Podcast Summary
Applying crypto principles to science: Traditional scientific institutions face middlemen, closed systems, and rent extraction. Decentralized technology and crypto can address these issues, leading to a more open, inclusive, and efficient scientific process.
The principles of decentralization and consensus technology that have revolutionized finance through crypto, can also be applied to the field of science. In this episode of Bankless, Ryan and David explore this concept with Brian Armstrong and Patrick Joyce, the co-founders of Research Hub. They discuss how traditional scientific institutions are plagued by middlemen, closed systems, and rent extraction, much like the traditional financial system. By using crypto and decentralized technology, these issues can be addressed, leading to a more open, inclusive, and efficient scientific process. The episode also touches on the importance of science and its current state of being broken, as well as what Research Hub is building to solve these problems. For Bankless listeners, this episode provides an interesting perspective on how the principles of crypto can be applied in a new context, highlighting the potential for change and progress in various industries.
Rebuilding Science with Crypto Principles: Crypto principles are being applied to science to make it more efficient, collaborative, and decentralized, aiming to rebuild the modern system of doing science and make it more accessible.
Arbitrum Orbit, with its technologies built on Ethereum, offers new opportunities for developers, enterprises, and users to enhance their projects. The discussion featured Patrick Joyce, a co-founder of Research Hub, and Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase and a co-founder of ResearchHub. They shared their vision of applying crypto principles to the field of science, aiming to make it more efficient and collaborative. Brian, who has a background in computer science, expressed his passion for science and frustration with the traditional publishing process. He saw potential in the crypto community to bring about change, especially in the areas of research and knowledge sharing. Although Brian doesn't consider himself a scientist, he recognized the importance of collaboration between computer scientists, researchers, and product builders in this endeavor. Together, they aim to rebuild the modern system of doing science, making it more accessible, efficient, and decentralized.
Science and Crypto: Iterative, Consensus-Building Systems: Both science and crypto are iterative, consensus-building systems that aim to discover truths and innovate within their respective domains, involving social coordination, experimentation, and the pursuit of truth.
Science and crypto share similarities as iterative, consensus-building systems aimed at discovering truths and innovating within their respective domains. Patrick, a molecular biologist and founder of a science startup, shared his background in research and the motivation to improve the scientific process. He described science as a repeatable and testable way of thinking about the world, emphasizing the scientific method's role in uncovering truths and enabling human manipulation of the environment. Bryan added to this by discussing the historical development of science and its potential parallels with crypto as a consensus technology. Both systems involve social coordination, experimentation, and the pursuit of truth. The conversation highlighted the importance of understanding the foundational concepts of science and crypto to fully grasp their potential and applications.
From relying on religious explanations to testing hypotheses: The enlightenment values of empiricism, rationalism, and skepticism led to a shift in scientific thinking, enabling more efficient and equitable distribution of knowledge and rewards through crypto and decentralized science.
The history of science can be traced back to the enlightenment values of empiricism, rationalism, and skepticism, which marked a shift from relying on religious or spiritual explanations for natural phenomena to testing and falsifying hypotheses. Science is about questioning and challenging accepted theories, but human biases and incentives can hinder progress. Crypto and decentralized science (DeSci) aim to align incentives and make scientific advancements more open and accessible, allowing for a more efficient and equitable distribution of knowledge and rewards.
Transforming science through technology and crypto: Brian advocates for realigning science with real-world incentives, making it easier to test hypotheses with objective data, and improving the process through technology and crypto to accelerate breakthroughs and human progress.
The current state of scientific research is inefficient and inaccessible, with most publications going unread and unfunded. Brian argues that we need to realign science with real-world incentives and make it easier to test hypotheses using objective data. The value of science as a foundational public good cannot be overstated, as it is the driving force behind all technological advancements and human progress. The scientific method, which involves forming a hypothesis, testing it, and repeating the experiment, is a simple yet powerful tool that has transformed humanity. Scientists, as truth seekers, aim to reduce suffering in the world by observing reality, asking questions, and creating experiments to test hypotheses. Economically, countries grow by producing unique products with scientific underpinnings. Therefore, improving the scientific research process through technology and crypto could lead to more breakthroughs and accelerate science for the betterment of society.
Celebrating Scientific Achievements: Balancing societal focus on entertainment with recognition of scientists and their achievements, improving the current system of science, and utilizing technologies like blockchain can lead to more effective scientific discovery and progress.
Scientific breakthroughs lead to technological advancements and prosperity, and education and attracting the best and brightest minds through great scientific research are key to achieving these breakthroughs. The current societal focus on entertainment and social media influencers should be balanced with celebrating and recognizing scientists and their achievements. The rate of science is important, and the current system of science could benefit from improvements and potentially even a new system, as we have the tools and capabilities to do more science with the help of technologies like blockchain. The scientific method and the system of doing science have evolved over time, and we are now at a point where we can potentially create a more effective system for scientific discovery and progress.
Addressing inefficiencies in scientific research funding and evaluation: Research Hub uses blockchain technology and community-driven decision-making to reward scientists for creating high-quality knowledge, improving the overall effectiveness and integrity of scientific research.
