1. Industry Background and Current Status Analysis

1.1 Overview of DeSci

From the artisanal era of workshop production relying on human collaboration to the mechanized era reshaped by steam-power factories; from the standardized scale economy spurred by assembly lines in the electrical era to the global supply chain revolution triggered by computer technology in the information age; and now to the AI era driven by algorithmic models in intelligent decision networks—each technological revolution has reshaped the organizational form of production factors. The emergence of blockchain technology has, for the first time, achieved "trust automation" through mathematical protocols, enabling on-chain confirmation of intellectual property rights, decentralized circulation of data assets, and value distribution led by smart contracts. Through knowledge and data storage on the blockchain, DeSci (Decentralized Science) is leading a disruptive scientific paradigm revolution, attempting to liberate science from the closed ivory tower, and the underlying logic of human production relations is undergoing a paradigm-level leap.

Previously, the DeSci track experienced a wave of enthusiasm in the secondary market, which has now gradually cooled down. In the previous wave, it was a financial manifestation of expectations, appearing in forms such as Memecoin, but we cannot deny the DeSci track because of this. On the contrary, we should conduct an in-depth analysis at present to understand the real value behind DeSci and its future impact on the transfer of scientific paradigms.

The core concepts of DeSci include the following key aspects:

• Incentive Mechanism: Reshaping the Distribution of Scientific Research Value

DeSci completely changes the value distribution model in traditional scientific research by introducing a blockchain-based incentive system. Researchers can gain academic recognition and economic rewards through token economics, NFT papers, or reputation systems, which not only incentivizes the widespread sharing of knowledge but also provides new avenues for the monetization of research outcomes.

• Decentralization: Reconstructing the Power Structure of Scientific Research

In traditional scientific research models, funding allocation and outcome review are often controlled by a few centralized institutions, leading to uneven resource distribution and limited innovation. DeSci, through community-driven models such as DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), decentralizes power to the research community, achieving democratized resource allocation.

• Lowering the Barrier to Scientific Research: Promoting Democratization of Research

DeSci significantly lowers the participation threshold for scientific research through decentralized infrastructure (such as open data platforms and distributed computing resources). Whether it’s researchers from developing countries, independent scientists, or citizen scientists, they can equally access global research resources and contribute.

• Data Transparency: Rebuilding the Trust System in Academia

The traceability of blockchain technology provides technical assurance for the transparency and verifiability of research data. From experimental design to data collection and outcome publication, every step can be recorded and publicly verified. This can effectively curb academic misconduct and enhance public trust in scientific research.

The essence of DeSci is a return to the nature of science—science should be the common wealth of all humanity, not the exclusive domain of a few institutions or elites. In traditional research models, the creation and dissemination of knowledge are controlled by layers of intermediaries, causing science to deviate from its original openness and collaboration. DeSci, through technical means, attempts to break these barriers and return science to its decentralized essence. It is not only a technological innovation but also a revolution in scientific philosophy.

1.2 Essential Differences Between DeSci and Traditional Scientific Research Systems

1.2.1 Collaboration Model: From Fragmented Confrontation to Organic Synergy

The traditional scientific research system exhibits a typical “triangular fragmentation” structure: funding agencies (government/enterprises), the scientific community, and publishers form a closed interest loop but lack a value alignment mechanism.

• Funding agencies often evaluate research outputs through short-term KPIs, forcing scientists to pursue “publishable results” rather than solving substantial problems;

• Scientists, to secure continuous funding, have to invest significant energy in project applications and compliance processes rather than deep research;

• Publishers, by monopolizing academic dissemination channels, charge high subscription fees (the global scientific publishing market generates over $19 billion annually) without providing reasonable returns to knowledge producers.

