Last reviewed: January 2026
terra0
The Self-Owning Forest
ActiveEcological DAO
60
/90 Total
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Score Profile
Dimension Scores
Score Rationale
Persistence — Active since 2016 (10 years); exhibitions and research continuing; survived entire crypto arc from pre-ICO to post-NFT. 'Institutional.'
Autonomy — Designed for autonomous forest management; current implementation is research/exhibition focused with human curation of outputs. Above 'Cyborg,' below 'Sovereign.'
Cultural Impact — Ars Electronica, academic citations, influenced entire discourse on non-human agency and ecological DAOs. Near 'Canonical.'
Economic Reality — Conceptual project with minimal economic activity; grant-funded, no significant revenue generation. Between 'Cost Center' and 'Revenue Positive.'
Governance — Smart contract-based governance model; publicly documented decision framework. Strong 'Constitutional.'
Technical Architecture — Pioneered smart contract environmental governance before the concept existed. Novel architecture, though not fully deployed at scale.
Narrative Coherence — 'Self-owning forest' concept is immediately graspable and philosophically rich. Strong 'Character' with conceptual depth.
Economic Infrastructure — Smart contract-based governance model for forest economics. Conceptual framework for self-owning forest selling lumber to fund expansion. On-chain smart contracts on Ethereum. Grant-funded with minimal commercial revenue. The economic infrastructure design is visionary but implementation is primarily research/exhibition stage. Real smart contracts but modest actual economic activity.
Identity Sovereignty — On-chain smart contract identity on Ethereum. Publicly documented governance framework on-chain. Each terra0 instance has verifiable blockchain presence. Pioneered the concept of non-human on-chain identity before it was a category. No ERC-8004 but conceptually aligned with agent identity standards. Partial sovereignty — strong conceptual foundation with real on-chain presence but research-stage implementation.
Curator Notes
The canonical Elder of the autonomous entity space. terra0 proposed the concept of a self-owning forest before NFTs, DAOs, or the current AI wave existed. It asked: can a forest own itself and sell its own lumber to fund its expansion? While its economic velocity is low (3), its Persistence (10) and Cultural Impact (9) make it a foundational pillar. terra0 established the conceptual vocabulary that subsequent projects inherited.
Evidence Archive
Score History
Score history will appear here after future reviews.
Current score: 60/90