Chapter

Roadmap

Chapter 10: Roadmap

Draft v0.1 - 2026-05-25 - awaiting Zaal review


ZAO Fractal is not a finished system. It is a practice that improves through iteration. The following roadmap is concrete: target dates, accountable owners, measurable outcomes. Each item addresses a limitation from Chapter 9 or an opportunity from Chapter 8.


June 15, 2026: Restore Fractals Web Dashboard

Target date: June 15, 2026

Deliverable: A public leaderboard and session history dashboard at zaoos.com, replacing the deleted zao-fractal.vercel.app.

Scope:

  • List all Fractals (session numbers, dates, participants)
  • Leaderboard: Top 20 members by accumulated Respect (ZOR only, unless OG-to-ZOR reconciliation is ready)
  • Session detail page: See all rankings from a specific Fractal, drill down to individual scores
  • Read-only (no wallet required)
  • HTTPS, hosted on Vercel or Netlify

Owner: ZAO Engineering (TBD)

Rationale: The on-chain history is immutable but inaccessible. Members cannot verify their own Respect without trusting the Discord bot. A public dashboard earns trust and makes governance visible.


June 15, 2026: Publish OG-to-ZOR Ledger Reconciliation Formula

Target date: June 15, 2026

Deliverable: A public document explaining the exact formula for reconciling OG Respect (ERC-20, frozen Dec 2025) into ZOR Respect (ERC-1155, live). Includes:

  • The snapshot date (Dec 2025)
  • The conversion ratio (1 OG = X ZOR, if applicable)
  • The claim mechanism (how to retroactively mint ZOR for earned OG)
  • A worked example (Alice earned 200 OG in Fractals 1-60, here is her ZOR balance)

Owner: ZAO Governance + Tadas Vaitiekunas (Optimystics)

Rationale: Early members should not have a permanent on-chain disadvantage. A transparent formula allows historical reconciliation and prevents the two-ledger system from becoming a source of mistrust.


June 30, 2026: Establish 3+ Signer Committee for OREC

Target date: June 30, 2026

Deliverable: Multi-sig authorization for OREC contract submission. Propose and implement a 3-of-5 multi-sig (or equivalent) that controls ORDAO execution on-chain.

Process:

  1. ZAO council nominates 5 candidates (zaal + 4 others from the community)
  2. Fractal 120+ votes on the 5 nominees (simple majority)
  3. If approved, transfer OREC contract admin to the 3-of-5 multi-sig
  4. Test the multi-sig by submitting results from a Fractal through the new mechanism

Owner: ZAO Governance + Zaal

Rationale: Centralized submission (zaal + civilmonkey.eth only) is a single-person failure mode. A multi-sig distributes trust and makes the system more resilient. It also demonstrates to the community that decentralization is real, not aspirational.


June 30, 2026: Ship Documentation Set

Target date: June 30, 2026

Deliverables:

  1. ZAO Fractal Constitution - The rules ZAO operates under, written down. Includes: voting criteria, quorum rules, Fibonacci curve, removal procedures, amendment process.
  2. Onboarding Guide - Step-by-step: join Discord, attend your first Fractal, submit a ranking, understand your Respect score.
  3. Video Tutorial - 5-7 minute walkthrough of the Respect Game cycle (Monday open, breakout ranking, Sunday results). Aimed at non-technical members.
  4. FAQ - 20-30 common questions answered.
  5. This whitepaper - Finalized with community feedback.

Owner: Zaal + Tanja (operations) + volunteer community members

Rationale: Documentation was identified as the #1 onboarding blocker (Tanja, May 18 2026). Non-technical members cannot explain ZAO Fractal to peers. The documentation set makes the system reproducible and explainable. Other music communities should be able to fork ZAO’s governance and adapt it.


July 15, 2026: Restore ornode or Retire It Formally

Target date: July 15, 2026

Decision point: ornode (an indexing service for ORDAO events) is currently DOWN. Restore it or retire it in favor of direct contract reads.

Option A (Restore):

  • Debug the indexing service (likely infrastructure issue)
  • Redeploy to Vercel or AWS
  • Test with historical Fractals data

Option B (Retire):

  • Formal deprecation notice to community
  • Build direct The Graph subgraph for OREC contract (query on-chain Respect directly)
  • Update zaoos.com dashboard to use The Graph instead of ornode

Owner: ZAO Engineering

Rationale: Indexing is critical for usability. Members should not have to wait for blockchain confirmation or know Solidity to query their Respect. By July 15, we decide: is ornode revivable, or is it dead? If dead, we commit to The Graph subgraph instead. No more single-point-of-failure.


July 15, 2026: Decide on Frapp-GH (GitHub-Native Async Fractal)

Target date: July 15, 2026

Deliverable: A formal go/no-go decision on building Frapp-GH (Chapter 06 PRD: GitHub-native async fractal governance).

Decision criteria:

  • Is there demand from ZAO members for async participation? (Survey)
  • Is GitHub a viable platform for ZAO governance? (Pilot with 5 early adopters)
  • Can we ship Phase 1 (async ranking, no on-chain) in 2-3 sprints? (Scope review with engineering)

If go:

  • Assign engineering lead (TBD)
  • Commit to Phase 1 MVP by August 31 (see below)

If no-go:

  • Commit to Respect.Games (Optimystics beta) pilot instead (timeline TBD)

Owner: Zaal + ZAO Engineering + Tadas Vaitiekunas (advisory)

Rationale: Async governance is a known gap (timezone friction, APAC/EU exclusion). Two tools exist: Frapp-GH (GitHub-native, GitHub-based tooling) and Respect.Games (web-app, generic). By July 15, we decide which path. This decision cascades to Q3 planning.


