Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
Beyond the meme craze, the crypto industry is still making substantial project investments, and the investment direction of Binance Labs is also closely watched.
Yesterday, Binance Labs announced its investment in the decentralized science (DeSci) related protocol BIO Protocol, marking Binance Labs' first investment in a project in the DeSci track, and BIO Protocol has become the focus of attention.
However, things seem to have a trace to follow.
Although CZ has gradually faded out of Binance, he also mentioned in a letter to the judge during legal issues in the first half of the year:
"I feel that current medical research is too driven by interests... I want to help fund small research labs. Over the past few years, I have talked to many biotechnology startups in this field."
Focusing on the medical and scientific fields reflects the thoughts of key figures from Binance, which somewhat influences the investment department's focus and decision inertia.
So, what exactly is the BIO Protocol, and what unique advantages does it have to attract investment from Binance Labs?
Incubator for decentralized science
In fact, in the document announcing Binance Labs' investment in BIO, the essence of BIO has already been identified --- "the on-chain scientific version of Y Combinator."
Y Combinator is a famous technology startup incubator that provides funding, guidance, and resources to early-stage startups to help them grow and develop quickly.
The so-called on-chain scientific version refers to the scientific research and funding process conducted using blockchain technology. "On-chain" means these activities and transactions take place on the blockchain, characterized by transparency and decentralization.
If benchmarked against YCombinator, a rough functionality point of BIO Protocol could be:
Incubation function: Like Y Combinator incubating tech startups, the BIO protocol provides support and resources for scientific research projects.
Funding support: Through blockchain technology, BIO can more easily raise funds for research projects.
Community participation: Allows scientists, patients, and investors from around the world to collectively participate in and support research projects.
Accelerated development: Helps research projects grow quickly, similar to how Y Combinator accelerates the growth of startups.
Innovative models: Introduces new funding and commercialization models for research, breaking the limitations of traditional research funding.
How are these functional points specifically realized? This involves the core design of the BIO Protocol.
From the perspective more common in crypto projects, the essence of BIO Protocol is a curation and liquidity protocol in the decentralized science (DeSci) field. Its design concept stems from the team's previous successful experiences in Molecule (a tokenization platform for early biomedical projects) and VitaDAO (the largest decentralized community for longevity science).
The BIO protocol mainly contains the following core components:
BioDAO: Sub-DAOs focusing on different specific scientific or medical research
BioDAO members pool resources (data, capital, labor) together, leveraging the collective power of globally distributed stakeholders (such as patients, scientists, and biotechnology builders) to accelerate R&D processes and develop new intellectual property.
BioDAO raises funds through token sales and uses its funds to support and develop biotechnology projects related to its mission, creating shared intellectual property ownership among its members.
Currently, BIO has also announced several successful cases of DAOs, some of which are also connected with real-world universities, research institutions, and pharmaceutical companies, successfully demonstrating the effectiveness of this model:
Curation system
Adopting a token staking mechanism, the protocol screens and supports high-quality biotechnology projects through a combination of community voting and professional evaluation.
Specifically, BIO token holders can manage which bioDAOs are accepted into the BIO network by staking their BIO tokens on the bioDAOs they wish to support.
Voting to enter the network, BioDAO raises funds through BIO Launchpad, as well as liquidity support from the community, incentives, and other acceleration services.
Liquidity and IP
Providing tokenization solutions for biotechnology IP, allowing these IP to be tokenized (in NFT and FT forms); simultaneously establishing secondary market trading mechanisms to achieve liquidity in research project investments.
Of these, intellectual property tokens ("IP-Tokens" or "IPT") represent a portion of governance rights over the intellectual property (IP) produced. These tokens allow holders to directly participate in the development, decision-making, and future direction of the research.
BioDAO develops and owns IP tokens. Each BioDAO typically holds a portfolio of IP tokens representing intellectual property related to a specific scientific research area of the BioDAO. For example, VitaDAO develops and owns stakes in IPTVitaRNA and VITA-FAST.
When someone obtains an IPToken, they will receive a share of the IP generated by the research, which includes patents for new compounds, proprietary screening systems, and possibly therapeutic methods.
However, unlike other NFT profit-sharing models, IPToken does not grant holders the right to guaranteed financial returns or revenue sharing from the commercialization of these assets, but rather benefits in real scientific research, such as:
Get exclusive information, receive the latest information and detailed reports on intellectual property research and development progress, and gain early or priority access to innovations, collaborations, or future opportunities related to intellectual property, etc.
Incentive mechanism (Bio/Acc Rewards)
Design a special acceleration reward mechanism to incentivize early participants and contributors to promote the rapid development of the ecosystem.
Bio/Acc Rewards provide incentives to bioDAOs in the form of BIO tokens to achieve key milestones. In simple terms, this is to incentivize both B2B and B2C parties as long as they achieve the following events:
For institutions and research organizations: Conduct initial token auctions through BIO Launchpad, fund science (IP-Token release), bring considerable income from consumer product releases, and carry out decentralized clinical trials, etc.
For general users: Contributing to clinical trials or self-reported health data, using bioDAO products (such as certain medical supplies), and purchasing bioDAO products in online/offline stores, etc.
