From Limited Engagements to Omnipresent Communities: Redefining Fourth Spaces in the Age of Decentralisation
Why the future of connection lies in timeless, phygital bonds beyond space, time, and central authority.
🌍 Introduction: The Limits of Third Spaces
Ray Oldenburg’s third spaces—cafés, pubs, libraries—once defined where communities formed beyond home (first space) and work (second space).
New “fourth space” definitions have surfaced: wellness retreats, architectural in-betweens, hybrid digital hubs. Yet they remain bound by place and synchronous presence.
What they miss is how communities today thrive in asynchrony, decentralisation, and revival across time. Fourth spaces are not where we meet, but how we remain connected—timeless, phygital, and omnipresent.
Today I am going to host a fireside chat with two outstanding community leaders in Istanbul. One uses physical location as a new concept to unite different people simultaneously, and the other creates an asynchronous community by presenting a unique character that people associate with. This newsletter outlines some of my preparatory work for the discussion, and it would be beneficial to share it with you, as this is an essential topic for the future.
Our event series, called Journey to the Centre of Tomorrow (Yarının Merkezine Yolculuk)—inspired by Jules Verne’s canonical novel, Journey to the Centre of the World—is in partnership with my strategic consultancy, Pakt Agency and Türkiye’s leading cryptoassets and tech company, Paribu’s community and ecosystem subbrand, Paribu Hub.
🔄 From… To…: The Shift Toward Fourth Spaces
✨ From synchronous gatherings in fixed places to omnipresent communities that revive across time and space.
✨ From conversations that vanish into memory to living archives that reawaken whenever relevance returns.
✨ From centralised authorities dictating access to decentralised trust via blockchains, DAOs, and community-led governance.
✨ From either purely physical or purely digital spaces to phygital ecosystems where digital memory sustains and physical rituals deepen.
✨ From fragile faith in institutions to resilient belonging in communities bound by transparency, permanence, and shared values.
🌀 Defining Fourth Spaces: Omnipresent & Decentralised
Fourth spaces are omnipresent communities bound by timeless connections and decentralised trust.
🌐 They exist beyond space and time—conversations can pause for years and revive in an instant.
📜 Memory is core—archives, ledgers, and cultural artefacts anchor continuity.
⛓️ Blockchain ensures permanence and transparency beyond institutional collapse.
🎟️ NFTs act as cultural markers of participation, identity, and belonging.
🪙 Cryptoassets provide shared stakes, aligning communities economically as well as socially.
🗳️ DAOs transform governance into collective stewardship, not top-down control.
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