Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views and opinions of the crypto.news editorial.

The scientific method has been our guiding light for centuries, illuminating the path to countless theoretical discoveries and practical innovations. However, while the fundamental tenets of the scientific method remain true, the structures that support this process of discovery – particularly today’s academic publishing models and research funding mechanisms – are increasingly seen as relics of a bygone era.

The rise of decentralized science, or DeSci, offers a promising avenue to modernize these systems, providing new solutions for a wide range of scientific stakeholders. By providing new ways to connect, share, and discover the next frontiers of scientific knowledge, web3-enabled DeSci projects are working to fix today’s flawed incentive structures and foster more effective forms of scientific discovery that meet the needs of our time.

Take, for example, today’s academic funding process. Traditional funding mechanisms often reward researchers for obtaining funding rather than producing impactful research. This has had a disproportionate impact on sectors such as drug development, which has traditionally been an incredibly expensive and risk-filled endeavor, often monopolized by large companies with the financial muscle to go through the lengthy process.

To offset this funding imbalance, a new wave of crowdfunding platforms DeSci e decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), unlocking a broader base of financial support. In many cases, these community supporters are also able to contribute additional expertise and resources to the projects they support, as well as help reduce researchers’ reliance on traditional government grants and large institutional supporters. Additionally, funding models that implement smart contracts and tokenized incentives can directly tie funding to specific milestones and outcomes. This ensures that researchers are incentivized to deliver meaningful results rather than simply securing the next round of funding.

One such project is Molecule, which has a decentralized funding model that allows researchers to tokenize their projects, attracting investments from a global pool of stakeholders. This diversification can help mitigate the biases and power imbalances inherent in the current system, allowing new ideas to thrive based on their merits rather than the financial clout of their supporters.

However, research funding isn’t the only area DeSci wants to improve. Traditional publication models have long been criticized for their inefficiencies and controls, with researchers often facing long delays between submitting a paper and its publication, peer reviews taking months or even years, and a limited access to knowledge contained in paywalled journals. Additionally, subject matter experts often do not receive direct compensation for sharing their knowledge with other researchers, which discourages engagement. This system not only limits the scope and impact of new discoveries, but also places undue pressure on researchers to prioritize quantity over quality, driven by a “publish or perish” culture.

Fortunately, one of the most exciting aspects of DeSci is its ability to foster new forms of knowledge sharing and collaboration. The next stage of scientific publication is one in which research data, methodologies and results are immediately and openly accessible to all, allowing for peer review and real-time collaboration. And the best part is that there are already several DeSci projects offering live solutions on this front.

Projects like ResearchHub and DeSci Labs embody this collaborative approach, facilitating open publishing, interactive peer reviews, and community-driven funding. Researchers who publish high-quality studies or provide expert feedback on the work of others are rewarded through community-driven funding mechanisms, as they contribute to each platform’s public knowledge repository. This model not only eliminates many of the bottlenecks associated with traditional scientific research, but also preserves science as a public good, making it more inclusive and actionable.

DeSci is not a theoretical concept: it is a movement that is already producing myriad real-world benefits, driven by a diverse constellation of decentralized data networks, publishing platforms and search DAOs. And while blockchain-enabled projects are driving the DeSci movement, there are also other promising projects at the intersection of traditional science and DeSci that are pioneering new ways to accelerate and improve scientific research.

Examples of this hybrid approach include the citation-based literature mapping tool Research Rabbit and the Open Science Framework (OSF), an open source platform that supports the entire research lifecycle, from project planning to publication and preservation. Unlike the previously mentioned web3 projects, Research Rabbit and OSF provide a suite of tools that allow researchers to collaborate, document and share their work in a centralized but open environment. Yet these projects are working toward many of the same goals of enabling new forms of scientific discovery through data transparency and collaborative insights.

All of this is to say that moving away from traditional systems is an iterative, open-ended effort that does not belong entirely to any individual project category, a true reflection of the historically popular ethos of scientific discovery. Critics might argue that embracing DeSci requires abandoning the proven methods that have served us well for centuries. However, DeSci’s goal is not to discard traditional practices but rather to improve and integrate them with more efficient additive models, thus providing scientists and researchers with more opportunities for exploration and connection.

The scientific method is based on challenging assumptions, reframing questions, and relentlessly seeking better ways to understand and navigate the world. It is a dynamic process that continually challenges what we know and how we know it, pushing the boundaries of possibility. Yet, paradoxically, the process of scientific research and discovery itself is often tied to outdated models of funding, publishing and peer review. Just as we innovate to overcome scientific challenges, we must also reimagine and refine the mechanisms that govern scientific inquiry.

In this context, the transformative potential of decentralized science lies in its ability to realign incentives and democratize access to finance and knowledge. The old adage, “what got us here won’t get us there,” rings especially true in today’s scientific ecosystem. But by adopting new DeSci models, both academic institutions and independent researchers can help foster more inclusive, transparent and effective forms of scientific discovery. As we stand on the cusp of this new era, it is vital that the scientific community opens up to the possibilities offered by DeSci, ensuring that the pursuit of knowledge keeps pace with today’s needs and challenges.

Patrick Joyce

Patrick Joyce is the co-founder and COO of ResearchHub. It’s a double dropout that he left a doctoral program in molecular biology to go to medical school and then dropped out of medical school to build ResearchHub. During his time in academia, he came to understand the true extent of how missing incentives in academic publishing hold back the creation of human knowledge. He co-founded ResearchHub to help accelerate science by aligning incentives within the academic marketplace.

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