. This work sparked immediate practical experimentation through the Eden on EOS community, which brought hundreds of participants together for revolutionary democratic elections that demonstrated these concepts at scale for over two years.
Learn more about More Equal Animals and the Philosophical Foundations of Fractal Democracy in these resources:
- More Equal Animals: The Subtle Art of True Democracy is available in various formats for your learning convenience:
- Read the free e-book
- Listen to the audiobook
- Purchase a print copy
- Explore related videos
- Watch the educational series, Unpacking More Equal Animals: The Subtle Art of True Democracy, for deep dives with early pioneers of fractal democracy.
- Watch the educational series, Fractal Governance: What, Why, & How? with Mike Manfredi, leading team member of Eden OS
- Explore the Eden on EOS youtube channel to see hundreds of videos from the origins of fractal democracy
- Read Fractal Democracy: A Primer for an introductory deep dive into Fractal Democracy from James Mart
- Watch a second series of videos titled Unpacking More Equal Animals series videos hosted by Joshua Seymour, host of the Genesis Fractal
- Explore the Eden Creators DAMS article for a repository of videos about Eden and early experiments in fractal
- Listen to Eden on EOS Fractal Democracy Interviews and Fireside Chats with Daniel Larimer
- See an overview of highlights from Eden on EOS in our article, A History of Fractal Communities: Our Journey from 2021 to 2025
- Explore related videos about on the Eden Creators youtube channel and Intro to Eden playlist
What is Eden On EOS?
Eden On EOS can also be considered to be Eden, the community.
Eden on EOS can also be more specifically interpreted as the smart organization cooperating with quarterly Eden Elections, Eden memberships, and accessing the genesis.eden. website for managing elections
Different definitions and not totally clearly defined/agreed in community
What is an Eden Election?
How can I empower my community with an Eden Election?
Is there documentation?
Yes! Here are instructions and documentation to empower your community with Eden Elections: Instructions and Analysis for Operating an Eden Election