The Role of Blockchain Technology in Decentralized Science — Part One
At this point, you might have had a better understanding of what decentralized science is. You’re probably wondering why scientists can’t just stick to Open Science. Why should whoever found Decentralized Science waste resources by using Blockchain technology when he can just refine Open Science and let scientists enjoy it?
First of all, Open Science is different from Decentralized Science. And there’s no need for this pondering anymore because we will be showing you why blockchain is important in decentralized science.
Ready for this knowledge tour? Let’s go!
Why Blockchain Technology is Important to Decentralized Science
Decentralization of Control
Think of decentralization and blockchain almost always follows it. That’s because decentralization is one of the important features of blockchain technology. Think of a scenario where you published a paper that took your sweat and time and you even spent money to publish the paper and a few months later, you hear that journal has shut down.
This risk is not far-fetched, especially because only one central entity control this journal. But this is hardly possible in blockchain technology. Why is this rare?
This is because a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), make it possible for a large group of people to make decisions. Imagine a large group of people with different views and personalities being able to make a decision. It will be difficult for all of them to choose to close down that DAO because of their varying views. In terms of making decisions in your favour, decentralization makes it easy.
Transparency
When you add your papers to a journal, do you see a rundown of the people who have added their papers? Obviously, no. However, this is very easy to come by in decentralized science, and that’s only because it’s built on blockchain. Blockchain allows you to see every activity on it down to the barest minimum. It allows you to see the particular wallet address that carried out this activity and when.
This makes collaboration very easy because you’ll be able to see everyone who contributed even the littlest thing to your research.
Collaboration
Another significant advantage of blockchain in decentralized science is the potential for global collaboration. Blockchain can connect researchers from around the world, regardless of geographical boundaries or institutional affiliations. Researchers can collaborate in a transparent and trustless environment where contributions are recorded on the blockchain, ensuring fair credit and incentivization. This can foster global partnerships and accelerate scientific progress by leveraging the collective expertise and resources of a diverse community of researchers.
Effort Incentivization
Blockchain can also incentivize collaborative efforts through tokenization and smart contracts. For example, projects like VitaDAO and Molecule are leveraging blockchain to create decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that enable researchers to collectively fund and govern scientific projects. Tokens representing ownership in these DAOs can be used to incentivize researchers and reward their contributions. Smart contracts, which are self-executing code on a blockchain, can facilitate transparent and automated distribution of rewards based on pre-defined rules, removing intermediaries and promoting fairness.
Security
Let’s think of another scenario where you could just wake up one morning and your user account on a particular research journal has disappeared. It has been wiped out due to a breach in the security system and there’s nothing you can do about it.
That rarely happens in decentralized science because blockchain has another important feature called security. Because it is secured, it could be a safe space to upload sensitive data like Medical data, such as patient records, clinical trial results, and drug supply chain information, and not fret that the data will be accessed by someone you didn’t allow. This can enhance trust among stakeholders, facilitate efficient data sharing, and promote innovation in developing new drugs and therapies.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is a benefit of the transparency in the blockchain. If one checks the activity on that blockchain and sees that it’s a particular user that uploaded a research paper, there’s no need to start showing proof that you are the owner because you’re the one that uploaded it. But this doesn’t normally happen in traditional science where someone can choose to buy your research work and then all of a sudden, they see the buyer as the owner because there’s no proof that you’re the owner of the work.
Smart contracts on a blockchain can automate the process of registering, verifying, and transferring ownership of intellectual property assets, reducing the need for intermediaries and enhancing transparency and security in the intellectual property management process.
Reduced Publishing Fees
Owning the intellectual property of a research work makes you benefit from those that would want to replicate your work. Cloning your work gives you some rewards and you still have the ownership tag of your research work. It’s that awesome!
Blockchain also has the potential to promote open access to scientific knowledge. Many scientific publications are behind paywalls, limiting access to important research findings. By using blockchain, researchers can publish their work on a decentralized platform that ensures open access, making scientific knowledge freely available to all, regardless of their financial resources or institutional affiliations.
Funding
Funding has been a breathing challenge in traditional science. It turns out there’s a monopoly in the funding system based on the kind of projects being funded and the kind of researchers being funded. Most times, funding is not dependent on the potentiality of that idea.
Now imagine a system where there’s transparency and security. A smart contract (program on the blockchain) can be written where the most preferred projects by many members on the platform are funded based on how much these members contribute to the project. No one controls this funding system. It is programmed and this program can still be seen by members so if it is programmed to award a particular user, members will surely know. This system that seems perfect is Decentralized Science.
Yes, that’s what you enjoy as a scientist in decentralized science. You’re unlimited by what you can achieve as a scientist. With these benefits, you could be the next big scientist and increase the number of big fish that will see your work. As a scientist in decentralized science, all that’s needed is hard work and creativity because the system isn’t against you anymore. It’s you against yourself.
It’s important to note that even though the benefits of blockchain technology in decentralized science could seem endless, there are some limitations to this technology too. We’ll be looking at that in our next article.
Until then, stay tuned!
