In addition to BIO, there is also a ResearchHub project (token RSC) in the Desci track. Compared to BIO's bleak profitability, RSC's profit expectations are clear and transparent, as its operating model is decentralized paper publishing. Paper publishing is an indispensable part of the scientific community, but the monopoly and excessive profits of publishers have made it difficult for researchers. The criticism of Zhihu in China's public opinion arena over the past two years is still fresh in memory; however, even after being criticized by the state team, CNKI still generated revenue of 497 million yuan in 2023.

Founders
Paul Kohlhaas, a veteran in the crypto space, has been deeply engaged in the DeScii field. The companies Molecule and VitaDAO mentioned later are all his.

Investors
Binance Labs, Zee Prime Capital, Kosmos Ventures, Panga Capital, etc. Pfizer Ventures and Balaji Srinivasan supported one of the BIO Protocol's research institutes, VitaDAO.
Operating Model
The model of the BIO Protocol can be simply described as issuing the research institute token BIO within the BIO Protocol (similar to the Chinese Academy of Sciences). Users can stake BIO to gain governance rights and then vote to decide whether the applying research institutes (like the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences) can be established. These research institutes focus on specific areas of research; for example, VitaDAO focuses on funding early clinical drug development in the context of longevity, issuing its own research institute token VITA. Users stake VITA to gain governance rights and vote on whether to inject startup funding (in fiat currency) into an applying project. Once funding is injected, VitaDAO will hold the intellectual property of the supported projects directly in the form of IP-NFTs (IP-NFTs utilize the biopharmaceutical intellectual property NFT framework developed by Molecule). VitaDAO will also tokenize NFTs into IPTs for ease of trading. Users purchasing IPTs can gain shares in the intellectual property of the project outcomes, but there are no guarantees of returns.