There’s a common misconception that web3 backers will throw money into anything and everything during a bull market, favoring a pray and spray approach. The reality is very different. While those with the funds and the vision will always hedge their bets by seeking exposure to uncorrelated ecosystems, VCs are deliberate in what they do.
When a new onchain sector, such as DeSci emerges, it’s natural that web3 VCs, incubators, and angels should start to hover. And it’s inevitable that some will write checks. But they’re shrewd in choosing the projects they fund, recognizing not just the obligation they owe to their own LPs, but the importance of backing the right horses to maximize DeSci’s prospects of success.
Suppose the sector is to get off the ground and transform scientific research and funding. In that case, it needs to have everything in place: the investment, the infrastructure, the people, and the community support. So far, there are signs that these critical domains are falling into shape, as web3 leaders, from DWF Labs to Binance, rally around DeSci and its promise of democratizing access to human knowledge.
Science Gets the Web3 Treatment
DeSci seeks to build a decentralized framework for science, leveraging blockchain and web3 tools to foster collaboration, democratize funding, and reward innovation. At its core, DeSci empowers researchers, funders, and the public to participate in science without the bottlenecks of traditional systems.
DeSci’s premise is that by distributing decision-making and resource allocation among a global community, innovative projects can receive the backing they deserve, unencumbered by political or geographical biases. Decentralized funding models break open these barriers, letting researchers secure resources directly from supporters who value their work or stand to benefit from their discoveries.
Primary DeSci sectors, as highlighted in DWF Labs’ recent ecosystem directory, span DAOs, Funding, Publishing, Healthcare, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Property (IP). And there’s a lot to take in: it lists dozens of DeSci projects, many of which have already gotten off the ground and are already accelerating scientific discovery using web3.
DeSci Projects Doing Business
Platforms like VitaDAO are showing how decentralized models can pool resources to back high-impact projects, such as longevity research. Knowledge graphs, like those developed by OriginTrail, enable secure and collaborative data storage, allowing researchers worldwide to contribute to and build upon shared findings. Protocols like Molecule DAO transform IP into tokenized assets (IP-NFTs), making it easier to fund, commercialize, and distribute research outcomes.
ResearchHub, backed by Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, serves as an open-source platform for scientific collaboration, where contributors can earn tokens for peer reviewing and curating research. Blockchain-based healthcare solutions, like BitDoctorAI and Hippocrat, are leveraging DeSci principles to improve transparency and empower individuals to manage their health data. By tokenizing IP, projects like Molecule DAO are creating liquid markets for research rights, making IP more accessible and funding more dynamic.
Think of an area of science and technology that interests you, and there’s a high chance there’s already a DeSci project addressing it. Triplicate is dedicated to the “deinstitutionalizing” of science; AsteriskDAO is focused on women’s reproductive health data; ScieNFT is making it easier for scientists to share their work. And yes, each piece is tokenized as an NFT.
Elsewhere, there are projects working on immortality; health data; experimental launchpads (pump.science); and addressing hair loss. While not all of these projects will ultimately succeed in their goals, the diversity of projects – as well as the size of the communities already coalescing around them – is quite impressive.
DeSci Prepares to Level Up
The past year has seen significant growth in DeSci, with the leading projects attracting high-profile backers. VCs like DWF Labs are betting big on the sector’s transformative potential, recognizing parallels between DeSci and other successful web3 verticals like Real-World Assets (RWAs) and decentralized finance. As funding pours in, DeSci is moving from the experimental phase to real-world implementation, taking challenges such as regulatory compliance and governance in its stride.
DeSci tokens now have a market cap of $1.3B, and with many projects in the pre-token phase or with no plans to issue one, the actual size of the sector is significantly larger. At present, OriginTrail, with a $450M cap, is the DeSci leader, but there’s a lot more to measuring the sector’s growth than focusing on token prices: the real benchmark for success will be whether they achieve their long-term scientific goals.
As integration with advanced technologies like quantum computing and advanced AI intensifies, DeSci holds potential not only to accelerate scientific breakthroughs but also to democratize them. While it’s still early days, the foundation is being laid for a new era where science truly belongs to everyone. The gates of knowledge are opening, and the possibilities are limitless.
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