1. Industry background and current situation analysis
1.1 Overview of DeSci
From workshop-style production relying on human collaboration in the handicraft era to the factory system reconstructed by steam power in the mechanized era; from the standardized economies of scale spawned by assembly lines in the electrified era to the global supply chain revolution triggered by computer technology in the information era; to the intelligent decision-making network driven by algorithm models in the current AI era - every technological revolution is reshaping the organizational form of production factors. The emergence of blockchain technology has realized trust automation through mathematical protocols for the first time, making it possible to confirm intellectual property rights on the chain, decentralized circulation of data assets, and value distribution dominated by smart contracts. By storing knowledge and data on the chain, DeSci (Decentralized Science) is leading a subversive technological paradigm revolution, trying to liberate science from the closed ivory tower, and the underlying logic of human production relations is undergoing a paradigm shift.
Previously, the DeSci track experienced a wave of hot secondary market, which has gradually cooled down. In the previous wave, it was an expected financial manifestation, which appeared in the form of Memecoin, etc. We cannot deny the DeSci track because of this. On the contrary, we should conduct in-depth analysis at present to understand the real value behind DeSci and its impact on the future technological paradigm shift.
Hard technology paradigm shift
DeScis core philosophy includes the following key aspects:
Incentive mechanism: reshaping the distribution of scientific research value
DeSci has completely changed the value distribution model in traditional scientific research by introducing a blockchain-based incentive system. Researchers can obtain academic recognition and economic rewards through token economy, NFT papers or reputation systems, which not only encourages the widespread sharing of knowledge, but also provides a new way to monetize scientific research results.
Disintermediation: Reconstructing the power structure of scientific research
In the traditional scientific research model, funding allocation and results review are often controlled by a few centralized institutions, resulting in uneven resource allocation and limited innovation. DeSci uses community-driven models such as DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to delegate power to the scientific research community and achieve democratic allocation of resources.
Lowering the threshold for scientific research: promoting the democratization of scientific research
DeSci has significantly lowered the threshold for scientific research participation through decentralized infrastructure (such as open data platforms, distributed computing resources, etc.). Whether researchers in developing countries, independent scientists, or citizen scientists, they can all equally access global scientific research resources and contribute.
Data transparency: rebuilding the academic trust system
The traceability of blockchain technology provides technical support for the transparency and verifiability of scientific research data. From experimental design to data collection to results release, every link can be recorded and publicly verified. This can effectively curb academic misconduct and enhance the publics trust in scientific research.
The essence of DeSci is a return to the essence of science - science should be the common wealth of all mankind, rather than the exclusive domain of a few institutions or elites. In the traditional scientific research model, the creation and dissemination of knowledge are controlled by layers of intermediaries, causing science to gradually deviate from its original intention of openness and collaboration. DeSci attempts to break these barriers through technical means and return science to its decentralized essence. It is not only a technological innovation, but also a revolution in the philosophy of science.
1.2 The essential difference between DeSci and traditional scientific research system
1.2.1 Collaboration model: from fragmentation and confrontation to organic collaboration
The traditional scientific research system presents a typical triangular division structure: funding agencies (government/enterprises), scientific groups and publishers form a closed loop of interests, but lack a value alignment mechanism.
Funders often assess research output through short-term KPIs, forcing scientists to pursue publishable results rather than solving substantive problems;
In order to obtain continuous funding, scientists have to devote a lot of energy to project application and compliance procedures rather than in-depth research;
Publishers monopolize academic dissemination channels, charge high subscription fees (the global scientific research publishing market has annual revenue of over US$19 billion) without providing reasonable returns to knowledge producers.
This split has resulted in more than 30% of the worlds annual scientific research funding (about $60 billion) being wasted on repetitive research or experiments that cannot be reproduced. DeSci reconstructs the tripartite relationship through a smart contract-driven collaboration framework:
Funders can pool funds through DAO and set long-term goals (such as delaying aging), and the community votes to decide resource allocation;
Scientists are rewarded with tokens for data contribution, code open source or experimental replication, and economic returns are directly linked to actual value creation;
The role of publishers is replaced by NFT papers and decentralized storage, reducing the cost of knowledge dissemination by more than 90%.
