This is the story of my recent herculean round-robin journey to Europe to personally visit as many Hypha and SEEDS pioneers and activists as I could within a thirty-day travel period.
By Stephen L. Gomes, PhD.
Most people are generally so busy with “making a living” and lately in “surviving Covid-19” that they tend to devote little time to consider the origins of our current global crisis and the perilous times that we have brought into our collective lives and to our precious Mother Earth in the 21st century. But there are a few magnificent souls who perceive the critical need for a new paradigm and are answering the call to be the “Way Showers.” They have generously given of their time, their talent, their love, their souls, their very essence to champion a new way of being on the planet that is sustainable, re-generational and equitable for all human beings, not just the privileged few. They have unselfishly, without seeking fanfare or praise, self-selected themselves to work to find a better way. It is difficult work, with little in the way of support from society at large. Why is this work so difficult? Machiavelli said it best:
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. For the innovator has enemies in all those who profit from the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries….and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.”
In my opinion, this quote captures the essence of the barriers and setbacks faced by any agent of global system change. Figuring out how humanity can go beyond its present inequitable system of extraction, greed and predatory behavior to devise a new way of living that makes humanity net positive to nature is hard work. It is hard because the methods and answers for this new way is illusive and difficult to pry up from the unconscious of our collective group thinking. It requires development of new skills and advanced practices in collaboration, governance, consensus building and conceptions of how money works as a medium of value exchange in a re-generative world. It requires building bridges and alliances not-only with other like-minded groups but also with those who are resisting these changes out of fear, intimidation, inertia and shear exhaustion. It requires not only recognizing the need but discerning that the new re-generational culture will not be a fixed thing but it will be a dynamic’ constantly renewing process. It will be a state of constant becoming where each human being is asked to become aware of their life destiny path, have the ability and courage to pursue it, and share their inherent gifts and skills to make life better for all of humanity. This goal contains the notion that people change – and indeed, that the mastery of change, the capacity to reinvent oneself and to reimagine life, lies at the heart of what it means to be “human.”
The men and women of HYPHA (creator and provider of tools for quickly establishing your own Decentralized Autonomous Organization -DAO) and SEEDS (world’s first comprehensive re-generational cryptocurrency) have steadfastly taken up this challenge. By their example, they are inviting the rest of the world to see that this new re-generational culture is not only possible and optimal but is vitally necessary for the survival of humanity. They have created a pathway to a new more equitable, re-generational and continuingly dynamic process that can help human beings to become net positive to nature like the rest of the Earth’s living systems. SEEDS is helping to create an action that will provide citizens of planet Earth with the means for practical global system change by creating a system of money that serves the greater good and creates re-generational prosperity. As the indigenous peoples of the world maintain, the global population of spaceship earth is a single, varied and ever-changing community – a dynamic, limitless humanity that has no frontiers. As the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) people say in their daily greetings, “Mi tokaye O Yasin” (me, you all created things are one).
When I was first introduced to their community three and half years ago, I was drawn to the people of HYPHA (creator and provider of tools for quickly establishing your own Decentralized Autonomous Organization -DAO) and SEEDS (world’s first comprehensive re-generational cryptocurrency) with such fervor and zeal that I dropped my involvement in other less action oriented endeavors and began an active participation with the Hypha and SEEDS DAOs. By the way, dear reader, I recognize that I have not provided any detailed description of what Hypha and SEEDS are. That is because this short essay is written for people already involved in Hypha and SEEDS. If you by chance you are not acquainted with these organizations and want to know more, you can go to joinseeds.earth and dho.hypha.earth . Also here is useful 6-minute video about the new Hypha DAO creation tool suite:
As I have worked with these wonderful enlightened human beings, I began to want to meet them face-to-face and get to know them better and understand how they maintain their steadfast commitment to achieving this difficult vision. They all seemed to have such generosity of spirit and patience with ambiguity as they navigated the shoals of these rapids of change now facing planet Earth. But then Covid hit and prevented face-to-face meetings. So, we were forced to rely on virtual meeting with software like Zoom to get our work done. In late 2021 I began to plan forays out into the world to meet my Hypha and SEEDS colleagues starting with a trip to New York and North Carolina, then Ecuador and Peru and finally culminating with the 30-day trip to Europe. This is the story of that trip to Europe which took place in July 2022.
It began with laying out the itinerary. Seattle-Paris-Madrid-Seville-Tangier-Lisbon-Zurich-Liechtenstein-Vienna-Danube-Bavaria-Zurich-Berlin-Amsterdam-Paris-Seattle.
