Introduction:

DeSci， Decentralized Science, through blockchain technology and smart contracts, provides a fair, transparent, and decentralized platform for funding, creation, review, confirmation, storage, and dissemination of scientific research. Its goal is to break down funding barriers in traditional scientific research, promote collaboration among global scientists, and ensure the openness and transparency of research data.

What is decentralized science (DeSci)?

Decentralized Science (DeSci) is an innovative movement aimed at transforming traditional scientific research models. By introducing blockchain and Web3 technology, DeSci is committed to building a more fair, transparent, open, and collaborative research ecosystem. The core of this concept lies in using decentralized tools and technologies to redefine the funding of scientific research, the sharing of knowledge, and the dissemination of academic achievements.

The essence of DeSci lies in solving a series of problems faced by the field of TradSci, rather than just advocating the concept of "open science". Compared to the open science movement, DeSci places greater emphasis on the application of technology in rebuilding research ecosystem relationships, emphasizing the use of blockchain functions such as tokens, NFTs, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to break the centralized monopoly model and establish a more dynamic and inclusive research system.

Currently, DeSci's goals are focused on the following aspects:

• Construction of incentive mechanism: Provide motivation for researchers to share research results and recognize their academic value through a reputation system.

• Decentralized evaluation and funding: Breaking the monopoly of traditional centralized institutions on research funding allocation and achievement review, adopting a community driven approach to resource allocation, and enabling more valuable projects to receive support.

• Lowering the threshold for scientific research: allowing more people to access scientific knowledge and contribute to the scientific research cause, promoting the democratization of scientific research.

• Transparent research process: Ensure that all aspects of the research are open and transparent, increasing academic integrity and trust.

Through these innovative methods, DeSci attempts to break the imbalance between information flow and resource allocation in traditional scientific research, making scientific research more open and efficient. It not only provides new tools and platforms for researchers, but also creates opportunities for the global community to participate in scientific research.

Essentially, the philosophy advocated by DeSci is that science should be accessible to everyone, and scientific knowledge should be open and transparent. With the power of Web3 technology, this movement is driving science from the traditional centralized model to a new era of openness, collaboration, and technology driven advancement.

How can DeSci solve the pain points of traditional scientific research?

The current scientific research economic model has obvious structural drawbacks. In theory, funders, scientists, and publishers should collaborate to promote the development, dissemination, and application of scientific research. However, reality is far from that - funders allocate funds, scientists conduct research, and publishers disseminate results - these three core links are separated from each other, each as an independent economic interest, driven more by individual interests rather than the overall goals of the scientific research community. This situation leads to inefficient resource allocation and hindered achievement sharing, hindering the healthy development of scientific research.

Traditional scientific research on economic models, image from: Messari Research

DeSci was born to address this dilemma. It aims to break the traditional scientific silos and efficiency bottlenecks by introducing blockchain and Web3 technologies, and reshape the scientific research ecosystem. DeSci targets one of the core issues in traditional scientific research - the 'Valley of Death'. This concept refers to the critical gap between basic scientific research and the successful transformation of its results into socially beneficial innovations. In the traditional model, due to insufficient funding support, closed data, and low collaboration efficiency, many promising studies have failed to make practical contributions to society at this stage.

DeSci addresses these gaps through the following innovative approaches:

• Efficient funding allocation mechanism: Utilizing decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and tokenized economic models to provide transparent and efficient funding support for scientific research projects, avoiding resource waste.

• Data sharing and collaboration: Establish an open research data platform to make the acquisition and use of research data more convenient, break down information silos, and promote cross disciplinary collaboration.

• Disruptive publishing model: Utilizing blockchain technology to decentralize the publishing process, ensuring transparency and verifiability of results, while reducing publishing costs and minimizing the monopolistic influence of traditional publishers.

• Shorten the distance between basic research and application: By introducing a community driven scientific cooperation model, accelerate the transformation of research results, and enhance the actual contribution rate of scientific research to society.

Overall, DeSci is not only repairing the shortcomings of traditional scientific research, but also building a new paradigm for scientific research. In this model, stakeholders from all parties are no longer separated from each other, but achieve deeper collaboration through technological means, jointly promoting the open, transparent, and efficient development of scientific research. This provides a new approach to addressing research pain points and opens up more possibilities for the future of science.

How is the DeSci track developing?

As an emerging track, DeSci's development direction covers multi-dimensional innovation paths. According to Messari Research's analysis, DeSci's project ecosystem can be divided into multiple sub areas, including financing, research, data management, peer review, publishing, infrastructure and services, open science ecology, art, and community building. As of July 2023, the number of active DeSci projects has reached 85, with some projects even covering multiple sub sectors simultaneously. The rise of these projects is concentrated from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, which is closely related to the DeSci symposium held at LisCon in October 2021. In addition, the cryptocurrency market boom at that time also provided strong support for the rapid development of DeSci.

