Edge City Newsletter — August 2025

Updates from Edge City Patagonia, apply to the Edge City Fellowship, and a new SHIFT Grants cohort

Timour Kosters

August 22, 2025

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

With less than two months until Edge City Patagonia, our next flagship popup village, we’re sharing the latest updates on residencies, key locations, and ticketing. Plus: opportunities for frontier builders via SHIFT Grants and our Fellowship Program.

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TL;DR

  • Edge City Patagonia’s prices increase every Sunday, don’t forget to secure your ticket after you application has been accepted. We’re hosting this full-scale popup village from Oct 18–Nov 15 in the beautiful mountain town of San Martín de los Andes, Argentina (leading up to Devconnect). Apply here to attend.
  • The Edge City Fellowship is accepting applications until August 28. We’re looking for curious, high-agency builders under 25 across tech, science & society. Apply here or share with a friend who should apply.
  • SHIFT Grants 002 is now live! We’re offering Micro Grants ($5k–$15k) and Development Grants ($20k–$40k) for builders and projects in the d/acc movement. Learn more.

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APPLY TO ATTEND EDGE CITY PATAGONIA →

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‍I joined David Hoffman on Bankless to talk about our popup villages and what you can expect at Edge City Patagonia as an attendee ✨

Remind me, what is Edge City?

Edge City creates popup villages around the world that convene people working at the frontiers of science, technology, and culture.

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 interested in hosting residencies for builders, scientists and artists at our popup villages. Please reach out here.

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Calls to action

Edge City Patagonia | Oct 18–Nov 15, 2025

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The goal of Edge City Patagonia is to bring global builders and local innovators together to experiment with new models of residency, co-living, collaboration, and place-based innovation.

‍San Martín de los Andes provides the perfect setting to achieve this by building a living ecosystem where lasting relationships, ventures, and real-world impact can flourish. This popup village will be an immersive experience, grounded by the beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, and forests around town.

We’ve published new blogs on Substack that dive into the details and show what the experience will be like:

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Subscribe to the blog →

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Residencies

Edge City Patagonia’s structure revolves around residencies; groups of 5-50 people co-living and focusing on a specific theme. We currently have eight confirmed residencies, with more to come soon.

✨ Lisk Emerging Markets Founder Residency

✨ Human Tech Residency

‍✨ Argentina Onchain

✨ Regen Haus

✨ Agartha House

✨ Citizenship Protocols Residency

✨ Vibe Coding Residency

✨ Edge City Fellowship

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Check out this blog post or our updated Edge City Patagonia site for more details on these residencies.

Joining a residency is not required to attend this popup village. You can just come solo or with a friend and figure it out once you’re there. That said, we highly recommend joining one for the full experience.

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How to join a residency

1) Apply to Edge City Patagonia

2) Grab your ticket after acceptance (prices increase every Sunday)

3) Apply to join the residency

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APPLY NOW TO ATTEND →

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How to host a residency

Fill out this form to propose a residency. Share your theme, find participants, and co-create part of Edge City Patagonia.

If you have questions about joining or organizing a residency, send an email to timour@edgecity.live and cc telamon@edgecity.live

Edge City Fellowship

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The Edge City Fellowship 2025 is back for Round 2. This program is for curious and high-agency builders under 25 who are shaping the future of tech, science, art, and society.

Selected Fellows will receive a free ticket + accommodation to join us at Edge City Patagonia for the full month (Oct 18–Nov 15, 2025). Live, learn. and connect with hundreds of global leaders across AI, web3, biotech, governance, civic tech, neuroscience, and other frontier fields. Plus the potential for follow-on funding through Long Journey VC, the sponsor of this initiative.

Applications are open until August 28. Please pass this opportunity along to young innovators in your network who might be a fit.

Curious about what to expect? Read the reflections of previous fellows on our blog: Jason, Anh, Janet, Ivy, Yogya, and Denisa.

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APPLY TO THE FELLOWSHIP →

SHIFT Grants - Round002

The second round of SHIFT Grants is now open for applications. This program supports breakthrough projects rooted in the principles of d/acc: decentralized, democratic, differential, and defensive acceleration.

