Article source: Deep Tide TechFlow
Written by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Beyond the meme craze, the crypto industry is still making actual project investments, and Binance Labs' investment trends are also drawing attention.
Yesterday, Binance Labs announced its investment in the decentralized science (DeSci) related protocol BIO Protocol, marking Binance Labs' first investment in a project within the DeSci track, and BIO Protocol has become the focus of attention.
However, things seem to have always been traceable.
Although CZ has gradually faded from Binance, during the first half of the year, when facing legal issues, he also mentioned in a letter to the judge:
"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 spoken with many biotech startups in the field."
The focus on medicine and science reflects the thoughts of key figures at Binance, which has influenced the perspectives and decision-making tendencies of the investment department to some extent.
So, what exactly is the BIO Protocol, and what unique aspects attract Binance Labs' investment?
Decentralized Science Incubator
In fact, in the document announcing Binance Labs' investment in BIO, the essence of BIO has been explicitly named --- "the on-chain science version of Y Combinator."
Y Combinator is a well-known tech startup incubator that provides funding, guidance, and resources to early-stage startups, helping them to grow and develop rapidly.
The so-called on-chain science version refers to the scientific research and funding processes conducted using blockchain technology. "On-chain" means that these activities and transactions are carried out on the blockchain, characterized by transparency and decentralization.
If we benchmark against Y Combinator, a rough functional point of the 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 global scientists, patients, and investors to collectively participate in and support research projects.
Accelerated Development: Helps research projects grow quickly, similar to how Y Combinator accelerates startup development.
Innovative Model: Introduces new research funding and commercialization models, breaking the limitations of traditional research funding.
How are all these functional points specifically realized? This involves the core design of the BIO Protocol.
From the perspective of more common crypto projects, the essence of the BIO Protocol is a curation and liquidity protocol in the decentralized science (DeSci) field. Its design concept is derived from the team's previous successes in Molecule (an early project tokenization platform for biomedicine) and VitaDAO (the largest decentralized community for longevity science).
The BIO protocol mainly includes the following core components:
BioDAO: Sub-DAOs focused 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 biotech builders) to accelerate the research and development process and develop new intellectual property.
BioDAOs raise funds through token sales and use their funds to support and develop biotechnology projects related to their mission, creating shared ownership of intellectual property among their members.
Currently, the BIO official has also released some successful case studies of DAOs, some of which have successfully connected with real-world universities, research institutions, and pharmaceutical companies, showcasing the effectiveness of this model:
Curation System
Adopt a token staking mechanism to filter and support 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 accept.
BioDAOs that vote to enter the network receive funding through the BIO Launchpad, along with token liquidity support from the community, incentives, and other acceleration services.
Liquidity and IP Transformation
Provide tokenization solutions for biotechnology IP, allowing these IPs to be tokenized (in forms like NFT and FT); while establishing a secondary market trading mechanism to achieve liquidity for research project investments.
Among them, intellectual property tokens ("IP-Tokens" or "IPT") represent partial governance rights over the intellectual property (IP) generated. These tokens provide holders with opportunities to directly participate in the development, decision-making, and future direction of research.
BioDAOs develop and acquire ownership of IP tokens. Each BioDAO typically holds a portfolio of IP tokens representing intellectual property related to specific scientific research fields associated with the BioDAO. For example, VitaDAO develops and owns stakes in IPTVitaRNA and VITA-FAST.
When someone obtains an IP Token, they will receive a share of the IP generated by the research, including patents for new compounds, proprietary screening systems, and possibly even treatment methods.
However, unlike other NFT profit-sharing models, IP Tokens do not grant holders guaranteed financial returns or income sharing rights from the commercialization of these assets, but rather benefits in real scientific research, such as:
Obtain exclusive information, receive updates and detailed reports on intellectual property research and development progress, and gain early or priority access to opportunities related to innovation, collaboration, or the future concerning intellectual property.
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 in the form of BIO tokens to bioDAOs to achieve key milestones. In simple terms, it incentivizes both B2B and B2C sides as long as they complete the following events:
For institutions and research organizations: Initial token auctions through the BIO Launchpad, funding science (IP-Token issuance), generating considerable revenue through product releases, and conducting decentralized clinical trials.
