Generational Infrastructure
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About

We build and fund infrastructure meant to outlast us.

Systems, tools, models and artifacts that the next generation can inherit, understand and maintain, instead of replacing them.

Growth rings: every generation adds a layer to what was already there.
VisionRead from the bottom up: each property rests on the one below.

Our goal: that our children inherit a complete technology stack they own and understand, like a well-built house without a landlord.

  1. V
    Respect for agencyIt serves the people who use it and respects their decisions rather than steering them.
  2. IV
    Credible exitThere is always a way to keep using it without an intermediary or a forced dependency.
  3. III
    InheritabilitySomeone who wasn’t there when it was built can learn how to use it, how to change it, and why it was built this way.
  4. II
    Provable integrityAnyone can verify it against a fixed standard, without asking permission or trusting the maker.
  5. I
    Minimal base layerIt rests on a small foundation that its users own, not rent.
Our story
“An honest machine that is available in near-equal distribution to every person who seeks to use it.”

We helped bring the first world computer, Ethereum, into being. To us it stands for an honest machine, equally available to everyone who wants to use it. That is both our background and our guide.

If that kind of honesty can be built into one shared machine, why not into the rest of the stack: the operating system, the package manager, the network at home?

Pioneers like Alan Kay, Richard Stallman and John Perry Barlow saw this possibility long ago. We are working to build it.

Alan KayRichard StallmanJohn Perry BarlowEthereum, the first world computerThe rest of the stack
Funding

Supported by grants from

Our work is funded by grants from the following people and organizations. Grants let us plan in decades rather than quarters.