Dr. Jasmin Cowin reporting from the Zebracorn Deep Tech Castle Retreat at Historic Castle Schloss Burgscheidungen, Germany
In the rolling hills of the Unstrut Valley, where history whispers through ancient stone walls, something extraordinary unfolded. The Zebracorn Deep Tech Castle Retreat, June 26-29, 2025, transformed Historic Castle Schloss Burgscheidungen (also known as “Crypto Castle”) into a collaborative Zebracorn, creating an arc between history past and the nexus of a future envisioned by Yip Thy Diep Ta’s quest “…to make peace more profitable than war…”
Location as Catalyst: Where History Meets Innovation
The author believes that Schloss Burgscheidungen encapsulates the vision of its owner, Yanislav Malahov, (recognized as the “Godfather of Ethereum”), who understands that preservation also includes reimagination, innovating while building on what was. His work at Schloss Burgscheidungen is akin to a prince kissing, awakening his Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty), who slumbered for a hundred years before being awakened to don gossamer wings of vision, love, dedication, and hope for the future. Malahov’s nuanced approach to the historical protected grounds is both an expression of grandiose imagination and down-to-earth hard work, doing justice to the soul of Schloss Burgscheidungen and its magical grounds.
The breathtaking vistas and fertile spaces within the castle reinforced in the author the importance of preserving our world for future generations, making his labor of love both visionary and personally moving. As Ovid wrote, “When all the other animals, downcast looked upon the earth, he gave a face raised on high to man, and commanded him to see the sky and raise his high eyes to the stars,” (Metamorphosis). Malahov’s castle embodies that lifting of vision, proving how the power of imagination, coupled with dedication and resilience, births positive, transformative energy to the world.
Let’s walk each other home on our missions (Yip & Kevin, Founders, J3D.AI Labs & Zebracorn Deep Tech)
As an invited Catalyst to this three-day gathering, the author witnessed firsthand how a group of transdisciplinary leaders carefully curated by Kevin Varend and Yip Thy Diep Ta, can create abundant spaces to envision and reshape our understanding of what purpose-driven technology might achieve. This ‘Unconference’ wasn’t a typical tech conference; instead, it represented a fundamental shift in how we collectively can approach innovation, collaboration – yes, the very nature of dreaming the future flowing outward and upward as a collaborative, holistic organism itself.
The Architecture of Regenerative Innovation
“Not every founder wants to disrupt. Some want to regenerate,” explained Yip ThyDiep Ta, also known as Jedi, an AI-powered platform designed to drive human-centric collaboration with contributions to the World Economic Forum’s crypto sustainability initiatives. Working alongside her was Kevin, a WEF Global Shaper who specializes in facilitating government and business delegations between Europe and Asia while curating strategic investment and technology summits. Together, Kevin and Yip Ta embodied the retreat’s philosophy, which permeated every aspect of the gathering, from its collaborative session structure to its emphasis on systems thinking.
The retreat’s foundation rested on what Kevin and Yip call the “Zebracorn Economy,” a concept that challenges the traditional startup narrative of unicorns and disruption. While unicorns chased billion-dollar valuations through rapid scaling and market domination, Zebracorns pursue what they describe as “regenerative ambition,” built on shared value, sustainability, and mutualism rather than monopoly.
The retreat operated on four pillars that the Yip and Kevin believe “move the world”: AI and AGI’s impact on work’s future, Web3 and decentralization’s role in economic transformation, consciousness and the Inner Development Goals (IDG) shaping humanity’s trajectory, and health innovations including female reproductive health that defines life’s future.
The Intensive Learning Laboratory
The retreat’s structure deliberately broke from traditional conference formats. Rather than passive presentations, participants engaged in what organizers termed “Catalyst” and “Deep Dive” sessions that functioned more like collaborative laboratories than lectures. The schedule was intensive, supported by wonderful and attentive staff. The author unfortunately can only name a few examples of the transdisciplinary specialists sessions such as: “The Technology of Money” by Anjeet Khurana, to explorations of “Responsible Digital Mental Health” by Matthew Lewis, “AI Agents in Action,” by Dat Tran and “Moving the Paradigm in Healthcare: How to Get Preventive and Truly Personalized Healthcare,” with Alain Bindels and Dr. Ella Dehghani.
The programming further demonstrated the retreat’s holistic approach, weaving together sessions on “Conscious Tinkering: A Human Centered Approach to AI,” with Odin Mühlenbein, “Bitcoin & Decentralization, Explained with LEGO,” with Laure Merlin, and “Longevity with Purpose: Transforming Healthcare Through Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration” by Patcharin Gruenert. This expert mixing created unexpected insights that emerged from the collision of different expertise domains.
Walking Each Other Home
The retreat’s subtitle, “Let’s walk each other home on our missions,” captures something essential about this gathering. In an industry often characterized by zero-sum competition and winner-take-all dynamics, the founders Yip and Kevin, together with us the participants, are choosing mutual support and shared success. The “Unconference” format allowed participants to shape discussions in real-time. The structure embodied the retreat’s core philosophy: knowledge creation happens through collaboration rather than top-down transmission. The focus remained on practical applications that support regenerative business models rather than extractive ones.
As conversations and sauna time continued into the (very late) evening at the castle’s historic grounds, we shared thoughts from quantum computing insights to meditation practices, and it became clear that the real innovation happening here isn’t technological; it’s social. We were prototyping new ways of working together that could reshape how we approach humanity’s biggest challenges.
Virtue Through Habituation: The Aristotelian Foundation
In the spirit of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, this Zebracorn gathering embodied the pursuit of eudaimonia, true flourishing that comes not from individual success alone but from the cultivation of practical wisdom (phronesis) applied to collective action. Like Aristotle’s vision of virtue as a disposition developed through habit and rational activity in community with others, the Zebracorn economy emerging here demonstrated that technology’s highest purpose lies not in disruption but in enabling human flourishing through shared wisdom and regenerative collaboration.
The Zebracorn Deep Tech Castle Retreat isn’t just imagining a different kind of economy; it’s actively building it. And from my vantage point as both participant and observer, it appears to be working.
Dr. Jasmin (Bey) Cowin, a columnist for Stankevicius, employs the ethical framework of Nicomachean Ethics to examine how AI and emerging technologies shape human potential. Her analysis explores the risks and opportunities that arise from tech trends, offering personal perspectives on the interplay between innovation and ethical values. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
