Should DeSci Return to Value or Chase the Meme? At the Crossroads, Which Path to Choose?

By Kevin, the Researcher from BlockBooster

On November 26, Paul Kohlhaas, founder of BIO Protocol, responded to a tweet from CZ on social media, stating that “DeSci is already managing to funnel memecoin liquidity into real science across universities and labs all over the globe.” This phenomenon raises an interesting question: why has scientific research, especially in the field of medicine — typically characterized by rigor and long-term investment — successfully integrated with the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency markets?

Scientific research, especially in the medical field, inherently requires significant time investment, measured in years or even decades, which contrasts sharply with the fast-paced nature of the current market focused on short-term gains. Why has DeSci generated such a heated discussion in the market this November? Is it a market correction driven by the historic peak of meme coin sentiment? Or is DeSci merely a new form of meme coin, cloaked in the guise of scientific progress to benefit humanity?

This article explores the true demand for DeSci, focusing on the business models and development directions of Bio Protocol and Pump.Science. What conditions must be met for DeSci to align with market needs and achieve sustainable long-term development?

Bio Protocol Business Model Breakdown

First, the narrative around DeSci is driven by Bio Protocol. On November 8, Binance completed a strategic investment in BIO, although the round size and funding amount were not disclosed. Following this, BIO initiated the BIO Genesis community fundraising campaign, raising $33 million.

BIO currently has seven active DAOs, focusing on research areas such as longevity, hair loss treatment, brain health, and more. It is important to note that BioDAO is not a specific research team in a single field (such as longevity research), but rather represents the practical implementation of BIO Protocol. Why do I say this? Look at the business model diagram for BIO Protocol above. Simply put, BIO is a nested Launchpad, combined with no-yield staking, incentives, and an embedded Launchpad enabling infinite token splits. BIO consists of these four components.

Specifically:

• First Part: Launchpad BioDAOs
• BioDAOs raise funds through token sales and use the proceeds to support related biotech projects. Each BioDAO can also be seen as a Launchpad in itself. I’ll explain this further in the fourth section.
• Second Part: BIO’s Staking Mechanism
• Under the guise of curation, BIO locks user tokens. From the governance and proposal pages, you can see that BIO’s usual staking rate is around 15%, and during the voting for new BioDAOs, the staking rate can exceed 20%. Users do not earn rewards directly from staking. Instead, users who vote for the winning BioDAO will receive BIO tokens as rewards. If the BioDAO they voted for is not selected, they will receive no reward. Curation is a powerful tool for locking user tokens, and when new BioDAOs are created, its value output for the BIO ecosystem will far outweigh the rewards distributed by BIO.
• Third Part: BIO Token’s Primary Use Case — Incentives
• Incentives are divided into two parts. The first part is for participating BioDAOs, which receive incentives when they launch their initial token sales. For users, incentives are granted when they use BioDAO products or contribute to BioDAOs in some way. Currently, the incentive tokens distributed are minimal, especially compared to traditional scientific research industries. The cost is significantly reduced, as participating in drug trials within traditional industries is very expensive, while BIO distributes incentives in the form of BIO tokens.
• Fourth Part: Token Splitting Mechanism
• BioDAOs can be considered as sub-Launchpads. BioDAOs select specific teams or research topics, raise funds, and issue IP tokens or IP NFTs. The holders of these assets are promised early participation rights, but no additional returns are guaranteed.

From a business model perspective, BIO still operates in a familiar way within the industry, but its distinguishing feature is the nesting of Launchpads. As specific research projects issue tokens or NFTs, the potential liquidity drought will first impact BioDAO tokens. BIO tokens serve as a form of insurance — only when multiple BioDAO tokens encounter issues will the value of BIO be questioned. However, the benefits of specific research projects issuing assets will fully benefit BIO, as they will attract more users to buy BIO tokens and participate in the ecosystem. Another key feature is that users are incentivized to stake tokens under the guise of participating in scientific research, without having to pay yield. As a result, potential returns are provided by BioDAO tokens or specific research projects, allowing BIO to lock user tokens for the long term at a very low cost. BIO serves as an index token across all these DAO tokens.

