30s Summary

Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Cardano, is an advocate for decentralizing scientific research and publication, criticizing the current system as “terribly broken”. Current peer review processes are criticized for being potentially easy to manipulate. The DeSci (decentralized science) movement aims to balance traditional peer review and unchecked research by incentivizing reviewers to participate, using a decentralized autonomous organization to guide protocols and fund allocation. This approach overhauls the need for large scientific journals, championing a system that values both research and review.

Full Article

Many fans of decentralization think there’s a major issue in science: everything’s too centralized and there’s not enough motivation for folks to get involved. One of these decentralization enthusiasts, Charles Hoskinson, who also helped start Cardano, has been really vocal about his thoughts on the current way scientific research is published. He’s gone as far as saying the system is “terribly broken.”

For some context here, when we talk about peer review in science, we’re basically referring to how scientists have their work checked over by other scientists to make sure nothing’s off. It’s important for catching any mistakes or mishaps before any wrong conclusions are drawn. However, some people argue that this process can be easily manipulated and it begs the question: who counts as a “peer” and is the reviewing chosen fairly and representatively?

One way around this is to publish initial research that isn’t subjected to peer review, kind of an early preview. While this does dodge expensive review processes and allows findings to be seen by the public quicker, it also means these findings might be unchecked.

This is where the DeSci (decentralized science) movement comes in. Their goal is to find a middle ground between traditional peer review and unchecked, wild research. They want to build a system that encourages reviewers to participate by giving them incentives. DeSci relies on something called a decentralized autonomous organization to direct how protocols are used and how funds are allocated. This completely changes the game because it gets rid of the need for giant, dominating scientific journals by encouraging expertise to get involved in a system where both research and review are valued.

Source: Cointelegraph