The concept of unrestricted-access resources becoming spent, where personal use does not incur personal expense, was discussed by the philosopher Aristotle, who observed in his politics that: "That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual."

This tragedy is fundamental to many pains of HOA governance today. The possibility demonstrated by Elinor Ostrom (2009 Nobel Memorial Prize)  from Book "Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action" is really encouraging: "trust and reciprocity are not mere moral byproducts, but deliberate outcomes of institutional design."

Recent field test helped us understand the fundamental governance problem better. The wisdom of Ostrom showed us the way to formalize it plus the path forward, i.e. explore the institutional design for HOA (common interest management) and create a platform that could minimize the friction and cost of applying Ostrom’s 8 Principles for Governing the Commons:

1. Clearly Defined Boundaries

2. Congruence (Local Fit)

3. Collective-Choice Arrangements

4. Effective Monitoring

5. Gradual Sanctions

6. Conflict-Resolution Mechanisms

7. Recognition of Rights to Organize

8. Nested Enterprises

Most of the rules—though seemingly obvious—are failing or ignored in HOA governance today due to various reasons like financial cost, lack of knowledge, lack of time, lack of participation, etc,. What we also observed is the following:

• Regulations establish the bottom-line constraints that members must follow, but they do not define the organization’s optimization objective.

• “Best practices,” which are meant to define that optimization objective, are too complex for volunteer-based organizations to implement consistently. Simply put, volunteers do not have the time.

To prevent the “Tragedy of the Commons,” the ideal solution is an autonomous organization that internalizes the eight governing principles within its institutional design and enforces them automatically. Such enforcement must be fair, transparent, diligent, capable of sound reasoning, and delivered at the lowest possible cost. That enforcer, given today's technology, can only be AI.