Edge City Newsletter — Apr. 2025

Long Journey Residency, Edge Esmeralda, and a trip to Bhutan

Timour Kosters

April 23, 2025

Hello friends! Timour here. I hope you’re having a flourishing week. ☀️   

We’re excited to kick off Edge Esmeralda in just a few weeks (May 24—June 21), our first full-scale popup village of the year. This edition features the Long Journey Residency, a month-long pre-accelerator for builders chasing bold, magically weird ideas. Co-created with Long Journey VC and led by Lee Jacobs, Cyan Banister, and Arielle Zuckerberg, it’s your launchpad to go from -1 to zero. Apply here.

Do you want to visit Bhutan? We are organizing an Edge Expedition (Sep 16–24, 2025) with thirty epic people that will form the basis of a deeper relationship with this country (and a full popup city in the future). If you’re interested, let us know here!

‍Keep reading for more details and Edge City updates!

Explore the Long Journey Residency →

We're hosting a live Spaces on X/Twitter today (Wed. April 23) at 3:30 PT / 6:30 ET with Cyan Bannister, Arielle Zuckerberg, and Lee Jacobs from Long Journey to discuss what it takes to build a big non-consensus idea before it becomes mainstream. Join us!

Remind me, what is Edge City? 

Edge City creates popup villages around the world that convene people working at the frontiers of tech, art, science, and society. 

Our mission is to act as a ‘society incubator’—a living lab to experiment with new ideas, technologies, cultures, and organizations. All with the goal of advancing human flourishing.

We’re building towards a global network of temporary and permanent innovation hubs. Check out our roadmap on how we plan to scale into a Network City.

Collaboration is essential to achieve our vision. That’s why we aim to partner with folks who are reimagining permanent living environments, whether a new city or a reinvigorated town. Please reach out if you are building something relevant!

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Calls to action

Edge Esmeralda (May 24 — June 21)

For one month, we’re turning Healdsburg, CA, into a popup village where 1,000 people join us in prototyping the future of working and living together (check out the village map here). The lessons from this month-long gathering will inform the blueprint for Esmeralda, a permanent town designed around human flourishing.

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Programming

Each week at Edge Esmeralda centers on a core theme—Protocols for Flourishing, Reality Reinvented, Environments of Tomorrow, and Decentralized Technologies—with talks, workshops, and experiments led by pioneers across tech, philosophy, governance, and consciousness.

We’ve just announced the first batch of programs, including sessions on AI & truth-seeking, the future of progress, the science of consciousness, and rethinking protocol design.

Alongside frontier tech, you’ll also find kids programming, wellness offerings, and commussssnity activities, creating space for all ages to learn, connect, and co-create.

More info →

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Community opportunities 

Co-creation is at the heart of Edge Esmeralda. Here are a few ways you can get involved:

💡 Apply to the Long Journey Residency — A pre-accelerator for builders with bold ideas. Selected residents get a fully-sponsored experience (housing included) plus mentorship from top VCs and founders. Apply before April 27.

✨ Volunteer — Exchange your time for a discounted ticket and get a behind-the-scenes role in bringing a popup village to life.

🏠 Share a house — Our housing guide makes it easy to find a comfortable place to recharge and connect with housemates to share costs and co-live.

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Requests from the community

We’d love to highlight two community-led initiatives at Edge Esmeralda that could use a little extra support to bring to life.

Colton is launching an art residency.

And Ben wants to build a small solar-powered data center.

Reserve your spot

Ticket prices for Edge Esmeralda go up on May 1st. So if you (or a friend) haven’t locked in your spot yet, now’s the time.

Apply now →

An Edge Expedition to Bhutan 

After the success of our first Edge Expedition to South Africa (recap below), we’re planning a focused trip to Bhutan for thirty epic people from September 16–24, 2025. 

Bhutan is where ancient wisdom meets modern systems. This journey is the start of a deeper collaboration with this unique country and an exploration for a full popup city in the future. Our aim is to build long-term collaborative relationships focused on building flourishing communities.

During this trip, we'll hike in the Himalayas, meet monks and policymakers, visit cliffside monasteries, and connect with the team shaping the futuristic new Gelephu Mindfulness City. 

If this trip excites you, we’d love to hear from you (also let us know if these dates don’t work).

Fill out our interest form or share more information with someone who’d love this experience.

Fill out the interest form →

Edge City South Africa recap

Earlier this month, around 30 international participants joined us on our inaugural Edge Expedition, which explored the Western Cape of South Africa.

From Builder Day in Cape Town, not one but two field trips in Stellenbosch, and a visit to Bitcoin Ekasi in Mossel Bay, this trip was filled with human connection, exciting demos and pitches, and breathtaking natural beauty.

Our three main key takeaways:

– Frontier technology is solving real needs, not hypotheticals

 – African builders are leapfrogging broken systems

 – Nature + talent + vision = huge potential for human flourishing

Read our full recap →

Quick news

Edge City Austin Video

Edge City Austin connected 300+ frontier thinkers, builders, and creatives across six packed days of talks and collaboration. Our last newsletter told the story of this unconference in words. Now here’s the story in motion, a glimpse into the people and shared energy of that week.

‍Check it out →

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‍How Edge City is Building a Flourishing Future

What does a society designed for human flourishing look like?

At Edge City Austin, Janine Leger and Timour Kosters shared their vision: community-driven towns, intergenerational learning, and a global collaborative community that leverages frontier technologies to build a brighter future.

Watch the full talk →

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‍Explore the Edge City Ecosystem

We’ve built a filterable overview to showcase our growing web of organizations, protocols, tools, and ideas that have supported, or have been supported by, our popup villages.

You’ll find initiatives and partners that have emerged from our gatherings, including community tools, research, governance experiments, key supporters, hackathon projects, and more.

‍Explore our ecosystem →

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‍Thank you for supporting EdgeOS

Huge thanks to everyone who supported and donated to EdgeOS during the latest Gitcoin round! 🙏

EdgeOS is an open-source toolbox for network societies and Web3-based communities — enabling decentralized identity, community currencies, onchain ticketing, new governance models, and more.

With 189 contributors, we’ll now receive a solid portion of the $200k matching pool to keep building. Onward!

Learn more about EdgeOS →

Read, Listen & Watch

Read: Sam Wolf - Edge Esmeralda Retrospective: How Pop-Up Villages Are Incubating Meaningful Community

What’s the “software” of a city? Beyond buildings and roads, how do we design social dynamics for human flourishing? Sam Wolf takes us inside Edge Esmeralda 2024, exploring how the built environment and intentional social design created a popup village where connection came naturally.

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Read: Basho - Why the Telepathy Tapes Matter. Or, taking the science of our interconnectedness seriously 

What if consciousness isn’t confined to the brain? In this essay, Basho reflects on The Telepathy Tapes and the possibility of a shared, universal mind. A thoughtful invitation to question fundamental assumptions.​

Quotes and Reflections

“Edge City has created memories which will definitely last a lifetime and I want to give shoutouts to the entire Edge City team and everyone I met in person for curating such an amazing experience!” - Vee

“Feeling energized and inspired after an unforgettable 10 days at Edge City in Cape Town. A vibrant collision of ideas, innovation and community. I’m walking away inspired, empowered, and incredibly grateful.” - Maite Lemekoana 

“April also took us on a 10-day tour with Edge City across Cape Town and Stellenbosch. It was time spent with people who are building the future with deep intentionality and a real understanding of what communities actually need.” - Peculiar Aruleba

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As always, thank you so much for reading. Can’t wait to see you all at Edge Esmeralda in a few weeks! ☀️

Timour + the Edge City team