Original Author: Miki, Web3Caff Interview Team
In the rapid development wave of blockchain technology, decentralized open science (DeSci) is gradually emerging as a revolutionary force. DeSci Sino, as a highly representative DeSci organization within the Chinese-speaking community, is leading the deep integration of scientific research and Web3 technology with its unique mission and diverse team.
In this interview, Dr. Qi Baowen, a council member of DeSci Sino, shares with us the development history, technological breakthroughs, and future vision of DeSci Sino. How does DeSci Sino address the pain points of the traditional scientific system, from research funding and data sharing to community governance and international cooperation? How does it inject innovative vitality into decentralized science for the Chinese-speaking community? Let us delve into this exciting dialogue to understand the challenges and opportunities of DeSci, as well as the unique role of the Chinese-speaking community in the global DeSci ecosystem.
1. First of all, thank you very much for DeSci Sino's participation in this special interview column of Web3Caff. Please briefly introduce yourself. Web3Caff is a deep vertical media platform dedicated to research in the Web3 field, and we welcome everyone to explore the development trends of the Web3 industry and new economic dynamics with a global perspective. First, could you briefly introduce yourself, DeSci Sino, and your team?
Hello, my name is Qi Baowen. I am currently a member of the second council of DeSci Sino, mainly responsible for business development and outreach. I obtained my Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Montreal in Canada, and then worked as a researcher at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan and Harvard Medical School in the United States. I also serve as an industry mentor at Sichuan University, a visiting professor at Shenzhen University, and the president of the Canadian branch of the Chinese Biomedical Technology Association (CBA-Canada).
DeSci Sino is a Web 3.0 community dedicated to promoting decentralized open science (DeSci) within the Chinese-speaking community. DeSci Sino combines scientific principles with emerging Web 3.0 concepts and technologies to address challenges that traditional methods struggle to solve, such as accelerating drug discovery and approval processes and bridging the gap between the scientific community and the public. Since its establishment in 2024, the DeSci Sino community has rapidly developed, attracting members from diverse backgrounds, including scientists, Web 3.0 developers, legal experts, investors, and educators. Through a series of online activities and offline gatherings, DeSci Sino has played an important role in enhancing public understanding of science and DeSci and promoting the global DeSci movement.
The DeSci Sino team mainly consists of:
1) Council: Currently composed of ten members, responsible for overall coordination, handling complex issues, and formulating long-term strategies.
2) Project Groups: Established by professional fields or tasks, such as scientific research, technology development, community promotion, etc., with collaborative decision-making among group members.
3) Members: Nearly a thousand members participate in community co-construction. All members can submit proposals, which enter the voting stage after preliminary screening, ensuring broad community participation.
2. We know that DeSci Sino combines scientific research with Web3 concepts to address some pain points in traditional scientific methods. Specifically, in which scientific fields do you think decentralized technology has brought about the most significant changes?
DeSci Sino is a Web 3.0 community focused on the scientific field, and we uphold the basic principles of science: boldly proposing viewpoints and hypotheses, and carefully using experiments and data to confirm or refute them. We maintain an open mind while keeping critical thinking. Our focus is on the application and development of decentralized technology in the scientific field, specifically including the following aspects:
Research funding and innovation. Decentralized funding mechanisms change the traditional distribution of research funds. Through blockchain's smart contracts, funds can be directly allocated to specific research projects, reducing the intervention of intermediary institutions. Researchers can tokenize project results and receive corresponding rewards, thereby attracting more people to participate in research and promote technological innovation.
Open data and sharing. Decentralized technology promotes the open sharing of scientific data through the immutability and transparency of blockchain. It enables researchers to share sensitive information such as clinical trial data and genomic data while ensuring privacy and data security through encryption technology. In other fields like AI, it can make global data collaboration more transparent and efficient.
The application of blockchain technology in academic publishing and peer review has brought profound changes to scientific communication. It reduces publisher monopolies, allowing research results to be published instantly and recorded on the blockchain, ensuring originality and transparency. The review process is made transparent, preventing academic misconduct and establishing a more trustworthy and open research ecosystem.
