Bankless: Interpretation of BIO protocol and DeSci’s big dream

Author: David C, Bankless; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Last Friday, on the eve of the BIO protocol token issuance, the price of DeSci tokens soared.

As the lines between cutting-edge technologies such as DeSci and artificial intelligence continue to blur, this surge continued until the launch of BIO and was reflected in the massive bidding for tokens related to these technologies. As a key hub for DeSci funding, BIO's launch is promising, stoking enthusiasm in this highly experimental field and attracting more attention and capital to DeSci over time.

In today’s article, let’s take a deeper look at the BIO protocol, how it works, the challenges it attempts to solve, and the DAOs that operate under its umbrella. Then, let's look beyond its ecosystem to explore other DeSci projects that tell the story from a unique perspective and provide additional tools or use cases to transform scientific collaboration and funding.

Inside the BIO protocol

Essentially, the BIO Protocol is a decentralized, token-managed platform that supports and incubates specialized BioDAOs. By bringing funding decisions, intellectual property ownership, and governance on-chain, BIO directly addresses several long-standing barriers in biotech:

• Helping early-stage projects escape the “valley of death” where insufficient funding often prevents promising ideas from maturing into real-world applications.

• Combat data and intellectual property silos by promoting open access and transparent collaboration by tokenizing research results.

• Replace opaque R&D pipelines with real-time, on-chain tracking of capital flows and milestones.

To achieve these goals, BIO implements several core mechanisms:

• manage

BIO holders lock their tokens (vBIO) to help determine which new BioDAOs can join the network. This process ensures that only the most promising or community-backed businesses can join, as those who pledge support must stake BIO within a certain period of time. If approved, stakers will have exclusive access to BioDAO’s funding round.

• Funding and Liquidity

After completing the curation phase, BioDAO will open a private sale for those who commit to vBIO.

This allows early backers of DAOs and the BIO community to invest in early- stage scientific research under terms traditionally reserved for venture capital. At the same time, the BIO Protocol manages liquidity on behalf of these BioDAOs, eliminating the need for them to oversee secondary markets. The BIO treasury pairs tokens (i.e. VITA/BIO or HAIR/BIO) with ETH or other assets to generate fees for the protocol while ensuring a stable trading pair. This arrangement allows BioDAO to focus on advancing their research rather than busying themselves with market operations.

• meta-governance

Since the BIO treasury holds a portion of each BioDAO token, BIO holders can exert collective influence across the entire DeSci ecosystem.

This meta-governance structure enables them to guide decision-making across multiple BioDAOs – whether setting research priorities or emphasizing synergies between projects. Additionally, by diversifying the treasury’s assets, the agreement enhances its ability to invest in new projects and reinvest in existing projects, enabling seamless coordination across the expanding spectrum of scientific research.

• provide returns

To incentivize clear, measurable contributions to its network, BIO issues “bio/acc rewards” in the form of additional BIO tokens to BioDAOs that achieve key milestones. In addition to these incentives, BioDAO can tokenize its IP (from research data to patents), making it easier to license, share or monetize discoveries. By issuing IP tokens, BioDAO can grant partial ownership of its research results, allowing more stakeholders to benefit from future breakthroughs, while retaining control over key decisions and potentially earning revenue from the use of its data.

In addition to these direct incentives, the overall value of the network grows through token distribution and the liquidity owned by the protocol. Grants to the new BioDAO are exchanged for a small stake in its tokens, while liquidity pool fees flow back into the treasury. As BioDAO matures and produces tangible results, the total value of these assets should increase, strengthening the cycle of financing, growth, and innovation.

BioDAO in BIO

Currently, there are 8 BioDAOs in the BIO network, each focusing on a specific research area.

VitaDAO | $VITA

VitaDAO was established in 2021 to support research that extends human healthspan. The project, funded by Pfizer Ventures and Balaji Srinivasan, explores the biological mechanisms of aging, including neurodegenerative diseases.

Quantum Biology DAO

Quantum Biology DAO studies how weak magnetic fields affect cells at the quantum level. The project, in collaboration with the Institute of Quantum Biology, aims to develop quantum microscopes that could open up new avenues for longevity research, drug discovery and more.