We’re offering two types of grants:

  • Micro Grants ($5k–$15k) for exploratory experiments and prototypes
  • Development Grants ($20k–$40k) for teams ready to deliver measurable milestones

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SHIFT Grants is co-created with N:)des and has received anchor funding from Vitalik Buterin, Trent McConaghy, ASI Alliance, and Ocean Protocol Foundation.

Apply before September 12, 2025.

SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT TO SHIFT GRANTS →

Quick News

Vote for Edge City’s Education Session at SXSW

In collaboration with All One Thing, the YMCA, and Boundless Life, we’ve submitted a session on rethinking learning and education. Add your vote to help us get on stage at SXSW 2026. Vote here →

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On a related note, we’re gathering in San Francisco on Tuesday, August 26 (3–6 PM PDT) for an event on building the future of learning. Come join us. Register here →

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Bay Area Events on the Science of Consciousness

After the success of Consciousness Week at Edge Esmeralda, we’re organizing small-scale events in the Bay Area to gathering scientists, researchers, healers & philosophers working on human consciousness to reduce suffering.

If that’s you, DM us on X / Twitter or LinkedIn to join.

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Edge City Bhutan is sold out!

Our 8-day Edge Expedition to Bhutan is fully booked.

We’re looking forward to explore consciousness, sustainability, human flourishing, and the beginnings of Gelephu Mindfulness City together (plus scout sites for a potential full-scale village 👀).

More trips like this are being planned for 2026. Stay tuned for upcoming expeditions.

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Join the Plumia Fellowship

Our friends at Plumia are launching a 3-month fellowship program for writers, artists, researchers, and musicians exploring what it means to build an internet-native civilization. Fellows will create original work on themes like digital trust, ritual without geography, and borderless belonging.

What you’ll get:

  • a $1,500/month stipend for three months
  • editorial mentorship
  • distribution to over 500,000 readers
  • an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco in May 2026 to present your work at the Plumia Connect Summit.

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Applications are open until August 31. Learn more →

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Kernel Block 11 Fellowship

Kernel Block 11 will bring together ~50 fellows to go deep on clear research, new products, or novel designs in crypto or other domains of the web.

Kernel is a community for builders—technologists, artists, researchers, and more—who want to share their work, trade feedback, and grow together. Whether crypto-curious, crypto-native, or not into crypto at all, what matters is a track record of building toward a better web.

The kickoff for KB11 is on September 19. Apply here before August 31 →

Watch & Listen

Why Bhutan is Building the Gelephu Mindfulness City

As we design our own popup villages, we’re inspired by bold, real-world experiments like Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City.

This short film shows how the Himalayan kingdom is rethinking urban life around human flourishing, nature, sustainability, solarpunk technologies, and spiritual values – a vision that resonates with what we’re building at Edge City.

What We’re Reading

Outcome Based Funding for Web3 Popups: GG24 sensemaking report - Nidhi
On the Gitcoin forum, Nidhi, James Farrell, and Devansh Mehta lay out a new framework for sustainable funding of web3 popup villages. Based on impact and driven by transparent budgets and Hypercerts to ensure resources go where they make a real difference.

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How Indonesia, Mexico, and Nigeria Ranked ahead of the U.S. in Human Flourishing: And What We Can Do about It - Wendy R. Wang

Human flourishing is rooted in thriving young adults, strong marriages, resilient communities, and stable social institutions. The U.S. has led the world in technology & innovation, and its next opportunity is to invest in the social fabric that helps people and families thrive.

Quotes & Reflections

“This community is so special and my experience at Edge was truly life-changing. I have never felt so seen, and connected to a community.  Edge is unique in bringing the most brilliant minds together 🙏”- Laura Turner

“I’m inspired by @joinedgecity’s Fellowship: a month, fully funded residency for under‑25 builders in fields like AI, biotech, crypto, and hard tech. Their immersive “popup villages” are incubators for ideas and collaboration across horizons.” - Danielle Strachman

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As always, thank you so much for reading. We’re looking forward to seeing you again soon at Edge City Patagonia! 🏔️☀️

Timour & the Edge City team

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