This article was initially drafted as a report on the trend of DeSci in Japan, specifically for a series of articles featured in DeSilo, an academic incubation program founded by Kotaro Okada. This is an English translation of one of those articles.
On April 15th and 16th, 2023, I served as the committee chair of the "Decentralized Science Tokyo Conference (DSTC) 2023." This event brought together practitioners and researchers. We raised nearly $50,000 for the event in total.
During the conference, we described a tripartite structure to classify the systems involved in the decentralization of science.
These include the governance layer, concerning the people within the organization; the infrastructure layer, which involves data and intellectual property; and the ecosystem layer, including various organizations co-existing with different aims and means.
Decentralized Governance: This term refers to the diversity of purposes among individuals participating in decision-making within an organization. It highlights a structure where decision-making power is not concentrated within a majority but is rather evenly distributed.
Decentralized Infrastructure: This term refers to the dispersion of data, intellectual property, and other such resources. Instead of centralizing these in specific institutions or servers, they are distributed and managed across a broader network.
Decentralized Ecosystem: This term encapsulates the idea of numerous players, each with their unique objectives and methodologies, operating independently to achieve their respective goals.
In the subsequent sections, I will highlight the initiatives and contributions made by various organizations and researchers, either based in or associated with, Japan, from these three perspectives. In conclusion, I will provide a brief overview of the future prospects of DeSci in Japan.
1) Players in Decentralized Governance
The realm of decentralized governance primarily comprises communities that operate Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). In Japan, we see the emergence of DeSci-related DAOs such as GftdDAO and CANNABIS DAO, which support research activities. While not strictly DeSci, the Medical DAO community in the medical field is also noteworthy.
Gftd DAO serves as a community for individuals with developmental disorders and gifted individuals. It aims to promote well-being within the community. Gftd DeSci, a DeSci branch of this community, collaborates with Toshinori Takeuchi, an Associate Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, to use members' biometric data, including genetic information, to enhance their well-being. Additionally, it contributes to collective well-being by enabling biotech companies to leverage the intellectual properties and data that are generated as a byproduct from Gftd DeSci.
CANNABIS DAO: A DAO supports research projects focused on the medicinal applications of cannabis. It aims to operate the DAO using the intellectual property and other assets derived from the supported cannabis-related research projects in product development and medicine. In June 2023, it was selected for a 4-week DeSci accelerator program run by Psi Combinator [1].
Medical DAO (Founder: Shumon): With its mission of "Creating the Future of Medicine", Medical DAO aims to construct a novel healthcare system in the medical sector. The DAO already has over 900 members and has several initiatives in progress, including projects targeting enhancing healthcare data management and medical AI educational content [2]. It plans to create subDAO projects that combine GrantDAO and ProductDAO, thereby building the future of medicine.
2) Players in Decentralized Infrastructure
Decentralized infrastructure encompasses distributed data management, data incentives using wearable devices like smartwatches and EEG devices, as well as endeavors related to academic publishing. Constructing systems for utilizing blockchain for data management and orchestrating incentives for data acquisition is fundamental in this context.
2.1) Distributed Management of Personal Data
Distributed data management sits at the heart of decentralized infrastructure. This is because the growth in decentralized governance initiatives relies on growth at the infrastructure level.
Distributed management of personal data refers to the approach where individuals control their own data using accounts linked to personal identification numbers, such as Japanese "My Number," rather than having their data stored in hospitals or research institutions.
Tech giants like Google and Facebook generate enormous profits through advertisements using personal data. In contrast, the concept of distributed management of personal data has been developed for data protection, an area has been active even before the advent of DeSci.
A team led by Professor Koichi Hashida at the University of Tokyo has been collaborating with medical institutions and the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education to advance this initiative. Their efforts are also recognized as Goal 9 in the government's moonshot research and development project: "Realization of a mentally healthy and dynamic society by increasing peace of mind and vitality by 2050" They conduct research toward a future shaped by AI and distributed data management [3].
Additionally, HealthQuant (Co-founder: Hajime Sato), based in Singapore, is collaborating with teams worldwide to build infrastructure for medical data utilization. HealthQuant aims to link genetic data metadata to the blockchain, granting companies access through their platform. When this data is sold, a portion of the profits is returned to the data holder.