1.2.2 Crossing the “Valley of Death”: From Linear Disruption to Closed-Loop Acceleration
The essence of the traditional valley of death phenomenon in the transformation of industry, academia and research is the failure of the knowledge transfer system: in the chain of basic research (papers) → application development (patents) → commercial transformation (products), each stage is led by different entities and lacks an incentive mechanism to connect. For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States invests $45 billion each year, but only 0.4% of basic research results enter the clinical trial stage; the core problem is that pharmaceutical companies block experimental data to protect commercial secrets, resulting in repeated trial and error (the preclinical research stage alone costs $2.6 billion per drug); at the same time, venture capital tends to favor late-stage mature projects, and early breakthrough research is difficult to obtain support.
The “Valley of Death” between Industry, University and Research, Source: Translational Medicine Communications
DeSci aims to break the barriers of interest distribution in traditional scientific research and promote more efficient scientific research collaboration by introducing blockchain and Web3 technologies. Unlike the isolated nature of the traditional model, DeSci enables funders, scientists and publishers to achieve deeper cooperation through decentralized mechanisms, solving the problems of funding, data sharing and transparency of scientific research results. DeSci builds a transformation accelerator through technological-economic paradigm innovation:
Technology IP tokenization: For example, the Molecule platform converts drug RD intellectual property into IP-NFT, allowing investors to purchase equity in segments. Studies have shown that this approach shortens the financing cycle of early-stage biopharmaceutical projects by 60%;
Data liquidity: Platforms such as Ocean Protocol have established data trading markets, where researchers can safely share data and earn revenue through privacy computing technology. More than 20 PB of biomedical data has been uploaded to the chain.
Community support mechanism: VitaDAO uses a three-stage token distribution model of research-development-commercialization to allow basic researchers to continue to receive 5%-15% of the profits through smart contracts after the drug is launched on the market, forming a closed-loop incentive.
Efficient fund allocation: Through DAO and tokenized economic models, DeSci provides transparent and efficient funding support to avoid waste of resources. For example, VitaDAO provides funding for anti-aging research through DAO and supports 24 projects.
Decentralized Publishing: DeSci changes the way scientific research results are produced and disseminated, ensuring that the results are transparent and verifiable through blockchain, reducing publishing costs and reducing the monopoly influence of traditional publishers.
Ownership of scientific research results and transparent review: The immutability of blockchain ensures the ownership of scientific research results. Smart contracts record the review process, improve the transparency of the review, and ensure the fairness and efficiency of the research.
Comparison between traditional scientific research and DeSci, source: Bio.xyz
In general, DeSci promotes transparency, efficiency and collaboration in scientific research through decentralized technology, making up for the shortcomings of the traditional scientific research model. It not only changes the funding allocation, data sharing and publishing process, but also accelerates the transformation of scientific research results through community cooperation, promotes science to be more open and inclusive, and creates a more promising scientific research environment.
1.2.3 Value Distribution: From Centralized Exploitation to Ecological Win-win
In the traditional system, the value of scientific research is monopolized by a few centralized nodes:
Publisher Elsevier’s gross profit margin has long been maintained at 37%, far exceeding that of technology giants such as Apple (24%);
The top journal Nature charges up to $11,390 for a single article, but 97% of reviewers work for free;
Pharmaceutical giants rely on patent barriers to make huge profits (the average net profit margin of the worlds top ten pharmaceutical companies is 18.7%), while original discoverers are often marginalized.
In contrast, DeSci reconstructs the distribution logic through programmable value streams:
Contribution quantification: With the help of on-chain reputation systems (such as DeSci Labs Karma score), behaviors such as paper citations, code submissions, and experimental reproduction can be converted into tradable credit assets;
Dynamic allocation: Smart contracts automatically allocate income. For example, the BioDAO project injects 30% of patent income into the community treasury, 45% is distributed to researchers based on their contributions, and 25% is rewarded to early investors.
Long Tail Activation: African scientists share lab equipment through LabDAO, reducing research costs by 70% and gaining global funding support through data contributions.
