DeSci - the second youth of science

Over the years, traditional science (TradSci) has achieved landmark breakthroughs that have transformed society. Most recently, the rapid development of a vaccine helped the world overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and reopen economies that had stalled during lockdown.

However, the traditional approach to research isn’t without its challenges, primarily caused by the influence of gatekeepers like prestigious journals. This article explores how decentralised science (DeSci) attempts to address these challenges by leveraging blockchain technology.

What is DeSci?

Before explaining how DeSci works, it helps to understand the challenges facing TradSci. To begin with, it’s centralised, dominated not just by journals but government agencies and well-resourced universities. Less-established researchers or institutions struggle to secure funding and publish their findings, the primary way new research is disseminated. TradSci also faces a problem known as the ‘valley of death’, where valuable research fails to translate into commercial applications, typically due to a lack of funding. Finally, locking findings behind a paywall may limit access to independent researchers and the general public.

DeSci redefines how research is funded and conducted. It leverages blockchain technology to improve accessibility, introduce new forms of incentives and encourage cooperation within the scientific community. Like cryptocurrencies removed the need for intermediaries such as banks, DeSci circumvents the central authorities that have historically acted as gatekeepers.  Or to use somewhat clichéd terminology, it democratises research.

This concept isn’t new. For instance, the World Community Grid (WCG) launched in 2004 to find cures for diseases like AIDS and Ebola and to explore alternative energy sources. Its mission is to allow anyone with excess computer power to donate it to researchers. But the evolution of Web3 makes DeSci a more achievable proposition- WCG is effectively a Web2 version of a decentralised physical infrastructure network which uses blockchain technology to record contributions and incentivise participation.   

How does DeSci improve science?

DeSci overcomes the challenges experienced by TradSci in several ways.

• Access: DeSci makes research more accessible by storing it in repositories that can be made publicly available. The InterPlanetary File System, a peer-to-peer network for sharing files, allows researchers to publish their work for free if they choose. Meanwhile, the immutability of blockchain technology ensures nobody can tamper with the findings, and disintermediation means authors retain control of their work.

• Funding: TradSci funding can be opaque, leading to concerns about favouritism and underrepresentation. DeSci is more transparent because the community, such as members of a governance structure known as a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), can decide which projects deserve support. DeSci also opens up new sources of funding through platforms like Bio Protocol (see below) and Gitcoin, a pioneer of quadratic funding, a model that rewards projects attracting a high volume of individual donations with a greater proportion of matched funds.

• Incentives: The scientific community relies heavily on the reproducibility of results and peer reviews for validation. DeSci incentivises these activities by issuing tokens that either boost a researcher’s reputation or provide a reward in the form of crypto. Furthermore, given its transparent and immutable nature, a blockchain can serve as the ideal platform for reviewers to record their work and prove the reliability of the original findings.   

• Collaboration: Storing research on decentralised databases makes it easier to share with peers and co-author publications. Smart contracts- programs that execute automatically on blockchain technology once preconditions are met- ensure intellectual property (IP) rights are allocated to contributors and all parties receive fair compensation.  

• Tokenisation: Researchers can create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to represent ownership of their IP, as demonstrated in the next section. They can use these NFTs to generate a new revenue stream or raise funds.

DeSci protocols or projects

CoinMarketCap lists 55 projects under the DeSci category with a total market capitalisation of $911 million as of 21^st January 2025.

The largest project is Bio Protocol (market cap $304 million as of 21^st January 2025), a decentralised platform supporting the biotech sector. It consists of a launchpad that allows investors to bid on tokens funding research and an incubator, a 16-week program supporting projects with finance, mentoring and technical resources. The incubator also teaches founders how to use IP-NFTs and IP tokens (IPTs), developed by decentralised biotech platform Molecule, for fundraising. Bio Protocol’s native token, BIO, enables holders to vote on which projects should receive support and rewards contributions, such as sharing health data with researchers.  

One of the earliest projects backed by Bio Protocol in 2021 was VitaDAO (market cap $45 million as of 21^st January 2025), a platform supporting research into longevity, the extension of human life expectancy. VitaDAO helps founders raise funds by selling NFTs representing the right to any IP that may emerge from their work. Holders can then convert the NFTs to IPTs and use these tokens to create a DAO that assumes control of the project. According to its website, VitaDAO has deployed more than $4 million to 24 research projects as of January 2025.   

Another of the biggest DeSci players by market cap is ResearchHub ($85 million as of 21^st January 2025), which pitches itself as the Github (a platform allowing developers to store their code) for scientists. It groups research by topic in ‘Hubs’, the equivalent of printed journals, and encourages participation with its native token, ResearchCoin (RSC). Users can earn RSC for contributing to research and performing peer reviews, with the level of rewards determined by community upvotes. They can also use RSC to tip contributors who submit valuable findings. 

An immature market

To conclude, DeSci leverages blockchain technology to address the challenges faced by TradSci. By reducing the influence of central authorities like large institutions, it aims to broaden access to research and encourage collaboration. DeSci also opens new channels for researchers to source funding and incentivises participation among the scientific community by distributing rewards in the form of crypto tokens, for instance for conducting peer reviews.  

The sector is still relatively small, with a total market cap of just over $900 million (as of 21^st January 2025) according to CoinMarketCap. The biggest project by market cap is Bio Protocol, a platform where biotechs can access funding and an incubator and one of the earliest projects it supported was VitaDAO, which researches longevity.  The DeSci universe is still relatively immature compared to other sectors such as gaming, which consists of over 800 projects with a market cap of $20 billion. Investors should treat DeSci tokens like small-cap stocks, given their potential volatility, and bear in mind that altcoins can fail- more than 1,300 disappeared between 2018 and 2022.