The timing was dictated by the presentation of my paper on the impact of blockchain technology on society at the Academy of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Knowledge (ACIEK) in Seville, Spain on June 28th, 2022. As it turned out I apparently got infected with one of the variants of Covid-19, perhaps during our side trip to Tangiers, and lost my voice to a case of laryngitis. So sadly, I had to submit my Powerpoint deck to ACIEK minus my personal narration. The trip itself was tough. Europe was inundated with holiday tourist travelers and the transportation infrastructure was overwhelmed. There were 10,000 lost bags alone in Charles DeGaulle International Airport including mine and my wife, Sheila’s. She received hers 3 days later in Seville and I received mine 15 days later in Berlin. I will leave the impact of that to your imagination. When my bag finally arrived at my hotel in Berlin, it was shredded and looked like it had been in a war zone (see photo). When we arrived in Paris the second time, we were greeted by the hottest day ever recorded in Paris, 41 C or 105 F. But despite these setbacks, the overall purpose of this trip was realized, and I was able to stay on schedule and meet all deadlines and travel connections. The richly rewarding experience of meeting and in some cases staying with the talented and dedicated men and women of SEEDS and Hypha more than offset the irritations and frustrations of travel.
What was it like to meet face-to-face after years of virtual work together on Zoom? That is difficult to adequately describe in mere words. The power of vocabulary fails to provide the precise symbols to capture the uniqueness of these encounters. It was like the people in your TV suddenly walked out into your living room and began interacting with you. In every case I was struck with the amazing realization that at some level I already knew these people, but on another level, I was being introduced to the power of their personal presence for the very first time. I realized in those moments that the essence and charm and energy of an individual can never be adequately captured in a zoom room. Making these real-life in-person connections were so uniquely warm and filled with such moments of bigger than life impact on me that I was fully grateful for the opportunity to be with these wonderful human beings. I was running around constantly with that secret Mona Lisa smile, marveling at my good fortune to have been introduced to so many unusually altruistic and loving souls all of whom were part of the greater Hypha-SEEDS community. The first person I met as I started my journey after the ACIEK conference was Alan Laubsch, an early pioneer in the SEEDS movement and a member with me on the strategic advisory SWEET team (Strategic Wisdom for Exponentially Enlightening Transmogrification) which morphed into the SEEDS Strategic Analysis Team which I moderated then finally into the SEEDS Wishing Well, currently moderated on Wednesday mornings 7am PDT by Terry Mollner. This team tackles discussions of all topics pertaining to the long-term strategic viability and success of the SEEDS global movement. I met Alan there in that group more than three years ago. I was always impressed with his charm, altruism, breadth of his global network, knowledge of the the world, and his dedication to finding a solution that was both equitable and re-generational. When you meet someone in the flesh for the first time after years of working with them in zoom meetings there is always this shock of amazement like someone suddenly stepped out of the magic mirror and into your 3D reality. The experience is a uniquely pleasant one. I highly recommend it. Alan and I and our wives met for dinner in a beautiful restaurant in Lisbon overlooking the Atlantic. See photo below.
Next on our itinerary was the beautiful storybook kingdom of Liechtenstein, where we met Franz Allmayer and his wonderful wife, Lisa Beck. This is one of the power couples of SEEDS and Hypha in Europe. They are also early pioneers that helped shape the goals, missions and objectives of SEEDS and Hypha. They travel around the world as roving ambassadors helping to establish and nourish ecovillage projects and solicit financial and policy support for the Hypha/SEEDS community worldwide. It was truly and honor and privilege to meet them in their home turf. I noticed right away that Zoom did not begin to capture the warmth, love and genuine generosity of spirit that you experience when you meet them in person. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with them. See photos below.
From Liechtenstein we took a delightful drive the Bavarian countryside to Vienna where we met the young and enthusiastic Alan Vogl. Many of you know him from his involvement all over the Hypha/SEEDS ecosystem. He is truly of gem. We sorely need more young people of his caliber who are able to energize the work of Hypha/SEEDS with their commitment to action and their dedication to practical strategies and programs. Like most of the young people of Hypha/SEEDS, Alan knows that humanity is past the time for research, debate, delay and inaction. He wants to put his energy into making a difference now. We had much fun together especially when we drove out of Vienna into the wine country of the Danube river where he lives with his family. We met his wonderfully enthusiastic Mother, who is an Austrian and U.N. diplomat. We could immediately see where Alan got his charm and drive from. See photos below.
After our visit with Alan, we drove through the Bavarian countryside back towards Zurich. We made two stops. The first was to Shliersee, South of Munich in the lake country, where we met with my colleague, valued-friend, talented crypto-trader, and co-founder of Quanta AI (now Quanta Ventures), Manuel Fritzenwallner. I have been a business and strategy consultant to Quanta since just after it launched over 4 years ago. Manuel is not directly involved with SEEDS but his firm is in the forefront of cutting-edge cryptobot development and deployment. I have never met anyone who knows more about the intricacies of currency trading than Manuel. He is highly interested in helping the SEEDS/Hypha community achieve success wherever he can and often participates in SEEDS Wishing Well calls with Terry Mollner. Nearby we made one more stop to see Castle Neuschwanstein which was used by Disney as the model for its logo for Disneyland. See photos below.
