In the last decade, distributed ledger technology (blockchain) has seen exponential growth. Blockchain is most commonly associated with cryptocurrency, but in recent years, non-crypto blockchain applications have also emerged. Decentralized Science (DeSci) is a new non-crypto blockchain application that has transformative potential. DeSci, a novel approach to funding research and collaboration among different stakeholders within scientific research, has the potential of bringing about much-needed changes in science.
Blockchain & DeSci
In 2008, during the financial crisis, Satoshi’s Bitcoin whitepaper introduced blockchain technology. Many argue that blockchain was created to create a distributed decentralized financial system on the internet. Although the technology was originally introduced to disrupt financial systems, it is now primarily used for social change. The blockchain technology is driven by decentralization, security and transparency. This is the way to address the problems of traditional centralized system, such as a lack trust and corruption.
As a distributed ledger, blockchain offers many advantages. One of them is that it allows for secure interactions with others without the need of a third party authority. Due to its distributed nature the technology is also a transparent and quasi-immutable system which builds trust among parties. [3] This technology is a good match for science because it offers autonomy, transparency, and accessibility.
DeSci, while maintaining the original philosophy behind blockchain technology, aims to create a distributed decentralized scientific research model which encourages transparency, access, collaboration and the democratization science. DeSci uses blockchain technology to build a public research infrastructure using blockchain tools like smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organisations (“DAOs”), all on the Web3 stack. [4]
Smart contracts are not legal contracts, but a tiny bit of code in a computer program which automatically executes conditional actions. They are known as smart contracts because they can be executed automatically. Once certain conditions are met, the computer programs will automatically execute part or all of an agreement, and store it in a blockchain platform. Smart contracts have existed for quite some time. For example, vending machine contracts. However, when combined with blockchain technology smart contracts can take advantage of all the benefits that blockchain offers, such as eliminating the need for an intermediary and providing transparency, security permanency and immutability.
Decentralized autonomous organisations (“DAOs”), are entities that exist autonomously on the internet, and are governed collectively by their members, using blockchain technology. [7] DAOs consist of a number of smart contracts. Each smart contract represents a different aspect of the normal operational rules and governance of a regular organization. These smart contracts execute autonomously when certain conditions are met. DAOs, unlike normal organizations, operate their governance scheme using computer code on blockchains without the need for a centralized structure. They do this by utilizing blockchain technology’s advantages such as transparency and immutability.
While DeSci doesn’t aim to solve every problem that science is facing, its main focus is on addressing challenges related to funding, organization and openness in science.
Why Blockchain and Science
Science as an institution is built on centralized networks consisting of hierarchical structures that are struggling to keep up with a more complex, uncertain, digital, and diverse society. The institution of science is built upon centralized networks that are hierarchical in nature. These hierarchical networks struggle to keep pace with an increasingly complex, uncertain, digital and diverse society. [9] In the last couple of years, the growing concern over lack of trust in science has led to the creation of the DeSci movement.
The 21st Century is a time of great challenges for science as an institution. These include funding, organization, and transparency in the scientific process. Funding for basic and translational science, as well obtaining funding in order to commercialize intellectual properties over new inventions, and research data, are all challenges. The peer-review process for the publication of scientific research, the access to data and methods of research, communication and collaboration among researchers, as well as reproducibility and replication of research results, are all causing problems in the scientific community. DeSci is a platform that can be used to solve these issues. It provides a decentralized solution for funding, organization and openness in science. This blog will concentrate on how DeSci could assist in funding scientific research.
