Decentralized autonomous organization or DAO is one of the biggest trends in the cryptocurrency industry today. In fact, DAOs have gradually become a crucial tool for businesses to bring people together & work toward the same goal. 

A DAO is an organization constructed by rules encoded as a transparent computer program. It is a member-owned and managed community and is not influenced by a central government. 

The list of popular DAOs is rather long, including  The DAO, Uniswap, Decentraland DAO, BitDAO, Friends With Benefits, ConstitutionDAO, Pleasr, and UkraineDAO. And now, we have a truly unique entry into the crypto space, the ScienceDAO, which is decentralizing and changing the world of science.

Decentralized Science (DeSci) is a new way for creators and contributors to come together to support shared ideas.

It is a way to help scientific communities from around the world flourish by utilizing decentralized technology, such as DAOs, which can revolutionize the transfer of information, data, methodology, contacts, ideas, and resources.

The Science DAO fulfills an entrepreneur's need for risk capital while taking the pressure off of single investors by mitigating risk through decentralized governance. 

Bringing the Community Together 

A DAO provides a safe way to collaborate with internet strangers for different purposes such as protocol, operating systems, investment, grants, social, education, employment, media, events, and more. 

These organizations come in all shapes and sizes where individual members collectively make critical decisions about the project's future. This way, a DAO is governed entirely by its members, and each member oversees the protocol at some level.

Community members create proposals about the future operations of the protocol and then vote on each proposal. After a consensus is reached, the proposal is accepted and enforced by the rules embodied within the smart contract.

Meanwhile, a DAO's rules are established by community members through smart contracts, which are self-executable contracts with the terms of the agreement written directly into lines of code. These smart contracts, which are verifiable and publicly auditable, lay out the foundational framework by which the DAO is to operate. 

The best part of this framework is the alignment of incentives in the way that it is in an individual's best interests to approve proposals that serve the best interest of the protocol.

This is typically achieved through the issuance of governance tokens which gives its holders certain voting rights, usually in proportion to their holdings. For example, at the Science DAO, owning tokens of the Science DAO ($THRY) means the holders get a say in upcoming emerging technologies.

Working Towards the Same Goal

Founded by CEO Joey Poareo, the Science DAO is a decentralized think tank and an incubator engine and accelerator platform that aims to empower inventors, entrepreneurs, and institutions to collaborate and make investments in the broad world of technologies. 

Poareo is known for his philanthropic efforts and brings his talent and abundant leadership skills to this multi-project corporation. He has been in executive positions across multiple industries, from blockchain technology to mental health rehabilitation. 

At the Science DAO, the focus is on a wide array of categories, including health and environment, computing and technology, as well as natural sciences. Furthermore, within each of these larger categories, the Science DAO directs its attention to numerous sub-topics and projects driving innovation. Science DAO's aim is to encourage investing in science by allowing accredited retail and institutional investors the chance to come together and be part of life-changing breakthroughs and inventions. 

According to the Science DAO whitepaper, the project aims to solve several problems for not only retail investors and institutions but also inventors.

Generally, profound scientific startups are not available to the public due to high barriers of entry, non-existent deal flow, and issues regarding geography and accreditation. As for institutions, many early-stage funds deal with an illiquid seed investment requiring them to be married to a company for several years before getting any liquidity. Inventors with promising ideas meanwhile need expert advice, mentorship, licensing, corporate guidance, and risk capital before proof of concept.

This is where the Science DAO can completely change how the scientific community works. 

They have an expert advisory committee of some of the world's most prolific scientific startup experts. Besides processing deal flow from networks already in existence for the last 35+ years, the DAO, and the advisory committee will also forge new relationships for the future.

The Proof of Ownership

In the growing world of Web3, while DAOs are ushering in a revolutionary way to reimagine how communities, businesses, and labor get organized, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are offering new ownership opportunities and changing not just the digital but the entire world. 

The Science DAO combines both the applications of Web3 to take ideas and innovation beyond the traditional walls of science.

Under the Science DAO's framework, specific deals that meet certain criteria can be customized based on the funding needs of scientific startups. When applicable, proof of ownership contracts can be used to divide up the option pool of a newly formed incubated project. The advisory committee, which has decades of combined experience in startups and valuations, will then collaborate to establish a valuation in which the floor price of the NFTs is pegged. Furthermore, the Science DAO NFT offerings will be under an SEC exemption allowing much broader market participation in each fundraising campaign.

Over time, as the newly formed company progresses through its growth cycle, the valuation will change in line with the milestones such as successful lab tests, FDA approvals, and additional fundraising achieved by the company. 

As the valuation increases, so will the floor price of the NFTs, which show proof of ownership in the company's option pool. If the company goes public, the NFTs can serve as a convertible stock option.

These NFTs will also be tradable to other investors on the Science DAO's closed marketplace at any stage to eliminate the major pain point of illiquid investments for early-stage institutional investors.

When it comes to accredited crypto investors, who cannot use their crypto to access niche scientific startups such as an MRNA pre-IPO, the Science DAO offers them the ability to put their investments into these innovative projects. 

Not to mention, these accredited investors' crypto holdings tend to move along with the ebb and flow of the market. Here, the Science DAO allows them to invest their crypto holdings into an industry with its trajectory and growth cycle, separate from the cryptocurrency space.

While it's always necessary for investors to do their own research, thanks to the Science DAOs expert advisory panel, which offers valuable insight and expertise, investors have a better understanding of proposed projects and a headstart on research.

This way, the Science DAO helps foster growth for both inventors and investors.