This fragmentation leads to over 30% of global annual research funding (approximately $60 billion) being wasted on repetitive studies or experiments that cannot be reproduced. While DeSci, through a smart contract-driven collaboration framework, reconstructs the relationship among the three parties:

• Funding agencies can pool funds through DAOs and set long-term goals (such as “delaying aging”), with the community voting to decide resource allocation;

• Scientists earn token rewards based on data contributions, open-source code, or experiment replication, directly linking economic returns to actual value creation;

• The role of publishers is replaced by NFT papers and decentralized storage, reducing the cost of knowledge dissemination by over 90%.

1.2.2 Crossing the “Valley of Death”: From Linear Disruption to Closed-Loop Acceleration

The traditional “valley of death” in industry-academia-research transformation is essentially a failure of the knowledge transfer system: the chain from basic research (papers) → applied development (patents) → commercial transformation (products) is led by different entities at each stage and lacks incentive mechanisms to connect them. For example, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) invests $45 billion annually, but only 0.4% of basic research outcomes enter clinical trials; the core issue is that pharmaceutical companies seal off experimental data to protect commercial secrets, leading to repeated trial and error (preclinical research alone costs $2.6 billion per drug); meanwhile, venture capital tends to favor later-stage mature projects, making it difficult for early breakthrough research to gain support.

DeSci, by introducing blockchain and Web3 technologies, aims to break the interest distribution barriers in traditional scientific research and promote more efficient research collaboration. Unlike the isolated nature of traditional models, DeSci enables funders, scientists, and publishers to achieve deeper cooperation through decentralized mechanisms, solving issues of funding, data sharing, and transparency of research outcomes. DeSci builds transformation accelerators through technological-economic paradigm innovations:

• Tokenization of Scientific IPs: Platforms like Molecule convert drug development intellectual property into IP-NFTs, allowing investors to purchase rights in segments. Studies show this approach shortens the financing cycle for early biopharmaceutical projects by 60%.

• Data Liquidity: Platforms like Ocean Protocol establish data trading markets where researchers can securely share data and earn rewards through privacy computing technologies. Over 20PB of biomedical data has been uploaded to the chain.

• Community Assistance Mechanisms: VitaDAO, through a “research-development-commercialization” three-stage token distribution model, allows basic researchers to receive 5%-15% of continuous shares after drug commercialization through smart contracts, forming a closed-loop incentive.

• Efficient Fund Allocation: Through DAOs and tokenized economic models, DeSci provides transparent and efficient funding support, avoiding resource waste. For example, VitaDAO provides funding for anti-aging research through DAOs and supports 24 projects.

• Decentralized Publishing: DeSci changes the production and dissemination of research outcomes, ensuring transparency and verifiability through blockchain, reducing publishing costs, and diminishing the monopoly influence of traditional publishers.

• Attribution of Research Outcomes and Transparent Review: The immutability of blockchain ensures the attribution of research outcomes, and smart contracts record the review process, enhancing the transparency of reviews and ensuring the fairness and efficiency of research.

In summary, DeSci promotes transparency, efficiency, and collaboration in scientific research through decentralized technology, addressing various shortcomings of traditional research models. It not only changes funding allocation, data sharing, and publishing processes but also accelerates the transformation of research outcomes through community cooperation, making science more open and inclusive, creating a more promising research environment.

1.2.3 Value Distribution: From Centralized Extraction to Ecological Win-Win

Under traditional systems, scientific research value is monopolized by a few centralized nodes:

• Publisher Elsevier’s gross margin has long been maintained at 37%, far exceeding tech giants like Apple (24%);

• Top journals like Nature charge up to $11,390 per paper for processing fees, but 97% of reviewers work for free;

• Pharmaceutical giants rely on patent barriers to gain huge profits (the average net profit margin of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies is 18.7%), while original discoverers are often marginalized.

