Decentralized Science

Definition

Decentralized science (“DeSci”) is a movement that aims to create public infrastructure for funding, creating, reviewing, crediting, storing, and sharing scientific knowledge in a fair and equitable way using Web3 technology.

The main concept behind DeSci is that scientific knowledge should be available to all, and the research process should be clear and open.

DeSci aims to protect scientific research from censorship and control by powerful groups by developing a decentralized and spread-out model. This approach encourages the growth of new and unique ideas by decentralizing access to funding, scientific resources, and ways of communication.

Within the DeSci ecosystem, there are communities, mostly DAOs, that focus on supporting individuals studying specific areas of research. For example, there is HairDAO, which supports hair loss researchers, and PsyDAO, which supports psychedelic and mental health research. Additionally, there are DAOs with broader goals, such as The Science DAO, which provides funding for scientific research generally.

Use cases

There are several concerns associated with the traditional scientific community, such as the approval, funding, conducting, and publication of research.

Below are some of the most frequently discussed issues associated with the traditional scientific community, and how DeSci may be able to address them. However, this list is by no means exhaustive.

1. Funding

Funding is crucial to scientific research, as it provides the necessary resources for scientists to conduct experiments, gather data, and develop new solutions.

Scientists can spend up to half of their time writing grant proposals, according to Vox. Their sources of funding include government agencies, private foundations, or corporations. Regardless of the source, obtaining funding is a highly competitive and laborious process for scientists. Researchers must consider many factors that may not align with their pursuit of knowledge. These include the need to produce measurable outcomes, the time period for which funding is available, and the agenda of the funder. As a result, researchers may choose "safer" projects with predictable outcomes, rather than innovative research or projects that they are truly passionate about.

Funding allocation and distribution is also a relevant issue. Decisions regarding funding are typically made by a select group of individuals, which can lead to biased choices or unequal distribution of resources. This can favor well-established people and organizations in the community, making it more difficult for independent researchers, early-career scientists, or those in underrepresented regions to secure funding.

DeSci creates an ecosystem where multiple stakeholders, including individuals and organizations, can contribute to research projects. This approach can result in a wider variety of funding sources and increased overall support. By decentralizing the funding process, DeSci encourages a broader range of research projects and provides a global platform to facilitate collaboration among researchers.

By leveraging blockchain technology, smart contracts, and community-driven decision-making (DAOs), DeSci is able to better democratize access to resources and ensure that scientific research is driven by merit, rather than institutional biases or connections.

Many DAOs in the DeSci ecosystem dedicate a portion of their operations to funding research, whether for a specific cause or a broader initiative. Despite how early we are in this movement, many success stories exist. For example, VitaDAO, a relatively large player in the DeSci ecosystem, has funded 17 projects related to age-related diseases with $4 million USD. Another example is MoleculeDAO, which has over 10,000 DAO members and has supported more than 250 research projects.

2. Publishing

To establish a credible reputation in a specific field, researchers typically need to publish their findings in a journal, which often requires a fee. Some of the most prestigious scientific publications charge as much as $5,000 for processing a single article. An article from Nature discusses in more detail how much profit institutions make from the science-publishing industry.

Publication bias is also a concern. Even without the paywall, journals may prefer to publish studies with positive or groundbreaking results, overlooking anything negative, null, or replicating a previous study. Studies with negative findings are inherently less attractive, and positive results are more likely to be cited. This might lead researchers to suppress negative results for fear of losing their funding.

Science is a global public good, but much of it remains inaccessible due to journal paywalls and private databases. Fortunately, DeSci offers solutions to this issue of publishing. However, the culture surrounding the DeSci community may still contribute to problems such as publication bias. Therefore, it is important to celebrate the completion of a study, regardless of whether the results are positive, negative, or null, because the work can be built upon or used in the future.

Smart contracts provide incentives for peer-reviewing and publishing articles. For instance, ResearchHub is a DAO platform created to "accelerate the pace of scientific research" by rewarding its researchers and community for using the platform. The platform offers its own token as a reward for publishing, reviewing, criticizing, and collaborating in the open. With this token, users can tip others, create bounties, and participate in the DAO's governance system.

It's worth noting that ResearchHub doesn't charge anything to publish articles, making them accessible to newcomers in the industry and removing the unnecessary fees that premium journals take advantage of. The best part is that the platform is consistently used, with over 200,000 papers listed across 147 different fields and thousands of members across those fields. ResearchHub is just one way in which DeSci promotes openness and transparency in scientific research through open-access journals that let anyone read and publish papers without paywalls.

3. Intellectual Property Ownership

In the current scientific landscape, many institutions hold a significant amount of power and influence. In many cases, they dictate who gets funded, their allocation, and what kind of research should be happening.

Issues surrounding Intellectual Property (”IP”) often create barriers to scientific progress, limit the accessibility of research findings, and discourage collaboration among researchers in certain cases. The IP legal landscape is complex enough as it is. It can be time-consuming, costly, and complicated for researchers to navigate this area.

Beyond that, traditional IP systems can incentivize researchers and others in many different fields to keep their findings confidential to maintain a competitive advantage or protect commercial interests.

Developed in 2021 by the Molecule team, IPNFTs are the intersection between NFTs and intellectual property in the DeSci ecosystem. An IP-NFT is a legal agreement encrypted onto the blockchain, with the decryption key securely stored. After which, an NFT that represents the IP is created. For more information on IP-NFTs, visit Molecule’s website blog.

IP-NFTs are now an existing solution to the traditional scientific community’s IP issues. In August 2021 an IP-NFT was successfully used to transfer rights when biotech research and data at the Scheibye-Knudsen Lab and University of Copenhagen was minted on-chain as an NFT. VitaDAO purchased that research and data, “The Longevity Molecule”, as an NFT for $325,000 which was used for further research.

Conclusion

DeSci is addressing real issues in the scientific community. As early adopters, we have the opportunity to observe and shape the development of a system that could change the way research is funded, created, reviewed, credited, and stored.

The potential use cases for DeSci are vast. In addition to those mentioned above, DeSci could facilitate collaborative research, prevent institutional gatekeeping, and streamline, incentivize, and facilitate the peer-review process, among other applications.