How Does Pump.Science Blur the Boundaries Between DeSci and Memecoins?

Molecule is a protocol that brings IP onto the blockchain, issuing IP-NFTs and IPTs for Bio Protocol. Pump.Science is Molecule’s Launchpad, where the intellectual property (IP) of specific compounds is represented in token form.

Pump.Science believes that, compared to buying stock in a biotech company, which is akin to holding the company’s entire portfolio of drugs, on Pump.Science, investors can choose to invest in a single drug. The tokens issued on Pump.Science comply with legal regulations, but from the perspective of tokenizing IP, they must be synthetic compounds and not naturally occurring substances like nicotine. However, if nicotine is combined with other substances, such as caffeine, this combination can be patented. What Pump.Science does is tokenize these patents or data and then test whether they are effective.

Pump.Science has launched two tokens: $RIF and $URO. $RIF has a market cap of $100 million. The compounds behind these tokens can be used to develop supplements and can later generate profits through sales or licensing of patents. To attract more investors, Molecule develops data to prove the effectiveness of these compounds, such as demonstrating a significant increase in lifespan during animal testing.

But does Pump.Science really want to focus on scientific research? From the current perspective, this seems increasingly unlikely. As Christmas approaches, Pump.Science will hold a “Rif Christmas” event, launching two new tokens each day for ten days. This means that in December, Pump.Science will intensively release 20 synthetic compound tokens. Although the platform claims it will gradually showcase their development paths and eventually aim to reach human trials and even develop a product market to sell various supplements, it is foreseeable that the majority of these 20 tokens will likely have zero market value by the time their corresponding supplements are released.

From the perspective of chasing market trends, Pump.Science is also actively advancing AI-related product development. They plan to create an AI bot that will trade based on compound experimental data, executing actions in response to events at different stages of progress.

Returning to the main topic, should DeSci return to value-based development or chase meme trends? From the business models and development directions of Bio Protocol and Pump.Science, it is clear that neither of them has fully committed to scientific research, while still seizing the opportunity to provide Memecoins to the market. This may be one potential path for future DeSci protocols. However, one thing should be made clear: scientific research must return to fundamentals and objective laws. Biological science research requires long-term and substantial funding. Therefore, the short-term speculation around Memecoins will not last, and a single Memecoin is not the development model for DeSci protocols. Buying DeSci tokens means enduring a narrative that is not yet widely accepted. DeSci will need to employ venture capital-like token promotions to boost valuation expectations and the value of leading projects, while continuously releasing signals through symbolic figures, since the market perception of DeSci is far lower than that of AI. As a result, more authoritative signals will be needed to increase market confidence and consensus.

In terms of specific GTM (Go-To-Market) strategies, the DeSci space has several sub-sectors: fundraising, research, data, peer review, publishing, infrastructure and services, art, scientific open ecosystems, and community. From these, one should select the direction that aligns with their understanding or has relatively low implementation barriers. Additionally, the DeSci model is inherently a token-splitting mechanism, where different research topics act as sub-tokens. Web3 financing models, similar to crowdfunding, can be used to fund real-world research projects and make them the ambassadors for DeSci’s practical application. This is something several protocols in the industry are working on. However, due to the inherent uncertainty and high failure rates in scientific research, it is expected to be challenging in practice.

The market needs to see numerous real-world examples of DeSci making an impact in order to build consensus. This process will take longer than the AI narrative. ChatGPT was released in late 2022, and by 2023, speculation in the crypto space had begun. However, DeSci will need more time. From another perspective, this also creates opportunities for DeSci because the rapid development of AI has subconsciously prepared people to accept the possibility that seemingly impossible things can become reality, such as VitaDAO’s longevity science, which is no longer a pipe dream. Overall, I believe that DeSci’s consensus has only just begun and will require long-term effort. One should be prepared for the narrative to explode during the next bull market.

About BlockBooster: BlockBooster is an Asian Web3 venture studio backed by OKX Ventures and other leading organizations, aiming to be the trusted teammate of promising builders. We bridge Web3 projects and the real world through strategic investment and deep incubation.

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