Token economics and auction analysis
The native token of the BIO protocol is $BIO, deployed on Ethereum.
Contract address:
0xcb1592591996765Ec0eFc1f92599A19767ee5ffA
Holders can participate in key decisions of the protocol, including:
Select and support joining bioDAOs into the BIO network
Decide the terms for participating in bioDAOs and their IP token sales
Provide support and discounts for bioDAO's health products/services
Govern in member bioDAOs
Decide on the issuance of BIO tokens, treasury allocation, and protocol upgrades
As the bioDAOs in the BIO network grow and the value of IP assets increases, BIO token holders may benefit from it. The BIO treasury accumulates value through various mechanisms, including token allocations from incubated bioDAOs and liquidity owned by the protocol (POL).
In terms of token supply, the total initial supply is 3,320,000,000 BIO, with the following characteristics:
Current status: Non-transferable (currently not tradable on secondary markets)
Maximum supply: No upper limit, future increases may be decided by governance voting
Increase mechanism: Requires deploying a new token contract to replace the current BIO token
In terms of token allocation, the community (total 56%):
Community airdrop (6%): 199,200,000 BIO
Community auction (20%): 664,000,000 BIO
Ecosystem incentives (25%): 830,000,000 BIO
Molecule ecosystem fund (5%): 166,000,000 BIO
Other allocations are as follows:
Core contributors (21.2%): 703,840,000 BIO
Investors (13.6%): 451,520,000 BIO
Molecule (5%): 166,000,000 BIO
Advisors (4.2%): 139,440,000 BIO
Each category has its specific unlock schedule:
Community airdrop:
Public airdrop part: No lock-up
bioDAO and founding members: 1 year cliff followed by 6 years linear unlock
Community auction: 50% immediately available, 50% 1 year linear unlock
Ecosystem incentives: No lock-up
Core contributors: 1 year lock-up, followed by 6 years linear unlock
Molecule ecosystem fund: 4 years linear unlock
Molecule: 4 years linear unlock
Investors: 1 year lock-up followed by 4 years linear unlock
Advisors: 1 year lock-up followed by 6 years linear unlock
At the same time, the BIO protocol adopts a dual-round Genesis auction mechanism for Token launch.
Genesis is the launch plan of the BIO protocol, aimed at distributing initial tokens through auctions and raising funds for the protocol. This plan is divided into two rounds, each with specific goals and mechanisms.
The first round adopted an English auction mechanism, where participants bid using ETH. The main purpose of this auction is to establish an initial community and discover the market price of BIO tokens.
And raising initial funds for the protocol.
The first round has been successfully completed, and BIO is currently in the second round of the Genesis plan. This round adopts a Dutch auction mechanism, distributing a total of 12.75% of the token supply; as of the latest news, the second round auction is ongoing, most auctions are completed, and only a few are still in progress.
Interested investors can participate in the auction through BIO's official platform. Participants need to connect their wallets and then choose to participate in the bioDAO asset pool or ETH pool auction based on their interests. (Deep Tide Note: This is for linking and information organization only and does not constitute investment advice, please DYOR)
After the auction is completed, participants will receive BIO tokens, with 50% immediately available, and the remaining 50% linear unlocking over one year. This mechanism aims to balance immediate liquidity and long-term holding incentives.
In addition to the Genesis auction, BIO has also designed a comprehensive airdrop plan aimed at rewarding early supporters and expanding the community. The following are the main features of the airdrop plan:
The BIO airdrop plan allocates 6% of the total supply, approximately 199,200,000 BIO tokens. This amount is considerable and shows the project's emphasis on community building.
Airdrops mainly target three groups:
Public airdrop: Targeting early users of the Molecule platform, members related to life sciences DAOs, etc.
bioDAO airdrop: Specifically targeting bioDAOs that have joined the BIO network
Founding member airdrop: Rewarding early contributors
Different types of airdrops have different lock-up periods; the public airdrop part has no lock-up period, and users can use it immediately. The airdrop for bioDAO and founding members has a longer lock-up period, including a 1-year lock-up and a 6-year linear unlock.
Overall, BIO's Genesis launch plan and airdrop strategy demonstrate the project's emphasis on fair distribution, community involvement, and long-term development. Through multiple rounds of auctions and multi-level airdrops, BIO is actively building a diverse and highly engaged community to lay a solid foundation for its decentralized biomedical research network.
Not an isolated case
In addition to Binance Labs getting involved in the DeSci track through this project, other VCs are also waiting for opportunities.
Previously, we mentioned in (Interpreting AminoChain: a16z's first foray into DeSci leading a $5 million investment) that about 40 days ago, a16z also entered this field for the first time to invest in projects.
In a market rhythm where VC coins do not take over, and memes are everywhere, if crypto can do something good for traditional industries, and if VCs can genuinely invest in projects that benefit other sectors, it would be considered a correct and unique stream.
As Paul Kohlhaas, the founder of the BIO protocol, said, "Science drives human progress, but we trap the smartest minds in endless funding mazes -- they spend 80% of their time writing grants instead of solving humanity's greatest challenges."
Less hype, more meaningful technological projects to unlock breakthrough progress; the decisions of leading investors in the industry are inevitably worthy of attention, but the investment effects and final returns will also need time and the market to test.