DeSci Guide: The Decentralized Science Movement is Becoming the Latest Web3 Practice

Original Title: A Guide to DeSci, the Latest Web3 Movement
Author: Sarah Hamburg, cognitive neuroscientist and co-founder of the blockchain consulting firm phas3 and the blockchain-based biometric wearable data solution LYNX
Compiled by: Richard Lee, Chain Catcher
An increasing number of scientists and entrepreneurs are utilizing blockchain tools, including smart contracts and tokens, in an effort to improve modern science. Collectively, their work is referred to as the decentralized science movement, abbreviated as "DeSci."
DeSci sits at the intersection of two prevailing trends:
1) The scientific community's efforts to change the way research funding and knowledge sharing are conducted;
2) A crypto-focused movement striving to shift ownership and value away from industry intermediaries.
DeSci is still in its infancy, but what does DeSci actually mean?
I am a neuroscientist and a co-founder of a startup that uses blockchain to provide wearable device users with full ownership and control over their biometric data, including brain data. I recently published a brief letter in Nature, encouraging scientists from all disciplines to join the DeSci movement. As the movement evolves, there is a need for more public discussion.
To this end, I have compiled an introductory guide covering how DeSci is formed, its defining characteristics, the main debates and open questions within the movement, and where the greatest opportunities and challenges lie.
Factors Driving the Birth of DeSci
The DeSci movement aims to: strengthen scientific funding; open up knowledge from journal silos; eliminate reliance on profit-seeking intermediaries like publishers; and enhance cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Funding is a particularly painful issue for scientists, who may spend half their time writing grant proposals. The success of securing funding is closely related to metrics like the h-index, which aim to quantify the impact of a scientist's published work. This creates a "publish or perish" pressure, leading scientists to pursue novel research topics rather than those that are crucial but less likely to make headlines. Ultimately, inadequate or unreasonable funding not only reduces the quantity of scientific research but also biases scientists in their project choices, leading to issues like the "replication crisis" (editor's note: referring to the difficulty or impossibility of reproducing many scientific research results).
Access to information is another major issue. Although science is a microcosm of global public goods, much scientific knowledge is locked behind journal paywalls and private databases. To make all types of data more accessible, the open science movement emerged over a decade ago.
The "open science" initiative has had a profound impact, with many funding sources, including the National Institutes of Health, requiring public access to research findings. However, to what extent science has improved as a result is a contentious issue. For instance, some journals have introduced paid publication business models in response. Consequently, scientists funded by public money no longer need to pay to read others' research but must pay to publish their own (with each paper in Nature costing over $11,000). Some scholars argue that mandates for open data literature have increasingly concentrated power in major publishers' hands.
The Role of DeSci
While DeSci and the "open science movement" both aim to make science more accessible, it is not "open science" 2.0. It is an independent movement with different and evolving goals. The main distinction of DeSci from other movements in the field lies in its use of blockchain tools. Just as blockchain has disrupted other industries, the centralized ownership model of web2 is being challenged by a decentralized, ownership-sharing web3 model.
Blockchain initiatives focused on science can be traced back to 2015, but they did not coalesce into a broader movement until 2021, when many new projects emerged last year. This includes the first Open Science NFT sold for 13 ETH; subsequently, more research groups began auctioning NFTs; several science-focused decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) started to develop; and a DeSci panel discussion took place at the community-led blockchain event LisCon last October.
This has resulted in the current DeSci landscape: a loosely connected mix of DAOs. Some focus on improving specific aspects of scientific research, such as funding, peer review, access, incentives, and progress. Others focus on specific research fields. The biotechnology sector is leading, with DAOs including Molecule, VitaDAO, PsyDAO, Phage Directory, LabDAO, and SCINET. An environmental science DAO is also developing. In addition to DAOs, individual scientists are experimenting with blockchain by launching their own research tokens.
Overall, the DeSci movement encompasses everything from purely theoretical ideas and small-scale technical experiments to relatively mature participants funding university research and launching various DAO organizations.
How DeSci Actually Uses Blockchain Tools
Smart Contracts: While scientists conduct peer reviews for free, the academic publishing industry profits immensely by acting as intermediaries. Ants Review demonstrates how smart contracts can directly mediate between authors and peer reviewers, who will receive token rewards.
Incentivizing Communities: Tokens/NFTs can be used to incentivize the scientific community to share, review, and curate different types of information, transforming it into resources, such as "smart manuscripts" (smart manuscripts link open data and protocols) and article databases. This can create a new way of knowledge sharing, rapid publishing, and peer review, akin to a cultivated and managed version of #AcademicTwitter. Such communities can particularly enhance the quality and availability of preprints (manuscripts published before peer review). Just as scientists relied on preprints during the COVID-19 pandemic, preprints are crucial for rapid scientific development.

Combating Censorship: The blockchain's "permaweb" attribute allows users to permanently store data and information, which can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and this attribute can be used to guard against scientific censorship.
Blockchain-Based Funding Models: As mentioned, scientists and DAOs are currently experimenting with NFT and token issuance to fund scientific research.
Future possibilities may include:

1. Establishing dedicated platforms and protocols for science to improve blockchain-based public funding models (second-degree fundraising and retrospective funding).

2. Adjusting emerging DeFi (decentralized finance) protocols to create sustainable long-term funding for scientists, potentially akin to traditional "rent control."

3. Generating returns from commercializable outputs (such as drug intellectual property NFTs) to fund further research, thereby enabling the scientific community to become self-sufficient.

