While the concept of decentralized finance (DeFi) continues to see strong growth prospects, it is not the only industry showing huge potential. After the issue of financial use, came a group of scientists and entrepreneurs who have integrated smart contracts, tokens and other blockchain tools in their efforts to improve modern science. The movement, which focuses on the benefits of the science of decentralized cross-border collaboration, is now widely known as DeSci.
Originally, this movement arose from the need to boost scientific funding, which was primarily identified by scholars who spent half their time writing grant proposals. Keep in mind that without funding, not only is science lessened, the projects that scientists choose to pursue are more biased. Although finance is just one part of the current industry barriers, in many cases it has led to silos of knowledge and heavy reliance on middlemen for mutual collaboration.
Open science originally emerged as an opportunity to address these concerns as a way to take and disseminate scientific research across multiple levels of society. However, DeSci, while aligned with these goals, is much more than just the 2.0 successor to Open Science. Instead, DeSci is a separate movement with diverse and evolving goals, with a foundation in blockchain technology.
Similar to how blockchain is disrupting other industries, Web3 models are now challenging Web2 with decentralized and shared ownership in areas such as finance and shared knowledge.
In practice, decentralized communities built on Web3, known as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), connect like-minded individuals through smart contracts. These contracts, which exist as code, describe the rules for how the DAO is managed and enable anyone within the community to vote on rule changes and how the money is spent.
Science DAO demonstrates these use cases firsthand as a decentralized think tank, incubator engine, and accelerator platform. Effectively, they have decided that their mission will be to empower inventors, entrepreneurs, and organizations with the foundation to make informed investments in a broad range of technologies and life sciences.
After the growth wave
By acting as the DAO, stakeholders, including researchers, can raise funds in a distributed manner while receiving a cash share in the outcome. DAO members also benefit because if a drug or other drug is released, each organ owns a portion of its success. Therefore, any ordinary person can buy a fraction of an asset that has been fractionally converted, a method that makes a high-value investment much easier.
With DAO as a foundation, investors are introduced to an entirely new asset class. Unlike the waves of the DeFi market, investors are allowed to attach their crypto holdings to science and follow the growth cycle and path of science startups, which is an effective way to diversify the portfolio.
Science DAO focuses on three primary areas of interest, including health and environment (genetics, nutrition, and medicine), computing and technology (machine learning and interactive environments), and natural sciences (astronomy and hydrology), to name a few.
More information about DAO Science here
The team brings this concept to life with several former and current senior executives at Microsoft, the most prestigious research labs, the co-director of the Center for Global Infectious Disease Research (CGIDR), as well as other board members.
Token generation event
So far, the project has undergone a successful launch and has gathered more than 1,000 DAO members in the Token Generation Event (TGE). “This is about legitimizing more use cases for DeFi and bringing the flow of previously private deals to the masses,” the team shares.
Going forward, the team aims to include more key members of the DAO and continue building the platform and process transaction flow.