It is possible to break down the scientific industry’s production of new knowledge and inventions into several stages. These stages are mainly called basic research and clinical-research stages. Translational research is the link between these two stages. It aims to convert or translate results from basic research into products which can be studied by clinical research and then commercialized to produce products of benefit to society. The “Valley of Death” is a gap that exists between basic and clinical research in biomedical research. This is one of the major problems currently facing the field. A lack of translational studies prevents new discoveries and innovations from universities and other institutions to be translated into treatments and products for humans. Since more than a decade, the Valley of Death has prevented breakthrough therapies from reaching patients who have no other treatment options. The Valley of Death is a complex problem with many factors contributing to it. One of the most important problems is funding for translational science. [14]
Over the last couple of years, there have been intentional efforts to provide more funding for translational research. Promoting the relationships between the various actors during different research phases is one effective way to achieve this. Promoting relationships between universities, business support structures such as venture capitalists and private funds, will bring these actors closer together, thereby helping to close the Valley of Death by providing a structure of support for translational research. DeSci is one way to facilitate such relationships.
The current funding model for research is flawed in that it does not consider the importance of basic research. Research funding has become more biased and inefficient, which is a problem for researchers. [16] Research funding organizations have used specific metrics to determine the allocation of research grants for many years. These metrics are usually based on expected outcomes and do not focus as much on non-conventional or exploratory research. In the last couple of years, researchers have been under increased pressure from their institutions to maximize their publication outputs and quantity of research rather than focus on the quality. [18] The result is a lack in research funding for junior researchers who pursue non-conventional methods of research.
Junior researchers have attempted to solve this problem by seeking research funding through crowdfunding websites. [19] While crowdfunding has been used successfully by scientists to fund research, it has some challenges. These include additional administrative and financial challenges, weaker investor security, fraud risks, and issues surrounding IP protection. [20] DeSci funding is similar to crowdfunding. However, blockchain technology addresses many of the issues that traditional platforms pose.
In Part II of this post, we will look at how DeSci could help solve the “Valley of Death”, provide an example of one of DeSci’s current funding projects, and briefly review some of the DeSci risks.
[1] Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper.
[2] Behind the crypto hype is an ideology of social change, Big Think (2022), https://bigthink.com/the-present/crypto-ideology-of-social-change/.
[3] Florence G’sell & Florian Martin-Bariteau, The Impact of Blockchains for Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law, (2022), https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4170324.
[4] Decentralized science (DeSci), ethereum.org, https://ethereum.org.
[5] Martin-Bariteau and G’sell, supra note 3
[6] Alex Lipton & Stuart Levi, An Introduction to Smart Contracts and Their Potential and Inherent Limitations, The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (2018), https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2018/05/26/an-introduction-to-smart-contracts-and-their-potential-and-inherent-limitations/.
[7] DAOs, DACs, DAs and More: An Incomplete Terminology Guide, Ethereum Foundation Blog, https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/05/06/daos-dacs-das-and-more-an-incomplete-terminology-guide.
G’sell and Martin-Bariteau supra note 3
[9] Wenwen Ding and colleagues, DeSci based on Web3 and DAO : A comprehensive overview and reference model, IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, Volume 9, Number 1563, 2022.
Balazs Gulyas and others, 2018). eds., 2018).
[11] Decentralized Science (DeSci), supra note 4
[12] Attila Seyhan: Lost in Translation: The Valley of Death across Preclinical and Clinical Divide – Identification of Problems and Overcoming Obstacles, 4 Translational Medicine Communications 18, (2019).
Declan Butler. Translational research. Crossing the Valley of Death, 453 Nature 843 (2008).
[14] Seyhan, supra note 12.
[15] Francesco Calza, Moving drug discovery beyond the valley of the death: The role of innovation eco-systems, 24 European Journal of Innovation Management, 1184 (2020).
[16] Dennis Murray et. al., Bias In Research Grant Evaluation Has Serious Consequences For Small Universities, PLOS ONE e0155876, (2016).
[17] Ding et al., supra note 9.
[18] Jens Ducree et al., DeSci – Decentralized Science, (2022), https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202205.0223/v1.
[19] Holly Else, Crowdfunding research flips science’s traditional reward model, Nature (2019), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00104-1.
[20] Loreta Valanciene and Sima Jegeleviciute. Valuation Crowdfunding : Benefits and Disadvantages. 18 Economics and Management, 39 (2013).