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⚠️ This note outlines the concept for a distributed, location-agnostic research lab. The purpose is a source-of-truth to align on the foundational elements.
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Bringing our experience from web3, AI, product/UX design, complex organizational development, user research, co-living, biohacking, social science and the art of magic, our lab will focus on producing evidence-based solutions for global economic coordination, social cohesion, and proximity to nature.
Existing social structures are increasingly constraining our freedom, while new socio-technical organisations lack the skills and capabilities of the industrialised world to reach a high quality standard. They need support from those who understand the functions of the legacy infrastructure and can help recombine them into a viable, innovative future.
Living in cities of the global north is becoming [more expensive](https://www.oecd.org/en/data/insights/statistical-releases/2025/10/consumer-prices-oecd-updated-6-october-2025.html#:~:text=In August%2C food price levels,in Ukraine (Figure 2).) with a decline in quality of life. Mainstream technologies proliferate and expand upon de-humanising labor institutions, the educational system, and the political landscape¹. Democracy has become a disguise for the aim to retain control for the inevitable decline of the industrialised world².
At the same time, a counterculture is emerging. Regenerative agriculture practices, global temporary residency containers, privacy-first open source culture, and the network state movement slowly attract investment to explore alternatives to the centralised nation-state model.
The past decade marks a phase of experimentation with online governance, coordination, currencies, and knowledge management, but it will not survive without support from the legacy world.
Our response is a Sanctuary - a distributed research lab, designed to make use of physical spaces across the world as temporary containers for accelerated innovation of social technologies.
Our human-centered work environment attracts leaders, connects them with experts, and brings out the best in the talent to design, prototype, and test social technologies in a safe space.
Once validated, protocols and businesses can be launched on a large scale with minimal risk for negative externalities.
We are interested in creating experiences using state-of-the-art technology that evoke a genuine sense of wonder and delight.
We want to produce unbiased, high quality research insights to measure the real impact of the technologies on users’ lives and their local environment.
We design an organization that allows us to reach our individual health goals while compensating everyone for the work relative to its value.
By doing our work, we will create a record of peer-verified trusted network of experts, mentors and their contributions.
Our current network consists of individuals with extensive professional experience in legacy industries, and an excitement and curiosity for emerging technologies.
[we can add personal backgrounds here, tools, and partner orgs like Agartha]
Deep Work Studio was co-created as an experiment of a online-native R&D studio that brings talented designers, researchers, and facilitators together and accelerate the development of digital financial products. The goal was to establish a profitable business with maximum four hours of focused, purposeful sessions, and location-independent collaboration that fits everyone’s schedule.
Since 2018, Deep Work Studio helped web3 ecosystems like Ethereum launch and secure their proof-of-stake network, Beefy.finance find product market fit, build a revenue-generating product with Maple Finance, and teams like Obol raise USD $21m and expand to over 15,000 active validators.