In contrast, DeSci reconstructs the distribution logic through programmable value flows:

• Quantification of Contributions: Using on-chain reputation systems (such as DeSci Labs’ Karma scoring), behaviors like paper citations, code submissions, and experiment replications are converted into tradable credit assets;

• Dynamic Allocation: Smart contracts automatically distribute profits, for example, the BioDAO project injects 30% of patent income into the community treasury, allocates 45% to researchers based on contributions, and rewards early investors with 25%;

• Long-Tail Activation: African scientists share laboratory equipment through LabDAO, reducing research costs by 70%, and gain global funding support through data contributions.

The difference between DeSci and traditional research is not just an upgrade of technical tools but a reconstruction of production relations. When scientific

breakthroughs are no longer constrained by institutional boundaries, geographical restrictions, or power rent-seeking, humanity may enter a new era of “collective intelligence explosion.” Just as the GitHub open-source community gave birth to ChatGPT, the collaborative innovation of millions of researchers in the DeSci ecosystem could solve complex problems in the next decade that individual countries or companies cannot tackle (such as Alzheimer’s disease treatments or controlled nuclear fusion). The ultimate goal of this transformation is to return science to its purest essence: evidence-based, open sharing, serving the well-being of all humanity.

1.3 Market Scale and Major Participants

1.3.1 Market Scale

Currently, the market scale of the DeSci field is close to $1 billion. Although still in the early exploration stage, its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to exceed 35% in the next five years, showing exponential expansion potential. This growth not only stems from the mature application of blockchain technology but also benefits from the pain points of imbalanced global research funding allocation: the traditional research market invests over $200 billion annually, but a large amount of funds is wasted due to bureaucratic processes and inefficient management by centralized institutions. The rise of DeSci is restructuring this landscape: through tokenized incentives, decentralized governance, and open-source collaboration, its market scale is expected to break through $50 billion by 2030, becoming a vertical track in the Web3 field on par with finance and AI.

The potential of DeSci has attracted dual attention from the crypto industry and academia. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has repeatedly emphasized the disruptive significance of DeSci for “open science”; crypto leaders such as Binance founder CZ, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong have endorsed it through investments and public support. Additionally, top investors like Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan have identified DeSci as the core direction of “next-generation research infrastructure.” Leading VCs such as a16z, Polychain Capital, and Digital Currency Group have also entered the space, with biopharmaceutical DAOs (like VitaDAO) and decentralized data protocols (like Ocean Protocol) becoming key investment targets.

1.3.2 Major Players

1.3.2.1 Molecule

Founded in 2021, Molecule is a decentralized protocol dedicated to disrupting the traditional biotechnology R&D model. The project aims to establish a new financing ecosystem for early-stage biological research and innovatively introduces biotechnology intellectual property (IP) onto the blockchain, creating the concept of IP-NFT, known as the “OpenSea of biotechnology.”

Based on IP-NFT, Molecule has built a market for translational research, aiming to facilitate efficient connections between researchers and funders. On the Molecule Discovery platform, researchers can submit research proposals, and funders can evaluate proposals and negotiate cooperation terms with research teams. In this way, Molecule provides strong support for the transformation of basic research into practical applications, promoting the rapid implementation of medical research from theory to practice. As a decentralized drug development platform, it tokenizes biopharmaceutical intellectual property through the IP-NFT model, facilitating over $200 million in research funding flows and establishing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Bayer.

1.3.2.2 VitaDAO

VitaDAO is a community-driven decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on providing early-stage funding support for longevity research. Addressing the current situation in the traditional biopharmaceutical field, especially the shortage of early-stage funding and technological monopolies in longevity research, VitaDAO proposes a brand-new solution. By introducing blockchain and cryptoeconomic incentive mechanisms, VitaDAO is committed to helping scientific research projects in the longevity field obtain crucial initial funding support. In return, VitaDAO will directly hold the intellectual property (IP) and data rights of the supported research outcomes and integrate these rights into a publicly accessible asset portfolio. The organization promotes the further development and utilization of these intellectual properties through data markets or traditional biopharmaceutical licensing and commercialization paths, while also tokenizing the assets and issuing the native governance token—$VITA. Individuals or organizations can earn $VITA tokens by contributing work, funds, or other resources (such as data or intellectual property). Holders of $VITA can participate in the curation and governance of VitaDAO’s assets and research.

