For the most part, science has been an open, interactive community driven by curiosity and the search for the truth. One insight or invention sparks an idea that will lead to the next discovery. Like quarks, neutrinos and atoms are the building blocks of bigger things, knowledge grows through connection and interaction.
This interaction isn’t the challenge, in fact, it’s usually the reason to participate. The hard part about science is finding the funding to support the talented researchers ready to lean in and solve the world’s biggest challenges. Innovators have found other means like the Ansari X-Prize that helped to launch commercial spaceflight and companies like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX.
How is Web3 being applied to science? The decentralized science movement (DeSci) is in full swing as a Web3 powered version of the open science movement. The first Open Science NFT sold for 13 ETH in 2021. The trend has sparked a series of DAOs in the space including VitaDAO, PsyDAO and LabDAO. In fact, there are even some scientists launching their own tokens to support their work.
A more specific question may be, what do you get when you cross a freelance writing entrepreneur with a Theoretical Physicist? The answer is FrontierDAO.
FrontierDAO & Decentralized Science
FrontierDAO co-founder, Paige Donner, explains “At the frontier of decentralized science, FrontierDAO’s mission as a cooperative is to support and facilitate scientific innovation and research. At our core is a commitment to fusion energy research and space exploration. The shared ethos among our members is that we seek ways to implement Web3 tools and to embrace the ownership economy to help make this planet a better place – through science – for this and future generations”.
Donner’s ambitious mission began as her freelance writing world merged with her affinity for science. Captivated by NASA’s Artemis program and the mission to land the first woman and person of color on the moon, Donner began submitting grant proposal applications. Specifically, she began writing proposals for Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR), and wondered how this process could be made more accessible. Donner connected with Bounder Yo who holds a PhD in Nuclear Physics and FrontierDAO was born.
FrontierDAO aims to democratize scientific research and share the returns of commercializing promising technologies to its community members. Like many DAOs, there are multiple ways to get involved. FrontierDAO sells NFTs which allow owners to qualify for a governance token, they operate a Discord group, they created an Outer Space Virtual Museum to display your FrontierDAO NFTs, and they partner with artists to create NFTs that help fund the DAO Treasury. Participation in the DAO is not limited to NFT holders. FrontierDAO is open to other ways to contribute to its mission through individual skill sets and experience.
According to their whitepaper, FrontierDAO invites scientists and innovators to mint their IP to capture the ideas and the ownership. I’ve always thought that NFTs could make a true impact in the world of crazy ideas and innovation. In the past, I’ve seen my own ideas and those of people in my network lay dormant due to lack of confidence or being worried that someone may take their idea for their own use.
The Potential of an Idea Capture Machine
Imagine an Idea Capture Machine where someone can mint a concept with permissions for how people can interact with it or contribute to it. These NFTs become smaller ingredients in the larger pool of interdisciplinary innovation. USDA, NASA and DOE are already participating in a Web2 version of this called technology transfers.
According to Donner, there are libraries of IP waiting to be commercialized in the vaults of these larger institutions. For example, NASA released formerly patented technology into their public domain database for companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX to use in their efforts to commercialize space travel. While an amazing process and partnership between public and private entities, it’s also relatively complex and difficult for smaller companies or individuals to navigate.
How could the same thing come to life on a more distributed scale? Let’s consider our example of the Idea Capture Machine. One scientist comes up with a new method to extract a compound from a tree in South America. The new compound has promising applications for the wellness industry, but nothing specific has been uncovered. The extraction method is encapsulated in the form of an NFT with certain permissions for its interaction, use and ownership.
For example, the scientist may not want it to be used in a way that puts the trees at risk of extinction, which could be captured in the NFT permissions. The NFT is stored in the Idea Capture Machine vault where it can be purchased and used like a more traditional technology transfer, or it could be contributed to by another scientist, engineer or researcher.
Continuing with our example, a neuroscientist researching how beliefs physically manifest in human physiology runs across the research about the compound. It turns out that the compound can be applied to tracing the formation of beliefs in the nervous system. As a member of the Idea Capture Machine community, the neuroscientist acquires the NFT and builds on top of it just as a developer would build on top of an existing protocol.
A new NFT is minted combining the IP from the first scientist’s NFT with the new innovation from the neuroscientist. All contributors are incorporated into the new version, while the old version still exists for other collaborative innovations. It makes me think of Einstein and his concept of combinatory play.
Creativity is the unique rearrangement of found elements, and the Idea Capture Machine could be the way to facilitate open source innovation while capturing the value of contributors along the way. Donner is working on applying a similar concept to FrontierDAO in the form of a Frontier Registry.
FrontierDAO believes the intersection of science and entrepreneurship should be accessible to everyone, and they follow NASA’s sentiment that ‘great ideas come from everywhere’.
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Metaverse Methodologist, Connector and Creator
2 Comments
Paige
Jeremy, Great article! Thank you. The #DeSci movement is certainly picking up steam and this could spell a potential bonanza in scientific innovation, broader inclusion and a welcoming of diverse sources of ideas and perspectives.
Just for the record – yes, I am still a freelance writer – these days for USA Today (nearly a decade now) and in the past NY Times & Huffington Post, including my groundbreaking coverage on environmental issues and climate change.
I would like to correct for the record, however, that I did not submit an SBIR grant proposal. Rather, I submitted grant proposals to NASA for a Space Act Agreement, notably for their AFP (announcement for proposals) for ‘Telling the Artemis Story To A Worldwide Audience’.
Paige
(cont’d)
That was back in 2020 and I spent the next 15 months writing grant proposals along the same STEM Ed/ space exploration theme for the NSF (National Science Foundation), the ISS (International Space Station/ CASIS) and others, including NIAC, NASA’s fun and quirky program for Innovative Advanced Concepts.
Along the way, I also licensed technology from NASA using their Tech Transfer program for vertical farming that has the potential to be used for space farming. I did all this under the company I founded, IoT Logistics, LLC in 2018 which is an emerging technology integration/ solutions architecture service company. I qualified that company for government contracting bids just before the pandemic hit, when my focus was on supply chain automation using technology (IoT, AI).
So, just thought this background is relevant to the article! – Paige, Co-Founder, FrontierDAO