3. Currently, DeSci Sino has attracted members from different backgrounds. How do you design the community governance mechanism to ensure the efficiency and fairness of multi-party collaboration? Have you adopted DAO or similar tools?
The DeSci Sino community is an open and equal Web 3.0 community. Members "co-build, co-govern, and share" the community, meaning that all joining members are the owners of the community. Everyone can freely initiate discussion topics, activities, projects, and community construction plans, and freely mobilize and use the resources of the DeSci Sino community. At the same time, all members collaboratively build community rules, govern the community together, and ensure the quality of the community. Our goal is to make DeSci Sino a "big family" where there are no "parents," only "family members," and everyone can freely and responsibly do anything they want in this home. The "family members" of the DeSci Sino community coexist amicably, respect each other, and can hold different viewpoints, but this does not hinder our joint discussions on DeSci.
In the future, we do plan to use tools like DAO for issues such as proposal creation, voting processes, and fund allocation to ensure that rules are automatically executed and that the voices of members from different backgrounds are equally expressed. We will also regularly disclose the community's fund usage to ensure fair resource allocation. At the same time, we hope that DeSci Sino can become an incubator for Web3 projects, nurturing some of our own projects.
4. The sharing and protection of data in decentralized open science often present a contradiction. How does DeSci Sino ensure the protection of sensitive data or intellectual property while promoting scientific data sharing?
DeSci Sino is incubating projects to address related issues. For example, we can leverage Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology to develop data privacy and intellectual property protection strategies. The paper "Cryptographic Open Science: Enabling Secure And Incentivized Biomedical Data Sharing With Web 3.0 Technologies To Overcome The Open Science Dilemma," published by Dr. Wang Yu's team, the founder of DeSci Sino, in ResearchHub, details how to use blockchain, FHE data encryption, and Crypto Tokens to accelerate data sharing and solve the problem of Open Science not being open. Those interested can follow up.
Specifically, FHE provides a technical means to break through the bottleneck of privacy and intellectual property protection, making data sharing more prevalent in scientific research. FHE allows computations to be performed directly on encrypted data without decrypting it, ensuring that data privacy is always protected during processing. This feature gives FHE significant potential for data sharing and sensitive information protection in decentralized open science (DeSci). The key feature of FHE allows encrypted data to participate in computations, and the output results are also encrypted. Data owners use private keys to decrypt the computation results and obtain plaintext results. Throughout the computation process, the original data and intermediate results are completely invisible to the processing party.
FHE's application scenarios include analyzing patient medical data to study diseases without compromising patient privacy. Medical data is encrypted before uploading, and the research team completes computations (such as statistics, machine learning model training) without ever accessing plaintext data. Data decryption is performed by the patient or authorized party, ensuring privacy protection. Different research institutions need to collaborate and share data, but there may be trust issues between them. FHE allows data to be shared after encryption, enabling partners to run the required computations directly on the encrypted data. Only institutions with the private key can decrypt the results without needing to trust other participants. It also provides computing power for decentralized computing platforms while protecting the privacy of data contributors. Data owners upload encrypted data to a decentralized platform, which only needs to execute computing tasks without accessing plaintext data, building a high-trust collaborative ecosystem.
Using FHE can promote cross-institutional and cross-border research collaboration, allowing different entities to share data in a secure environment. By combining FHE with blockchain, decentralized identity, smart contracts, and other technologies, a complete decentralized scientific computing and data management platform can be constructed.
5. You mentioned that DeSci Sino is committed to bridging the gap between the scientific community and the public. In practice, what do you think is the biggest challenge for DeSci?
As a new paradigm promoting the democratization, transparency, and collaboration of science, DeSci (decentralized open science) is full of potential but faces multiple challenges in practical advancement, including:
Unstable funding sources. Open science may weaken the economic incentives of the traditional research funding system, such as patent revenues and commercialization channels. Scientists and the public may lack motivation to participate in an ecosystem that does not directly generate economic returns.
Credibility and quality control of scientific data. In an open science environment, the lack of quality review may lead to the spread of pseudoscience, data errors, or low-quality research. Differences in data formats, research methods, etc., may affect the efficiency and quality of scientific collaboration. Therefore, it is necessary to use blockchain to record the sources of data and results to ensure the traceability and authenticity of research.