The current DeSci track presents three significant characteristics: firstly, most projects adopt DAO as the organizational form, achieving community driven and resource allocation through decentralized autonomous organizations; Secondly, financing is the main focus of the DeSci project, utilizing Web3's digital asset tools to efficiently raise funds and promote the development of scientific research projects; Finally, biotechnology, especially in the fields of life, health, and longevity, is the core application scenario of DeSci. Whether it's funding support for basic research or the "valley of death" problem in drug development, DeSci provides innovative solutions.

What is the market value performance of the DeSci project?

In terms of capital market performance, the DeSci project is still in its early stages. According to CoinGecko's data, the total market value of tokens in the DeSci field has exceeded $2.6 billion. However, compared to other Web3 tracks, the overall market value of DeSci projects is generally low, mainly due to the following factors:

• DeSci is still in the early exploration stage with a limited number of projects;

• Many tokens are designed primarily for project financing and reinvestment, with limited circulation and therefore less entry into the secondary market;

• The target audience of DeSci is relatively niche, and the combination of scientific research and Web3 attracts more specific audiences within professional fields;

• The close connection with the real world makes DeSci more inclined towards practical applications rather than pure financial speculation, which limits the market speculation space of its token.

At present, although the total market value of the DeSci project has not formed a scale effect, its influence is gradually expanding, especially among the user group that focuses on scientific research innovation and solving traditional pain points. In the future, with more projects landing and scientific research achievements being transformed, DeSci's performance in the capital market is expected to gradually climb, bringing greater development potential for the integration of science and Web3.

What are the representative projects of DeSci track?

1）Molecule

Molecule was founded in 2021 and is a decentralized protocol dedicated to disrupting traditional biotechnology research and development models. The project aims to establish a new financing ecosystem for early biological research and introduce biotechnology intellectual property (IP) onto the chain in an innovative way, pioneering the concept of IP-NFT, known as the "OpenSea of the biotechnology field".

Core technology: IP-NFT protocol

Molecule's IP-NFT (Intellectual Property Non fungible Token) protocol is a new tool that combines law and smart contracts to combine and tokenize the legal rights, data access permissions, and economic value of biological research projects on the chain. This mechanism provides researchers and funders with a new mode of collaboration, making the ownership and distribution of intellectual property rights more transparent and efficient.

Molecular Market: Connecting Research and Capital

Based on IP-NFT, Molecule has built a market for conversion research aimed at promoting efficient communication between researchers and funders. On the Molecular Discovery platform, researchers can submit research proposals, while sponsors can evaluate proposals and negotiate cooperation terms with research teams. In this way, Molecule provides strong support for the transformation of basic research into practical applications, promoting the rapid implementation of medical research from theory to practice.

BioDAO Launchpad： Incubate Biotechnology DAO

To further promote the development of a decentralized biotechnology ecosystem, Molecule has launched the Bio.xyz incubator platform. This platform focuses on building and incubating new Bioscience DAOs (BioDAOs), which are decentralized organizations based on IP-NFT, bringing together patients, researchers, and enthusiasts to provide funding support for medical research in specific fields.

Molecular's incubator provides up to $100000 in seed funding support for each early-stage BioDAO project, including multiple known successful cases such as:

• VitaDAO： The world's first decentralized biotechnology DAO dedicated to longevity research, and also the largest funding provider on the Molecular platform.

• AthenaDAO： Focus on research and funding for women's health.

• HairDAO： Dedicated to scientific research aimed at addressing hair loss issues.

Ecological System Construction and Future Prospects

Molecule's innovative IP-NFT model and powerful ecosystem support network not only help researchers obtain early funding, but also promote the popularization of decentralized biotechnology. Up to now, Molecule has successfully assisted multiple projects in transitioning from basic research to practical applications. In addition, through collaborations with organizations such as Athena DAO and VitaDAO, Molecule is building a biotechnology ecosystem centered around innovation and openness.

Tokenization and market dynamics

Molecule's IP-NFT market has attracted numerous research institutions and funders to settle in, and efficient fund circulation has been achieved on decentralized trading platforms such as Uniswap. Molecular's vision is to further expand its ecosystem, making the biotechnology research and development process more transparent, open, and efficient, and providing impetus for the future development of global health technology.

