A self-managed house that belongs to no one

no1s1 is a house that owns and manages itself. It is an experiment in the future, exploring new approaches to collective goods enabled by technologies such as blockchain.

no1s1 proposes a way to create physical infrastructure that is self-managed, participatory and purpose-built. The first working prototype was built by Hongyang Wang at ETH Zurich in the form of a meditation booth.

How can a space belong to no one and be occupied by everyone?

The self-managed organisation is made possible by a so-called Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), which is connected to the house. DAOs, in contrast to classic, hierarchical companies, function as loose, global networks of people and digital systems that are built and controlled by the grassroots.

Blockchain technology provides the necessary decentralisation and transparency. Smart contracts, small programmes that live on the blockchain and can execute instructions for action, form the set of rules. According to democratic principles, these rules can be defined and also changed again.

no1s1 is the world's first project that connects a DAO with a physical object.

However, there are already numerous examples of DAOs, some of which manage huge assets. In the future, such organisations could be legally equated with conventional companies.

A house that raises big questions

However, this movement is still in its infancy and is extremely abstract and difficult to grasp.

no1s1 shows the potential, but also the open questions of this alternative model for real estate and infrastructure. Many familiar economic and social ideas are being questioned:

no1s1 is self-sustaining instead of profit-oriented: Any surpluses could flow back into the maintenance of the buildings or to the users.

But the project also raises many questions: Who is responsible if there is a fire? How can a DAO be programmed so that it can be changed by a group of people in a democratic process, but cannot be manipulated by anyone? How can no1s1 be integrated into our legal system?

Selected media reports:

• The house that manages itself (SRF News, 19.03.2022)
• The self-owning house is a dream for tenants (Blick, 28.10.2021)
• The house belongs to itself (Hochparterre, 12.06.2019)

From the idea to the functional prototype

no1s1 is a research project with a future and a collaborative project in which many people and organisations have participated over the years.

The original concept was developed by Dezentrum in 2018. In the following years, legal and ethical questions around the idea of self-managed infrastructure were discussed with the public and experts, facilitated by the Mercator Switzerland Foundation. no1s1 was presented at the UN in Geneva, at the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF, at various universities and at several public events.

The prototype built by Hongyang Wang at ETH in 2021 in the form of a meditation cabin succeeds in making the idea behind no1s1 tangible and demonstrating the opportunities and questions using a physical object. The solar-powered no1s1 meditation cabin can be rented. Payment is made directly to no1s1 using cryptocurrencies. Whether no1s1 will use it to repair itself, order a carpet or buy new space is still open.

no1s1 is a DAO research project of the UZH Blockchain Center, the ZHAW, the Digitisation Initiative of Zurich Universities (DIZH) and Dezentrum. Recently, Hongyang Wang founded the no1s1 Lab together with Jens Hunhevics.