1.3.2.3 BIO Protocol

As the first project in the DeSci sector to receive investment from Binance Labs, BIO Protocol has attracted widespread attention. In addition to Binance Labs, the project has also secured strong backing from several renowned venture capital firms in both the crypto and biotechnology sectors, including 1kx, Boost VC, Sora Ventures, Zee Prime Capital, and Northpond Ventures, a biotechnology fund with over $3 billion in assets. In November 2024, BIO Protocol successfully completed its genesis community fundraising round, raising a total of $30.3 million, marking a significant milestone in community support and decentralized governance for the project.

The core mission of BIO Protocol is to promote the rapid development of biotechnology. Through this protocol, patients, scientists, and biotech professionals worldwide can jointly participate in funding, building, and sharing tokenized biotechnology projects and intellectual property (IP), thereby injecting more possibilities into innovation in the biotech field; BIO Protocol’s Launchpad platform will provide more efficient financing and liquidity support for innovative projects in the DeSci field and accelerate the implementation of biotechnology applications by promoting the creation and development of BioDAOs. Project founder Paul Kohlhaas revealed that BIO’s Launchpad and token transfer functions are planned to be officially launched in the first quarter of 2025. BIO Protocol focuses on the issue of experimental repeatability, building an open-source research protocol library, reducing global collaboration costs through standardized processes and on-chain verification, and currently covering over 1,200 biological experiments.

1.3.2.4 Ocean Protocol

Ocean Protocol has received investments from Digital Currency Group and Jump Capital, and in 2023, completed a $31 million Series B funding round led by Borderless Capital, with a valuation exceeding $1 billion. Its core mission is to build decentralized data economy infrastructure to solve the problem of data silos in scientific research. It has achieved two major technical breakthroughs: 1. Compute-to-Data: Running analytical algorithms without moving data, which has increased the efficiency of breast cancer genomic analysis by 35% for the Mayo Clinic; 2. Data NFTization: Supporting dataset confirmation and hierarchical trading, with 20PB of high-value biomedical data already hosted. Additionally, Ocean Protocol has collaborated with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to build a global agricultural research data pool, covering 2.3 million datasets from 67 countries; in Q2 2024, data trading volume reached $170 million, with privacy computing requests increasing by 220% quarter-over-quarter.

Its CEO Bruce Pon announced that in 2025, they will integrate federated learning and ZK-proof technology to launch a “cross-chain data federation,” supporting secure sharing of clinical data among pharmaceutical companies.

1.3.2.5 Gitcoin Grants

Gitcoin Grants has received strategic investments from the Ethereum Foundation and Protocol Labs, and in 2024, received an additional $15 million in funding from a16z, with cumulative financing reaching $68 million. Its core mission is to drive the democratization of open-source research crowdfunding through Quadratic Funding. Gitcoin Grants has cumulatively funded over 1,700 open-source science projects, with fund utilization rates 3.2 times higher than traditional research funds. It plans to launch “impact derivatives” in 2025, allowing investors to trade in prediction markets based on the social value of research outcomes.

1.3.2.6 Lab DAO

LabDAO has received angel investment from Vitalik Buterin and support from the Arweave ecosystem fund, and in 2024, completed a $12 million seed round led by Pantera Capital. Its core mission is to build a distributed laboratory network to lower the threshold for global research resource access. LabDAO has already open-sourced over 1,400 biological experiment SOPs, with an on-chain verification pass rate of 92%; it has also accessed 420 professional instruments from 67 countries, reducing R&D costs by 70% for African teams. Founder Niklas Rindtorff stated that in 2025, they will launch an “automated experiment protocol engine,” achieving fully automated execution of 50% of basic experiments through AI and robotics.

