You can watch a presentation which answers this question during the Optimism Fractal 26th event here.
In addition, you can read more about the history of Fractals in the below articles:
A History of Fractal Communities
https://optimystics.io/blog/fractalhistory
The Roots of Optimism Fractal
https://optimystics.io/blog/the-roots-of-optimism-fractal
Communities
https://optimystics.io/communities
Related Tasks and Projects
Below are a few links where you can learn more about the history behind Optimism Fractal:
The first article links to the other resources and provides context for each. The Respect Game was largely inspired by ƒractally, which has a great whitepaper, keynote video, and other resources on their website. The More Equal Animals book written by Daniel Larimer originally inspired our consensus processes and provides an excellent philosophical underpinning for our work.
You can also see this video clip from a recent Optimism Fractal event where for a five minute overview about our roots.