The difference between DeSci and traditional scientific research is not only the upgrade of technical tools, but also the reconstruction of production relations. When scientific breakthroughs are no longer constrained by institutional boundaries, geographical restrictions or power rent-seeking, mankind may enter a new era of collective wisdom explosion. Just as the GitHub open source community gave birth to ChatGPT, the collaborative innovation of millions of researchers in the DeSci ecosystem may solve complex problems that a single country or company cannot solve in the next decade (such as Alzheimers disease treatment or controlled nuclear fusion). The ultimate goal of this change is to return science to its purest essence: evidence-based, open and shared, and serving the well-being of all mankind.
1.3 Market Size and Major Players
1.3.1 Market size
Currently, the market size of the DeSci field is close to $1 billion. Although it is still in the early stages of exploration, its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to exceed 35% in the next five years, showing the potential for exponential expansion. This growth is not only due to the mature application of blockchain technology, but also due to the pain point of unbalanced allocation of global scientific research funds: the traditional scientific research market invests more than $200 billion each year, but a large amount of funds are wasted due to bureaucratic processes and inefficient management of centralized institutions. The rise of DeSci is reshaping this pattern: through tokenized incentives, decentralized governance and open source collaboration, its market size is expected to exceed $50 billion by 2030, becoming a vertical track in the Web3 field that is on par with finance and AI.
The potential of DeSci has attracted the attention of both the crypto industry and academia. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has repeatedly publicly emphasized the disruptive significance of DeSci to open science; crypto leaders such as Binance founder CZ, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong have endorsed it through investment and platform. In addition, top investors such as Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan have regarded DeSci as the core direction of the next generation of scientific research infrastructure. Head VCs such as a16z, Polychain Capital, and Digital Currency Group have also made layouts, among which biomedical DAOs (such as VitaDAO) and decentralized data protocols (such as Ocean Protocol) have become the focus of capital bets.
DeSci Ecosystem Project Map, Source: Messari Research
1.3.2 Major players
1.3.2.1 Molecule
Molecule was founded in 2021 and is a decentralized protocol dedicated to subverting the traditional biotechnology RD model. The project aims to establish a new financing ecosystem for early biological research and introduce biotechnology intellectual property (IP) to the chain in an innovative way, creating the concept of IP-NFT and is known as the OpenSea in the field of biotechnology.
Based on IP-NFT, Molecule has built a market for translational research, aiming to promote efficient docking between researchers and funders. On the Molecule Discovery platform, researchers can submit research proposals, and funders can evaluate the proposals and negotiate the terms of cooperation with the research team. In this way, Molecule provides strong support for the transformation of basic research into practical applications, and promotes the rapid implementation of medical research from theory to practice. As a decentralized drug research and development platform, it tokenizes biopharmaceutical intellectual property through the IP-NFT model, has facilitated the flow of more than US$200 million in research funds, and has established cooperation with pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Bayer.
1.3.2.2 VitaDAO
VitaDAO is a community-driven decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on providing early funding support for longevity research. VitaDAO proposes a new solution to the current situation of early funding shortages and technology monopoly in the traditional biopharmaceutical field, especially in longevity research. By introducing blockchain and cryptoeconomic incentive mechanisms, VitaDAO is committed to helping scientific research projects in the field of longevity obtain critical initial funding support. In return, VitaDAO will directly hold the intellectual property (IP) and data rights of the supported research results and integrate these rights into a publicly accessible asset portfolio. The organization promotes the further development and utilization of these intellectual property rights through the data market or the authorization and commercialization path of traditional biopharmaceuticals, while tokenizing assets and issuing native governance tokens - $VITA. Individuals or organizations can obtain $VITA tokens by contributing work, funds or other resources (such as data or intellectual property). Owners holding $VITA can participate in the curation and governance of VitaDAO assets and their research.
1.3.2.3 BIO Protocol
As the first project in the DeSci field to receive investment from Binance Labs, BIO Protocol has attracted widespread attention. In addition to Binance Labs, the project has also received strong support from a number of well-known venture capital institutions in the crypto and biotech fields, including 1kx, Boost VC, Sora Ventures, Zee Prime Capital, and Northpond Ventures, a biotech fund with a scale of over US$3 billion. In November 2024, BIO Protocol [9] successfully completed the community financing of the Genesis phase with a total of US$30.3 million, marking an important step for the project in terms of community support and decentralized governance.