The traditional scientific research funding and evaluation system, which relies heavily on citations and journals, has become corrupted and inefficient in the Internet age. This system has led scientists to prioritize publishing frequently over creating verifiable new knowledge, reducing the overall effectiveness of scientific research. Research Hub aims to address this issue by introducing modular incentives for creating high-quality knowledge using blockchain technology and community-driven decision-making. By rewarding scientists for producing valuable research directly, this approach aims to restore the integrity and efficiency of the scientific research process. The historical funding sources for science have shifted from patrons to public institutions, and the consensus mechanism for discovering truth has transitioned from a subjective, peer-reviewed process to a more objective one based on citations. However, this system has become susceptible to corruption as scientists focus on increasing their publications and citations to secure future funding. By leveraging the principles of blockchain, Research Hub aims to create a decentralized, censorship-resistant, and truth-finding platform that rewards scientists for producing high-quality knowledge, ultimately improving the overall quality and impact of scientific research.
Biased Truths in Science: A Crisis of Inefficient Capital Allocation: The scientific community is facing a crisis due to biased truths caused by a broken incentive structure that discourages the sharing of negative results and encourages risk aversion, leading to inefficient capital allocation and potentially inaccurate science.
The scientific community today faces biased truths due to third parties manipulating the system for economic gain. This issue is akin to Goodhart's Law, where measures cease to be effective when they become targets for manipulation. Scientists, in a hyper-competitive job market, feel pressured to optimize their outputs to secure funding and advance in their careers. This results in inefficient capital allocation, potentially inaccurate science, and poor incentives, with the best and brightest talent being drawn away from scientific research. One specific issue within this broken system is the devaluation of negative results. Negative results, which challenge initial hypotheses, are less exciting and less likely to be shared or cited. This discourages scientists from publishing negative results, leading to a loss of valuable knowledge and reduced efficiency in converting research dollars into new knowledge. Additionally, this culture of risk aversion perpetuates the problem, with scientists focusing on ensuring grant applications demonstrate success rather than taking calculated risks. This risk aversion further hampers progress and innovation in the scientific community. In essence, the scientific community is facing a crisis of biased truths and inefficient capital allocation due to a broken incentive structure that discourages the sharing of negative results and encourages risk aversion.
Different incentives in tech startups and science: Science prioritizes incrementalism and avoids failure, while tech investors focus on breakthroughs and taking risks, leading to potential inefficiencies and misallocation of resources.
The culture and incentives in tech startups and science are vastly different. In tech, investors expect most projects to fail and focus on breakthroughs, while in science, there's a risk-averse culture that prioritizes incrementalism and funding based on citations, tenure, and avoiding failure. This misalignment in incentives can lead to inefficiencies and misallocation of resources. For instance, in science, there's an emphasis on producing positive results, leading to potential false positives and a lack of focus on disproving hypotheses. In contrast, venture capitalists in tech allocate their own money and are more willing to take risks. The discussion also touched upon the potential of Web 3 ecosystems like Mantle and Celo, which offer more efficient funding models and decentralized governance, potentially leading to a shift away from traditional funding structures and risk-averse mindsets.
The complexities of science funding and research incentives: Despite challenges in science funding and incentives, crypto offers potential solutions through unique incentive structures and decentralized nature. Companies like Research Hub aim to reward high-quality science with economic value, but determining an effective consensus mechanism remains a challenge.
The current state of science funding and research incentives is a complex issue that can be compared to the challenges faced in the crypto industry. The lack of financial incentives for high-risk, high-reward research and the coordination problem of determining what constitutes valuable science have hindered progress. While some believe that free markets and private capital allocation are the solutions, others argue that government institutions play a crucial role in funding research with no immediate commercial potential. Crypto, with its unique incentive structures and decentralized nature, offers potential solutions to these challenges. Companies like Research Hub aim to establish an economy where high-quality science is rewarded with economic value. However, determining an effective consensus mechanism for rewarding science is not an easy task. The conversation highlighted the need for further exploration of how crypto and its incentives can intersect with science to reconstruct the research process.
Revolutionizing scientific community with decentralized financial system: Users can share, publish, earn RSC for high-quality contributions, and allocate capital to answer scientific questions on a decentralized platform, bypassing traditional institutional journals and middlemen.
Research Hub aims to revolutionize the scientific community by allowing users to control the judging and rewarding of research outputs using a decentralized financial system based on the Ethereum blockchain. This platform, which resembles a Reddit-style forum, enables users to share, publish, and create scientific content, earn Research Coin (RSC) for high-quality contributions, and allocate capital to answer specific scientific questions through bounties. By removing the need for traditional institutional journals and middlemen, Research Hub functions as a hub for truth finding and peer-to-peer consensus on scientific content. This decentralized approach fosters a more modern and accessible platform for scientific discovery, prioritization, and collaboration.
Revolutionizing scientific research with Research Hub: Research Hub simplifies research commercialization by incentivizing peer reviews, offering literature summaries, and funding projects, while streamlining licensing and potentially sharing revenue with researchers.
