|“We don’t just want to fund better systems—we want to build them with the people who need them most.”|
The Token Engineering Commons (TEC) is entering a new phase. Since 2020, we’ve explored how communities can design and govern tokenized systems by testing mechanisms, stewarding early-stage ideas, and shaping what DAO-native public goods funding could look like. But after four years of pioneering work, one thing is clear: our greatest impact won’t come from keeping up with capital. It will come from building with care, especially where capital won’t go.
A DAO for advancing the field of Token Engineering, the TEC was born from a collaboration between the Token Engineering Academy and Commons Stack, inspired by Elinor Ostrom’s principles for governing shared resources. Our founding goal was ambitious: to advance the field of Token Engineering by building public infrastructure and informing the design and governance of digital economic systems.
We launched the Augmented Bonding Curve (ABC), an early example of a Primary Automatic Market Maker (PAMM), allowing anyone to mint $TEC by depositing DAI, with a portion routed to the Common Pool, a community-governed treasury. That pool has funded over $500K in grants for research, modeling, education, and DAO tooling.
But TEC was never just a new organizational funding mechanism. It was a learning space: a live experiment in collaborative economics, where contributors co-designed parameters, governance, and strategy through modeling sessions and “Param parties.” With tools like Conviction Voting and real-time dashboards, the TEC community modeled what it means to govern a financial system in public.
Spreading the Seeds
Over the years, TEC became a launchpad for projects aligned with our mission. Our support helped catalyze projects like:
Praise – a peer-based recognition system
cadCAD – complex systems simulator for economic modeling
Gravity DAO – peer mediation and conflict resolution in DAOs
Bonding Curve Research Group – advancing the theory and application of bonding curves
Inverter Network – a model for sustainable public goods funding
GovBase – open knowledge graph of governance primitives
We also supported institutions like Celeste, SourceCred, MetaGov, and BlockScience, each of which has made significant contributions to the foundations of Web3 governance and research.
These projects reflect just a small portion of the distributed network TEC helped seed: one focused on making blockchain systems more resilient, transparent, and regenerative.
Reframing Impact
In 2023, we introduced Tunable Quadratic Funding (TQF) with Gitcoin, which is an evolution of QF that amplified the voices of experienced contributors using onchain credentials and governance history. Rather than simply rewarding popularity, TQF helped align funding decisions with informed expertise.
We’ve also begun experimenting with retroactive funding, where we reward projects for their real-world outcomes, not just promises or aspirations, by using tools like Karma GAP and Allo Protocol. These innovations have pushed the boundaries of what community-driven funding can look like.
What We Learned
Despite early success, we observed a pattern: tools and ideas supported by TEC were often later adopted, and rapidly scaled by venture-funded protocols and infrastructure providers.
These organizations could ship faster, iterate harder, and capture more market share. This raised a critical question, what role should a values-driven, public-goods DAO play in an ecosystem that rewards speed over long-term impact?
Our answer, stop chasing the race. Start building in the cracks it leaves behind.
A New Focus: Real-World Impact Through Blockchain
As blockchain matures, TEC is shifting its focus to where it’s needed most: at the intersection of technology and lived experience, where digital tools can support human and ecological thriving. That includes growing movements like Regenerative Finance (ReFi) and Ethereum Localism, which use Web3 tools to support mutual aid, bioregional governance, and ecological restoration.
But our vision is broader: we’re focused on enabling real-world solutions, especially in places where traditional funding and institutions fall short.
We now stand alongside aligned organizations such as Giveth, ReFi DAO, Celo, Gitcoin, OpenCivics, Endaoment, and others all committed to using blockchain systems to build a more regenerative and just world.
TEC’s Next Phase: Three Core Pillars
To guide our next chapter, we’re anchoring our work around three pillars:
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Storytelling (Education & Advocacy)
We aim to educate and inspire through accessible, engaging narratives, highlighting the impact of Web3 systems across communities and causes. From newsletters to events to curated research, we’ll amplify stories that showcase blockchain’s real-world potential.
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Ecosystem Empowerment
We support projects tackling complex social and environmental challenges with funding, mentorship, and visibility. Beyond grants, we offer hands-on guidance and ecosystem connections to help mission-aligned initiatives grow and succeed.
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Collaborative Growth
We build pathways for collective action and shared learning, creating bridges between individuals, DAOs, and partner organizations. Through strategic partnerships, open initiatives, and co-designed experiments, we’re fostering a culture of mutual support and networked resilience.
Why This Matters
Web3 is evolving. As the infrastructure layer becomes more robust, the deeper question emerges: What are we coordinating for?
At TEC, we believe blockchain's greatest promise lies not in financial speculation, but in enabling systems that support collective well-being, ecological regeneration, and democratic participation. We’re here to help design and support those systems.
The TEC Journal
Recognizing the need for deeper coordination, clearer communications, and a more robust critique process within Web3, the Token Engineering Commons is seeking to build a home for deep intellectual inquiry into the ecosystems many verticals. This is why we are incubating this online publication dedicated to exploring these verticals in depth. This won’t be a marketing blog, or shill effort, but a source for writers and builders to think about what exists beyond the horizon.
We intend to make this publication a peer-informed, intellectually rigorous outlet that helps make sense of the evolving Web3 industry. The publication will seek to host articles that map and define what it means to build this technology for real-world impact, critically examine tradeoffs in the design space, share case-studies, get insights from frontline organizers, and explore the ethical, political, and economic implications of regenerative systems.
Each month the journal will focus on a specific topic that brings together builders, researchers, and community voices in a rotational editorial structure. This will not only provide coherence and visibility to the blockchain ecosystem, but also serve as a bridge between crypto-native builders and the regenerative practitioners outside of Web3.
Each article posted in this publication will have a link to a dedicated thread within the Token Engineering Commons Forum. If you are interested in writing for the publication, giving your thoughts on an article, or wanting to engage in the future of real-world blockchain initiatives, please introduce yourself in the forum, or reach out to us independently.
“The commons are still alive. And the work continues.”
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