Technical and infrastructure limitations. The public and some scientists may have insufficient understanding of decentralized technologies (such as blockchain, FHE, smart contracts), hindering their use and popularization. The computational efficiency and storage capacity of blockchain and decentralized technologies may not support large-scale scientific data processing.
Challenges in community governance and trust. The interests of scientists, the public, businesses, and funders may conflict, leading to a lack of trust.
Legal and ethical challenges. Sharing sensitive data (such as medical data) may pose risks of privacy breaches. How to protect scientists' inventions and patents in an open environment and promote a new intellectual property framework is also something we have been striving to address.
6. How receptive is the Chinese-speaking community to decentralized open science? What unique approaches has DeSci Sino taken in promotion and education to expand its influence? Additionally, has DeSci Sino collaborated with universities, research institutions, or enterprises? What have been the results?
The acceptance of decentralized open science (DeSci) within the Chinese-speaking community is closely related to the academic backgrounds, professional fields, and understanding of blockchain technology among community members. The groups most interested in DeSci are primarily composed of academic professionals with research backgrounds, tech entrepreneurs, and developers familiar with blockchain technology. Younger scholars and professionals sensitive to new technologies tend to be more receptive, believing that DeSci could change the way research results are shared and resources are allocated. However, some individuals express doubts about the complexity of blockchain technology and its application prospects in scientific research.
The inertia of the traditional research system, such as reliance on journal publications and academic reputation, poses certain resistance to the promotion of decentralized models. The uncertainty of laws and regulations, as well as the complexity of intellectual property protection, are also limiting factors. Many people are dissatisfied with the shortcomings of the existing academic publishing and research funding systems, believing that decentralized solutions have the potential to improve these issues. Especially in China, with increasing national policy support for research innovation and open science, the DeSci concept may gradually enter the mainstream.
DeSci Sino disseminates bilingual content in Chinese and English, making it easier for non-native English speakers in the Chinese-speaking community to understand and participate. The organization hosts online lectures and workshops, inviting industry experts, researchers, and technology developers to share their experiences. By co-hosting offline salons, hackathons, and innovation forums, it builds a bridge between researchers and Web3 developers. In the future, educational materials aimed at beginners will be created, including principles of decentralized science, application cases, and practical guides on how to participate, helping researchers understand how tools like smart contracts and NFTs can be applied in research.
Forms of collaboration with universities, research institutions, or enterprises include hosting themed forums at top universities such as Peking University and the University of Hong Kong, facilitating young researchers' initial understanding of DeSci. Certain enterprises can raise project funds through the DeSci Sino platform while enhancing their brand reputation in cutting-edge technology fields. Through collaboration, the recognition of the DeSci concept has been enhanced, while cultivating a small but active community. However, participants have many questions about how DeSci can be implemented within the existing research system. It is hoped that with more successful case demonstrations and strengthened policy support, DeSci Sino will show greater influence in the sharing of research results and the protection of intellectual property.
7. As a representative DeSci organization in the Chinese-speaking community, does DeSci Sino plan or has it already collaborated with international DeSci projects? What unique advantages or challenges does the Chinese-speaking community have in a global context?
DeSci Sino actively participates in various international DeSci conferences and forums to share the achievements and experiences of the Chinese-speaking community. For example, we have held offline events in Thailand and Singapore. At the same time, we are also actively establishing connections with internationally renowned DeSci projects, such as Bio Protocol, DeSci Asia, and AuraSci, to jointly explore decentralized models in areas like research funding and drug development. In the future, we plan to continue promoting international DeSci projects into the Chinese-speaking market while helping Chinese researchers and institutions integrate more smoothly into the international DeSci ecosystem. Through multilingual educational content and media promotion, we aim to enhance the international community's recognition and acknowledgment of Chinese research achievements.