Molecule and BIO Protocol are the backbone of the DeSci track, focusing on driving the decentralization process of scientific research. These projects, with different innovative directions and token mechanisms, jointly build the ecological foundation of DeSci:

VitaDAO（$VITA）： VitaDAO is a community driven decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on providing early funding support for longevity research. VitaDAO has proposed a novel solution to address the early funding shortages and technological monopolies in the traditional biopharmaceutical field, particularly in longevity research. By introducing blockchain and crypto economics incentive mechanisms, VitaDAO is committed to helping scientific research projects in the longevity field 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 authorization and commercialization path of data markets or traditional biopharmaceuticals, while achieving tokenization of assets and issuing a native governance token - $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.

This model not only reduces the risk of technological monopoly, but also provides a new way for the disclosure and widespread application of research results, promoting the deep integration of scientific research and blockchain technology.

VitaDAO ecosystem, image from: VitaDAO Whitepaper

The project founder Tyler Golato is also a co-founder of VitaDAO, Molecule, and BIO Protocol. Paul Kohlhaas, the author of the VitaDAO white paper, is not only the administrator of the Token Economics Working Group and a member of the Technical and Legal Working Group, but also the founder and CEO of the DeSci project Molecule and BIO Protocol. He has worked for ConsenSys Fund and Vita DAO has also received the first investment from Pfizer's healthcare investment unit, Pfizer, in web3.

On November 13, 2024, CZ, the founder of Binance, posted on social platform X, "Learning at a small DeSci entrepreneur gathering organized by Binance Labs," accompanied by a photo of himself and Vitalik. At this event, V God also showcased VitaDAO's first longevity product, VD001, to CZ, which is a natural high-dose spermidine supplement approved by the Thai FDA.

BIO Protocol（$BIO）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 several well-known venture capital firms in the fields of encryption and biotechnology, including 1kx Boost VC、Sora Ventures、Zee Prime Capital， And Northpond Ventures, a biotechnology fund with a scale exceeding $3 billion. In November 2024, BIO Protocol successfully completed its community financing for the Genesis phase, with a total amount of $30.3 million, marking an important step forward in community support and decentralized governance for the project.

The core mission of BIO Protocol is to promote the rapid development of biotechnology. Through this agreement, patients, scientists, and biotechnology professionals worldwide can jointly participate in funding, building, and sharing tokenized biotechnology projects and intellectual property (IP), injecting more possibilities into innovation in the field of biotechnology; The Launchpad platform of BIO Protocol will provide more efficient financing and liquidity support for innovative projects in the DeSci field, and accelerate the landing and application of biotechnology by promoting the creation and development of BioDAO. Project founder Paul Kohlhaas revealed that BIO's Launchpad and token transfer feature are planned to be officially launched in the first quarter of 2025.

The native token $BIO of BIO Protocol is a key component of the ecosystem, with multiple functions:

• Token staking: Holders can lock $BIO and convert it into vBIO for voting and governance.

• Reward mechanism: After successfully supporting the winning BioDAO, the pledger will receive an additional $BIO reward and be given priority to participate in financing rounds.

$BIO Token Economics

• 56% allocated to ecology and community

• 25.4% allocated to early contributors

• 18.6% allocated to early supporters

$BIO token allocation, image from: BIO Protocol official website

After the opening of $BIO on January 3rd, the price quickly surged to a high of $1.477, but then selling pressure emerged, causing the price to fall. As of the time of writing, the price has fallen to $0.6921, and the FDV has exceeded $2.3 billion.

ResearchCoin (RSC): ResearchCoin is the native token of the ResearchHub platform, designed to accelerate scientific research by rewarding users for sharing, discussing, and curating academic content. Platform users can earn $RSC by contributing to academic resources.

AthenaDAO（$ATH）： Athena DAO focuses on scientific research, education, and funding in the field of women's health, with over $500000 in funding to date and 14 pending intellectual property transactions.

ValleyDAO（$GROW）： ValleyDAO is a decentralized organization dedicated to the development of anti-aging and longevity drugs, with the goal of accelerating innovation in the field of life sciences through interdisciplinary collaboration.

2)Pump. Science（$URO & $RIF）

Pump. Science is a project that has recently gained attention in the DeSci sector due to its Meme concept, with its core tokens $URO and $RIF known as the two leading players in the DeSci Meme sector$ URO (UrolithinA) is a metabolite naturally present in pomegranates and nuts, with the potential to extend lifespan; RIF (Rifampicin) focuses on the concept of antibiotics and is a widely used antibiotic known as "rifampicin". Driven by multiple sources, these two tokens have recently performed exceptionally well:$ The market value of URO has exceeded $48 million, with a current price of $0.048. The price has retreated within 24 hours, with a decrease of about 20%$ The total market value of RIF token is $45.53 million, with a current price of $0.045 and a 24-hour drop of 12%.