The core mission of BIO Protocol is to promote the rapid development of biotechnology. Through this agreement, patients, scientists and biotechnology professionals around the world can jointly participate in funding, building, and sharing tokenized biotechnology projects and intellectual property (IP), thereby injecting more possibilities into the field of biotechnology innovation; BIO Protocols Launchpad platform will provide more efficient financing and liquidity support for innovative projects in the DeSci field, and accelerate the implementation of biotechnology by promoting the creation and development of BioDAO. Project founder Paul Kohlhaas revealed that BIOs Launchpad and token transfer functions are scheduled to be officially launched in the first quarter of 2025. BIO Protocol focuses on experimental reproducibility issues, builds an open source scientific research protocol library, and reduces global collaboration costs through standardized processes and on-chain verification. It currently covers more than 1,200 biological experiments.
1.3.2.4 Ocean Protocol
Ocean Protocol received joint investment from Digital Currency Group and Jump Capital, and completed a $31 million Series B financing led by Borderless Capital in 2023, with a valuation of over $1 billion. Its core mission is to build a decentralized data economy infrastructure and solve the problem of isolated scientific research data islands. Two major technological breakthroughs have been achieved: 1. Compute-to-Data: By running analysis algorithms without moving data, the Mayo Clinic has increased the efficiency of breast cancer genome analysis by 35 times; 2. Data NFTization: Supports data set rights confirmation and hierarchical transactions, and has hosted 20 PB of high-value biomedical data. In addition, Ocean Protocol has also cooperated with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to build a global agricultural research data pool, covering 2.3 million data sets in 67 countries; the data transaction volume in Q2 2024 reached 170 million US dollars, and the number of privacy computing requests increased by 220% month-on-month.
Its CEO Bruce Pon announced that in 2025, it will integrate federated learning and ZK-proof technology to launch cross-chain data federation to support the secure sharing of clinical data among pharmaceutical companies.
1.3.2.5 Gitcoin Grants
Gitcoin Grants has received strategic investment from the Ethereum Foundation and Protocol Labs, and received an additional $15 million in funding from a16z in 2024, bringing the total funding to $68 million. Its core mission is to democratize open source scientific research crowdfunding through quadratic funding. Gitcoin Grants has funded more than 1,700 open source scientific projects, with a funding utilization rate 3.2 times higher than traditional scientific research funds. It is planned to launch impact derivatives in 2025, allowing investors to conduct market transactions based on the social value of scientific research results.
1.3.2.6 Lab DAO
LabDAO received personal angel investment from Vitalik Buterin and support from the Arweave Ecosystem Fund, and completed a $12 million seed round led by Pantera Capital in 2024. The core mission is to build a distributed laboratory network and lower the threshold for access to global scientific research resources. LabDAO has open-sourced 1,400+ biological experiment SOPs, with a 92% on-chain verification pass rate; in addition, it has access to 420 professional instruments in 67 countries, which has enabled the African team to reduce RD costs by 70%. Founder Niklas Rindtorff said that the Automated Experiment Protocol Engine will be launched in 2025, and 50% of basic experiments will be fully automated through AI+robots.
1.3.2.7 Research hub
ResearchHub was founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Similar to GitHubs revolutionary role in software engineering, ResearchHub firmly believes that scientific records should not be confined behind paywalls or confined to academic ivory towers, but should be a public resource accessible to everyone. ResearchHubs core mission is to break the closed nature of traditional academic research. By providing a completely open, paywall-free platform, ResearchHub allows scholars and non-academics to participate in scientific research in a transparent and collaborative way. The abstracts on the platform are written in plain English, further lowering the threshold for acquiring scientific knowledge and enabling more people to understand and participate in scientific discussions. To incentivize this open collaborative behavior, ResearchHub introduced ResearchCoin to reward users who actively contribute and share research results.
