Yishai Ofek

...trying heroically on a podcast to explain why putting one’s house “on the blockchain” might be better than the current system. Eventually, after much grasping and a bit of “these things could all be NFTs,” McCormick ended up more or less where he began. “You’ve just re-created the entire mortgage infrastructure that already exists today,” a host... See more

The "crypto bro" stereotype can turn people off from learning more about the technology.

The IP-NFT enables new fundraising and collaboration strategies for researchers by combining legal and technical frameworks with NFT technology. Early-stage research can be financed without endless grant applications, creating a startup and raising VC or needing to file a patent.

What primarily differentiates DeSci from other efforts to rethink our research system is its use of blockchain tools. This is similar to how blockchain is disrupting other industries, where web2 models of centralized ownership are being challenged by web3 models of decentralized, shared ownership.

Funding is an especially acute pain point for scientists, who spend up to half their time writing grant proposals. Success in getting funding is heavily tied to metrics such as the h-index, which quantifies the impact of a scientist’s published work. The resulting pressure to “publish or perish” incentivizes the pursuit of novel research over work ... See more

If you can't stand it when people talk about crypto, you're not alone.

Still in its infancy, DeSci lies at the intersection of two broader trends: 1) efforts within the scientific community to change how research is funded and knowledge is shared, and 2) efforts within the crypto-focused movement to shift ownership and value away from industry intermediaries.