Technology has always been a dilating force in the world of science, tools like the compass, mechanical clock, and microscope all served to broaden the possibilities of what can be understood about the world around us.  In the same way, modern technologies like high performance computing and machine learning are pushing the boundaries on what science is, and defining the trajectory of what it will become.

However, the development of modern science and the global epistemic commons was a process contextualized by the times, especially its last roughly 100 years.  In this past century we’ve seen monolithic publishers like Nature or Science become de facto journals of prestige and reputation while maintaining a perverse commitment to profit over scientific process.  As a result, the replication/validation and distribution of science has been obfuscated by titans of scientific publishing.  Sensationalism becomes the only way to obtain grants, being “published” in such a journal acts as an artificially (centrally) determined “premium” on one's research.

Thousands of scientists and concerned citizens have begun a search for solutions, the whole of this movement coming to be known as “decentralized science” or “DeSci”.  As an outgrowth of the open science movement, DeSci aims to change how knowledge is shared, science is funded, and to ultimately shift value and ownership back into the hands of those who contribute to it – not third party intermediaries.

By using blockchain as a new kind of “ownership layer” for science, the DeSci movement uses tools like smart contracts and non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) to manage new models for ownership and investment, curation of knowledge artifacts like papers, and to design new incentive systems for communities within the global scientific commons.

WBC finds this movement so compelling that it should indeed deserve its own section of focus.  Within the deSci section of WBC, we will chart a course through this rapidly developing domain of applications, giving members the “lay of the land” for the future of the scientific process and hands-on experience with the tools, people, and applications that make it possible.

Interested?  Of course you are!  Immutable, censorship proof, fully auditable science is science as science should be!  A new day is dawning for science, and we hope you come along to be a part of it within DeSci.