Unchaining Collective Intelligence for Science, Research, and Technology Development by Blockchain-Boosted Community Participation

Abstract

Since its launch just over a decade ago by the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, the distributed ledger technology (DLT) blockchain has followed a breathtaking trajectory into manifold application spaces. This study aper analyses how key factors underpinning the success of this ground-breaking “Internet of value” technology, such as staking of collateral (“skin in the game”), competitive crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and prediction markets, can be applied to substantially innovate the legacy organization of science, research, and technology development (RTD). Here, we elaborate a highly integrative, community-based strategy where a token-based crypto-economy supports finding best possible consensus, trust, and truth by adding unconventional elements known from reputation systems, betting, secondary markets, and social networking. These tokens support the holder’s formalized reputation and are used in liquid-democracy style governance and arbitration within projects or community-driven initiatives. This participatory research model serves as a solid basis for comprehensively leveraging collective intelligence by effectively incentivizing contributions from the crowd, such as intellectual property work, validation, assessment, infrastructure, education, assessment, governance, publication, and promotion of projects. On the analogy of its current blockbusters like peer-to-peer structured decentralized finance (“DeFi”), blockchain technology can seminally enhance the efficiency of science and RTD initiatives, even permitting to fully stage operations as a chiefless decentralized autonomous organization (DAOs).

Systematic Review of Centrifugal Valving Based on Digital Twin Modelling towards Highly Integrated Lab-on-a-Disc Systems

“…Follow-up work is already planned on computer-aided, possibly automated optimization of integration density, robustness and manufacturability. As an open platform concept [123], the work is meant to encourage further honing of design, modelling, simulation and experimental verification, for instance, within a blockchain-incentivized participatory research model involving crowdsourcing by means of hackathons, citizen science, fab / maker labs [124][125][126]. Such community-based organization of research, which are already well-established in the thriving field of blockchain, are particularly attractive for centrifugal microfluidic technologies as key intellectual property (IP), that was mainly filed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, has now entered the public domain.…”

Secure Air Traffic Control at the Hub of Multiplexing on the Centrifugo-Pneumatic Lab-on-a-Disc Platform

“…In view of the vanguard of strong, often disruptive socio-economic and technological trends in its technological environment, such as Maker / Fab Labs, hackathons, science as a service (SaaS), cloud computing, Machine Learning (ML) / Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and decentralization, as well as the continuing expiry of all foundational patents on centrifugal microfluidics that were primarily filed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, which creates sufficient wiggle room in intellectual property (IP) space, open platform models for heralding a new era of blockchain-backed participatory research models and crowdsourcing of ideas, expertise, skills, work force, infrastructure and equipment may be established [64][65][66][67].…”

Design Optimization of Centrifugal Microfluidic "Lab-on-a-Disc" Systems towards Fluidic Larger-Scale Integration

“…Eventually, professional layout software may be provided, which would, for instance, enable foundry services as a landmark of mature supply chains. Regarding the bigger picture, the publication of the digital twin sets the stage for open platform models that have been discussed in the context of crowdsourcing through, e.g., blockchain-backed, participatory research models [64][65][66][67].…”