Neocypherpunk Summit

Citizen, dad, entrepreneur, engineer in computer science. Focused on changing the incentives to transition from extraction to regeneration.

I work on the transition from top down hierarchies optimized for profit and efficiency to bottom up decentralized networks optimized for wellbeing and regeneration of local communities. A big part of that is to rebuild the commons and enable communities to develop their own internal economy. That’s what I do with the Commons Hub Brussels and Open Collective.

I’ve always been passionate about using technology to empower citizens to do things that only a few could do before, and in doing so, free them from wage slavery, let them pursue the wellbeing of all stakeholders, not just a few shareholders.

I moved to San Francisco in 2009 where I started Storify.com, a platform to write stories using what people post on social media. It was used by publishers, brands and organizations around the world (CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, BILD, The White House, The United Nations, Ford, IBM, TED, ...). Acquired by Livefyre in 2013, acquired by Adobe in 2016 (which sadly eventually sunset it in 2018 — still interested in buying it back if you know anyone there).

In 2015, I started working on a new lightweight and transparent form of association to enable the Internet generation to fund communities in full transparency: https://opencollective.com.

I moved to NYC in 2016 then eventually moved back to Belgium in 2019 where I've been an active member of Extinction Rebellion. This led me to start allforclimate.earth with my partner Leen Schelfhout, a common non-profit that grassroots initiatives for the climate can use to collect and spend money without having to go through the pain of setting up their own non-profit and accounting.

In 2020, with covid, I focused my energy on the street level with the Citizen Garden, the Citizen Bike Garden and the Citizen Corner, in Schaerbeek, Brussels (https://citizenspring.earth)

With my partner Leen, we started the Citizen Corner in 2021, a 2.5-year temporary occupation in Brussels where we started Regens Unite (2022), a community of climate activists, technologists, crypto, healers uniting for regeneration.

In 2024, we started the Commons Hub Brussels to bring the commons back to the forefront of our society.

I’m also back at the head of Open Collective since October 2024 with the goal to build a new web3 native version to help communities develop their resilience with their own internal community."