The Science DAO: a streamlined and fast funding solution for science projects

As the adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies gathers momentum across various fields, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are becoming popular among different industries and companies. In particular, DAOs are proving to be well-suited for fields like science that suffer from the lack of sufficient funding because of poor market conditions.

In most cases, scientists have been forced to turn to centralized organizations like governments and banks when they need funding for their projects. However, these organizations are in most cases slow and very bureaucratic leading to long delays and at times the funds are never processed.

Besides funding problems, scientists are also forced to seek help or personnel resources from other professionals; something that could impact the quality of their research since the scientists are first forced to forsake their primary role of researching to look for the resources.

However, if scientists are to use a decentralized organization approach, they would not have to worry about competing for resources since everyone has a fair say in how the organization is run and every invention gets a fair share of the funding. One such DAO that has gained a lot of reputation among scientists is The Science DAO.

How The Science DAO works

The Science DAO is a decentralized think tank, incubator engine, and accelerator platform that drives funding for various science projects and inventions. It is a decentralized community comprising scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and other people who are interested in science.

Being a DAO, The Science DAO is run by its members; meaning it does not receive instructions from any centralized organization. As such, it is agile and its operations are responsive to the needs of the members.

It focuses on increasing the flow of resources to scientists working on cutting-edge projects revolving around natural science and computing, health and environment, and technology. It does so by connecting the innovators or scientists with investors who can provide them with the required resources to realize their projects.

Some of the projects that are currently being funded through The Science DAO include the development of new treatments like the use of nanotechnology to destroy cancer cells and the use of tailored treatments.

Funding projects through decentralized organizations

Given that most science projects are long-term and require a lot of money to actualize, decentralized organizations offer a more efficient funding solution.

With traditional funding methods, scientists waste a lot of time in the lengthy processes of applying for funding and also wait longer (months or years) to see if they shall get the funding or not. This results in a lot of time wastage which the scientists could use to work on their projects instead.

On the contrary, DAOs like The science DAO offer a faster and more efficient solution.

The Science DAO, which is the first of its kind platform to apply the DAO model in funding science projects, uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to distribute funds to innovators and scientists.

Each invention, development, or research project is divided into different parts and each part is represented by an NFT. These NFTs are then sold out to investors. For example, if a project can be divided into 2000 parts, it means it will have 2000 NFTs and if the NFTs are sold at $1000 per NFT, the project will be able to raise $2,000,000 by selling all the NFTs. This way, science projects can get funded without depending on traditional venture capital firms, banks, or the government.

If the company or project performs extremely well, the market value of the NFTs rise, and investors can sell them at a profit in the secondary markets.

However, every project that seeks to be funded on The Sconce DAO must first be vetted by the DAO’s community. This ensures that only the best legit projects are funded and also increases the likelihood of the projects being successful.

Conclusion

Although there are many areas that decentralization can benefit the field of science, funding is where decentralized science shines most. The funding process is more streamlined and fast allowing scientists to focus on their research instead of worrying about where the funds will come from.

Besides, with The Science DAO, investors are assured of investing only in the best projects since every project is vetted before being allowed to conduct funding on the platform.

Additionally, The Science DAO is advised by some of the best minds there is in the science industry. They include the likes of Mark Ashida (the former senior executive at Microsoft), John Aitchison, Ph.D. (the co-founder of the Center for Global Infectious Disease at Seattle Children’s Research Institute), Juan Carlos Jaume (Professor of Medicine and chief, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Toledo), and Juan Carlos Jaume (Professor of Medicine and chief, Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at the University of Toledo) among others.