The advantages and challenges of the Chinese-speaking community in the global DeSci context: The Chinese-speaking community has a large group of researchers and engineers, especially in the fields of life sciences, materials science, and artificial intelligence, where research levels are among the top globally. National-level research funding and innovation policies provide support for the rapid development of science and technology. The vast amount of research data resources and sample sizes in China and other Chinese-speaking regions, particularly in medicine and biology, hold irreplaceable value for global researchers.
The close cooperation between enterprises and universities provides a solid foundation for translational research and industrialization. The Chinese-speaking community is one of the largest Web3 user markets in the world, with a high acceptance of blockchain technology, providing ample space for experimentation and promotion of DeSci projects. The linguistic and cultural ties create a natural advantage for dissemination within the Asian and global Chinese communities. However, strict regulations on blockchain and cryptocurrencies in some countries may hinder the further development of DeSci.
The differences in intellectual property protection and data security laws create complexities for international cooperation. The research community in Chinese-speaking regions still heavily relies on traditional journal publication and funding systems, lacking trust in emerging decentralized platforms. The decentralized open science model has yet to gain recognition in research evaluation metrics. Although Web3 technology is rapidly developing within the community, education and tool dissemination for researchers still need to be strengthened. Some researchers do not have a deep understanding of blockchain technology and decentralized concepts.
Additionally, language and cultural differences may lead to communication and collaboration efficiency issues for Chinese DeSci teams when connecting with international projects. The international community may hold stereotypes about the research achievements and technological levels of the Chinese-speaking regions, potentially leading to insufficient recognition. In the future, we plan to establish an international working group focused on connecting global DeSci projects and promoting cross-cultural collaboration.
We aim to set up a "Chinese-speaking community special session" at international conferences to showcase the achievements of decentralized research in Chinese-speaking regions and collaborate with government agencies to promote pilot projects and policy formulation related to DeSci, providing legal protection for decentralized research. We encourage traditional research funding institutions to attempt to distribute funds through DeSci platforms to build trust.
8. Currently, DeSci is a very hot narrative. How do you view this wave of narrative, and what opportunities and challenges does it bring to DeSci Sino?
The rapid development of blockchain technology combined with the pain points of the research system (such as uneven resource distribution and data closure) has made DeSci an extremely attractive concept. Following the success of Web3 applications like DeFi, NFTs, and DePin, DeSci has emerged as the next application scenario with enormous potential. Many researchers express dissatisfaction with the high costs, opaque operations, and unfair resource distribution of the existing academic publishing and funding systems, yearning for a fairer and more efficient alternative. DeSci has already seen successful pilot projects in certain areas (such as drug development and research data sharing), but overall, it remains in its early stages. The narrative wave has brought attention and funding inflows but may also lead to unrealistic expectations. The hype has attracted capital, talent, and public opinion support, accelerating the development of the DeSci ecosystem. However, without successful case support, the narrative may become a short-term "bubble," leading to a crisis of trust.
Opportunities for DeSci Sino from the DeSci wave: As a representative organization of the Chinese-speaking community, DeSci Sino has the opportunity to become an important link between the international DeSci ecosystem and Chinese research institutions. However, the current DeSci field still lacks iconic projects from the Chinese-speaking community, and DeSci Sino can establish its presence in this field through active participation on the international stage. The hype has attracted venture capital, research funds, and technology development teams, allowing DeSci Sino to gain funding and technical support through global collaboration or by independently initiating projects. By seizing the narrative window, we can establish deep collaborations with more Chinese research institutions, universities, and enterprises. The current wave provides DeSci Sino with ideal opportunities for piloting and innovation, such as promoting decentralized publishing of research results and transparent allocation of research funding. Leveraging the hype, DeSci Sino can expand the reach of science popularization and education, enabling more researchers, developers, and students to understand and participate in DeSci.
Challenges for DeSci Sino from the DeSci wave: The high expectations brought by the hype narrative mean that DeSci Sino must quickly deliver iconic results, or it may miss the window of opportunity. The skeptical attitude towards emerging technologies within the Chinese-speaking community may make education and promotion more difficult. Several well-known international DeSci organizations are already advancing large projects, posing a challenge for DeSci Sino to stand out. The hype has attracted more new players into the market, dispersing resources and attention. The research field itself is complex and conservative, and the DeSci concept needs to overcome various obstacles in practice, including technical, regulatory, and cultural challenges. Additionally, if the hype subsides, how to ensure the long-term development of projects and the continued vibrancy of the community? How to build a strong governance and economic model within the decentralized narrative to ensure the inherent resilience of the DeSci ecosystem?