1.3.2.7 ResearchHub

ResearchHub was founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Similar to GitHub’s revolutionary role in software engineering, ResearchHub firmly believes that scientific records should not be confined behind paywalls or limited to academic ivory towers but should become public resources accessible to everyone. The core mission of ResearchHub is to break the closed nature of traditional academic research. By providing a completely open platform without paywalls, ResearchHub allows both scholars and non-scholars to participate in scientific research in a transparent and collaborative manner. Summaries on the platform are written in plain English, further lowering the barrier to accessing scientific knowledge, enabling more people to understand and participate in scientific discussions. To incentivize this open collaboration, ResearchHub introduces ResearchCoin, rewarding users who actively contribute and share research outcomes.

On ResearchHub, researchers can freely publish articles (whether preprints or postprints) and exchange ideas in an open forum dedicated to discussing related research. This model aims to solve the inefficiencies of the current academic publishing system. From applying for funding, completing research, submitting, peer review to final publication, traditional processes often take 3-5 years, severely slowing down the pace of scientific progress. ResearchHub believes that through its open collaboration platform, the efficiency of scientific research can be improved by at least an order of magnitude.

2. Value Assessment

DeSci Compared with Other Web3 Fields

Currently, the overall market capitalization of the DeSci track is about $1 billion, with daily trading volume maintained between $8 million and $12 million, and the market cap to trading volume ratio (MC/TV) reaching 8-15 times, significantly higher than traditional tech stocks (S&P 500 average MC/TV about 0.3 times) and even mainstream crypto tracks (DeFi average MC/TV about 3 times). This abnormal ratio reveals the market’s underlying logic:

Expectation Premium: Investors view DeSci as the “DeFi revolution in scientific research” and are willing to pay a premium for the yet-to-be-fully-realized technological vision. Similar phenomena were seen in 2017 with IPFS (MC/TV peaked at 28 times) and in 2020 during DeFi Summer (COMP’s initial MC/TV was 22 times), while DeSci’s current valuation is still within a reasonable range for similar technologies in their early stages.

Structural Differentiation: Leading projects (such as Molecule, Ocean Protocol) account for 65% of the market cap but only 30% of the trading volume, indicating that capital prefers to hold core infrastructure long-term; while small and medium-sized projects (such as LabDAO, ResearchHub) contribute 70% of the trading volume despite their low market cap share, reflecting the market’s speculative layout on early innovative targets.

Although the overall scale of DeSci is small, the participation of institutional investors has shown unique characteristics:

1. Heavy Betting Logic of Leading Funds: In a16z’s DeSci investment portfolio, 80% of the funds flow to underlying protocols (such as data storage, IP tokenization tools), with only 20% invested in application-layer projects, demonstrating their adherence to the “infrastructure first” strategy. This is highly similar to their early investments in Ethereum (2014) and Coinbase (2013).

2. Whale Behavior Patterns: On-chain data shows that among addresses holding more than $100,000 in DeSci tokens, 55% have held for over a year, far higher than the crypto market average of 28%. These investors focus more on technological roadmaps rather than short-term price fluctuations; for example, the staking rate of VitaDAO’s token $VITA has remained above 72%.

3. Cross-Track Synergy: Traditional pharmaceutical companies are beginning to acquire innovative resources through the DeSci ecosystem; for example, Pfizer outsources early drug discovery through the Molecule platform in the form of NFT licenses, saving 40% in R&D costs. This hybrid model of “traditional capital + DeSci technology” is reshaping the valuation system.

Moreover, in the DeSci track, the explanatory power of traditional financial indicators is failing, necessitating the introduction of new assessment frameworks. For example: the number of citations for NFT papers: NFT papers on the DeSci Labs platform receive an average of 7.2 citations, which is three times that of traditional open-access journals.