The next stop on our trip required us to fly from Zurich to Berlin. Keep in mind all this time I still did not have my suitcase so if you notice I am always seeming to wear the same pants, that is because I was. In Berlin, we met another of the early pioneers of SEEDS, the irrepressible Dannie Quilitzsch, who I have been working with as long as I have been involved with SEEDS. Dannie created and led the SEEDS Ambassador training program before the design flaws in the the Seeds 1.0 tokenomics caused a dramatic slow down in the progress of the SEEDS ecosystem. She is now trying to resurrect her team as a new Movement of Movement DAO. She is one of those rare, motivated, enlightened, dedicated and motivated human being who adds value to everything she touches. Sheila and I truly enjoyed our time with her and hope that she can arrange things so that we can again benefit from the gifts and skills she brings to our SEEDS Ecosystem.
While we were in Berlin, we had a wonderful surprise. Lisa Beck and Franz Allmayer flew there and joined us for dinner with Dannie. A good time was had by all.
While we were in Berlin, Sheila and I decided to take the tour of the Third Reich which in the 1930s and 1940s brought so much suffering, sadness and death to Germany and the whole world. We wanted to see and feel what it was like when masses of people become so stressed that they can be manipulated toward authoritarian rule by evil-minded dictators, like Hitler. We felt like it was particularly important to do this since the world is now undergoing a similar period where there is a strong swing to the right. Unscrupulous right- wing politicians are all lined up to take advantage of the turmoil and chaos that are directly the result of unsustainable predatory capitalism by offering simple but false solutions to the people in return for their support at the voting booth. This is a very dangerous time for democracy and for the fate of the human race. It is an outcome the Hypha and SEEDS are fighting to avoid. If these forces of darkness prevail around the world, humanity will be unable to take the steps necessary to prevent cataclysmic climate emergencies from occurring in the future thus assuring increased suffering and chaos. Among other places we saw the Brandenburg Gate, remnants of the “Wall” dividing East and West Berlin and Check Point Charlie which was the only way to pass between East and West Berlin. See photos below.
After a harrowing scramble to find the right track for our train, we were finally able to reach Amsterdam. We spent five days with Alex Prate, his wife Carine and his family. They live right on one of the canals in Amsterdam. I was always curious about what living in one of those canal homes would be like. I can now finally cross that off my bucket list.
Again, Alex is one of the earliest pioneers of SEEDS and Hypha and one of the keen intellects who helped forge the vision for a new cryptocurrency that supports Earth re-generation as its primary purpose. He is still at the forefront of the SEEDS ecosystem work. Alex is the primary author of the new Seeds 2.0 white paper that describes how the SEEDS community intends to replace its legacy Seeds 1.0 tokenomics with a new design that eliminates speculation as a prime motivating factor for Seeds currency users. I have been attending Zoom meetings with Alex for as long as I have been involved with SEEDS. He is one of the stalwarts of its creation and continues to actively care about what happens with the Seeds cryptocurrency. He is a mainstay of the SEEDS currency working group which is one of the two working groups officially recognized by the SEEDS Commons. And indeed, Alex far exceeded my expectations. He is a kind, generous, naturally loving person who is deeply thoughtful and highly experienced. I feel like we developed a close personal bond which we will carry forward in our further work with SEEDS as we bring forth the next generation of Seeds 2.0 to regenerate the energetic field of the SEEDS participants and regain the trust that was damaged when everyone realized that we could not reach our goal with Seeds 1.0 as it was originally designed. With leaders like Alex at the helm, who have given their all to create SEEDS and manifest a new form of value exchange (money) that honors, supports and regenerates the Earth rather than exploiting and destroying it, I feel confident that SEEDS will ultimately prevail and emerge as a viable and successful alternative to the destructive fiat currencies that now dominate the global stage and that serve to feed global exploitation, greed, extraction, scarcity and competition.
While we were in Amsterdam I was greeted by a surprise visit by my good friend, colleague from the University of Texas Graduate School of Business and Fellow of the Tando Institute (www.tando.org), Dr. Fred Phillips. Fred is chairman of ACIEK which focuses on the impact of technology on Society. I left him in Seville where he was finishing up this year’s ACIEK conference. Next year I intend to present a paper on blockchain and its impact on society with a case study of Hypha and SEEDS. The conference next year will be in Madrid in June 2023. See photos below. In any case I was able to introduce him to Alex who had a very constructive conversation with him which may lead to further collaboration in the future.
One of the important initiatives that Franz and Alex (and Joachim) are participating in is the RESPOND group which is being sponsored by the BMW foundation. The next meeting will be in Munich in September. Franz, Alex and Joachim have succeeded in bringing Hypha and SEEDS to the attention of the BMW foundation with the result that there may be a very good prospect for financial support this fall. Here is a photo of the three Hypha/SEEDS reps at the last RESPOND meeting in Marseille in July 2022.
After enduring two last-minute train cancellations, many delays and shuffling our bags off and on trains (our non-stop Amsterdam to Paris train was cancelled), we finally arrived in Paris where they had the hottest day in the history of the City that goes back nearly 2000 years. My wife and I got engaged in Paris so we really have a warm spot in our hearts for this city of many moods, beautiful architecture, art and culture. But even for us, 41 C (105 F) was hard to take. After five days in this special city and after nearly 30 days of traveling, I have to admit we were worn out and really ready to return home. Here are some of our Paris highlights:
Ok SEEDS and Hypha, where do we go from here?