On ResearchHub, researchers can freely publish articles (whether preprints or postprints) and exchange ideas in an open forum dedicated to discussing related research. This model aims to solve the inefficiency of the current academic publishing system. From applying for funding, completing research, submitting manuscripts, peer review to final publication, the traditional process often takes 3-5 years, which seriously slows down the pace of scientific progress. ResearchHub believes that through its open and collaborative platform, the efficiency of scientific research can be improved by at least one order of magnitude.
ResearchHub interface example
2. Value Assessment
DeSci vs. other Web3 fields
The current overall market value of the DeSci track is about $1 billion, with an average daily trading volume of $8 million to $12 million, and a market value/trading volume ratio (MC/TV) of 8-15 times, significantly higher than traditional technology stocks (the average MC/TV of the SP 500 is about 0.3 times) or even the mainstream cryptocurrency track (the average MC/TV of DeFi is about 3 times). This abnormal ratio reveals the deep logic of the market:
Expected premium: Investors see DeSci as a DeFi revolution in the field of scientific research and are willing to pay a premium for a technology vision that has not yet been fully implemented. Similar phenomena occurred in IPFS in 2017 (MC/TV peaked at 28 times) and DeFi Summer in 2020 (MC/TV was 22 times at the beginning of COMPs listing), and DeScis current valuation is still in a reasonable range for similar technologies in the early stages.
Structural differentiation: Top projects (such as Molecule and Ocean Protocol) account for 65% of the market value, but their trading volume accounts for only 30%, indicating that capital is more inclined to hold core infrastructure for the long term; while small and medium-sized projects (such as LabDAO and ResearchHub) have a low market value share but contribute 70% of the trading volume, reflecting the markets speculative layout of early-stage innovative targets.
DeSci related token market capitalization ranking, source: Coingecko
Although DeSci is relatively small in size, the participation of institutional investors has revealed unique characteristics:
The logic of heavy investment of the top funds: In the investment portfolio of a16z in the field of DeSci, 80% of the funds flow to the underlying protocols (such as data storage, IP tokenization tools), and only 20% are invested in application layer projects, showing its adherence to the infrastructure first strategy. This is highly similar to their early investment path in Ethereum (2014) and Coinbase (2013).
Behavior patterns of whales: On-chain data shows that among the addresses holding more than $100,000 in DeSci tokens, 55% have held their positions for more than 1 year, far higher than the 28% average in the cryptocurrency market. Such investors pay more attention to the technology roadmap rather than short-term price fluctuations. For example, the pledge rate of VitaDAO token $VITA has been maintained at more than 72% for a long time.
Cross-track collaboration: Traditional pharmaceutical companies have begun to obtain innovative resources through the DeSci ecosystem. For example, Pfizer outsourced early drug discovery in the form of NFT licenses through the Molecule platform, saving 40% of RD costs. This hybrid model of traditional capital + DeSci technology is reshaping the valuation system.
In addition, in the DeSci track, the explanatory power of traditional financial indicators is failing, and a new evaluation framework needs to be introduced. For example: Number of citations of NFT papers: NFT papers on the DeSci Labs platform receive an average of 7.2 citations, which is three times that of traditional open access journals.
3. Future development forecast
3.1 Analysis of innovative projects: Pythia - the intersection of brain-computer interface and crypto economy
Three months after Neuralink successfully implanted the first human brain-machine interface, a breakthrough study by the Neiry Laboratory at Moscow State University [10] that converted brain waves into crypto assets quickly caused a sensation in the crypto community. The laboratory implanted an AI chip in a laboratory mouse named Pythia and connected it to a customized GPT and DeepSeek model, enabling it to answer simple yes/no questions by controlling buttons with brain waves. This seemingly advanced experiment not only revealed the potential of the fusion of biology and artificial intelligence, but also gave birth to the PYTHIA token, whose market value soared to US$50 million in just 10 days after its release, becoming one of the most controversial cryptocurrency stories in the Web3 field. The Pythia project not only demonstrated the broad prospects of brain-computer interface technology, but also pioneered a new bio-mining model that converts brain waves into tradable digital assets, marking the birth of the biological data economy.
