Author: David C, Bankless; Translator: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
Last Friday, on the eve of the BIO Protocol token launch, the price of the DeSci token soared.
As the lines between cutting-edge technologies such as DeSci and artificial intelligence continue to blur, this surge has continued until the release of BIO and is reflected in the large number of bids for tokens related to these technologies. As a key hub for DeSci financing, the launch of BIO is full of hope, fanning the enthusiasm of this highly experimental field and attracting more attention and capital to DeSci over time.
In today's article, let's take a deep dive into the BIO protocol, how it works, the challenges it seeks to solve, and the DAOs operating under its umbrella. Then, let's go beyond its ecosystem and explore other DeSci projects that tell stories from unique perspectives and provide additional tools or use cases to transform scientific collaboration and funding.
At its core, the BIO Protocol is a decentralized, token-governed platform that supports and incubates specialized BioDAOs. By bringing funding decisions, IP ownership, and governance on-chain, BIO directly addresses several long-standing barriers in the biotech space:
Helping early-stage projects escape the “valley of death,” where insufficient funding often prevents promising ideas from maturing into real-world applications.
Fighting data and IP silos by tokenizing research outputs and promoting open access and transparent collaboration.
Replacing opaque R&D pipelines with real-time, on-chain tracking of capital flows and milestones.
To achieve these goals, BIO implements several core mechanisms:
BIO holders lock up their tokens (vBIO) to help determine which new BioDAOs can join the network. This process ensures that only the most promising or community-backed ventures can join, as those who pledge their support must stake BIO for a certain period of time. If approved, stakers will have exclusive access to the BioDAO's funding rounds.
After completing the curation phase, the BioDAO will open a private sale for those who pledge vBIOs.
This allows early backers of the DAO and the BIO community to invest in early scientific research under terms traditionally reserved for venture capital. At the same time, the BIO Protocol manages liquidity on behalf of these BioDAOs, eliminating the need for them to oversee secondary markets. The BIO Treasury pairs tokens (i.e. VITA/BIO or HAIR/BIO) with ETH or other assets, generating fees for the protocol while ensuring a stable trading pair. This arrangement allows BioDAOs to focus on advancing their research rather than on market operations.
Because the BIO Treasury holds a portion of each BioDAO token, BIO holders can exert collective influence across the DeSci ecosystem.
This meta-governance structure enables them to guide decisions across multiple BioDAOs — whether determining research priorities or highlighting synergies between projects. Additionally, by diversifying the Treasury’s assets, the protocol enhances its ability to invest in new projects and reinvest in existing ones, enabling seamless coordination across the expanding field of scientific research.
To incentivize clear, measurable contributions to its network, BIO issues “bio/acc rewards” in the form of additional BIO tokens to BioDAOs that achieve key milestones. In addition to these incentives, BioDAOs can tokenize their IP (from research data to patents), making it easier to license, share, or monetize discoveries. By issuing IP tokens, BioDAOs can grant partial ownership of their research outputs, allowing more stakeholders to benefit from future breakthroughs, while retaining control over key decisions and potentially earning revenue from the use of their data.
In addition to these direct incentives, the overall value of the network grows through token distribution and protocol-owned liquidity. Grants to new BioDAOs are exchanged for a small stake in their tokens, while liquidity pool fees flow back into the treasury. As BioDAOs mature and produce tangible results, the total value of these assets should increase, strengthening the cycle of funding, growth, and innovation.
There are currently 8 BioDAOs in the BIO network, each focusing on a specific area of research.
VitaDAO | $VITA
VitaDAO was launched in 2021 to support research into extending healthy human lifespan. Funded by Pfizer Ventures and Balaji Srinivasan, the project explores biological mechanisms of aging, including neurodegenerative diseases.
Quantum Biology DAO
Quantum Biology DAO studies how weak magnetic fields affect cells at the quantum level. In partnership with the Quantum Biology Institute, the project aims to develop quantum microscopes to open new avenues for longevity research, drug discovery, and more.
