DeSci: The intersection of AI, Crypto, and Life Sciences

DeSci is the crypto world version of the AI4Sci movement. This article is sourced from an article written by Zuo Ye and compiled, edited, and authored by ForesighNews. (Background: Can DeSci solve the "broken window effect" of research funding?) (Background supplement: BIO launched V2, can the new Launchpad restart the DeSci craze?) The black box of large models is frustrating, and blockchain hopes to bring about transparent white boxes in research. In 1943, the master of the quantum state, Schrödinger, gave a challenging lecture in Dublin, demonstrating the relationship between atoms, life, and cells from the perspective of statistical physics. At that time, across the ocean, a 15-year-old Watson was already a freshman at the University of Chicago. After reading Schrödinger's lecture, which became the book "What is Life," Watson confirmed that genetics would be his lifelong ambition. Ten years later, when the now-doctoral Watson proposed the double helix structure of DNA, the 25-year-old had already locked in a Nobel Prize in advance. Grafting, cloning to gene editing. In front of my house, there are two trees, one is a jujube tree, and the other is also a jujube tree. Everyone who has been through junior high school knows that genes are information segments of DNA, like the "function body" in code, and are the most basic functional implementations, while DNA is like an instance model, RNA is like routing and communication functions, transmitting genetic information to specific objects. Watson discovered the structure of DNA, but humans did not know how to utilize it, much like we know about Schrödinger's cat but can find the cat easily, while quantum communication will take many more years. At least Watson was luckier than Schrödinger; in the summer of 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna discovered that CRISPR sequences and Cas proteins could combine to artificially cut specific sequences and insert the information segments they desired, ultimately utilizing the body's repair mechanisms to complete the grafting without awareness. It really resembles horticultural pruning, where visible branches connect, and, despite not understanding the biological mechanisms, one can discern the matching relationships between different plants—just through continuous experimentation. Experiments can continue, and cloning can too; cell nuclei and cytoplasm can also be separated and "connected." Through ongoing trials, cloning can achieve the wonderful effects of isomers, just as stated in "What is Life." Gene editing is not mysterious; the further cloning, by further micro-optimizing size, is like viewing life from an atomic perspective, which is merely the irreversible process of thermal motion’s final coldness, like time; it may stretch or compress, but it is never reversible. Humans can graft fruit trees, humans can clone animals, so can humans edit humans? In 2018, the mad scientist He Jiankui became Eve or that snake, gene editing a pair of twin embryos, whose parents had AIDS. Humanity thus opened Pandora's box; cloned animals can be humanely destroyed; is a gene-edited human still human? Image description: CRISPR-Cas9 working principle, image source: @zuoyeweb3. However, the in-depth exploration at the genetic level presents a fatal temptation for certain populations—longevity, finding gene segments that influence lifespan, like hackers of General Jin, modifying its value from 100 to , even if just adding a 0 is enough. In 2023, Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam decided to leave the crypto industry and establish a biological research company, Nudge. Coincidentally, Fred is also a co-founder of Coinbase; after the company went public in 2017, he transitioned into crypto VC. Also in 2017, Paul Kohlhaas joined Consensys as the BD director but left a year later to start his own venture. Why not do something more interesting with blockchain? For example, engaging in research, Molecule was established in 2018, one of the early explorations of the combination of blockchain and research, especially biological research. Meanwhile, AlphaGo's parent company, DeepMind, released its life research model, AlphaFold, in 2016, demonstrating its power in the field of protein structure observation. In 2020, AlphaFold2 successfully solved the protein folding problem, and the 25-year-old Watson had a Nobel Prize scheduled, this time 4-year-old AlphaFold2 was also slated for 50% of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024. Fred's transition in 2023 was not even early; as early as 2020, another co-founder of Coinbase, Armstrong, initiated ResearchHub to decompose the institutional research processes of universities—papers—funding, introducing incentive mechanisms to relieve universities of the triple burden of academic titles, profit for publishers, and funding applications. Especially since scholars bear the costs of submitting papers to publishers, but the reviewers selected by publishers often work for free, with only publishers profiting from the price difference. All elements are in place; AI, research, and papers are converging towards life sciences, and the 21st century is indeed the century of biology. The crypto world offers longevity, first seeking the elixir of life. Decentralized research (DeSci) is engaged in drug development for life science research. DeSci is the crypto world version of the AI4Sci movement but is highly focused on AI, life sciences, and new drug development, perhaps having taken some meme-like "detours" along the way. Do you remember Paul Kohlhaas's Molecule? In 2022, it even received investment from Balaji; no one can refuse the temptation of longevity. Further, in 2022, Paul Kohlhaas established Bio Protocol, starting to develop products that can help the crypto world pros live longer, divided into several sub-DAOs, covering the scientific mysteries of life from head to toe. In 2024, after "rebirth," CZ and Vitalik appeared together at Bangkok's DeSci Day, where the now-V God recommended the supplement VD001 from Vita DAO, which is under Bio Protocol, to the older CZ. Then, Bio successfully received investment from CZ's YZi, and the token smoothly headed towards Binance. Paul Kohlhaas is quite adept at making things happen, keeping up with the times and creating a Pump Science that imitates PumpFun. Is there potential in combining memes with scientific research? However, after Bio surged, there was dissatisfaction with the delivery of results. In traditional research, developing a new drug can easily exceed 1 billion USD and take several years, even decades, while Bio's secondary market does not wait five minutes; taking money without pumping is a sin of doing real research. The story doesn't end, as the Agent wave has arrived; AI Agents genuinely promise to change research efficiency. More interestingly, ResearchHub received a $2 million investment in February 2025, and there are even people reviewing the posts of DeSci's Agents. In August 2025, Bio Protocol released V2...