Today, the market value of the PYTHIA token has steadily recovered from the lowest point of $4 million to $11 million. Unlike other short-lived Meme projects, Pythia has successfully established a foothold in the DeSci field through continuous development and innovation. Even in the overall downturn of the market, the PYTHIA token still shows a strong upward momentum. So, what exactly is Pythia? Why can it set off such a wave in the crypto world?
The core of the Pythia project lies in its groundbreaking brain-computer interface crypto singularity technology. The Neiry lab connected the brain of the experimental mouse Pythia to a customized GPT-4 model, successfully converting brain wave signals into programmable instructions, and realizing two-way interaction between biological entities and artificial intelligence. This technological breakthrough not only includes the verbalization of neural pulses (converting brain waves into executable instructions), but also covers the assetization of brain wave data - converting brain wave data into tradable digital assets through NFTs of the ERC-1155 standard. Based on this experiment, the Pythia project quickly evolved from a scientific experiment to a symbol of the crypto economy, and gave birth to the $PYTHIA token.
NeiryLab-Pythia official website
Another major innovation of the Pythia project is its thinking is mining system. Users can convert brain activities such as meditation and concentration into token rewards by wearing an electroencephalogram (EEG) headband developed by Neiry Labs. This bio-StepN model converts the activity of the human cerebral cortex into economic value, creating a new way to acquire digital assets. At the same time, Neiry Labs has also launched two revolutionary devices, Mind Tracker and Brainy headphones, which provide users with brain wave monitoring and stress management functions. These devices not only help users reduce emotional interference in cryptocurrency transactions, but also improve attention and decision-making ability by monitoring brain activity in real time. Using $PYTHIA tokens to pay for equipment can also enjoy discounts, further promoting the practicality and circulation of tokens.
The vision of the Pythia project goes far beyond the token economy. Neiry Labs is developing Neural Data Oracle technology, which aims to transform brainwave signals into a verifiable source of randomness, thereby promoting the deep integration of blockchain and biological data. In addition, the lab also plans to launch a cognitive enhancement DApp store based on real-time brainwave data, providing users with applications such as meditation, learning, and mental health optimization. These technological breakthroughs not only lay the foundation for the future development of brain-computer interfaces, but also provide possibilities for the rise of the consciousness economy. Pythia may be able to become a model for the combination of Web3 and brain-computer interfaces. In addition, against the backdrop of US-Russia cooperation, Pythias potential cooperation with Elon Musks Neuralink is also worth looking forward to.
3.2 Future Development Direction of DeSci
DeSci is reshaping the underlying logic of human knowledge production along a disruptive path. The core of this transformation is to build a global scientific research network that transcends geographical boundaries and breaks the monopoly of power through the dual innovation of technical tools and collaborative paradigms.
3.2.1 DeSci + AI Agent - Reshaping the Paradigm of Scientific Research
With the deep integration of DeSci and AI Agent, scientific research is ushering in an unprecedented paradigm shift. DeSci breaks the centralized barriers of the traditional academic system through blockchain technology, making scientific data transparent, verifiable and open; while AI Agent injects new efficiency and insight into scientific research with its powerful data processing capabilities and automation functions. The combination of the two will not only accelerate the process of scientific discovery, but also redefine the way of scientific research collaboration.
In the future, the combination of DeSci and AI Agent will give rise to a series of innovative applications. For example, the scientific research funding allocation system based on smart contracts can use AI Agent to evaluate the feasibility and potential impact of projects to ensure efficient use of resources; decentralized scientific research collaboration platforms can use AI Agent to achieve peer review, cross-disciplinary and cross-regional real-time collaboration, and break the island effect of traditional scientific research; AI Agent can even analyze global scientific research data, predict emerging research fields, and provide scientists with forward-looking research directions.
3.2.2 From Funding Research to Application, Building a Sustainable Scientific Ecosystem
The combination of AI and artificial intelligence will not only accelerate the process of scientific discovery, but also redefine the way scientific research collaborates.
In the future, the combination of DeSci and AI Agent will give rise to a series of innovative applications. For example, the scientific research funding allocation system based on smart contracts can use AI Agent to evaluate the feasibility and potential impact of projects to ensure efficient use of resources; decentralized scientific research collaboration platforms can use AI Agent to achieve peer review, cross-disciplinary and cross-regional real-time collaboration, and break the island effect of traditional scientific research; AI Agent can even analyze global scientific research data, predict emerging research fields, and provide scientists with forward-looking research directions.