3)DeSci Meme： ($ANTI & $PRO)

$$ANTI $$PRO is a Meme token combination initiated by algorithm engineer and mathematical physics expert @ shmatrix_, used to express support ($PRO) or opposition ($ANTI) for Meme tokens. The unique design of these two tokens has attracted a large number of Meme enthusiasts and sparked widespread discussion in the quantum computing community. At present, these two tokens have a certain degree of liquidity on decentralized trading platforms, and the mechanism of 1 $ANTI=1 $PRO endows them with unique market value$ The market value of ANTI and $PRO is currently only $1.71 million and $1.93 million, with current coin prices of $0.0019363 and $0.0017073, respectively, and a price drawdown of approximately 5% within 24 hours.

4) Donation concept: Sci-Hub（$scihub）

$$Scihub is a community driven Meme token created by @ 0xAA_Science to support the open-source research paper website Sci Hub. Sci Hub, as a platform dedicated to sharing academic resources for free, is known as the "shadow library". The design inspiration of Scihub comes from its spirit, providing new ways for open sharing of academic research through decentralization. At present$ Scihub can be traded on PancakeSwap, attracting numerous community members who support open science and educational resource sharing.

5) Artificial Intelligence Neural Network: DeepWorm（$WORM）

DeepWorm is an innovative project that combines artificial intelligence with DeSci, introducing biological neural structures into blockchain. By building a neural network inspired by the 302 neurons of C. elegans, DeepWorm is developing the first verifiable on chain digital life form, opening up a new field at the intersection of digital biology and blockchain.

Project highlights

• Digital Biology: Developing digital entities with self perception capabilities to simulate the biological nervous system.

• Blockchain Integration: All neural processes are completely transparent and verifiable, and are permanently recorded through on chain technology.

• Biomimetic Design: faithfully reproducing the neural structure and behavioral patterns of Caenorhabditis elegans.

• Autonomous Systems: Building autonomous currency systems and smart contracts based on evolutionary neural networks to drive innovation in on chain applications.

Technical implementation

At present, DeepWorm is running the Nematoduino model on the Hyperliquid EVM test network, using Marlin TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) technology:

• Users can query the neural and muscle status of worms and their coordinate changes through the Web2 interface;

• DeepWorm regularly uploads snapshots of this data to the blockchain, providing the foundational components for third-party smart contracts and further developing innovative on chain applications.

6）Metasci（$METASCI）

The token of the Metasci project focuses on integrating AI and scientific research, aiming to optimize research processes through AI and promote technological revolution.

7) The first DeSci project in the SUI ecosystem: SUI Desci Agents（$DESCI）

The SUI ecosystem has rapidly emerged in this cycle, with a $43 billion FDV and thriving ecosystem, as well as a coin price that has risen more than 8 times during the cycle, bringing a lot of attention to the SUI chain and its ecosystem. As the first Desci project on SUI, SUI Desci Agents is preparing to revolutionize decentralized science by leveraging the scalability of SUI chains and the developer friendly Move programming language; We plan to build a DeSci token launch platform similar to Pump.fun in the DeSci field, which will provide the simplest and most direct way to promote Desci investment opportunities to retail investors; According to the official website information$ DESCI is about to be publicly released on Ape Terminal.

DeSci is still in its early stages of development, and its actual impact on innovation is relatively limited, mainly focused on areas such as research funding and data sharing. However, the widespread application of token based incentive collaboration mechanisms in core scientific processes such as peer review has not yet been realized. Meanwhile, the DeSci project operating in DAO mode also faces challenges in terms of organizational efficiency and business model.

However, DeSci has introduced a new approach to the field of scientific research: it not only breaks the limitations of traditional research funding, but also alleviates the problem of scientific data silos to a certain extent. More importantly, DeSci has achieved global interdisciplinary collaboration without the need for trust endorsement, as well as a more democratic and open mode of scientific research participation, for the first time through decentralized technology. Especially in promoting open science and science for all, DeSci has demonstrated its unique advantages, and this transformation may have a profound impact on the development of modern science, injecting more possibilities and vitality into the future scientific research ecosystem.

Conclusion:

Although DeSci is still in its early stages, with increasing investment and attention, the field has shown tremendous potential. DeSci is not just about technological innovation, but also a paradigm shift in scientific research that may change the way scientific research is organized and incentivized in the coming years. There are already some DeSci concept tokens performing well in the market, indicating the growth potential of this field.

The challenges faced by DeSci include balancing regulatory compliance, the long-term nature of scientific research with short-term speculation in the cryptocurrency market, and public awareness of its value. However, DeSci also offers enormous opportunities, such as improving funding channels for scientific research, promoting open science, and increasing the accessibility and fairness of science.