ZuGrama Reflection Post
World news got you down?
Struggling to make sense of it all?
You’re not alone. And while I don’t have all the answers, I can offer a glimpse into a world you’ve probably never heard of—yet one that fills me with deep hope for the future.
Setting the stage
In the sleepy town of Trivandrum (sleepy by Indian standards, at least), three initiators laid the groundwork for ZuGrama: a participatory gathering of around 100 people, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel over the first 6 weeks of 2025.
The “Zu-” prefix is a nod to Zuzalu, the experimental “popup village” co-founded in 2023 by Vitalik Buterin and colleagues in the Web3 space. Zuzalu sparked a global movement of similar events—described as a “Burning Man for futurists”, or more concretely, an extended residency for techno-optimists, entrepreneurs, and crypto-enthusiasts.
I’ve attended four such gatherings in the past year, and I find them truly inspiring. There’s a palpable sense of optimism I’ve encountered nowhere else—fueled by the emergence of world-changing Web3 technologies that aim to empower people while respecting human needs like privacy, autonomy, and security.
The rate of knowledge transfer is staggering—far beyond any academic conference I’ve been to—with talks, workshops, and hackathons spanning topics from tech, science, and governance to law, art, and music.
Why ZuGrama Stood Out
Even with these high expectations, I could tell from the beginning that ZuGrama was different. The foundation was carefully laid by the three initiators:
• Intention: To harness the latent talent, ambition, and capital of India to become a guiding force for good in the world.
• Curation: Applicants were carefully selected through a double-blind peer review process.
• Abundance: Daily food, accommodation, a well-equipped gym, and multiple spaces for presentations, co-working, and unwinding ensured that everyone’s basic needs were met.
• Structure and flow: While a few high-profile talks were organized each week on topics like governance and decentralized science, the agenda was largely left open for participants to shape.
An Experiment in Co-Creation
Once the foundation was set and participants arrived, the initiators did something remarkable: they took their hands off the wheel and told us this was our show to create.
What unfolded was a glimpse into what co-creation can look like when people’s basic needs are met and they’re aligned toward a shared purpose. Participants extended the weekly themes with discussion sessions, knowledge-sharing talks, skill-building hackathons, and plenty of extracurriculars to unwind and connect.
In parallel, many joined a 6-week “buildathon,” working on real-world solutions to pressing global challenges.
A Popup Village Prototype
For our contribution from OHM, we hosted a hackathon and prototyped the #WISDOMsystem within the context of a pop-up village—using the framework to recognize and reward contributions to ZuGrama itself.
This allowed us to validate yet another use case and showcase a new tri-dimensional model that supports coordination across communities, while allowing flexibility for different goals and values (see this report for more details).
Inspired by the playful spirit of ZuGrama, we also gamified the framework—reframing it as an all-ages, positive-sum game where players are rewarded for both adding value and recognizing the good deeds of others. We’re excited to test this out at OHM and in other communities once our MVP is ready.
Challenges and Insights
At times, it felt a bit confined—spending so much time indoors within the limits of a single hotel. But this was entirely self-imposed; there were simply too many exciting things happening to want to leave.
It was also difficult to get deep work done in between all the stimulating talks, sessions, and serendipitous encounters. But again, that was by choice—and I believe the connections we formed will reveal their true value in the years to come.
Ideal for Experimentation
The environment was surprisingly controlled: same hotel, same air, same food, similar rhythms. For me, this created an unusual opportunity to observe fluctuations in energy and mood over time.
Some microbiome researchers even took advantage of these conditions to run a spontaneous study—conceptualized, proposed, funded, and executed within the 6-week window.
Having left academia due to its aversion to risk and glacial pace of change, witnessing science move this fast was deeply energizing. I hope it’s a sign of more agile, open experimentation to come.
The True Gem of ZuGrama: Local Representation
Above all, what set ZuGrama apart was its strong local representation. Unlike previous Zu-villages I’ve attended—where the local community was barely involved—around 80% of ZuGrama participants were Indian.
This enabled deep local involvement, planting seeds for a lasting regional network. As the ZuGrama whitepaper puts it:
“India is blessed with an abundance of talent, capital, and ambition. Yet much of this is drained away to foreign states, leaving behind a pressing need for systemic change in the face of corruption and imbalance.”
By bringing together Indian entrepreneurs, researchers, and change-makers—alongside international allies—ZuGrama set the stage for what could become a national movement, reversing the brain drain and empowering communities to solve problems through technology.
This vision aligns perfectly with ours at OHM, and we’re excited to explore future synergies.
Gratitude and Looking Forward
I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the initiators—Yesh, KC, and Anish—for creating such an abundant space for us to dream, play, and co-create. Thank you to the funders and reviewers for awarding me a full scholarship, allowing me to focus fully on the experience without the burden of financial stress.
I was truly blown away by the caliber and diversity of the ZuGrama residents. Thanks for the deep conversations, spontaneous collaborations, and late-night karaoke sessions.
Special thanks to those who participated in our #WISDOMsystem / Metavaluation hackathon—Alisha Pathak, Siddhi Advani, and 10 other residents. For more on the system and our learnings, check out our prototype report.