1.2.1 From Funding Research to Application, Building a Sustainable Scientific Ecosystem
At present, DeScis core focus is still on the fundraising and allocation of scientific research funds, and the transparency and decentralization of fund flows are achieved through blockchain technology. However, as the DeSci ecosystem gradually matures, participants and supporters are no longer satisfied with simple concepts and visions. They are more looking forward to seeing actual results and perceptible value returns. Therefore, the future development of DeSci must transform from Funding Research to Application Landing to build a sustainable scientific ecosystem that can both stimulate innovation and achieve actual output.
Taking the Asian market as an example, DeScis current main activities are concentrated in the field of scientific research fundraising and donations. This model is often regarded by Asian users as a relatively illusory concept in the context of cultural differences between the East and the West, resulting in its relatively low acceptance in this region. However, the Asian market not only has strong purchasing power, but also has huge potential for innovation. It is an important force that cannot be ignored in the global scientific ecology. In order to reverse this prejudice, DeSci needs to pay more attention to the display of actual results and make Asian users feel its value through localized promotion strategies. For example, DeSci can carry out in-depth cooperation with scientific research institutions, enterprises and communities in Asia to promote more scientific research projects that meet local needs, such as the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, environmental governance technology, etc., so as to win wider recognition and support.
In this way, DeSci will not only be able to break down cultural barriers, but also build a solid user base in the Asian market, injecting new vitality into the sustainable development of the global scientific ecosystem.
4. In-depth summary: DeSci’s paradigm revolution and future prospects
DeSci (decentralized science) is using blockchain technology to subvert and reconstruct the core aspects of scientific research - funding models, knowledge sharing mechanisms and intellectual property management. Although the current industry scale is still in its early stages, its explosive power has far exceeded the iteration speed of the traditional scientific research system. This change is not only the application of technology, but also a return to the essence of scientific democratization and globalization. Its impact will penetrate the dual boundaries of the scientific community and the blockchain industry and reshape the future of human knowledge production.
Nevertheless, any new thing that is born in the process of the development of the times requires us to look at it dialectically. Taking Bio Protocol as an example, a sample audit of 1,200 experimental schemes on its platform in 2023 showed that only 68% passed basic peer review, which is significantly lower than the industry benchmark of 85% of traditional journals. This double-edged sword effect of data democratization exposes the fragility of the quality control mechanism under the open collaboration model-when the entry threshold of the scientific research process is lowered, junk data that has not been fully verified may pollute the knowledge commons in the name of decentralization. The more fundamental challenge lies in the lag of the legal framework: 23% of the IP-NFT transactions on the Molecule platform were forced to be suspended due to conflicts in the recognition of on-chain intellectual property carriers by jurisdictions, reflecting the current regulatory systems cognitive fault on the new thing of scientific research asset tokenization. These contradictions reveal a deep paradox: DeSci attempts to deconstruct the authoritative system of traditional scientific research with technical means, but it itself inevitably needs to build a new trust infrastructure and rule consensus.
1. Three core reconstructions and breakthrough practices
Funding model is decentralized: 70% of traditional scientific research funding is restricted by government or corporate agendas, while DeSci uses DAO crowdfunding, IP tokenization (such as Molecules IP-NFT) and community governance to allow funds to flow to truly value-driven projects. For example, VitaDAO has funded 50+ longevity research projects through tokenized crowdfunding, 3 of which have entered the clinical trial stage, far exceeding the early project conversion rate of traditional biomedical funds.
Knowledge sharing paradigm upgrade: Through NFT papers (such as DeSci Labs) and open source protocol libraries (such as Bio Protocol), the reuse cost of scientific research data is reduced by 80%, and the global collaboration efficiency is increased by 4 times. In 2023, the average number of citations of on-chain papers reached 7.2 times, which is 3 times that of traditional journals, proving that open sharing can substantially accelerate scientific progress.