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.
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:
Choose and support bioDAOs to join 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 within member bioDAOs
Decide on the issuance of BIO tokens, treasury allocation, and protocol upgrades
As the bioDAOs in the BIO network grow and the IP assets appreciate, BIO token holders may benefit from this. 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 (not currently tradable on secondary markets)
Maximum Supply: Unlimited, future increases may be decided by governance vote
Issuance Mechanism: A new token contract needs to be deployed 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 unlocking schedule:
Community Airdrop:
Public airdrop portion: No lock-up
bioDAOs and founding members: 1-year cliff followed by 6 years of linear unlocking
Community Auction: 50% immediately available, 50% linearly unlocks in 1 year
Ecosystem Incentives: No lock-up
Core Contributors: 1-year lock-up period followed by 6 years of linear unlocking
Molecule Ecosystem Fund: 4 years of linear unlocking
Molecule: 4 years of linear unlocking
Investors: 1-year lock-up period followed by 4 years of linear unlocking
Advisors: 1-year lock-up period followed by 6 years of linear unlocking
At the same time, the BIO protocol employs a dual-round Genesis auction mechanism for Token launch.
Genesis is the launch plan for the BIO protocol, aimed at distributing the initial tokens through auctions and raising funds for the protocol. This plan is divided into two rounds, each with its specific goals and mechanisms.
The first round adopted an English auction mechanism, where participants bid using ETH. The main purpose of this auction was to establish the initial community and discover the market price of BIO tokens.
and raise initial funds for the protocol.
The first round has been successfully completed, and currently, BIO is in the second round of the Genesis plan. This round adopts a Dutch auction mechanism, allocating a total of 12.75% of the token supply; as of the latest news, the second round auction is ongoing, with most auctions completed and only a few still in progress.
Interested investors can participate in the auction through BIO's official platform. Participants need to connect their wallets first, and then choose to participate in the bioDAO asset pool or ETH pool auction based on their interests. (Note: This is only for linking and information organization, not investment advice, please DYOR)
After the auction is completed, participants will receive BIO tokens, of which 50% will be immediately available, and the other 50% will linearly unlock 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 number is quite substantial, demonstrating the project's emphasis on community building.
The airdrop mainly targets three categories of groups:
Public Airdrop: Aimed at early users of the Molecule platform, members of life sciences-related DAOs, etc.
bioDAO Airdrop: Specifically targeting bioDAOs that have joined the BIO network
Genesis Member Airdrop: Rewards for early contributors
Different types of airdrops have different lock-up periods; the public airdrop portion has no lock-up period, and users can use it immediately. In contrast, the airdrops for bioDAOs and founding members have longer lock-up periods, including a 1-year lock-up period and 6 years of linear unlocking.
Overall, the Genesis launch plan and airdrop strategy of BIO demonstrate the project's emphasis on fair distribution, community participation, and long-term development. Through multiple rounds of auctions and multi-layered airdrops, BIO is actively building a diverse and highly participatory community, laying a solid foundation for its decentralized biomedical research network.
Not an isolated case
In addition to Binance Labs' involvement in the DeSci track through this project, other VCs are also on the lookout.
Previously, we mentioned in (Interpreting AminoChain: a16z first enters DeSci with a $5 million lead investment, patients contribute biological samples for profit) that about 40 days ago, a16z also entered this track to invest in projects for the first time.
In a market rhythm where VC coins do not take over each other and memes are rampant, if crypto can do something good for traditional industries, and if VCs can genuinely invest in projects that benefit other industries, it can be considered a correct and unique refreshing stream.
As Paul Kohlhaas, the founder of the BIO protocol, said, "Science drives human progress, but we have trapped the smartest minds in an endless funding maze -- they spend 80% of their time writing grants instead of solving humanity's greatest challenges."
Less hype and more meaningful technology projects to unlock breakthrough progress; the decisions of leading investors in the industry are undoubtedly worth paying attention to, but the effects of investments and final returns will also need time and the market to validate.
