🤝Blockchain and Science

Why Science and Blockchain MIX so well? Because blockchain can solve many of the current problems of how science is done:

Intelectual property

Intellectual property (IP) is a big problem in traditional science: from being stuck in universities or unused in biotechs, to being notoriously hard to value. The solutions is in blockchain, NFT can be used to secure the IP. Easily a person can place their data or patent in an NFT, share, sell, or rent.

Data

Scientific data can be made vastly more accessible using Web3 patterns, and distributed storage will enable research to survive cataclysmic events.

Reproducibility and replicability

Reproducibility and replicability are the foundations of quality scientific discovery.

• Reproducible results can be achieved multiple times in a row by the same team using the same methodology.

• Replicable results can be achieved by a different group using the same experimental setup.

We know that the transparency, velocity and security of blockchain will improve the way that Data is used.

Publishing

Science publishing is famously problematic because it is managed by publishing houses that rely upon free labor from scientists, reviewers, and editors to generate the papers but then charge exorbitant publishing fees. The public, who have usually indirectly paid for the work and the publication costs through taxation, can often not access that same work without paying the publisher again. The total fees for publishing individual science papers are often too expensive and this delay the scientific advance.

Funding

Blockchain opens up a whole new world of fundraising options for the scientific community. Token sales provide one such option and some scientists have already experimented with sales of NFTs. In addition, various DeFi tools and strategies like staking could also be utilized to provide continuous streams of funds for scientific projects.

Lastly, we also have DAOs, which have introduced us to a new approach to crowdfunding. Setting up DAOs focused on financing specific projects, as well as the broader field, could be the key to having a fairer allocation of funds.