Want to be immortal if you have money? What is the recently popular DeSci?

Author: WOO X Research

Background: Celebrity endorsement effect, Vitalik + CZ focus

Decentralized science DeSci is not a new concept. As early as March last year, the research institution Messrai had published a related report. Recently, this track has attracted market attention again, which is inseparable from Binance's investment in BIO Protocol.

On November 8, Binance completed strategic financing for BIO Protocol. The round and amount were not disclosed. Thanks to Binance's investment, the BIO Genesis community fundraising activity initiated by BIO Protocol instantly reached the upper limit, raising a total of 33 million US dollars. And CZ tweeted that he would participate in DeSci's small entrepreneur gathering, and Vitalik was also at the gathering.

With Binance's real investment and the endorsement of two big names in the cryptocurrency circle, what exactly is DeSci? Which projects are worth knowing? Let's take a look with WOO X Research.

Source: @bioprotocol

What is DeSci?

DeSci stands for Decentralized Science, which is used to solve various problems encountered in scientific research: including opaque funding allocation, knowledge monopoly, and the openness of scientific research data.

Here are the main features and core concepts of DeSci:

1. Decentralized Fund Raising: Traditional scientific research funding usually comes from the government, academic institutions or large enterprises, which may be affected by political or commercial interests, and funding applications are usually time-consuming. Insufficient funding for research projects is commonplace. In DeSci, researchers can raise funds directly from the community through DAOs on the blockchain, such as using cryptocurrencies or issuing tokens for scientific research projects, so that more people can participate in and support innovative research.

2. Open data and knowledge sharing: DeSci encourages the storage of research data and results on the blockchain in an open manner to ensure the transparency and immutability of data and solve the current data closure problem in academia. At the same time, researchers can track the citations and use of their research through blockchain technology to ensure fair distribution of knowledge.

3. Incentive mechanism: DeSci usually uses tokens or other blockchain tools as incentives to allow participants (such as researchers, reviewers, data providers, etc.) to get rewards in the system. For example, when researchers publish papers or open data, they can get token rewards to encourage more people to share scientific results.

4. Improving peer review mechanism: Traditional academic journals and peer review processes may have problems such as inefficiency, bias or high costs. DeSci uses smart contracts and distributed review systems to achieve a more transparent and efficient review process and allow reviewers to receive fair compensation.

5. NFT and intellectual property: In DeSci, research results can be cast into NFTs to track and manage intellectual property. For example, a groundbreaking research result can be chained in the form of NFT to ensure the ownership and benefits of the original author.

The main point of DeSci is that blockchain projects are funded first, and the development of applications is usually decoupled from the funds raised, with excess funds and overvaluation. However, scientific research is just the opposite: it is difficult to raise funds, scientific research is difficult to see results in a short period of time, and the hype component is low.

DeSci is to transfer the hot money in the currency circle to the field of scientific research. The narrative of this track is that blockchain can truly help scientific research projects and benefit society, which also opens up imagination for the valuation ceiling of this track.

Source: @_kaitoai

Representative Projects

VITA: As mentioned above, BIO Protocol, which Binance invested in, was created by one of the founders of VitaDAO. It can be said that the current token VITA is the most orthodox DeSci project. VitaDAO was founded in 2021 and focuses on funding and promoting early longevity science research with the goal of extending human healthy lifespan. As mentioned above, Vitlik and CZ participated in the DeSci party. During the party, Vitalik showed CZ VitaDAO's first longevity product, VD001, a natural high-dose spermidine supplement approved by the Thai FDA.

Not only has the support of celebrities in the cryptocurrency circle, VitaDAO received $4.1 million in financing as early as January 30, 2023, from Pfizer's venture capital department, Shine Capital, L1 Digital, and Balaji Srinivasan. It is worth noting that this is the first investment of the well-known pharmaceutical company Pfizer in the field of Web 3.

• Public chain: ETH

• Current coin price: 6.2

• Current market value: 160 million US dollars

• Number of currency addresses: 4,076

• Historical high of market value: Current ATH, 160 million US dollars

$RIF: Pump.Science Pump.Science is a meme coin launched by Molecule DAO, an organization under BIO Protocol, at the Token2049 Solana Breakpoint Conference. However, unlike Pump Fun, Pump.Science is not a meme coin that anyone can issue. The coin issuance project must be linked to scientific research.

Currently, the meme coins recognized by Pump.Science are only RIF and URO, and RIF represents the antibiotic "Rifampicin", which mainly inhibits the synthesis of bacterial RNA and has a significant bactericidal effect. It can treat tuberculosis, leprosy, trachoma, and Legionnaires' disease.

Rifampicin has been shown to activate the natural defense mechanism of cells against stress and damage. The current experiment has the effect of extending lifespan and improving health status in worms. Although the research is still in the early stages, we do not know whether rifampicin can produce similar effects in humans, but it is an exciting research direction in anti-aging therapy.

• Public chain: Solana

• Current coin price: 0.1705

• Current market value: 170 million US dollars

• Number of coin holding addresses: 20,146

• Historical high of market value: 183 million US dollars

 Source: Dexscreener 

$URO: A meme coin launched in Pump.Science, it is the only two officially certified coins of Pump.Science along with $RIF.

Urolithin A is a compound that occurs naturally in pomegranates. It is special in that it can "clean" cells. It helps to clear out old, dysfunctional mitochondria, allowing fresh and healthy mitochondria to thrive. Think of it as a reset button for cells, helping them to function optimally.

• Public chain: Solana

• Current coin price: 0.0466

• Current market value: 46.6 million US dollars

• Number of coin holding addresses: 12,674

• Historical high of market value: 60 million US dollars

 Source: Dexscreener

Source: @SciHubFans

The main narrative of DeSci is that hot money in the currency circle is transmitted to the scientific research community, and cryptocurrencies can be used to improve the world, but DeSci is not a new concept that has only appeared this year. VitaDAO was established as early as 2021, and even the world-renowned pharmaceutical company Pfizer participated in the investment, but it has been developing sluggishly and has not received market attention. It was not until Binance's investment and CZ and Vitalik's participation in the conference that the track re-entered the public eye, and the hype component is still greater than the actual use.

As mentioned above, scientific research often burns money and takes a long time, and it is difficult to land in the short term after receiving funds. The DeSci currency driven by memes is no different from the essence of previous meme coins. They are all manifestations of the attention economy. For the crypto market that requires immediate returns, there are still very big doubts about the sustainability of DeSci.

If the overall track is to have its continuity, the following conditions must be met:

• Celebrity continuous endorsement: This round of narrative was initiated by crypto celebrities CZ and Vitalik. If more cryptocurrency celebrities can be attracted to participate, it will help consolidate DeSci's narrative foundation and attract more capital and users.

• Financing activities continue: More financing cases are needed in the future to prove the interest of investment institutions in the DeSci track. Only when institutions enter the game to build a track ecosystem can the overall DeSci fundamentals be stabilized.

• The valuation of leading projects has increased: the current market value of leading projects VITA and RIF is between 150 million and 200 million US dollars, which is still lower than the market value of many leading projects in the track. If the market value of the leading projects can be raised to the 5 billion US dollar range and listed on mainstream centralized exchanges, it will be able to drive other projects to rise, confirming that the DeSci track has development potential.