Author: shaofaye123, Foresight News
From zoos to artists to AI, the wind of hype has finally reached DeSci. As an unproven track, the tokens take off first; what exactly is DeSci, and which novel angle tokens are worth attention?
What is DeSci?
DeSci stands for Decentralized Science. According to the Ethereum Foundation's definition, 'DeSci is a movement to establish a fair public infrastructure in scientific research through the use of the Web3 stack to fund, create, review, validate, store, and disseminate scientific knowledge.'
The goal of DeSci is to leverage the advantages of blockchain technology to address challenges in traditional scientific research, such as difficulties in fundraising, insufficient data sharing, and low research transparency, thereby accelerating scientific discovery and innovation. Current projects primarily focus on addressing funding issues, with most concentrated in the biotechnology sector. According to Messari Research's categorization of the DeSci track, it mainly divides into: financing, research, data, peer review, publishing, infrastructure and services, arts, open scientific ecology, and community.
The explosive popularity of DeSci on Memecoin has its traces; in December last year, the DeSci narrative gained attention due to mentions by CZ and the founding of ResearchHub by Coinbase's founder. Recently, Vitalik Buterin has re-mentioned it, Binance invested in BIO, and on-chain sentiment is high, creating a series of rapid developments for DeSci.
Token Inventory
RIF
RIF comes from the Pump.science platform, representing the compound rifampicin (RIF). Pump Science is a meme launch platform launched by the Solana ecosystem DeSci platform Molecule DAO, which can be understood as a token-based lifespan extension experiment prediction game. Currently, the platform only has two tokens: RIF and URO.
RIF is traditionally known as rifampicin, a type of rifamycin antibiotic primarily used to treat various types of infections caused by multiple bacteria. It treats infections by inhibiting bacterial RNA synthesis and is one of the main drugs for treating tuberculosis, usually used in conjunction with other anti-tuberculosis drugs. However, rifampicin has little effect on non-bacterial problems (such as aging or mitochondrial dysfunction). In the previous trial, the antibiotic RIF extended the lifespan of worms by 32.87%.
Current market value 181.6 M, number of holding addresses over 20,000.
URO
URO also comes from the Pump.science platform, representing the compound urolithin, which extended lifespan by 6.35% in the previous trial. Its potential effects include promoting autophagy and improving mitochondrial function, which are important for cell health and anti-aging. By enhancing cell repair and clearing damaged cellular components, urolithin A may positively impact long-term cell survival. Under laboratory conditions, if aging or cell damage in organisms can be repaired through this mechanism, it theoretically has the potential to extend the lifespan of the organism, which is significant for delaying aging or improving health status.
Current market value 63 M, number of holding addresses over 10,000.
SCIHUB
What is SCI-HUB?
This token is not officially issued; the top buyer 0xAA purchased 22% of the SCI-HUB tokens. It has now announced that 20% will be donated to the SCI-HUB foundation, leading to a wave of price increase. It peaked at 70 M, and the current market value is 52 M.
VITA
VITA belongs to DeSci DAO, focusing mainly on longevity research and financing, with over 5 million dollars raised. The main region is concentrated in Europe, aided by Molecule in its creation. It establishes a portfolio of intellectual property and data assets, which are publicized and tokenized through data markets or traditional biopharmaceutical licensing and commercialization processes. The goal of VitaDAO is to rapidly shorten the funding decision lifecycle; attract world-class researchers through promoting open science principles; and democratize ownership.
Current market value 153 M, deployed on Ethereum.
RSC
RSC is the native token of the ResearchHub platform, founded by Brian Armstrong, the founder of Coinbase. It is mainly used to incentivize users for publishing high-quality content on the platform (such as new papers, comments, peer reviews, and paper summaries).
Current market value 90 M, number of holding addresses 6193.
ATH
AthenaDAO is the concept of women's reproductive health. Currently, it mainly covers four research areas: ovarian aging and reproductive longevity; polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis; gynecological cancers; reproductive technologies.
Current market value 8.2 M, number of holding addresses 822.
GROW
ValleyDAO belongs to the field of synthetic biology for protecting ecological climate. Holders of the GROW token can participate in the decision-making process, influencing which synthetic biology projects receive funding, and how the resulting intellectual property is licensed and commercialized.
Current market value 8 M, number of holding addresses 669.
HAIR
HairDAO is part of the DeSci movement initiated by BioDAO, dedicated to funding early-stage hair loss research and has already obtained relevant patents. Through early funding, new hair loss treatment methods can be brought to market. The project was launched in November 2021 and is one of the first members of bio.xyz.
Current market value 59.6 M, number of holding addresses 345.
The tailwind of the DeSci narrative has not truly arrived, as the tokens take off first. After the hype, there is still a long way for decentralized science.
