Autonomous Land Trust

Founding Dicta

  1. The Autonomous Land Trust (ALT) is a permanent real estate cooperative that lives on the internet.
  2. The ALT’s mission is to take housing, community spaces, and conservation land out of the speculative real estate market and return it to the people.
  3. The ALT is governed by occupants of the housing/spaces it owns, holders of its digital tokens, and stakeholders from the broader community.
  4. The ALT is sustainably scalable. It will use profit-seeking activities to grow itself and decommodify more community assets.
  5. The ALT builds a dual power based on democracy and solidarity.
  6. The ALT is digital-first. However, it is agnostic to the technical and legal stack needed to function.
  7. The ALT is “autonomous” as in autonomism. It does not concede to radical individualism or algocracy.
  8. A democratic culture is more crucial than a protocol, but the ALT will use processes/protocols to achieve its ends and build a more democratic culture.
  9. The ALT prioritizes scalability and material impact over education, experiment, or demonstration.
  10. As of its founding, the ALT is focused on coastal US cities, but understands itself as a global body.

How It Works

  1. Prospective members purchase ALT membership NFTs.
  2. ALT uses the generated treasury to purchase and reposition commercial real estate (retail, mixed-use, or similar).
  3. ALT uses the NFT capital and CRE equity growth to build housing with a mix of unrestricted and affordable units, offered to ALT members and the general public.
  4. ALT members receive early access to housing drops (affordable and unrestricted units), plus access to token-enabled community content/events and other benefits.
  5. Yield from CRE and unrestricted housing sales recapitalizes the development fund.
  6. Operations are controlled by ALT token holders, ALT property residents, and community members / stakeholders.
  7. The Body Politic (members, residents, community) vote annually for the programs, budget, and members of the Executive Council, which oversees program execution by the ALT and third parties.

Member Token

ALT will sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs), each representing a membership utility function. ALT members will have access to:

  • Voting rights (see Governance Sketch)
  • Access to affordable housing drops
  • Early access to unrestricted housing drops
  • Early access to commercial space
  • Token-gated events and community spaces
  • Token-gated online content and discussions
  • Other utilities as they may arise

Contributors

The Autonmous Land Trust is a loose network of people interested in the future of housing. Research and governance design was provided by Outwith Studio, an urban planning and spatial strategy practice in Philadelphia, USA. Outwith has managed the ALT proposal and will help coordinate the ALT launch. Email autolandtrust@proton.me if you wish to contribute.