Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

Beyond the meme craze, the crypto industry is still engaged in practical project investments, and the investment trends of Binance Labs are also attracting 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 sector, and BIO Protocol has become the focus of attention.

However, there seems to be a trail of clues.

Although CZ has gradually stepped back from Binance, he mentioned in a letter to a judge earlier this year while facing legal issues:

"I feel that current medical research is too driven by interests… I want to help fund small research laboratories. Over the past few years, I have spoken with many biotech startups in this field."

The focus on the medical and scientific fields reflects the thoughts of key figures from Binance, which has influenced the investment department's perspective and decision-making inertia to some extent.

So, what exactly is BIO Protocol, and what makes it stand out to attract the investment from Binance Labs?

Incubator for Decentralized Science

In fact, in the document announcing the investment in BIO, Binance Labs has already identified the essence of BIO as "the on-chain scientific 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 grow and develop rapidly.

The so-called on-chain scientific version refers to the scientific research and funding processes conducted using blockchain technology. "On-chain" means that these activities and transactions occur on the blockchain, characterized by transparency and decentralization.

If we compare it to Y Combinator, a rough functional point of BIO Protocol could be:

• Incubation Function: Like Y Combinator incubating tech startups, 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 scientists, patients, and investors from around the world to participate in and support research projects.
• Accelerated Development: Helps research projects grow quickly, similar to how Y Combinator accelerates the development of startups.
• Innovative Models: Introduces new research funding and commercialization models, breaking the limitations of traditional research funding.

How are these functional points specifically realized? This involves the core design of BIO Protocol.

From the perspective of more common crypto projects, BIO Protocol is essentially a curation and liquidity protocol in the decentralized science (DeSci) field. Its design concept is derived from the team's previous successful experiences with Molecule (a tokenization platform for early biomedical projects) and VitaDAO (the largest decentralized community for longevity science).

BIO Protocol mainly includes the following core components:

1. BioDAO: Sub-DAOs focused on specific scientific or medical research

BioDAO members pool resources (data, capital, labor) together, leveraging the collective power of globally distributed stakeholders (e.g., patients, scientists, and biotech builders) to accelerate R&D processes and develop new intellectual property.

BioDAO raises funds through token sales and uses its funds to support and develop biotech projects related to its mission, creating shared ownership of intellectual property among its members.

Currently, BIO has also announced some successful DAO cases, some of which have connected with real-world universities, research institutions, and pharmaceutical companies, successfully demonstrating the effectiveness of this model:

2. Curation System

Utilizes a token staking mechanism, combining community voting and professional evaluation to filter and support high-quality biotech projects.

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 support.

BioDAOs that vote to enter the network receive funding through the BIO Launchpad, as well as token liquidity support from the community, incentives, and other acceleration services.

3. Liquidity and IP Tokenization

Provides tokenization solutions for biotech IP, allowing these IPs to be tokenized (in forms such as NFTs and FTs); simultaneously establishes 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 give holders the opportunity to directly participate in the development, decision-making, and future direction of the research.

BioDAOs develop and obtain ownership of IP tokens. Each BioDAO typically holds a portfolio of IP tokens representing intellectual property related to specific scientific research fields. For example, VitaDAO develops and owns shares of IPTVitaRNA and VITA-FAST.

When someone acquires an IP Token, they will receive a share of the IP generated from the research, which may include patents for new compounds, proprietary screening systems, and even potential treatments.

However, unlike other NFT profit-sharing models, IP Tokens do not grant holders guaranteed financial returns or income shares from the commercialization of these assets, but rather benefits in real-world research, such as:

Access to exclusive information, receiving the latest updates and detailed reports on intellectual property research and development progress, and early or priority access to innovations, collaborations, or future opportunities related to the intellectual property.

4. Incentive Mechanism (Bio/AccRewards)

Designs special acceleration reward mechanisms to incentivize early participants and contributors to promote the rapid development of the ecosystem.

Bio/Acc Rewards provide rewards in the form of BIO tokens to BioDAOs for achieving 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: Conducting initial token auctions through the BIO Launchpad, funding science (IP-Token releases), generating significant revenue from product launches, 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:

• Selecting and supporting BioDAOs to join the BIO network
• Deciding the terms for participating in BioDAOs and their IP token sales
• Providing support and discounts for BioDAO's health products/services
• Governing within member BioDAOs
• Deciding on the issuance of BIO tokens, treasury allocation, and protocol upgrades

As the BioDAOs in the BIO network grow and the value of IP assets increases, 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 (currently not tradable on secondary markets)
• Maximum supply: No limit, future increases may be decided through governance votes
• Increase mechanism: Requires deploying a new token contract to replace the current BIO token

In terms of token distribution, 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 distributions 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-year linear unlocking

• Community auction: 50% immediately available, 50% linear unlock over 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 the token launch.

Genesis is the launch plan for the BIO Protocol, aimed at distributing initial tokens through an auction and raising funds for the protocol. This plan is divided into two rounds, each with its specific goals and mechanisms.

The first round used an English auction mechanism, where participants bid using ETH. The main purpose of this round was to establish an initial community, 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 employs a Dutch auction mechanism, distributing a total of 12.75% of the token supply; as of the latest news, the second round auction is ongoing, with most of the auction 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 and then choose to participate in either the bioDAO asset pool or the ETH pool auction based on their interests. (Note: This is for linking and information organization only, not investment advice; please DYOR)

After the auction is completed, participants will receive BIO tokens, with 50% immediately available and the other 50% unlocking linearly over one year. This mechanism aims to balance immediate liquidity with 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. Here 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 is a substantial amount, reflecting the project's emphasis on community building.

The airdrop primarily targets three groups:

• Public airdrop: Aimed at early users of the Molecule platform, members of life sciences-related DAOs, etc.
• bioDAO airdrop: Specifically for 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, allowing users to use it immediately. In contrast, the airdrops for bioDAOs and Genesis members have longer lock-up periods, including a 1-year lock-up and 6 years of linear unlocking.

Overall, BIO's Genesis launch plan and airdrop strategy demonstrate the project's commitment to fair distribution, community participation, and long-term development. Through multiple rounds of auctions and multi-tiered airdrops, BIO is actively building a diverse and highly engaged community, laying a solid foundation for its decentralized biomedical research network.

Not an Isolated Case

In addition to Binance Labs' involvement in the DeSci sector through this project, other VCs are also on the lookout.

Previously, we mentioned in "Interpreting AminoChain: a16z's first foray into DeSci leading a $5 million investment, patients contributing biological samples to gain benefits" that about 40 days ago, a16z also entered this sector for the first time to invest in projects.

In a market where VCs are not picking up each other's coins and memes are rampant, if crypto can do something good for traditional industries, and if VCs can genuinely invest in projects that benefit other sectors, it can be seen as a refreshing and positive trend.

As Paul Kohlhaas, the founder of the BIO Protocol, stated, "Science drives human progress, but we have trapped the brightest minds in an endless maze of funding—they spend 80% of their time writing grants instead of solving the greatest challenges facing humanity."

Less hype and more meaningful technological projects to unlock breakthrough progress are certainly worth paying attention to, but the effectiveness of investments and the ultimate returns will inevitably require time and the market to validate.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。