What is Decentralised Science? DeSci as a New Era in Research

Decentralised Science (DeSci) is an emerging movement that leverages blockchain and other decentralised technologies to transform traditional scientific research.

By decentralising key processes, DeSci aims to make research more open, transparent, and accessible, removing barriers like high publishing costs, limited access to data, and centralised funding mechanisms. At its core, DeSci believes that scientific knowledge should be accessible to everyone, with a transparent research process that values all contributions.

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How DeSci Works: The Mechanics of Decentralised Science

DeSci is based on three main pillars, 

1. Blockchain technology provides an immutable and decentralised structure that ensures secure and transparent data storage. 
2. Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) are essential as enable transparent, decentralised decision-making, allowing stakeholders to allocate funds and govern projects collaboratively.
3. Tokens and Intellectual Property Non-Fungible Tokens (IP-NFTs) incentivise participation and enable researchers to maintain ownership of their work.

For example, a researcher might secure funding for their project through a DAO, where members vote to allocate funds. Once the research is complete, the researcher can tokenise their paper as an IP-NFT, ensuring ownership and publishing it on the blockchain.

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DeSci vs Traditional Science: Key Differences 

The key differences between traditional science (TradSci) and DeSci lie in the centralisation of control, funding, access to data, and publishing processes. In traditional science, research is controlled by centralised institutions, which, combined with a large publishing process, leads to slow publishing, especially in high-impact journals. Paywalls limit access to research, hindering collaboration and impeding timely discoveries. Traditional research relies on competitive grants, which can delay or prevent early-stage research from receiving support.

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DeSci decentralises these elements, promoting open access, which makes research freely available to everyone and, therefore, fosters knowledge sharing and collaboration. It also promotes community-driven funding and faster, more transparent publishing, allowing researchers to build a metric-driven reputation.

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Why is DeSci the Future of Scientific Research?

DeSci offers significant advantages over traditional scientific research, addressing several key issues:

• Increased Transparency: Blockchain technology ensures that research is verifiable and tamper-proof by recording every transaction in an immutable, public ledger. This fosters trust in findings and supports metric-based reputation building.
• Open Access to Knowledge: DeSci eliminates paywalls, providing universal access to data and research results, which democratises information and allows for broader knowledge exchange.
• Enhanced Collaboration: By decentralising control, DeSci encourages global, interdisciplinary collaboration, speeding up innovation and the development of solutions to complex challenges.
• More Efficient Funding Models: DeSci’s community-driven funding through DAOs and token distributions provides an alternative to the traditional grant-based funding systems, ensuring quicker access to financial support for promising projects.
• Ownership and Incentives: With IP-NFTs and other mechanisms, researchers maintain control over their intellectual property, encouraging open collaboration and providing incentives for further contributions.

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Use Cases of DeSci: Real-World Applications in Science

• Academic Publishing: Researchers can directly publish on decentralised platforms, enabling broader access to scientific knowledge.
• Research Funding: Decentralised funding via smart contracts promotes transparency and allows for crowdfunding of research projects.
• Data Sharing and Collaboration: DeSci platforms facilitate secure, transparent sharing of research data while ensuring ownership rights.
• Peer Review: Blockchain-based reputation systems enhance credibility by creating immutable records of contributions and peer reviews.
• Clinical Trials: DeSci enhances transparency in clinical trials by securely recording and tracking all data on a blockchain, ensuring the validity of outcomes.

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Challenges: What Are the Downsides of DeSci?

Some challenges surrounding Decentralised Science include ensuring data security on decentralised networks, managing efficient DAO governance, and addressing scalability issues for large-scale research projects. 

Legal and regulatory uncertainties around data ownership and intellectual property also pose significant hurdles. Additionally, overcoming the digital gap and ensuring equitable access to DeSci tools for researchers from all backgrounds is critical. These challenges require ongoing innovation and adaptation.

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The Future of DeSci

Decentralised Science (DeSci) holds the potential to revolutionise the way research is conducted, funded, and shared. By breaking down barriers to access, promoting transparency, and enabling more efficient funding models, DeSci could accelerate scientific progress globally. 

While challenges remain, the movement towards a more decentralised and inclusive scientific ecosystem is gaining momentum. As more researchers and institutions embrace these technologies, DeSci is poised to reshape the future of scientific discovery.

Exponential Science is committed to advancing the decentralised science movement. Through research initiatives, open-source tools, and educational resources, the foundation aims to empower the scientific community to embrace DeSci. Exponential Science is on a mission to build a more open decentralised scientific future, foster the convergence of emerging technologies and ensure their subsequent adoption among businesses and governments through favourable policies.