3. Future Development Predictions

3.1 Innovative Project Analysis: Pythia—Intersection of Brain-Computer Interface and Crypto Economy

Three months after Neuralink successfully achieved the first human brain-machine interface implant, a breakthrough study from the Neiry Lab at Moscow State University [10] converted brainwaves into crypto assets, quickly causing a sensation in the crypto community. The lab implanted an AI chip into an experimental rat named Pythia and connected it to customized GPT and DeepSeek models, enabling it to control buttons to answer simple yes/no questions through brainwaves. This seemingly futuristic experiment not only revealed the potential of integrating biology and artificial intelligence but also gave birth to the PYTHIA token, whose market cap soared to $50 million within just 10 days of release, becoming one of the most controversial cryptocurrency stories in the Web3 field. The Pythia project not only showcased the broad prospects of brain-computer interface technology but also pioneered a new “biological mining” model, converting brainwaves into tradable digital assets, marking the birth of the biological data economy.

Today, the market cap of the PYTHIA token has steadily rebounded from its lowest point of $4 million to $11 million. Unlike other fleeting Meme projects, Pythia has successfully established itself in the DeSci field through continuous development and innovation. Even in the overall market downturn, the PYTHIA token still shows strong upward momentum. So, what exactly is Pythia? Why has it caused such a stir in the crypto world?

The core of the Pythia project lies in its pioneering “brain-computer interface crypto singularity” technology. The Neiry Lab connected the brain of the experimental rat Pythia to a customized GPT-4 model, successfully converting brainwave signals into programmable instructions, achieving bidirectional interaction between biological entities and artificial intelligence. This technological breakthrough includes not only the linguification of neural impulses (converting brainwaves into executable instructions) but also the assetization of brainwave data—converting brainwave data into tradable digital assets through ERC-1155 standard NFTs. Based on this experiment, the Pythia project quickly evolved from a scientific experiment into a symbol of the crypto economy and gave birth to the $PYTHIA token.

Another major innovation of the Pythia project is its “think-to-mine” system. Users can wear EEG headbands developed by the Neiry Lab to convert brain activities such as meditation and focus into token rewards. This “biological StepN” model converts human cerebral cortex activities into economic value, creating a new way to acquire digital assets. At the same time, the Neiry Lab has also launched two revolutionary devices—the Mind Tracker and Brainy headphones, providing users with brainwave monitoring and stress management functions. These devices not only help users reduce emotional interference in cryptocurrency trading but also enhance attention and decision-making abilities by monitoring brain activity in real time. Paying for the devices with $PYTHIA tokens also offers discounts, further promoting the utility and circulation of the token.

The vision of the Pythia project goes far beyond the token economy. The Neiry Lab is developing Neural Data Oracle technology, aiming to convert brainwave signals into verifiable sources of randomness, thereby promoting the deep integration of blockchain and biological data. Additionally, the lab plans to launch a cognitive enhancement DApp store based on real-time brainwave data, providing users with applications such as meditation, learning, and mental health optimization. These technological breakthroughs not only lay the foundation for the future development of brain-computer interfaces but also provide possibilities for the rise of the “consciousness economy.” Pythia may become a model for the combination of Web3 and brain-computer interfaces. Furthermore, against the backdrop of U.S.-Russia cooperation, potential collaboration between Pythia and Elon Musk’s Neuralink is also worth looking forward to.

3.2 Future Development Directions of DeSci

DeSci is reshaping the underlying logic of human knowledge production along a disruptive path. The core of this transformation is to build a global research network that transcends geographical boundaries and breaks through power monopolies through dual innovations in technical tools and collaboration paradigms.

3.2.1 DeSci + AI Agent—Reshaping the Paradigm of Scientific Research

With the deep integration of DeSci and AI Agents, scientific research is ushering in an unprecedented paradigm shift. DeSci breaks the centralized barriers of traditional academic systems through blockchain technology, achieving transparency, verifiability, and openness of scientific data; while AI Agents inject new efficiency and insights into scientific research with their powerful data processing capabilities and automation functions. The combination of the two will not only accelerate the process of scientific discovery but also redefine the way of research collaboration.

