Fractal Deep History
The complete history of every fractal that has ever mattered to ZAO’s lineage. Where /reference/ gives you the survey and /research/01-foundations-deep.md gives you the mechanics, this folder gives you the END-TO-END history of each fractal community + the Optimystics tooling that powers them.
Wave 4 research (May 24, 2026). ~2530 lines, 100+ unique sources.
Files
| # | File | Topic | Lines | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 01-eos-fractally-origins.md | EOS blockchain history + Fractally protocol full lifecycle. Both dormant. What survived (the ideas) vs what did not (the infrastructure + the company). | 591 | 37 |
| 02 | 02-eden-fractal-full-history.md | Eden Fractal end to end: Eden on EOS (April 2021), Genesis Fractal (2022), Epoch 1 EOS (May 2022-June 2025), Epoch 1.5 false start (Aug 2024), Epoch 2 Base (June 5 2025-present) | 622 | 18 |
| 03 | 03-optimism-fractal-full-history.md | Optimism Fractal end to end: Oct 2023 launch through Jan 2026 indefinite pause autopsy. Tripartite governance (Sages Council), ORDAO Season 5 production deployment (Nov 2024), grants, the 5 ranked causes of the pause | 644 | 27 |
| 04 | 04-optimystics-tools-survey.md | Complete catalog of Optimystics tools: ORDAO, Fractalgram, Respect.Games, Fractal Circles, Cignals, Cagendas, OPTOPICS, Respect Trees, RetroPolls, Firmament. Each with status + ZAO verdict (USE / PILOT / IGNORE / ABANDON) | 673 | 24 |
| 05 | 05-other-fractal-communities.md | DEEP profiles of every fractal community OTHER than ZAO/Eden/OF: Roy, Hispano, Alien Worlds, Aquadac, EOS Respect, ZEOS, Eden Korea, Upland, Upscale, Dynamics of Hegemony | 975 | 25 |
| 06 | 06-adjacent-governance-tooling.md | DEEP coverage of governance tools adjacent to ORDAO that ZAO should understand: Hats Protocol, Snapshot, Pol.is, Loomio, Decidim, Consul, Sociocracy 3.0, Safe, Tally, Aragon OSx | 548 | 31 |
| 07 | 07-larimer-essays-academic-bibliography.md | Larimer essay archive (More Equal Animals + Decentralizing Governance 2019 + The Currency Distribution Problem 2016 + Fractally writings) + deeper academic bibliography (Fishkin, Landemore, Habermas, Sintomer, Mercier+Sperber, Haidt, Sunstein, Ostrom, Surowiecki, Manin, Navajas) + sortition history deeper | 944 | 24 |
| 08 | 08-eden-creators-garden-inventory.md | Full inventory of the Eden Creators Garden (edencreators.com/garden) - 30+ tools / games / initiatives in Optimystics ecosystem. Surfaces the experimental layer beyond shipped Optimystics code: DAMS, EFBS, Consortium, Vlalendas, Pomelo, BBS, Eden Research, ARC, and 20+ more. | 250 | 6 |
Key facts surfaced
EOS chain (Sub 1):
- EOS ICO June 2017-June 2018, raised $4B+
- Peak price $22.89 April 2018, now $0.40 (-99.6%)
- Block.one SEC settlement Sept 30 2019, $24M fine
- Larimer departure Dec 31, 2020
- Voice social network launched July 2020, shut down April 2021
- Antelope rebrand Sept 21 2022 (hard fork)
- ENF (EOS Network Foundation) formed Aug 25, 2021
Fractally protocol (Sub 1):
- Larimer “More Equal Animals” Feb 20, 2021
- Fractally announcement Jan 28, 2022
- White paper Feb 22, 2022
- Addendum 1 scoring revision mid-2022
- Zero contracts deployed (the protocol shipped a spec but no production)
- Dormant since ~2023
- Survived: the IDEA + the WHITE PAPER + the people who carried it forward
Eden Fractal (Sub 2):
- Eden on EOS first election Oct 9 2021, 13:00 UTC, 182 registrants
- 9 election cycles, ~$1.5M distributed
- Genesis Fractal: 30 weeks, 130 participants, ~37 weekly avg
- Eden Fractal Epoch 1 (EOS): 77 contributors, 100+ events
- Epoch 1.5 false start announced Aug 14, 2024, took 10-month engineering rebuild
- Epoch 2 launch June 5, 2025 = Event #121 (3-year anniversary)
- Currently: 130+ events, Season 12, ~40 active, bi-weekly Thursdays 17:00 UTC
Optimism Fractal (Sub 3):
- Launched Oct 2023 by Dan SingJoy + Optimystics