Q3 2026: Pilot Cignals for Music-Track Ranking

Target date: July 2026 or later (provisional)

Deliverable: A single ZAO Fractal session using Cignals (Optimystics’ live-meeting competition app) instead of standard Respect Game ranking.

Setup:

  1. Contact Tadas Vaitiekunas (@sim31) to discuss Cignals integration
  2. Propose a ZAO Fractal session (date TBD) where members rank music tracks instead of peers
  3. Submit results on-chain to OREC, distributing Respect based on track ranking

Measurement: Track engagement + satisfaction vs. standard Respect Game sessions. Decide: is Cignals a regular tool for ZAO, or one-off experiment?

Owner: Zaal + Tadas Vaitiekunas

Rationale: Cignals is designed for pairwise-comparison ranking and has a music variant (DJ sets). ZAO is music-focused. This pilot tests whether competitive music ranking is more engaging than peer-contribution ranking for music governance decisions.


Q3 2026: Pilot EFBS-Equivalent (Eden Fractal Brainstorming Session)

Target date: September 2026 (provisional)

Deliverable: A bi-weekly meta-meeting (separate from weekly Fractals) where the ZAO council + volunteers discuss governance improvements, roadmap priorities, and strategic direction.

Format:

  • 60 minutes, Zoom (or Discord voice)
  • Bi-weekly (other Monday from the Fractal call, or alternate week)
  • Open to any member with sufficient Respect to attend (TBD threshold)
  • Agenda: State of ZAO, upcoming challenges, community feedback, proposals for change

Reference: Eden Fractal has a Town Hall that serves this purpose. ZAO should experiment with an equivalent.

Owner: Zaal + ZAO Council

Rationale: ZAO Fractal is weekly governance (peer ranking). But strategic decisions (should we change voting criteria? should we migrate chains?) require deliberation that does not fit in the breakout-room format. An EFBS gives the community a space to think out loud, propose changes, and build consensus before a formal vote.


August 31, 2026: Ship Phase 1 of Frapp-GH (If Approved)

Target date: August 31, 2026 (contingent on July 15 go/no-go decision)

Deliverable: A production-ready MVP of Frapp-GH with:

  • GitHub Issues (labeled week-N-contribution) for async contribution submission
  • Projects board (v2) for voting interface (drag-and-drop rank)
  • Automated Respect calculation (2x Fibonacci)
  • Weekly cron (Monday open, Saturday snapshot, Sunday tally)
  • Results posted to Discussion thread
  • Public read-only leaderboard (GitHub Pages or Vercel)
  • TypeScript + Hono backend on Vercel serverless

Testing: Pilot with 10-20 ZAO members for 2-3 weeks before launch.

Owner: ZAO Engineering + Tadas Vaitiekunas (advisory)

Rationale: Async participation has been a blocker for APAC and EU members. GitHub-native governance brings the Respect Game into the platform where open-source work lives, making contribution more verifiable and less visibility-biased.


Long-Term (Q4 2026 and Beyond)

ZOR Token Economy

Scope: Explore whether ZOR Respect can be upgraded into a light liquidity pool or DAO treasury allocation mechanism. Do not make ZOR transferable (soulbound is core to the model). But could high-Respect members have special access to treasury grants or voting power on capital allocation?

Timeline: Post-roadmap (Q4 2026), pending community appetite.


ZABAL Games Integration

Scope: ZABAL Games is a community-run competition platform. Could ZAO Fractal award Respect for winning or participating in ZABAL Games? Could ZABAL Games prize distribution be governed by ZAO Fractal?

Timeline: Dependent on ZABAL Games roadmap and Zaal’s bandwidth.


WaveWarZ Respect-Weighted Prediction Markets

Scope: WaveWarZ is a music prediction game. Could Respect holders get early access or special roles in WaveWarZ markets? Could WaveWarZ outcomes (e.g., “This artist will perform at Coachella”) award Respect to successful predictors?

Timeline: Dependent on WaveWarZ development.


How This Roadmap Works

Each item is concrete. It has a date, an owner, and a measurable outcome. If we miss a date, we ask why and adjust. If we decide to abandon an item, we mark it deprecated and explain why.

This roadmap is not a vision statement. It is a to-do list. It is the work required to address Chapter 9’s limitations and realize Chapter 8’s distinctiveness at scale.

Governance is not a problem to be solved once. It is a practice. The practice improves through iteration, transparency, and community feedback. This roadmap is the next 6 months of that practice.


Sources

  • 06-frapp-gh-prd.md (GitHub-native async fractal MVP, Phase 1 scope, architecture)
  • 04-optimystics-tools-survey.md (Cignals music-ranking pilot, Respect.Games async alternative, ORDAO/OREC production status)
  • 05-critiques-failure-modes.md (Documentation gap, infrastructure single-point-of-failure, participation durability risks)
  • 07-zao-fractal-distinctness.md (OREC 2-wallet bottleneck, ornode status, leaderboard restoration, two-ledger reconciliation)
  • 02-live-communities-deep.md (Eden EFBS equivalent pattern, seasonal rhythm model from Aquadac)

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