In the future, the combination of DeSci and AI Agents will give birth to a series of innovative applications. For example, a research funding allocation system based on smart contracts can evaluate the feasibility and potential impact of projects through AI Agents, ensuring efficient use of resources; decentralized research collaboration platforms can leverage AI Agents to achieve peer review, cross-disciplinary, and cross-regional real-time collaboration, breaking the silo effect of traditional research; moreover, AI Agents can predict emerging research areas by analyzing global research data, providing scientists with forward-looking research directions.

3.2.2 From Funding Research to Practical Applications, Building a Sustainable Scientific Ecosystem

Currently, the core focus of DeSci still revolves around the raising and allocation of research funds, achieving transparency and decentralization of fund flows through blockchain technology. However, as the DeSci ecosystem gradually matures, participants and supporters are no longer satisfied with mere concepts and visions; they expect to see practical results and perceptible value returns. Therefore, the future development of DeSci must transition from “Funding Research” to “practical applications,” building a sustainable scientific ecosystem that can stimulate innovation vitality and achieve actual outputs.

Taking the Asian market as an example, DeSci’s current main activities are concentrated in research fundraising and donation, which, against the backdrop of cultural differences between the East and the West, are often viewed by Asian users as a “somewhat illusory concept,” leading to relatively low acceptance in this region. However, the Asian market not only has strong purchasing power but also harbors enormous innovation potential, making it an indispensable force in the global scientific ecosystem. To reverse this bias, DeSci needs to focus more on showcasing practical results and, through localized promotion strategies, allow Asian users to truly feel its value. For example, DeSci can deeply cooperate with research institutions, enterprises, and communities in Asia to promote more research projects that meet local needs, such as the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and environmental governance technologies, thereby gaining wider recognition and support.

In this way, DeSci can not only break cultural barriers but also establish a solid user base in the Asian market, injecting new vitality into the sustainable development of the global scientific ecosystem.

4. In-Depth Summary: DeSci’s Paradigm Revolution and Future Vision

DeSci (Decentralized Science) is using blockchain technology to disruptively reconstruct the core aspects of scientific research—funding models, knowledge sharing mechanisms, and intellectual property management. Although the industry is still in its early stages, its explosive power has far exceeded the iteration speed of traditional research systems. This transformation is not only the application of technology but also a return to the essence of scientific democratization and globalization, with its impact penetrating the dual boundaries of the scientific community and the blockchain industry, reshaping the future of human knowledge production.

Nevertheless, any new thing born in the process of development needs to be viewed dialectically. Taking Bio Protocol as an example, a 2023 sample audit of 1,200 experimental protocols on its platform showed that only 68% passed basic peer review, significantly lower than the 85% industry benchmark of traditional journals. This double-edged sword effect of “data democratization” exposes the fragility of quality control mechanisms under open collaboration models—when the entry threshold for research processes is lowered, unverified “junk data” may pollute the knowledge commons in the name of decentralization. A more fundamental challenge lies in the lag of legal frameworks: 23% of IP-NFT transactions on the Molecule platform were suspended due to conflicts in the recognition of on-chain intellectual property carriers across jurisdictions, reflecting the current regulatory system’s cognitive gap regarding the new phenomenon of “tokenization of research assets.” These contradictions reveal a deep paradox: DeSci attempts to deconstruct the authority system of traditional research through technical means, but it inevitably needs to build new trust infrastructure and rule consensus.

1. Three Core Reconstructions and Breakthrough Practices

• Decentralization of Funding Models: 70% of traditional research funding is constrained by government or corporate agendas, while DeSci, through DAO crowdfunding, IP tokenization (such as Molecule’s IP-NFT), and community governance, directs funds to projects truly driven by value. For example, VitaDAO has cumulatively funded over 50 longevity research projects through tokenized crowdfunding, with 3 already entering clinical trials, far exceeding the early project conversion rate of traditional biopharmaceutical funds.

