Ipê News #15 - The Bitcoin Society, Honduran Elections, Avici refund, and more
Your weekly update on what is happening in the Startup Society ecosystem.
Hey builders!
Welcome to our 15th edition of the Ipê News.
As Ipê Village 2026 gets closer, it’s time to get involved, join our Town Hall tomorrow, Dec 2 at 10 am, on our Discord Server.
🏘️ Community Updates
Highlights from Ipê City, partner communities, or aligned initiatives.
If you still haven’t watched the Startup Society docuseries, now is your chance! The website startupsociety.film just got a fresh look, so share it with your family and friends. Everyone deserves to know what we are building.
After a powerful Devconnect and the first Ethereum World’s Fair, Crecimiento is planning for 2026: a new Aleph coworking space, more startup programs, and popup cities in March and August.
🏫 Learning section
A learning segment to upskill and be able to build the tools of the future.
DePIN might be a good solution for infrastructure, but the foundation of a blockchain-based society will be the wallet. Your wallet is your identity, your money, and your signature. That’s why hardware wallets are a must-have for any long-term crypto holder.
A hardware wallet is a physical device that keeps your private key safe, never exposing it to the broader internet. They usually allow you to authenticate with a PIN, and come with an app to enjoy other features, such as staking and more DeFi options.
The most popular wallets are manufactured by Ledger, Trezor, and Tangem, but if you want to help the open-source movement, consider the Keystone wallet.
🌐 Network Societies Update
A quick pulse on emerging cities, nomad groups, and experiments shaping the future of network societies.
The Bitcoin Society (TBSO) was announced last week by Éric Larchevêque, CEO and co-founder of Legder. They call it a new network society, although it is starting from the rebranding of a French public company, now valued at 1 million euros.
The goal is to start building a Bitcoin treasury in France, while bringing more members to the network thanks to Bitcoin classes (already available in French), events, and diverse clubs like the entrepreneurs’ club or the investors’ club.
With already 18,000 members on the French platform, the project is officially launched and aims to attract people overseas through a waitlist.
⚖️ Governance Tools
Exploring mechanisms for coordination, decision-making, and digital governance.
The latest presidential elections in Honduras created significant controversy, with politicians under criminal investigations, and all parties accusing each other of electoral misconduct.
With the Polymarket bet on the winner over $8M, the results are swinging between the two major candidates, and Trump had to step in last minute to confuse things even more. So who will win?
The race has narrowed to two main blocs: the National Party and the Liberal Party. Both have signaled a friendlier stance toward Próspera’s legal framework and special jurisdiction model compared to the current administration. The future looks brighter for ZEDEs in Honduras.
🛠️ Web3 Tools
Tech shaping decentralized living, finance, and identity.
Avici.money is a stablecoin banking startup providing a self-custodial wallet and a Visa card on Solana, for what could look like another neobank. However, their masterplan is to replace banks by developing what is missing for most onchain banks: a credit score and unsecured loans, like mortgages.
To that end, they partnered with MetaDAO to launch their ICO and was highly oversubscribed ($34M for a $2M raise). Since MetaDAO uses Futarchy to allow investors to make decisions, it ran a proposal through Futarchy to decide how to handle the money.
In a bold move for an ICO, the community decided to keep $3.5M to support Avici’s development and refund 90% of the raise to investors. If you’re interested in the development of a decentralized banking system, you can join their network.
🌍 Other Interesting News
Broader movements and stories from the frontier of digital-first governance and societies.
After the case of Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to 25 years after the collapse of FTX, we are now witnessing the trial of Do Kwon after the collapse of Terra Luna. The Korean founder of Terraform Labs pleaded guilty to U.S. fraud charges and is trying to keep the sentence under 5 years, while facing up to 25 years in prison.
TerraUSD was a stablecoin paired to the Luna token, using a complex algorithm to balance funds and maintain the peg. Some people expressed concerns about the stability of the peg, and in 2022, a few triggers collapsed the peg entirely, plummeting TerraUSD, Luna, and bringing down the whole crypto market.
In 2022, Do Kwon fled South Korea, which revoked his passport, but he was arrested in 2023 after being put on the Interpol red notice. His problems are far from over, and other firms involved are facing lawsuits. A good reminder to all the network society builders out there: pay attention to the global legal frameworks.
💡 Join Ipê Village II
Ipê Village 2026 will be our next large-scale experiment exploring the future of communities, cities, and governance. Hosted in Florianópolis, Brazil, in March/April 2026, this pop-up city is open to founders, builders, creators, and techno-optimists.
Follow the journey and join the community on Twitter or Discord.