4. Verifiable Reputation: Currently, a scientist's reputation and their ability to secure funding are tied to publication metrics. With blockchain technology, scientists can earn NFTs by engaging in activities deemed valuable by the community, such as peer review, training and mentoring, and sharing private data. NFTs can serve as verifiable digital reputation tools that reflect individual contributions, further incentivizing such behaviors. Scientists and individual groups with shared wallets, such as decentralized labs, can build their reputations in this way.
   As academic institutions increasingly move online, the DeSci ecosystem could become an attractive alternative to traditional scientific education. Students will be able to learn through participation in community tasks while building their own digital reputations, including tasks typically completed in papers, such as literature reviews, data cleaning, and analysis. DeSci will allow individuals to contribute to science while learning and being rewarded. Anyone with an internet connection will be able to contribute to the public good of science, which will help counteract the elitist culture in the scientific field.

5. Ownership: In the DeSci ecosystem, different aspects of science, such as peer review and reputation systems, can be managed separately by independent professional communities. This can mitigate the risks of dominance by a single platform and help science respond to rapidly changing technologies and emerging threats.
   DeSci also allows communities to become new "stakeholders" in scientific knowledge (for example, through DAO-owned IP-NFTs). The value generated from these assets can be used to fund the creation of new knowledge, attempting to establish a self-sufficient and sustainable scientific ecosystem. For instance, COVID vaccines were developed based on decades of publicly funded research. Granting communities the authority to set vaccine prices and allowing profits to flow back to the community to fund more research projects could have a significant impact on global health and prosperity.
   Debates and Open Questions
   As the movement evolves, more unknowns and debates are forming.
   Is the name "DeSci" correct? While decentralization is an important feature of DeSci, not everyone considers it a defining characteristic. Some also question the use of the term "science," claiming it excludes other forms of academic pursuit, such as the arts, humanities, and indigenous knowledge systems.
   Moreover, DeSci lacks a clear set of shared values. Currently, different small groups are determined by the issues they face. To foster a new culture in the scientific field, a set of common principles that can unite them would be beneficial for this movement.
   Who should DeSci ultimately serve? Modern science serves multiple industries, including academic publishing, higher education, and biopharmaceuticals, among others. We need to conduct more assessments to understand who the public interest in science should ultimately serve and how blockchain technology can assist in achieving this goal.
   How will DeSci protect the scientific industry from biases arising from the commercialization of blockchain? For profit motives, the DeSci community may vote to support commercializable research (for example, projects generating intellectual property) rather than foundational research (such as understanding the expression of specific genes). To mitigate this bias, DAOs can use profits from commercial research to fund foundational research. Additionally, scientists focused on foundational research can use blockchain technology to track how their data outputs are subsequently used, thus earning patent revenues.
   How DAOs will collaborate to address these issues remains to be seen. The next obvious question is: how should the movement decentralize? To what extent should DeSci projects address the above questions as a unified movement or operate independently?
   Current Challenges
   Scientific Quality: There are already questions raised in the community about whether non-scientists can distinguish between high-quality and low-quality projects. Therefore, a robust reputation and governance system is crucial. For example, verified scientists could first screen grant applications, which would then be voted on by a broader community. Collaboration between DeSci and traditional science also aids in quality assessment.
   DAOs can also envision edge cases to improve governance systems. For instance, what should be done if there is a large number of "flat earthers" in the community who tirelessly divert funds from the treasury to this research?
   Diverse Participation: The DeSci community is primarily composed of individuals from the crypto and science fields, but there is a lack of representation of women in both areas. Gender imbalance (and other types of imbalance) can have real consequences—such as historically insufficient research on women's health issues. It is important for the group making scientific decisions to represent society as a whole.
   Building DeSci Protocols: Efforts for decentralized science have existed for years (most notably Blockchain for Science). New projects should strive to understand the strengths and weaknesses of older projects and learn from them. It is beneficial for the community to experiment with different blockchain technologies, especially those with low transaction fees and minimal environmental impact.
   Defining Ultimate Goals and Priorities: Ultimately, DeSci is an attempt to use a range of new tools to improve science. For DeSci to succeed, these tools should not be overly ostentatious and should seamlessly integrate into scientists' daily work. Therefore, DeSci should focus on enabling scientists to do science itself and ensure that strong user research emphasizes this aspect rather than the new tools themselves.
   How to Quickly Get Involved? Resource List for Your Reference
   Whether you want to learn about major DeSci news or join a DAO, here is a resource list to help you familiarize yourself with the movement:
   DeSci Wiki: Dr. Jocelynn Pearl is leading 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 often voices itself on Twitter, where community members post announcements about their projects and discuss key topics. First, follow #DeSci and these KOLs:

• Bianca Trovò, founder of Ants Review
• Paul Kohlhaas: co-founder of Molecule
• Tyler Golato, co-founder of Molecule and core member of VitaDAO and PsyDAO
• Jocelynn Pearl: host and producer of the Lady Scientist Podcast, co-founder of LabDAO, and founding team member of OpenAccessDAO
• Nate Jacobs, founder of Science Fund, founder/CEO of flashpub.io
• Ariella Coler-Reilly, editor-in-chief of VitaDAO

In addition to Twitter, Telegram and Discord are two other online community spaces where you can engage in DeSci conversations and connect with active members of the movement:
On Telegram, there are Blockchain of Science and Women in Web3 x Science.
On Discord, there are DeSciWorld and Opscientia.