- Tripartite governance: Judicial (Respect Game), Legislative (Sages Council via Hats Protocol), Executive (ORDAO/OREC)
- 72 bi-weekly events, ~65 Respect holders
- ORDAO formally approved Season 5 Nov 2024 - first production deployment of ORDAO on any Ethereum mainnet
- Optimism Grants Council Season 6 grant: “Respect Game: Research into Democratic Fund Distribution”
- Paused indefinitely Jan 2026 to consolidate into Eden
- 5 ranked causes: Eden Epoch 2 resource demand (strong), strategic consolidation (strong), volunteer burnout (moderate), participation plateau (weak), grant window (weak)
- Post-pause: Respect tokens frozen on Optimism, no migration path announced
- Result: ZAO Fractal became the only active fractal on Optimism
Optimystics tools (Sub 4):
- 10 primary tools + 3 bonus tools cataloged
- 16 GitHub repos in the Optimystics org
- Tadas Vaitiekunas (sim31) last commit May 20, 2026 - actively maintained
- ZAO verdicts: USE (1) / PILOT (5) / IGNORE (3) / ABANDON (1)
- USE: ORDAO/OREC (core infra)
- PILOT: Respect.Games (async track), Cignals (music ranking), Cagendas (agenda), Respect Trees (UI), RetroPolls
- IGNORE: Fractalgram (Telegram-only - ZAO is Discord-first), OPTOPICS, Firmament (paused)
- ABANDON: Fractal Circles (founder unreachable - route to Frapp-GH instead)
Cross-references
These docs supersede the shallow passes in /reference/02-fractally-protocol.md, /reference/03-eden-on-eos.md, /reference/05-eden-fractal.md, /reference/06-optimism-fractal.md. The reference docs remain as the 1-2 minute overview; the deep-history docs are the 20-30 minute read.
Wave 5 additions - new founder/leader names surfaced
- Roy Fractal (EOS, 700+) - founder confirmed: Shakruz Azirof. Facilitation uses multi-platform (YouTube archive + Telegram async + Zoom realtime). Nested breakout rooms.
- Fractal Hispano - founder: Jorge Ramos. 25+ members, 30+ meetings.
- EOS Respect - founder: Randall Roland. Dozens of members, monthly elections.
- Upland Fractal - founder: Spacewrangler Joe. 10 core members governing the Upland metaverse real-estate game.
- ZEOS Fractal - founder: Matthias (likely Matthias Schoenebeck of “Pseudonymous Fractals” Medium fame). Status partial.
Honest UNKNOWNs after wave 5
| Topic | What is still unknown | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Fractally | Last commit / repo URL / Larimer’s stated reason for stopping | Search Hive/Steemit archives more aggressively, ask Larimer directly |
| Eden | Exact May 2022 founding date, ORDAO exact deploy date | Reach @DanSingjoy for confirmation |
| Eden | EOS-to-Base claim rates (of 77 holders) | BaseScan analysis of claim transactions |
| OF | Exact vote tally on Jan 2026 pause | Optimism Foundation forum thread or council post |
| OF | Grant amount from Optimism Grants Council Season 6 | Optimism Grants Council ledger |
| OF | Post-pause migration path for OF Respect holders | Optimism Fractal council post or DM SingJoy |
| Optimystics tools | Fractal Circles source code repo URL | Contact Mikael (currently unreachable per ZAO research) |
| Optimystics tools | Cignals on-chain version ship date | Contact Tadas (sim31) directly |
| Other fractals | Upscale Fractal founder + launch date + cadence (Sub A marked FAILED) | Optimystics directory direct outreach |
| Other fractals | Dynamics of Hegemony game status + developer | Site offline; try Wayback Machine + Steam |
| Other fractals | Aquadac complete season-theme rotation | Email Aquarius Academy Substack or join a season |
| Larimer essays | Hive/Steemit 2017-2019 specific URLs | Hive archive crawl (e.g. ecency.com, peakd.com) |
| Larimer essays | Whether post-2022 Larimer governance writing exists | Direct outreach |
| More Equal Animals | Exact chapter table of contents | Amazon Look Inside, Goodreads, library copy |
These remain targets for any wave 6 research.