Blockchain and Deconstructing The Centralized Institutions Of Progress
An analysis of blockchain's potential for the decentralization of science
The For-Profit Business Model Of Scientific Innovation
The Commercial Scientific publishing industry is worth a staggering 25 billion dollars. Boasting profit margins higher than juggernauts of industry like Apple and Google. Academic publishing institutions have established a blatant precedent of valuing profitability over the progression of science and society as we know it.
The Open Science movement of the last decade addressed this issue of accessibility of information head-on demanding greater access and inclusivity. Before the Open Science movement, users wanting to access scholarly work were met with a paywall in which profits were funneled into the publishing agency rather than the author.
This system was criticized for its inaccessibility to those financially incapable and with it, the movement brought the mandate of open access articles. Facing the potential of a decline in shareholder value publishing agencies were briefly backed into a corner.
Their response was a reshaping of the business model. Currently, academics currently face an upfront cost of up to 11,000$ dollars to get their work published by a reputable journal, giving up copyrights and ownership simply for the satisfaction of ‘making it’ as an academic.
Why You as a Tax Payer Should Care
To better understand the injustice that is being carried out on the progressions of innovation its important to take a broad look at the flow of money and resources into this 25,000,000,000$ industry.
With over 100 billion dollars of taxpayer money each year going into the funding of science in the United States. The money that we as citizens give up in expectance of progressive innovation is funneled into centralized academic publishing journals prioritizing the greed of shareholders over the progress of humanity. This research, that’s supposedly for the benefit of the taxpayers, is consolidated and privatized in a for-profit model.
Furthermore, the current academic landscape, because of the centralized nature of publishers, has created an environment of intellectuals harboring information to themselves due to agencies fostering competition over collaboration with an arduous and competitive publishing process.
Taxpayers pay scientists to do research, researchers compete with other researchers to publish their work, this work, now under the ownership of the publishing company, is resold back to scientists in a business model characterized by profiting off of the same scientist contributing to their success while excluding the greater population behind a paywall. Thus hindering innovation.
This is an egregious loop of an impediment toward innovation due to capitalistic pursuits. With discontent in these centralized institutions at an all-time high. Alexandra Elbakyan looked to the radically new solution of blockchain for that answer.
Sci-hub, the database of millions of research papers funded through crypto
Founded in 2011 by Alexandra Elbakyan, a Russian intellectual unhappy with the current centralized model made public a website known as Sci-Hub in which users can get access to millions of research papers and books by bypassing paywalls.
It’s no surprise that publishing journals all over the world fought back against its existence and many major countries have made supporting the resource illegal. Upon the declaration in any respective nation that Sci-Hub was an illegal platform stealing intellectual property from journals, payments in the given countries' currency could be systematically cut off on the web. Originally operating through Paypal, this became a significant problem.
Cryptocurrency arose in the coming years as a way for the platform to live on. Accepting a wide variety of cryptocurrencies that continues to grow, the platform is funded in a decentralized manner by the people and for the people. Cycling its domain name on a regular basis and being economically funded through the donations of cryptocurrencies across the world, Elbakyan has utilized blockchain as a means to transcend the system in which oppresses innovation.
“unquestionably one of the most important sites for academics in the world” — Edward J. Snowden, May 9th, 2021
Why does this matter
The current model of academia has been criticized for centuries as only offering inclusivity to those of higher economic standing. Much of this is due to the extraction of value taken from academics and put into the pockets of executives within publishing agencies looking to satisfy shareholders.
With only around 15% of publishing agencies operating on an open access model, imagine the knowledge that is restricted from the general public. This is cutting-edge research on Cancer, Alzheimers, Diabetes, all being consolidated from the public in a for-profit business model.
Furthermore, universities across the world pay billions for access to these databases to give exclusive access to paying students. Deconstructing these centralized institutions give opportunity for those facing poverty to gain unprecedented ability to educate themselves on complex disciplines while navigating around university institutions that stack crippling levels of debt on those entering the workforce.
Imagining decentralized innovation and distribution on the blockchain
As decentralized databases like the InterPlanetary File System increase in their capacity to be globally accessible. Blockchain becomes an increasingly viable solution for a decentralized standard of academia.
The emergence of things like DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) brings to light new trains of thought characterized by systems that can be designed to prioritize humanity over profitability. BioNTech, the German pharmaceutical company that teamed with Pfizer to develop the first widely used COVID-19 vaccine, saw its revenue grow roughly $3.6 billion upon the public announcement of its widespread administration.
With the stock price rising from about $1.60 to $13.59, billions upon billions of dollars graced the pockets of shareholders, not the researchers that brought the lifesaving vaccine to the light of day. DAOs, having the ability to implement coded distribution of funds determined by their community, could create new institutions fostering grassroots innovation and collaboration.
Imagine a system in which those profits could be redistributed amongst the scientist that developed the vaccine. Or even fund increased vaccine administration in vulnerable communities adversely affected by COVID-19.
NFTs for Science
On June 8th, 2021 UC Berkeley made an industry-shaking move by putting groundbreaking Nobel Prize-winning research regarding cancer immunotherapy for auction in the form of an NFT. The research went on to sell for over 50 thousand dollars.
With profits being redistributed back to the university to further fund continued research, UC Berkeley has established an exciting precedent of distributing profitability back into the programs that support scientists rather than external interests.
Conclusion
The centralized institutions at the top of academia have proven to be capitalistic for-profit organizations that value the perpetual retention of wealth and power over the innovation and progression of society as a whole.
While still in its infancy, blockchain proves to display the potential to bring radical shifts into the power dynamics that exist between the top of academia and the greater public.
Decentralizing the institutions of information means the establishment of a never before seen ability for any and all, regardless of economic means, to take control of their future and construct their own opportunities.
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