a16z: Analysis of the latest Web3 movement DeSci

Original source: WeChat public account old yuppie (ID: laoyapi)

Original source: WeChat public account old yuppie (ID: laoyapi)

A growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs are utilizing blockchain tools, including smart contracts and tokens, in an attempt to improve modern science.

DeSci is still in its infancy, at the intersection of two broader trends. 1) the scientific community strives to change the way research funding and knowledge is shared, and 2) the cryptocurrency-focused movement strives to shift ownership and value away from industry intermediaries.

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I'm a neuroscientist and co-founder of a startup that uses blockchain to give wearable device users full ownership and control of their biometric data, including brain data. I recently published a short note in Nature encouraging scientists of all disciplines to join DeSci. As the movement grows, so does the need for open discussion. To that end, I've compiled an introductory guide that covers how DeSci came to be, what are its defining characteristics, what are the main debates and open issues in the movement, and where the greatest opportunities and challenges lie.

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DeSci's driving force

The DeSci movement aims to strengthen science funding; free knowledge from silos; remove reliance on profit-seeking intermediaries such as publisher groups; and increase collaboration across the field."Funding is a particularly acute pain point for scientists, who spend as much as half of their time writing grant proposals. Success in securing funding is closely tied to metrics such as the h-index, which quantifies the impact of a scientist's published work. resulting from"publish or perish

The pressure to pursue novel research, rather than critical but less likely to grab the headlines, is an incentive for people to pursue novel research. Ultimately, inadequate and unreliable funding not only reduces the amount of scientific work being done, but also biases the projects scientists choose, creating problems such as a replication crisis.

Open science initiatives have had far-reaching impacts, including the National Institutes of Health and other funding sources calling for open publication of research results. But the extent to which science has been improved by it is a matter of debate. For example, journals have responded to these mandates with a pay-to-publish business model. Now, instead of paying to read other people's research, publicly funded scientists pay to publish their own research. (Nature charges more than $11,000 per paper.) Some scholars argue that open-access regulations have increasingly concentrated power in the hands of major publishers.

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The role of DeSci

While aligned with Open Science in making science more accessible, DeSci is not Open Science 2.0. It is a separate movement with different and evolving goals. The main difference between DeSci and other efforts to rethink our research systems is its use of blockchain tools. This is similar to how blockchain is disrupting other industries, with the centralized ownership web2 model being challenged by the decentralized, shared ownership web3 model.

Science-focused blockchain initiatives date back to 2015, but it's not until 2021 that they coalesce into a larger movement thanks to an explosion of new projects. These include the first open science NFT sold for 13 ETH; the rise of research groups that subsequently auctioned off NFTs; the growth of multiple science-focused decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs); and last October’s community-led blockchain DeSci panel discussion at event LisCon.

Looking at the big picture, DeSci's efforts range from purely theoretical ideas and small-scale technical experiments to more established players funding university research and launching multiple DAOs of their own.

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How DeSci is actually using blockchain tools

smart contract. While scientists perform peer review for free, the scholarly publishing industry extracts huge profits from the process by acting as an intermediary. Ants Review demonstrates how smart contracts can mediate directly between authors and peer reviewers, who will be rewarded with tokens for their reviews."Inspiring community. Tokens/NFTs can be used to incentivize the scientific community to share, review and curate different types of information resources such as"smart manuscript

(links to open source data and protocols) and collections of articles. This enables new modes of knowledge sharing and rapid publishing and review, akin to a nurtured and curated version of #AcademicTwitter. Such communities in particular can improve the quality and availability of preprints (manuscripts published before peer review). Preprints are critical to fast science, as evidenced by scientists' reliance on them during the COVID pandemic."permaweb "Fight censorship. Allegations of political meddling in science by multiple U.S. administrations. blockchain

Attributes -- users can store data and information forever, and can be accessed from anywhere at any time -- can be used to protect against scientific scrutiny.

Blockchain-based funding model. As mentioned above, scientists and DAOs are currently experimenting with NFTs and token offerings to fund research. Future possibilities also included.

Adapt blockchain-based pro bono funding models such as Quadratic Funding and retroactive funding by building platforms and protocols dedicated to science.

Adapting emerging DeFi (decentralized finance) protocols to create sustainable long-term funding for scientists, which could be similar to traditional tenure systems.

Return value from commercializable outputs (such as drug IP NFTs) to fund further research and enable self-sustaining scientific communities.