2.2) Data Acquisition and Incentive Design Using Wearable Devices
Utilizing blockchain for data management and offering rewards such as compensation for data usage via smart contracts is a crucial initiative. Mindland (Operating Company: DeMind Inc., Founder: Nao Yukawa), a meditation app, proposes a model where data such as brainwaves, heart rate, and respiration rate collected during meditation is shared with research institutions and biotech companies.
Profits derived from this are then distributed back to the data provider in the form of cryptocurrency as a reward. In a similar vein, Associate Professor Haruo Mizutani of the Kyoto Institute of Technology and his team have independently developed wearable devices to capture data such as brainwaves. Collaborating with Suntory and Kobe City, they are conducting pilot studies and proposing a revenue model similar to Mindland's.
In realms of distributed data management and incentive design, international initiatives are also present for data federations and decentralized clinical trials. In federated learning, a system for sharing machine learning model parameters without disclosing the data, discussions have started on whether blockchain can be employed to offer rewards based on data quality and reliability to those participating in the data federation. For example, Dr. Kensuke Ito from the University of Tokyo has proposed to use peer prediction methods for such purposes.
In clinical trials, an individual-centric medical system is featured.
Decentralized clinical trials aim to shift away from the traditional hospital-centric medical system and construct a patient or general individual-centric system. In these trials, individuals, clinical trial devices, and data are connected.
While these initiatives may not necessarily be linked to the blockchain, they possess a high degree of compatibility, and discussions regarding blockchain usage in the future are likely to increase.
2.3) Integration of Academic Publishing and Blockchain
Innovative proposals have recently emerged in Japan to tackle the issues surrounding academic publishing. Associate Professor Yuki Yamada and his team at Kyushu University have proposed a Trinity Review model that integrates pre-registration of research, ethical review by ethics committees, and budget allocation [4&5]. They have established an organization named "MinDAO", comprised of psychologists and others, which attempts to build a new scientific ecosystem with blockchain.
I believe that the success of DeSci relies on the growth of the field of distributed infrastructure. This is because the spread of distributed governance initiatives requires preparatory work at the infrastructure level. If this field grows, there's potential for investment and funding to flow into areas that have not been heavily focused on.
3) Ecosystem Supporting DeSci in Japan
Finally, in the context of the ecosystem that supports DeSci in Japan, we can observe growing efforts in communities, media, and researcher networks that enhance DeSci initiatives in Japan or investigate it as a field of research.
The DeSci communities
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"DeSci Japan" (Founder: Kyosuke Iyama): It aims to facilitate the spread and evolution of DeSci in Japan.
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“DeSci Japan Youth” (Founder: Sumire Iwase): A community for students. In the Gitcoin Beta Round held in April, it was announced that they will organize hackathons and pitch contests [6].
The media covers DeSci.
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De-Silo (Founder: Kotaro Okada): An academic incubation program for humanities and social science. It is keen to build a creator economy for researchers and DeSci.
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Metascientia (Founder: Hiro Taiyo Hamada, Ph.D.): A podcast about the science of science with Shiro Takagi, Yachima, and Kiwamu Sato.
The research organizations and initiatives aiming to utilize blockchain
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The Blockchain Governance Initiative Network (BGIN) (Co-Chair: Mai Santamaria & Shinichiro Matsuo, Professor): The initiative consists of members such as Bitcoin and Ethereum developers, blockchain-related researchers, and officials from financial authorities around the globe. They've already conducted eight meetings, and discussions involving stakeholders from all over the world will continue to progress.
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Endowed Chair for Blockchain Innovation at the University of Tokyo: This began its activities in 2018, and focuses on research into the token economy and crypto-economics with the aim of societal implementation, research and development, and human resources development in the area of blockchain technology.
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A joint research chair for smart contract application at Osaka University: It carries out research aimed at the industrial application of smart contracts. Solidity engineer Shogo Ochiai is affiliated with the Joint Research Lecture.
While not researching from a blockchain perspective, research lectures and departments have been initiated to explore how to manage finite resources (commons or social common capital).
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Research Division on Social Common Capital and the Future at Kyoto University
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A Corporate Sponsored Research Program for Social Common Capital at the University of Tokyo
I would hope to see that international collaborations and initiatives will continue to expand in the future.
The Future of DeSci Initiatives in Japan
In this article, I have presented various endeavors happening in Japan from the perspectives of decentralized governance, decentralized infrastructure, and the ecosystem.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, participants from the international communities also joined DSTC2023, highlighting the emerging international presence of DeSci Tokyo.