HairDAO | HAIR
HairDAO unites patients, researchers, and funders to address hair loss, a critically under-resourced problem.
ValleyDAO | $GROW
ValleyDAO pursues synthetic biology solutions to climate change, such as engineering microbes to capture CO2 or produce biodegradable materials.
AthenaDAO | $ATH
AthenaDAO is focused on women’s health, filling gaps that standard funding overlooks. Through a decentralized community of patients, scientists, and advocates, it supports projects in reproductive health, hormonal disorders, and other under-researched topics in female biology.
CryoDAO | $CRYO
CryoDAO directs funding toward cryopreservation research to improve organ and tissue storage, a method with the potential to save lives.
PsyDAO | $PSY
PsyDAO is focused on psychedelic research for mental health issues such as depression, addiction, and PTSD. Using a decentralized funding model and AI-based auditing, it accelerates the discovery of new compounds, while on-chain governance ensures transparency in resource allocation.
CerebrumDAO | $NEURON
CerebrumDAO convenes a global community to prevent neurodegeneration and prolong brain health. It studies conditions such as Alzheimer's, focusing on inflammation, metabolic issues, the blood-brain barrier and their impact.
Outside the BIO Protocol ecosystem, there are many interesting DeSci projects that bring new platforms or tools for analyzing scientific discoveries.
Founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Patrick Joyce, ResearchHub Foundation uses RSC to create an open platform for publishing and reviewing scientific works. Contributors earn RSC by publishing research, curating content, or facilitating discussions. The platform aims to build a "GitHub" for scientific research, aiming to simplify peer review, encourage open sharing, and bring real-time accountability to scholarly publishing - all through token incentives. RSC holders can also vote on platform improvements and reward distribution.
Yesnoerror is a decentralized platform that combines artificial intelligence with community-driven oversight to improve the reliability of scientific papers. Its AI engine constantly scans for inaccuracies in research—whether it's numerical data, statistical analysis, or references—and flags potential issues for further review. Community members who verify or correct these errors will earn YNE tokens, creating intrinsic incentives for thorough review and timely feedback.
Overall, YNE hopes to detect problems early to prevent flawed conclusions, reduce the risk of poor policy decisions and wasted research, and develop an AI that can learn from users to better detect problems across a range of different scientific fields.
Pump.science is a DeSci platform that aims to identify and develop chemicals that could extend our healthy lifespan. It hopes to gamify research by performing low-cost tests on simple organisms (worms, flies) before using complex models (mice). This approach could allow for early identification of promising interventions, using cryptocurrency-based funding to propose or invest in new compounds. By live-streaming experiments (which pump.science calls “stadium science”), the protocol aims to provide real-time data, allowing researchers and speculators alike to track results and potentially adjust their support as research progresses.
In addition to extending lifespan, pump.science is also exploring possible ways to improve athletic performance, referencing the idea of an “Animal Doping Olympics.” If successful, compounds could eventually become consumer products sold through a marketplace, with creators retaining intellectual property and suppliers potentially bidding to bring new discoveries to market.
BIO Protocol’s token offering puts DeSci in the spotlight, showcasing how a new generation of on-chain initiatives is reshaping R&D in biotech and beyond.
Outside the BIO ecosystem, other DeSci projects demonstrate complementary strategies for enhancing scientific research through blockchain. From ResearchHub’s open collaboration platform to yesnoerror’s AI-based paper auditing and pump.science’s gamified longevity experiments, these projects explore the intersection of science and crypto from different angles. Taken together, they point to a rapidly evolving DeSci landscape in which shared governance, financial coordination, and real-time data sharing may enable new breakthroughs.
Whether addressing funding bottlenecks, streamlining peer review, or discovering molecules that extend lifespan, DeSci solutions have the bold goal of putting discovery into the hands of a broad, motivated community—ultimately accelerating the speed at which the world benefits from the next wave of scientific innovation.
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