Verifiable reputation. Currently, scientists' reputations -- and their ability to secure funding -- are tied to publication metrics. Through blockchain technology, scientists can earn NFTs by engaging in other activities that the research community finds valuable, such as peer review, training and mentoring, and sharing data publicly. Collections of NFTs can serve as a verifiable digital reputation for contributions, further incentivizing such behavior. Groups of scientists and individuals with shared wallets, such as decentralized laboratories, can build reputations in this way.

As academic institutions increasingly move their learning online, the DESCI ecosystem may form an attractive alternative to traditional science education. Students will be able to learn and build their digital reputation simultaneously by participating in community tasks, including those traditionally undertaken during the dissertation, such as literature review, data cleaning and analysis. This will allow people to be rewarded for contributing to science while learning. The ability for anyone with an internet connection to contribute to the public good of science will help counteract the elitism that has historically plagued the field.

DeSci also empowers the community as a new source of scientific knowledge"shareholder"(e.g. via IP-NFTs that can be owned by DAOs). The value generated by this asset can be used to fund the creation of new knowledge in an attempt to create a self-sustaining scientific ecosystem. Consider the COVID vaccine, a technology developed on the basis of decades of publicly funded research. The ability to have vaccine prices set by communities that are open to all, and the profits flowed back to fund more community-owned science, can greatly impact the health and prosperity of the world.

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Debating and Open Questions

DeSci "As this movement took shape, so did some broad unknowns and debates."Is it a correct name? While decentralization is an important feature of DaSci, not everyone feels it is a defining feature. Some also comment on the name"science

raised objections, claiming that it excluded other forms of academic pursuit, including the arts, humanities and Indigenous bodies of knowledge.

What is this movement built around?

DeSci lacked a clear set of shared values. Currently, the different parts are defined by the problem they are trying to solve. In order to form a new culture in science, the movement would benefit from uniting behind common principles.

Whose interests will DeSci ultimately serve?

Modern Science serves a variety of industries, including scholarly publishing, higher education, and biopharmaceuticals. An assessment is needed to understand who and what the public interest in science should ultimately serve, and how blockchain technology can help make that happen.

How will DeSci protect science from the biases that come with blockchain commercialization?

How DAOs will work together to solve these unknowns remains to be seen, and one glaring problem arises. How decentralized should this movement be? To what extent should the DeSci project address these issues as a unified movement, or independently?

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scientific quality. The question has been raised whether non-scientists have the ability to distinguish high-quality projects from bad ones. Therefore, a strong reputation and governance system is critical. For example, verified scientists could pre-screen grant applications, allowing a broader community to vote. A bridge between DeSci and traditional science can also help with quality assessment. For example, traditional funders, such as medical charities, can"support"support

High-quality projects that they cannot support themselves,"DAOs would also benefit from designing such a governance system with edge cases in mind. For example, if the community is heavily"Flatlanders

Osmosis, they tried to divert treasury funds into this research, so what to do?

Diverse participation. The DeSci community will consist primarily of people already involved in cryptocurrency and science, two spaces where women are underrepresented. Gender imbalance (among other types) has real consequences -- women's health, for example, has historically been understudied. Groups that make decisions about science must represent society.

Prioritize your end goals. Ultimately, DeSci is a movement that is experimenting with a range of new tools in an attempt to improve science. For DeSci to be successful, these tools should be unobtrusive and integrate seamlessly with scientists' daily work. Therefore, DeSci should focus on empowering scientists to do good science, and ensure that focus is on this through strong user research, rather than on these new tools themselves.

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how to keep up

Whether you're looking to catch up on major DeSci news or join a DAO, here's a list of resources to help you get acquainted with the movement.

DeSci Wiki. Dr. Jocelynn Pearl is spearheading the establishment of this community resource for people to learn about existing projects and how to get involved.

Twitter. The small but growing DeSci movement is vocal on Twitter, where community members announce their projects and debate key topics. For starters, follow #DeSci with these key influencers:

Bianca Trovò, founder of Ants Review

Paul Kohlhaas, co-founder of Molecule

Tyler Golato, co-founder of Molecule, core figure of VitaDAO and PsyDAO

Jocelynn Pearl, Host and Producer of the Lady Scientist Podcast, Co-Founder of LabDAO and Startup Team of OpenAccessDAO

Nate Jacobs, Founder of Science Fund and Founder/CEO of flashpub.io