Research Hub, an innovative platform, aims to make scientific research more efficient and accessible. It started as a tool for scientists to prioritize their tasks and discover new research, but it has evolved to include incentivizing peer reviews, literature summaries, and even funding research projects. The ultimate goal is to streamline the process of commercializing scientific breakthroughs, making it easier for researchers to monetize their discoveries and for companies to access innovative ideas. The platform also aims to address the inefficiencies in the current system, such as the high legal fees and lengthy negotiations involved in tech transfer offices. By creating a standardized, one-click licensing system, researchers could potentially receive a percentage of the revenue generated from commercialization, incentivizing more innovation and collaboration.
New Incentive Structure for Scientists: From Traditional to Decentralized: The decentralized scientific system (DeSci) aims to financially incentivize scientists, creating a more balanced ecosystem, while learning from past open science efforts to ensure purity and avoid corruption.
The traditional scientific system, with universities holding the majority of IP rights and grad students receiving no equity, creates a one-sided and outdated incentive structure. This contrasts with the emerging decentralized scientific system (DeSci), represented by platforms like Research Hub, which aims to financially incentivize scientists and create a more balanced and pure ecosystem. However, as we build this new system, it's crucial to learn from the open science movement's past efforts and ensure that the incentives remain pure and the system stays uncorrupted. The ability to financially reward scientists for their work could lead to a new class of scientist entrepreneurs, aligning personal incentives with the advancement of scientific knowledge. Additionally, DeSci platforms like Research Hub employ consensus-building mechanisms, such as upvotes, and tokens for governance, reflecting the broader trend of decentralized decision-making in the crypto space.
Decentralizing scientific research and publication: Research Hub, a decentralized platform, aims to address coordination issues in scientific research by creating an infrastructure for community-driven consensus, open-source code, and token-based rewards, promoting transparency, decentralization, and community decision-making.
Research Hub, an innovative platform aiming to decentralize scientific research and publication, is addressing the coordination problem in the scientific community by creating an infrastructure for community-driven consensus on good science and financial rewards. The platform's open-source code allows for community oversight and potential forks if needed, while its token-based system enables community governance and distribution of rewards. The goal is to create a decentralized, community-driven workshop where scientists can collaborate and decide on the future of scientific research and rewards. While there may be resistance from traditional scientific institutions, the open access mandate from the Biden administration could potentially lead to collaboration and aligned incentives. Overall, Research Hub's approach aims to promote transparency, decentralization, and community-driven decision-making in scientific research.
Open Access and Decentralization in Science: The Future of Research: By 2025, open access platforms like Research Hub aim to lead the shift towards decentralized science, enabling data audibility, replication, and democratization, fostering innovation and societal disruption.
The future of scientific research is heading towards open access and decentralization, aiming to break down barriers and make science more accessible to everyone. This shift, represented by the DeSci movement, is inspired by the success of decentralized finance (DeFi). By 2025, platforms like Research Hub aim to lead this change as a modern open access journal and preprint server. The vision is for a world where data is auditable, and anyone can verify and replicate findings, fostering innovation and societal disruption. Additionally, the open-source approach in science, similar to how it works in software development, is expected to empower individuals to contribute and participate in scientific research, regardless of their location or circumstances. This democratization of science could lead to new ideas emerging from unexpected places and a living, evergreen research process.
Making scientific discoveries accessible and commercially viable: Brian Armstrong emphasizes the importance of open access licenses or one-click licensing to connect scientific research with free markets, accelerating advancements.
Good ideas for groundbreaking scientific discoveries or technologies can come from anywhere, not just from laboratories in a few select cities. Brian Armstrong, the co-founder of Research Hub and CEO of Coinbase, emphasized the importance of making these ideas accessible and commercially viable through open access licenses or one-click licensing. He believes that this connection between scientific research and free markets can accelerate scientific advancements. As for Research Hub, Brian helps with product guidance but gives most of the credit to the team led by Patrick Joyce. He encourages scientists and those interested in science to sign up for Research Hub, engage with the community, and submit papers or post questions. The site is still new but has a passionate early community. The goal is to make scientific knowledge more accessible and collaborative. Brian also emphasized the connection between science and markets, believing that both technologies allow us to determine what's true or not, making them kindred technologies.
Join the Research Hub community to decentralize science: Contribute to scientific research in a decentralized platform, join the Research Hub Discord community
If you're passionate about fixing problems in science and decentralizing the research process, consider joining the Research Hub community. The team behind Research Hub is working to build a platform where anyone can contribute to scientific research, and they're actively seeking new members to join their Discord community. This approach to decentralizing science is inspired by the success of decentralized projects in the crypto world, such as Ethereum. It's important to note that while there are risks involved in any truth-seeking endeavor, the potential rewards of contributing to the scientific community are significant. So if you're excited about the possibility of accelerating scientific research and bringing your ideas to the table, consider joining the Research Hub community today. And if you're still on the fence, remember that the frontier of scientific discovery is not for everyone, but it's a journey worth taking for those who are up for the challenge.
