Scientists can leverage blockchain tools such as smart contracts and tokens to improve collaboration in scientific endeavors between different stakeholders. This so-called decentralized science movement, or DeSci for short, combines blockchain and Web3 technologies to improve scientific research.
A primary goal of DeSci is to drive broader participation and funding when addressing scientific challenges, as well as democratizing the peer-to-peer review process, dominated by some journals in which censorship can be costly to demonstrate and combat. Is. DeSci could also create the standard for research storage with proof of existence technology. Whereas on financial blockchains like bitcoin, transactions are verified by a network of miners, research can also be verified by participants in a blockchain network of scientists, etc.
decentralization of science
Blockchain-based peer review ecosystems can be transparent, and they can lend credibility to research contributed by pseudonymous participants. For example, scientists may receive a stake or “reward” for participating, encouraging the wider community to contribute.
Essentially, decentralized science makes possible the development of platforms that empower more people to work, which Dr. Benjamin Bratton calls “the source code of the case” at a fundamental level. Democratizing science through decentralized science would allow a new kind of interface layer for the modern scientific revolution. The way to do this is to decentralize access to scientific activity – in short, to allow citizen-scientists a role.
We’ve seen it happen with computers, and we believe it can happen with science in general. At the beginning of the computer revolution, software was difficult to work with. Rare technologies were understood by few people, which, over time, became more intuitive and simplified – thanks to different levels of abstraction – and therefore allowed more people to become valuable contributors. Some of the technologies that make this possible include JavaScript and supporting packages developed to make coding more efficient. At a lower level of abstraction, there is technology like WordPress that allows people who don’t understand software or coding to set up their own websites.
blockchain technology for science
Blockchain technology (tokens, NFTs, metaverse) has the potential to positively impact platform economics in a way that democratizes access to scientific collaboration. When you think of platforms, you usually think of Uber or Airbnb, the projects that are going to change the world. But, the economics of platforms is something that is a very new area of research and is really advancing game theory as an academic discipline. This process began with Bitcoin (BTC) and has only been carried forward by Ethereum (ETH) and dozens, if not hundreds, of other blockchains.
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Historically, web platforms and apps have been central to their process of value creation; The more they are used, the more value the platform builder realizes. Blockchain makes possible a more equitable system whereby the more people who participate in a given platform, and the more people who add value to the platform, the more they are withdrawing from the platform.
Decentralized Science (DeSci) differs from an IP platform or a platform in that the more it is used, the greater is the profit, and the value is consolidated. In the case of DeSci, the people who generate value – researchers, scientists, citizen scientists, etc. – receive a value commensurate with the value of their contribution; That is, the more it is used by other researchers and scientists etc., the more value they get.
The impact it can have on basic research in science and math and other kinds of things can be very significant. DeSci is creating new ways to contribute and collaborate that were not possible until blockchain technology came along. If you have knowledge or understanding that is valuable intrinsically and as a component of a larger project (you probably don’t even know what that project is), someone else can use your contribution, and you can use it. can be recognized for, and earn residual from that contribution in future.
NFTs will play a big role in the future of the metaverse, as it is only through NFTs that scientific research can be safely transferred. Academics have already used NFTs. For example, the University of California, Berkeley auctioned off more than $50,000 worth of NFTs for documents belonging to the world of Nobel-prize winning cancer researcher James Ellison. The US Space Force, an arm of the US Armed Forces, began selling a range of NFTs featuring augmented-reality images of satellites and space iconography. Biology pioneer George Church’s company, Nebula Genomics, plans to sell an NFT of Church’s genome. Church is a geneticist at Harvard University in Cambridge and helped start the Human Genome Project. There are growing use cases for NFTs in science, and there will certainly be more.
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There is a high resolution of blockchain sensing, indexing and computing value. The potential is there, and it is now up to DeSci organizations to prove their worth, scientific quality and overall effectiveness in improving the scientific process.
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Steve McCloskey Nanoengineering is a first-class alumnus at the University of California, San Diego. Steve’s work focuses on emerging technologies as applied to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). After graduating from UCSD, he founded Nanom Inc. to build virtual reality solutions for scientists and engineers working at the nanoscale, specifically protein engineering and small molecule drug development.