The current DeSci narrative presents a rare opportunity window. DeSci Sino can establish a foothold in this wave of hype through precise positioning and strategic actions, laying the foundation for sustainable development in the future.
9. Looking ahead to 2025, what clear development goals does DeSci Sino have? Are there any key plans regarding member scale, technological breakthroughs, or project implementation that can be revealed?
Looking ahead to 2025, DeSci Sino, as a representative decentralized open science organization in the Chinese-speaking community, will focus on deep development and innovation in several key areas. Here are some clear development goals and key plans set by DeSci Sino:
- Member scale and community building goals: Strive for a 50% increase in community members (including researchers, developers, enterprise representatives, etc.) by the end of 2025. The goal is to attract more interdisciplinary experts and researchers, not limited to the field of blockchain technology, but also including biomedicine, chemistry, environmental science, and other research areas.
In addition to expanding membership, it is also necessary to enhance the activity level of community members. By 2025, the goal is to hold at least one online salon every two weeks within the community to ensure that collaboration and communication among members continue to deepen. Multilingual support: To better serve the global Chinese-speaking research community, plans will be made to launch multilingual support (including simplified and traditional Chinese) to expand the community's cross-national participation, especially targeting overseas Chinese researchers.
Education and promotion goals: Collaborate with universities and research training institutions to develop a series of courses and teaching materials on DeSci concepts and the application of blockchain technology in research, to popularize relevant knowledge among more researchers. Create an online platform focused on DeSci education, providing free learning resources, video lectures, and technical tutorials to help more researchers understand decentralized technology and its applications in research.
Brand building: Enhance DeSci Sino's visibility in the global research community through social media, research publications, and professional DeSci forums. Especially under the collaboration of core teams in Web3 and blockchain technology, promote DeSci Sino to become an important participant in the global decentralized research ecosystem.
Sustainable development and funding goals: Diversification of funding: Explore decentralized fundraising models through DAO mechanisms, smart contract fundraising, etc., to ensure that projects can operate independently and sustainably. Design and launch an independent decentralized economic model for DeSci Sino, including research project financing, reward mechanisms, data sharing fees, etc. Ensure the transparency of fund flows and effectively incentivize active participation from community members.
In summary, DeSci Sino hopes to make significant strides in multiple key areas by 2025, aiming to secure a place in the global DeSci ecosystem through community building, technological breakthroughs, and project implementation. With clear strategic goals, ongoing educational outreach, and active international collaboration, DeSci Sino will not only accelerate the application and development of decentralized open science but also become an important force in driving innovation and transformation within the Chinese-speaking community in the global research field.
10. Finally, we sincerely thank DeSci Sino for participating in this interview. Today's discussion is significant, providing us with a deeper understanding of DeSci Sino and valuable insights for friends interested in DeSci innovative projects. There must be many unforgettable moments in the development journey of DeSci Sino. Could you share some, such as unexpected breakthroughs during project challenges or interesting anecdotes that occurred during team collaboration? We would love to hear some interesting stories about DeSci Sino or your team.
From the early stages of its establishment, DeSci Sino positioned itself as a decentralized DAO organization. While this model breaks away from traditional centralized structures, it also brings some challenges. For instance, how to minimize the efficiency issues brought about by democratic decision-making? In response, we innovatively tried a "no objection means approval" decision-making mechanism: each proposal is set with a 12-hour public notice period, and if no objections are raised during this period, the proposal is automatically approved. This approach effectively enhances decision-making efficiency.
Additionally, due to the absence of a centralized entity, we were unable to apply for an official WeChat public account. Therefore, we explored a decentralized communication mechanism: DeSci Sino is responsible for providing high-quality content, while community members use their personal accounts for publication. This model not only allows members to drive traffic to Sino but also enables them to produce quality content, achieving a win-win situation.
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