HairDAO | HAIR

HairDAO unites patients, researchers and funders to address hair loss, a severely under-resourced problem.

ValleyDAO | $GROW

ValleyDAO pursues synthetic biology solutions to combat climate change, such as engineering microorganisms to capture carbon dioxide or produce biodegradable materials.

AthenaDAO | $ATH

With a focus on women’s health, AthenaDAO fills a gap that standard funding overlooks. Through a decentralized community of patients, scientists, and advocates, it supports projects on reproductive health, hormonal imbalances, and other under-researched topics in female biology.

CryoDAO | $CRYO

CryoDAO directs funding toward cryopreservation research to improve organ and tissue storage, a method with the potential to save lives.

PsyDAO | $PSY

PsyDAO focuses on psychedelic research for mental health issues such as depression, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. It uses a decentralized funding model and AI-based auditing to accelerate the discovery of new compounds, while on-chain governance ensures transparency in resource allocation.

CerebrumDAO | $NEURON

CerebrumDAO convenes the global community to prevent neurodegeneration and prolong brain health. It studies conditions such as Alzheimer's, focusing on inflammation, metabolic issues, the blood-brain barrier and its effects.

Other promising DeSci projects

Outside of the BIO Protocol ecosystem, there are many interesting DeSci projects that bring new platforms or tools for analyzing scientific discoveries.

ResearchHub Foundation

Founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Patrick Joyce, the ResearchHub Foundation leverages RSC to create an open platform for publishing and reviewing scientific work. Contributors earn RSC by publishing research, curating content, or contributing to discussions. The platform aims to create a “GitHub” for scientific research, aiming to simplify peer review, encourage open sharing and bring real-time accountability to scholarly publishing – all through token incentives. RSC holders can also vote on platform improvements and reward distribution.

Yesnoerror

Yesnoerror is a decentralized platform that combines artificial intelligence with community-driven oversight to improve the reliability of scientific papers. Its artificial intelligence engine continuously scans research for inaccuracies—whether in numerical data, statistical analysis, or references—and flags potential issues for further review. Community members who verify or correct these errors will be awarded YNE tokens, creating an inherent incentive for thorough review and timely feedback.

Overall, YNE hopes to detect problems early to prevent flawed conclusions, reduce the risk of poor policy decisions and wasted research, and develop an AI that can learn from users to better detect a range of different sciences issues in the field.

Pump.Science

Pump.science is a DeSci platform designed to identify and develop chemicals that can extend our health span. It hopes to gamify research by conducting low-cost tests on simple organisms (worms, flies) before using complex models (mice). This approach allows for the early identification of promising interventions, using cryptocurrency-based funding to propose or invest in new compounds. By live-streaming experiments (what pump.science calls "stadium science"), the protocol aims to provide real-time data, allowing both researchers and speculators to track the results and potentially adjust their support as the research progresses.

In addition to extending lifespan, pump.science also explores possible ways to improve athletic performance, referencing the idea of ​​an “Animal Doping Olympics.” If successful, the compound could eventually become a consumer product sold through the marketplace, with the creator retaining the intellectual property and suppliers potentially bidding to bring the new discovery to market.

A breakthrough for Project Moonshot?

BIO Protocol's token issuance puts DeSci in the spotlight, demonstrating how a new generation of on-chain initiatives can reshape research and development in biotech and beyond.

Outside of the BIO ecosystem, other DeSci projects demonstrate complementary strategies for enhancing scientific research through blockchain. From ResearchHub's open collaboration platform to yesnoerror's AI-powered paper audits and pump.science's gamified longevity experiments, these projects explore the intersection of science and crypto from different angles. Taken together, they point to a rapidly evolving DeSci landscape in which shared governance, financial coordination, and real-time data sharing may lead to new breakthroughs.

Whether solving funding bottlenecks, streamlining peer review, or discovering life-extending molecules, DeSci Solutions has the audacious goal of putting discoveries into the hands of a broad, motivated community—ultimately accelerating the world's ability to benefit from the next wave of scientific innovation speed.