Funding and liquidity are the single largest bottlenecks to scientific progress and the growth of decentralized science (DeSci).
Here we propose a high-level vision for the BIO protocol, a new financial layer for DeSci aimed at increasing the flow of capital and talent into onchain science.
After three years incubating decentralized biotech organizations, including VitaDAO (VITA), ValleyDAO (GROW) and CryoDAO (CRYO), our vision is to build a protocol that catalyzes an onchain economy of scientific communities (bioDAOs) and creates deep, liquid, efficient markets for onchain IP.
NOTE: The mechanics below are subject to change and pending BIO governance.
Protocol Goals
Curation, creation and acceleration of new bioDAOs funding science onchain.
Perpetual funding and liquidity for bioDAOs and scientific IP assets.
Standardization of bioDAO frameworks, tokenomics and data/product suites.
Generation and commercialization of scientific IP and data.
Core Operations
To achieve these goals, the BIO protocol has 5 core operations:
Curation
Funding
Liquidity
Bio/acc Rewards
Meta-Governance
1. Curation
BIO token holders vote on which bioDAO teams are accepted into the ecosystem and receive support from the BIO community in the form of funding, liquidity, rewards, and other acceleration services.
Newsletter
Get the latest updates from the Bio ecosystem
New launches, research progress, and ways to get involved across the Biosphere.
BIO holders stake BIO tokens on the bioDAOs they want accepted, and if the DAOs they’ve staked on are voted in, holders get rewards like BIO tokens, access to whitelisted funding rounds, and early access to the DAO’s products and services.
2. Funding
bioDAOs can fundraise using the BIO protocol’s auction contracts and direct funding towards research initiatives, IP assets, and other biotech organizations.
bioDAOs can use the BIO protocol to customize token sales, airdrops and lock-ups, and to allocate DAO treasury and IP proceeds to activities that further support the DAO’s scientific mission.
3. Liquidity
The BIO protocol can support onchain liquidity for the BIO network using the BIO token and other token holdings in the BIO treasury.
The BIO token can be paired in liquidity pools with bioDAO tokens (e.g., VITA/BIO, GROW/BIO), as well as with other assets (e.g., BIO/ETH, BIO/USDC) to facilitate low-cost conversions in the network, accruing fees and building protocol-owned liquidity (POL).
4. Bio/acc Rewards
The BIO protocol can issue rewards in the form of BIO tokens (“bio/acc rewards”) that incentivize bioDAOs to reach key milestones designed to increase network value (AUM).
BIO holders might choose to use bio/acc rewards to incentivize bioDAO milestones like funding a certain value of onchain science, maintaining a certain level of token liquidity, developing IP that reaches clinical trials, or generating sales from consumer products/services.
5. Meta-Governance
The BIO protocol will hold various bioDAO tokens in its treasury and can therefore serve as a meta-governance layer empowering BIO holders to govern a wide range of bioDAOs and scientific IP assets.
Value Accrual
The BIO treasury accrues value through a variety of mechanisms, including:
Token Allocations
The BIO treasury receives token allocations from each new bioDAO that joins its network as part of the bioDAO’s induction into the network. The BIO treasury can also receive allocations of bioDAO scientific IP assets.
Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL)
The BIO treasury accrues fees and yields from its onchain liquidity in BIO tokens, bioDAO tokens, IP tokens, ETH, and other assets, building POL.
BIO Token
The BIO token can be used for the following purposes:
Curate bioDAOs to join the BIO protocol programs
Priority access to bioDAO token sales and IP-token sales
Discounts on bioDAO health products/services
Meta-governance in bioDAOs
Vote on BIO emissions, treasury allocation, and protocol updates
Conclusion
BIO is creating a new category of crypto - “Science Finance” or SciFi - a symbiosis of DeFi and DeSci.
The protocol aims to align incentives and increase capital in bioDAOs, deepening liquidity for SciFi and accelerating the pace of onchain science.
More details will be shared in the coming weeks and months as we work with the BIO community and beyond to launch and scale the BIO protocol and its economy of bioDAOs and scientific IP.