• Upgrade of Knowledge Sharing Paradigms: Through NFT papers (such as DeSci Labs) and open-source protocol libraries (such as Bio Protocol), the reuse cost of research data is reduced by 80%, and global collaboration efficiency is increased by 4 times. In 2023, the average citation count of on-chain papers reached 7.2 times, three times that of traditional journals, proving that open sharing can substantially accelerate scientific progress.

• On-Chain Revolution in IP Management: DeSci migrates intellectual property from closed patent systems to programmable smart contracts. For example, Pfizer converted early drug discovery research into IP-NFTs through the Molecule platform, achieving a 40% optimization in R&D costs, and original contributors can receive 15% continuous shares in the commercialization stage, thoroughly breaking the industry’s chronic problem of “inventor poverty.

2. Growth Flywheel: Triangular Drive of Technology, Capital, and Policy

• Maturity of Technology Stack: From the data layer (Arweave permanent storage) to the application layer (LabDAO distributed laboratories), the DeSci technology stack already supports 90% of research processes on the chain. In 2023, DeSci developer activity (GitHub commits) grew by 220% year-over-year, surpassing the growth rate of DeFi in the same period.

• Structural Migration of Capital: Traditional VCs (such as a16z, Digital Currency Group) and pharmaceutical giants (such as Bayer, Novartis) have injected over $420 million into DeSci, with 35% of the funds flowing to research nodes in developing countries, promoting the rebalancing of the global innovation network.

• Formation of Regulatory Sandboxes: The EU’s draft “Digital Science Act” explicitly proposes legal recognition of DAO governance, and places like Singapore have opened tax exemption channels for research tokens, with policy dividends opening up a hundred-billion-level compliance market.

3. Challenges and Solutions

• Technology-Academia Gap: Currently, only 12% of researchers are familiar with blockchain tools, but products like DeSci Labs’ “no-code DAO creator” are reducing participation barriers by 70%.

• Short-Term Speculation Risk: Although small and medium-cap projects have trading spreads as high as 8%, the staking rate of leading protocols (such as Ocean Protocol) remains stable at over 65%, indicating the formation of long-term value consensus.

• Regulatory Games: The SEC has investigated 17% of DeSci projects, but the industry has successfully brought 83% of projects into compliance frameworks through the design of “Utility Tokens for Science.”

4. The Next Decade: From Marginal Experiments to Mainstream Infrastructure According to ARK Invest’s prediction, by 2030, the DeSci market scale will break through $50 billion, covering 30% of global early research projects. Its evolution may be divided into three stages:

• 2023-2025 (Infrastructure Explosion Period): IP tokenization protocols and decentralized peer review systems (such as DeReview) complete standardization, driving the market scale to break through $5 billion;

• 2026-2028 (Vertical Integration Period): Sub-tracks such as biopharmaceuticals and climate science see the emergence of the first DeSci unicorn valued over $10 billion, with 20% of traditional journal content migrating on-chain;

• 2029-2030 (Paradigm Dominance Period): The DeSci model solves at least three global scientific problems (such as Alzheimer’s disease treatments), and becomes the core source of research funding for 70% of developing countries.

The ultimate goal of DeSci is not to replace traditional research but to build a “global scientific collaboration network” through technological democratization. Here, a Brazilian botanist can instantly access a Norwegian gene database, African medical discoveries can quickly gain commercial transformation through DAOs, and every data contributor will receive permanent profits through smart contracts. When scientific breakthroughs are no longer constrained by geography, institutions, or capital monopolies, humanity may usher in the greatest collaboration revolution since the Internet: the production and distribution of knowledge truly belong to all humanity for the first time. However, this transformation needs to cross the “valley of death” between technological ideals and real constraints—only by establishing sustainable value capture mechanisms, inclusive governance frameworks, and compliance paths can DeSci evolve from marginal experiments into the next-generation research infrastructure.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Dr.UZ for the co-authorship and thoughtful input throughout the drafting of this article.

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