The following international hubs have been established [7].
This international collaboration and exchange will contribute to larger movements in the field of DeSci. I've been hearing more calls for engagement via platforms like Twitter and Telegram, and it seems that some connections are being forged between DeSci participants abroad and those based in Japan.
With the rapid development of this ecosystem, I was thrilled to see the holding of DSTC2023 and the creation of a platform where Japan could connect with the world.
As more efforts are made in the future, the legal issues in Japan that I could not cover this time will become clearer.
I hope there will be more opportunities for those interested in DeSci to collaborate and make progress together in this exciting field.
Acknowledgments
I acknowledge all members of DeSci Tokyo, including Kazuki Nemoto, Kyosuke Iyama, Shiro Takagi, Kiwamu Sato, Tatsuhiko Nawa, and Takehito Akima. DSTC2023 was generously backed by our sponsors, gftd DAO, Chugai, dentsu, Noeon Research, DB DAO, Lifetime Ventures, Solidity House, IBC Patent Attorney Corporation, LabBase, ANRI, and Metagen Therapeutics. DSTC2023 was also supported by the following crowdfunding contributors. They include Sachio Minamoto, Nozue Kaoru, Yoshihiro Shimizu, regonn, Naotaka HARA, Ryota Kanai, Metagen Therapeutics, Inc., Akihiro Nomura, 平井靖史, Yusuke Hayashi, Tomoya Tsuruoka, Yusuke Sato, Cabinet株式会社, Kendo Watanabe, Roger Nakazawa, Hal Seki, Ryosuke Kimura, Yohei Maruyama, Citizen Science Research Center in Fukuoka University, Fumio Hirano, Yusuke Mazda MD PhD, 一般社団法人ヒマラボ, Agency for wellness assessment research and development, Chiaki Michibayashi, Akihito Kikuchi, Tomoaki Ando, and ここのは.
Contact Information
DeSci Tokyo: DeSci Tokyo is a community hub for Tokyo to host events and "DeSci Tokyo Conference".
Twitter: @DeSciTokyo
Website:
Email: desci.tokyo[at]gmail.com
Author:
Hiro Taiyo Hamada, Ph.D. Founder of DeSci Tokyo, committee chair of DSTC2023. Neuroscientist (Araya Inc.) in Japan.
Twitter: @hirothamadajp
Linkedin: @hirohamada
References
[1] CANN_DAO.(2023 June 6th) . "CANNABIS DAO has been accepted into the inaugural Psi Combinator cohort! 🎉 @psi_combinator https://psicombinator.xyz Advance the development of a global platform to support cannabis research!🌿". Retrieved from https://twitter.com/CANN_DAO/status/1665905081483694080.
[2] Ryusei. 「未来の医療をつくる」MedicalDAOとは？～MedicalDAOに参加してみて感じたもの～. IAA. 2023/March/21th, https://meditech-ai.com/medicaldao/ (2023/July/8th)
[3] 目標9 研究開発プロジェクト データの分散管理によるこころの自由と価値の共創. MOONSHOT. https://www.jst.go.jp/moonshot/program/goal9/93_hashida.html (2023/July/8th)
[4] Mori, Y., Takashima, K., Ueda, K. et al. Trinity review: integrating Registered Reports with research ethics and funding reviews. BMC Res Notes 15, 184 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-022-06043-x
[5] Oka, T., Takashima, K., Ueda, K., Mori, Y., Sasaki, K., Hamada, H. T., … Yamada, Y. Autonomous, bidding, credible, decentralized, ethical, and funded (ABCDEF) publishing. PsyArxiv (2022). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/t4kcm
[6] DeSci Japan Youth. GITCOIN. https://explorer.gitcoin.co/#/round/1/0x6e8dc2e623204d61b0e59e668702654ae336c9f7/0x6e8dc2e623204d61b0e59e668702654ae336c9f7-79 (2023/July/8th)
[7] db_dao (2023/April/21st) “🌍Discover the future of science at #DeSci meetups around the world! Connect with amazing communities in @DeSciNYC, @DeSciTokyo, @DeSciTLV, @DeSciLondon, @DeSciChina, @DeSciAfrica, @DeSciLatAm, @DeSciBoston, and @DeSciBerlin🚀”. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/db_dao/status/1649083870359306241