Bridging the Gap Between Science and Art- the NFT Way

May 20th, 2022

Non Fungible Tokens are the buzzword in the present day in Web 3.0. However, according to some reports, this is not just a passing buzzword that may vanish into the night. Scientists and health practitioners are also eyeing for their work.

Currently, NFTs have been extensively adopted by fields such as gaming, art and other collectibles. According to Dune Analytics’ data collation, OpenSea recorded nearly $3.25 billion transactions on the Ethereum blockchain in the past one year. At the moment, most of them are art works.

Baby steps towards science and technology

Digital assets and by extension, NFTs are beginning to appear on the scientific horizon. This tentatively includes Nobel prize- winning research as well as augmented reality photos of space. Case in point: Last year, the University of California auctioned off documents in the form of NFT belonging to James Allison, an eminent Nobel prize winner who was a cancer researcher, for more than US$50,000.

From a macroscopic point of view, scientists can leverage blockchain and its assorted tools such as tokens and smart contracts to improve upon collaboration between their peers and stakeholders. This new way of working has a name- decentralized science or DeSci in short.

DeSci will help develop platforms that will empower people to work on scientific matters at a more fundamental level. This would allow for a new layer for a modern scientific revolution. This would allow decentralization of access to scientific resources which in turn would allow citizen scientists to participate in new ways of research.

With respect to DeSci, the people who generate value such as scientists, contributors, citizen scientists gain proportionate value in terms of their respective contributions. Essentially DeSci is creating new ways to contribute and collaborate in ways that were previously unimaginable- until blockchain came along.

NFTS and scientific research

NFT will play a huge role in the metaverse as through NFTs scientific research could be transferred in a secure manner. To elaborate one of the examples listed above, the US Space Force which is an arm of the US Armed Forces recently began selling NFT series of augmented reality (AR) images featuring space and satellites. George Church, who is a biology pioneer, owns a company known as Nebula Genomics. The company is contemplating selling NFT of Church’s genome.

NFTs and personal health information

As a lot of health practitioners might know, people usually don’t have control over their own health data once it is a part of the system. Nobody has a clear idea on how the personal data is shared or distributed once it is digitized.

Blockchain, and by extension, NFT contracts could help solve that problem. The NFT digital contracts could help the patient to specify who has the authority to access their personal health information as well as track how it is shared.

However, it must be noted that NFT adoption in the medical field is not sunshine and rainbows. Experts have pointed out there are still vulnerabilities pertaining to privacy, security and potential disputes over intellectual property rights. An average citizen may find navigating through NFTs particularly challenging.

Conclusion

All said and done, by weighing the pros and cons, we can say NFTs will definitely change the lives of everyone- from artists to an average Joe. The question is when, not if.