Revolutionizing Research Funding with Blockchain

Current research problems of today

Scientific studies today struggle with adequate funding, often having to rely on government or private research grants which are not necessarily in line with the long term benefits of the population and rather with political motives. This creates a system that often favours established researchers and "safe" projects over innovative ideas, which can be a misuse of time and resources which can be more effectively utilised doing innovative breakthrough science as opposed to “safer” iterative research

Micropayments from people all over the world to fund studies of choice

Utilising blockchain technology, scientific studies could become something like what GoFundMe did for startups, enabling people from around the world to permissionlessly send micropayments to fund the studies of their choice. Micropayments can be collected from anyone with a phone and wifi thanks to the innovation of cryptocurrency. In the next few years there could be something like an OpenSea for scientific research which would have many types of scientific studies listed, represented with purchasable NFTs, say if the study needed 20 million dollars, they could incentivise donations by issuing $5, $20, $100 NFTs and so on, each monetary amount with a different design as a thank you to the donor, this would encourage donations as the donors would receive a thank you in the form of a picture related to the scientific study, allowing them to easily keep track of the study, kind of like a digitised thank you card for donating blood. This NFT could serve to show exclusive access to elements of the study as it is being done with each higher dollar amount NFT allowing more exclusive access into the scientific process, further encouraging more donations for scientific research

The benefit of scientific studies being tokenised is that people will now be able to vote with their dollars which scientific studies they would like to see be done as opposed to navigating the bureaucracy and politics of receiving scientific research grants from large corporations and government with their own agendas. With tokenised micropayments, this will do to science as what capitalism did for the individual, making each and every person a free economic agent. This new way of science will allow each and every person to decide what type of studies they want done for the betterment of themselves or the wider community as opposed to governments and institutions making these essential decisions

Oracles to ensure truth

Because of its decentralized nature, blockchain offers an immutable record of data transactions, ensuring that once information is recorded, it cannot be altered or tampered with

This is particularly advantageous for scientific research, where the authenticity and reliability of data are paramount. In a world where we are overloaded with information, but unsure how truthful the information is, blockchain will be essential for linking the elements of the study directly onto an open source blockchain so people can read into it. For example if there was a study on human health, the heart rate or other measures of a person would not just be sent to an internal database but would be sent on chain as well to an oracle service ensuring the data collected cannot be tampered with, ensuring a verified study without requiring trust