2026-05-09 –, Grégr Stage
Real-world ReFi under fire: integrating Web3 for survival in 80+ Ukrainian ecovillages. We’ll share lessons from deploying solar monitoring during blackouts and restoring soil after missile strikes. An honest look at IoT glitches, tokenizing "impact" for resilience, and why 90% of locations struggle with tech onboarding when the goal is simply to endure.
Motivation & Context
As a lead coordinator for the Global Ecovillage Network Ukraine (GEN Ukraine), I have spent the last two years navigating a unique and brutal intersection: high-tech Regenerative Finance (ReFi) and low-tech physical survival. Since 2022, our network of 80+ locations has become a sanctuary for thousands, but also an involuntary laboratory for extreme systemic resilience.
This talk is our tribute to the global Web3 & ReFi community. When we lost our team and funding for two long years, it was the decentralized support of global peers that gave us a reason to move forward.
The Power of Global Synthesis
I want to share how we integrated diverse global experiences into a survival framework for Ukraine:
Grassroot Economics (Kenya): Implementing the "Toloka" pools based on Will Ruddick’s Sarafu experience, which restored the spirit of our communities during a deep internal crisis.
ReFi Colombia: Learning from Teresa Bízková and the Latin American movement how to measure impact, build Dune dashboards, and support volunteering through POAP Gallery.
Ma Earth (New Zealand): Finding our "In Earth We Trust" vector through Gitcoin climate rounds, which helped us resolve internal conflicts and refocus on soil regeneration.
Solarpunk Nomads (Italy): How weekly mentorship from Guido and Marcus guided us toward our biggest Octant climate round and the launch of our carbon economy efforts.
Why This Topic Matters
The Web3 community often struggles with "The Last Mile." Our story proves that ReFi is not just a financial experiment; it is a lifeline. We’ll discuss:
Technical Implementation: Using smart meters and Arkreen for solar monitoring during blackouts.
The Onboarding Gap: Why only 10% of locations are "Web3-active" and how we manage the friction between tech and trauma.
From Survival to Vision: How we are transforming these "hard-learned" lessons into a new technological current for the global ecovillage movement.
What the Audience Will Get
A framework for "Extreme Resilience" monitoring based on real-world crises.
A roadmap of how global Web3 collaborations (from Kenya to Colombia) can be practically applied in a war zone.
Evidence that when code meets community in their darkest hour, it creates an unbreakable foundation for regeneration.
President of GEN Ukraine. I bridge the gap between ReFi protocols and the "ground truth" of 80+ ecovillages. From solar monitoring during blackouts to soil restoration after strikes, I am reinventing "Toloka" — the ancient Slavic tradition of communal labor — as a Web3 protocol for resilience, transforming grassroots communities into global Regenerative Leadership Hubs.