The on-chain revolution of IP management: DeSci migrates intellectual property from a closed patent system to programmable smart contracts. For example, Pfizer uses the Molecule platform to transform early drug discovery research into IP-NFTs, achieving a 40% optimization of RD costs, and the original contributors can obtain a 15% continuous share in the commercialization stage, completely breaking the industrys chronic disease of inventor poverty.
2. Growth Flywheel: Triangular Drive of Technology, Capital and Policy
Mature technology stack: From the data layer (Arweave permanent storage) to the application layer (LabDAO distributed laboratory), the DeSci technology stack has supported 90% of scientific research processes on the chain. In 2023, DeSci developer activity (GitHub commits) increased by 220% year-on-year, surpassing the growth rate of DeFi during the same period.
Structural migration of capital: Traditional venture capital firms (such as a16z and Digital Currency Group) and pharmaceutical giants (such as Bayer and Novartis) have injected more than US$420 million into DeSci. At the same time, 35% of the funds have flowed to scientific research nodes in developing countries, promoting the rebalancing of the global innovation network.
Regulatory sandbox takes shape: The draft of the EU Digital Science Act clearly recognizes the legitimacy of DAO governance. Singapore and other places have opened up tax exemption channels for scientific research tokens. Policy dividends are opening up a compliance market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
3. Challenges and solutions
Technology-Academic Gap: Currently only 12% of researchers are familiar with blockchain tools, but products like the “No-Code DAO Creator” launched by DeSci Labs are lowering the barrier to participation by 70%.
Short-term speculative risk: Although the transaction spread of small and medium-sized market value projects is as high as 8%, the pledge rate of leading protocols (such as Ocean Protocol) is stable at above 65%, indicating that a long-term value consensus is being formed.
Regulatory Game: The SEC launched investigations into 17% of DeSci projects, but the industry successfully brought 83% of the projects into the compliance framework through the design of Utility Token for Science.
4. The next decade: from edge experiments to mainstream infrastructure
According to ARK Invest, by 2030, the DeSci market will exceed $50 billion, covering 30% of global early-stage scientific research projects. Its evolution may be divided into three stages:
2023-2025 (Infrastructure explosion period): IP tokenization protocols and decentralized peer review systems (such as DeReview) are standardized, driving the market size to exceed US$5 billion;
2026-2028 (Vertical Integration Period): The first DeSci unicorn with a valuation of over $10 billion will appear in the biomedicine, climate science and other sub-sectors, and 20% of the content of traditional journals will be migrated to the chain;
2029-2030 (Paradigm Dominance Period): The DeSci model solves at least three global scientific challenges (such as Alzheimers disease treatment) and becomes the core source of scientific research funding for 70% of developing countries.
The ultimate goal of DeSci is not to replace traditional scientific research, but to build a global scientific collaboration network through the democratization of technology. Here, Brazilian botanists can instantly access Norwegian gene databases, and medical discoveries in Africa can be quickly commercialized through DAOs, and every data contributor will receive permanent benefits through smart contracts. When scientific breakthroughs are no longer constrained by geography, institutions, or capital monopolies, mankind may usher in the greatest collaborative revolution since the Internet: the production and distribution of knowledge truly belongs to all mankind for the first time. But this change requires crossing the valley of death between technological ideals and realistic constraints-only by establishing a sustainable value capture mechanism, an inclusive governance framework, and a compliance path can DeSci evolve from a marginal experiment to the next generation of scientific research infrastructure.
Acknowledgements
During the planning and writing process of this article, we would like to thank Dr. UZ for his in-depth participation and professional suggestions, which helped us improve the structure and content of the article. His valuable opinions played an important role in the successful completion of this article.
5. References
1. https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_22762.html
2. https://www.coingecko.com/learn/what-is-desci-decentralized-science
3. https://x.com/CryptoHayes/status/1875106094600847489
4. https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articledetails/pzyj45j8yc66.html
5. https://finance.sina.com.cn/blockchain/roll/2024-12-22/doc-ineaiuqr0285206.shtml
6. https://www.theblockbeats.info/news/32413
8. Seyhan, AA (2019). Lost in translation: the valley of death across preclinical and clinical divide–identification of problems and overcoming obstacles. Translational Medicine Communications, 4( 1), 1-19.
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