Edge City Newsletter — July 2025

Edge City Bhutan, Edge City Patagonia, & reflections on Edge Esmeralda

Timour Kosters

July 10, 2025

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

After wrapping up Edge Esmeralda (recap below), we’re looking ahead to our two upcoming gatherings in the mountains:

  • Edge City Bhutan (Sept 14–21) is an immersive trip to explore Buddhist culture, digital democracy, mindfulness, sustainability, and frontier tech with 30 epic people. Apply here - only a few spots left!
  • Edge City Patagonia (Oct 18–Nov 15) is our next full-scale popup village in Argentina, leading up to Devconnect. This village centers around multiple residencies led by technologists, artists & researchers. Subscribe here for updates.

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APPLY TO ATTEND EDGE CITY PATAGONIA →

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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 Bhutan | September 14th – 21st, 2025

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Our next Edge Expedition is headed to Bhutan for an 8-day journey into the Himalayan mountains. With a total of 30 spots available, this journey is designed for depth and connection.

During this trip, we will hike to cliffside monasteries and engage in conversations with Bhutanese leaders, monks, and local innovators on topics such as consciousness, sustainability, civic plurality, and cutting-edge technologies.

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Expedition highlights:

☀️ A visit to Gelephu Mindfulness City, a pioneering urban project focusing on mindfulness, regeneration, and long-term human flourishing.

☀️ Hands-on workshops about Bhutan’s decentralized, national digital ID system and digital democracy initiatives

☀️ Connect with locals and explore the potential of a full-scale Edge City popup village

☀️ Form meaningful friendships with 30 bold thinkers and builders as you collaborate and exchange ideas in unique settings.

If this trip sounds like your type of adventure, you can find the full itinerary here and apply below (almost sold out).

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APPLY HERE →

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Edge City Patagonia | October 18 – November 15, 2025

Our next flagship popup village, Edge City Patagonia, will be held in San Martín de los Andes, Argentina. This month-long gathering will bring together 1,000 builders, creatives, and thinkers to explore the edges of tech, science, nature, and social innovation.

We’ve launched a dedicated Substack for Edge City Patagonia, where we will share more information. Subscribe here to get the updates in your inbox.

Stay in the loop →

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San Martín de los Andes is:

✨ emerging as the Silicon Valley of Patagonia with real-world adoption of blockchain technologies, education hubs like BIT Cotesma, and a thriving frontier ecosystem

✨ located in the mountains and a gateway to the forested Lanín National Park, including Lake Lácar and the Lanín Volcano

✨ easy to travel to with its own airport (direct connection to Devconnect Buenos Aires right after)

✨ walkable & safe

✨ an ideal place to co-create and prototype a brighter future together

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APPLY NOW TO JOIN US →

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Edge City Patagonia will be anchored by 10-15 residencies, which will lead hands-on workshops, talks, salons, and collaborative builds throughout the month. Residency organizers can apply here to propose a theme, bring a group, and co-create part of the village.

If you have questions, email timour@edgecity.live and cc telamon@edgecity.live

You can lock in a discounted ticket price for Edge City Patagonia by pledging a small amount of money here. Pledging helps us to better plan this popup village. Your deposit will be refunded if you are not selected to attend this gathering.

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JOIN US IN ARGENTINA →

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Edge Esmeralda 2025 - Recap

We wrapped Edge Esmeralda a few weeks ago, our first full-scale popup village of 2025. Whether you were with us or just curious what we’ve been up to, here’s a recap of the month we built together.

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Key statistics

☀️ 850+ residents across the month (80+ kids and families)

☀️ 66 countries represented

☀️ 15 thematic tracks & 13 community-led experiments

☀️ Countless new friendships, collaborations, sauna sessions, and lines of code

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Feedback

If you attended Edge Esmeralda, we’d love to hear your honest feedback, including highlights and any future requests. Your opinion matters and helps us to build our popup villages with and for the Edge community.

FILL OUT THE FEEDBACK FORM →

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Community Reflections

We’re grateful for the love and reflections from our community. Here are a few highlights from what Edge Esmeralda participants had to say:

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Massive thanks to everyone who participated, co-created, hung out, and prototyped a brighter future with us.

If you’d like to connect with Edge Esmeralda attendees on Farcaster, Ted made a starter pack; check it out here.

Quick News

A grant from the Ethereum Foundation

We’re honored to receive a grant from the Ethereum Foundation to support our work. This grant powers our next chapter: building open tools, accelerating real-world Ethereum adoption, and creating environments where new ideas and new systems come to life.

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Announcing the Inflection Grantees

With support from Long Journey Ventures, we’re funding Inflection Grants: $2,000 microgrants for builders under 25 working on unusually early, unusually bold ideas. We’ve introduced the first cohort in this blog post.

Want to support the next inflection point?

  • Donate: Help us fund the next cohort of early-stage builders. Every dollar goes directly to grantees.
  • Mentor: Interested in guiding a grantee? Get in touch.

Apply: If you’re under 25 and a $2,000 grant could change your trajectory, we’ll be accepting applications for the next cohort this coming fall.

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Frontier Tower

Our friends at Viva City are hosting a 6-week popup village at the Frontier Tower in San Francisco, featuring tracks on AI, longevity, crypto, neuro/biotech, robotics, and arts & music. A great chance to learn and connect with other frontier thinkers. Use code EDGE-10 to get 50% off ($950).

More information →  

Watch & Listen

Audrey Tang on Plurality and Digital Democracy

Audrey Tang (Taiwan’s first Digital Minister) sits down for a fireside chat at Edge Esmeralda 2025  to talk about digital democracy, the philosophy of plurality, civic technology, and what the rest of the world can learn from Taiwan’s democratic experiments.

The full conversation is available as a podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

What We’re Reading

Living Every Day as if Magic Were Real? - Nico Shi

‍In a world that often asks us to be productive before playful, Edge Esmeralda gave Nico Shi permission to just be. In this reflection, Nico captures the childlike joy, artistic aliveness, and deep human connection that make life at the edge so special.

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Living on the Edge - Adam Lewis

‍Adam Lewis joined us at Edge Esmeralda and left with a vision for the future of food, cities, and community. His recap weaves together serendipity, social structure, regenerative agriculture, and a deeper sense of what human flourishing really means.

Quotes & Reflections

“Been at Edge Esmeralda for ~56 hours and can't adequately put into words how inspired and uplifted i feel — a stark contrast to the discouragement i felt leaving LA in it current state.” - Ted

“So inspiring seeing others building cool projects and sharing updates!! Also so fun presenting our solar-powered data center project, built within days☀️ Thanks @EdgeEsmeralda team for creating this space for all of us!!” - Ami Zou

“This event is very unusual. Held several times a year in different places it's a month-long village of technologists, founders, and futurists. One of the more inspiring scenes I’ve stepped into in a while. It's a unique event. I met leaders in Ethereum, XR, brain computer interfaces, and AI.” - Robert Scoble

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

Timour & the Edge City team

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