VitaDAO Raises $4.1m and Vitalik on The DeSci Podcast: Entering the Year of the Rabbit with Molecule
VitaDAO Raises $4.1m and Vitalik on The DeSci Podcast: Entering the Year of the Rabbit with Molecule
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023! As the year of the Rabbit begins, and in line with the symbolism behind it, we're excited about the potential for prosperity and longevity in 2023.
In this edition, we’re covering having Vitalik Buterin on our podcast, looking back at the launch of the IP-NFT V2, DeSci London, and VitaDAO’s fundraise - Welcome back!
ICYMI
Vitalik Buterin joined us on The DeSci Podcast
In a pre-recorded episode played during DeSci.London, Vincent Weisser, and Vitalik Buterin discussed decentralized science (DeSci), with a focus on how decentralized technologies such as cryptocurrency can improve science and scientific institutions by allowing for more diverse funding and collaboration among people. They also discussed the use of specific tools such as quadratic funding and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as ways to fund and structure scientific projects.
Watch this episode here.
Launching the IP-NFT V2
In December 2022, we launched the IP-NFT V2 in closed beta. Building on the successful components of the IP-NFT V1, V2 adds new features to meet the increasing demand for innovative funding solutions in the DeSci ecosystem. Here’s what the V2 is all about:
It allows DAOs to mint IP-NFTs thanks to a new minting front-end.
It is built with modularity in mind to enable DeSci devs to tailor it for their own dedicated use cases using their own infrastructure.
It opens up the possibility of fractionalisation in the future.
Developers can learn more about in the full blogpost here, or apply for a mintpass and join our closed beta through this link. Sr. Web3 Engineer at Molecule, Stefan Adolf went in-depth on V2 in a recent Twitter space, the recording is available here.
VitaDAO raised $4.1m
VitaDAO celebrated its $4.1 million round of investment to further the commercialization and licensing of its IP-NFT assets through its partnership with Molecule. Celebrating this funding round with incredible contributors such as Pfizer, Shine Capital, L1 Digital, Balaji, and Beaker, VitaDAO continues to be the leading BioDAO in the space. With VitaDAOs raise, we witness the interest developed in DeSci and specifically in the IP-NFT model from contributors like Pfizer as a valid model to access best-in-class research. The original governance proposal on VitaDAOs raise can be read here.
Hacking toward Decentralized Peer Reviews at DeSci London
During DeSci.London, Stefan Adolf from our team participated in the hackathon competition with Jan Ole Ernst. Stefan and Jan built a complex web3 peer review process that's decentralized, incentivized and partly privacy-preserving. The process was built upon Jan’s preliminary work on Eth-linked OCRID researcher profiles using ANTS Reviews Smart Contracts as a foundation. The recording of day 1 and day 2 of DeSci.London, including the hackathon, will soon be released here.
Sharing our Vision for the Future
In one of our latest blogposts, Vincent Weisser and Tyler Golato touches on the IP-NFT V2, how IP-NFTs will enable drug development in the future, how the IP-NFT empowers researchers to unlock the full potential of their research, and our vision to enable open decentralized science building blocks, that are interoperable. You can read the full blogpost here.
The latest from bio.xyz
The BioDAO Bible
Earlier this month we launched the BioDAO Bible, a working lexicon and knowledge base for all of the relevant terms and concepts that anyone will need to understand to successfully build in decentralized science. In the BioDAO Bible, we cover the following foundational aspects to building a biotech DAO; an introduction to DeSci, BioDAO Governance, BioDAO Dealflow, IP-NFTs, Tokenomics, DAO wrappers, and Operations, BioDAO Community Building, etc. This playbook is free to access here.
We did a Twitter Space with all the BioDAOs in cohort 1 of bio.xyz recently, listen to the recording here to find out what they’re each building. Below are just some of the recent highlights in each of the DAOs in cohort 1:
AthenaDAO
During DeSci London, AthenaDAO joined an amazing women’s health research panel that got men asking about menopause! AthenaDAO also spoke at DeSci Singapore where science and reproductive health report contributor Lu Dong spoke of the potential of the movement and her reproductive health research. Their next event will be on the 2nd of February 2023 at DeSci Toronto where Laura Minquini will be speaking.
AthenaDAO also recently produced a Reproductive Health Report on the latest research in the field. You can read and download it here.
ValleyDAO
ValleyDAO will be launching their governance token ‘$GROW’ in early April in a fair and transparent public auction. The token will be used for voting on important matters such as compensating contributors, enacting a governance framework and rules, electing work group leaders, selecting which research projects they fund and ultimately deciding how resulting IP-NFTs are sub-licensed or commercialized. If you’d like to stay informed about the token launch then fill out this form.
ValleyDAO is also preparing to launch the first edition of its monthly newsletter ‘Growth Updates’ on the 3rd February! If you’d like to stay in the loop on their news, you can subscribe to the newsletter here:
HairDAO
HairDAO is also doing their governance token auction this February and the whitelist is now open. Naturally, the token will be called “$Hair”. Join their Discord here to find out more.
They are also already funding their first project - a thyroid hormone Study to be conducted under the direction and supervision of Dr. Ralf Paus. More details on the study can be found here.
PsyDAO
Alchemist Grants are now live for PsyDAO and they will be announcing the first round of grantees at the end of the month. Alchemist Grants are micro-grants for scientists, students, artists and creators in the psychedelic space. You can find the application form on their website here and to stay up to date with their workings, follow them on Twitter here.
If you want to learn more, PsyDAO has a Twitter Space scheduled for Feb 8th, subscribe to PsyDAO’s calendar here to add all their community events to your calendar.
Getting involved in Molecule
Molecule is hiring!
Over the past ~3 years, we have grown the team from 3 to 20 core team members and we are still growing! We are currently hiring for the following priority positions, and more to come:
Senior Full Stack Engineer - Remote
Junior/Mid-Level Full Stack Engineer - Remote
To learn more about these positions, visit our careers page here. New hires receive all required equipment, a competitive compensation package, and a pfp NFT of their choice, in line with our policy. Should you wish to apply, discuss any of the positions or refer someone, please feel free to reach out to Ezanne at ezanne@molecule.to or on Discord at Ezanne#0386. For any successful referral on senior hires, we’re offering a 2 ETH bounty!
Head’s up, engineers - We encourage our tech team to participate in hackathons and cover the expenses for any participation, EU or US!
Molecule’s Open Bounties
We regularly update our Bounty Board with new and exciting bounties to undertake! If you’re interested in becoming a Molecule contributor and completing some of our open bounties, fill out this form, join our Discord, and visit our onboarding page.
Should you wish to start another project or have your own suggested bounty for completion, we’d love to hear from you! In this case, please fill out our Contributor’s Form with your proposal. Currently, however, we have the following Open Bounties:
Refer a successful hire to Molecule - 1000 Points
Secure a notable guest for The DeSci Podcast - 250 Points
Suggest a bounty - TBD
Thanks for Reading!
If you enjoyed this read, subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated as the ecosystem grows. Please reach out to us with any questions or ideas, visit our website, or join our Discord to interact directly with our team. We’re really looking forward to joining forces with our community to create a world where patients directly fund researchers developing the next therapeutic breakthrough they need and building an open, inclusive, and collaborative ecosystem.
As we continue to work towards a different era of drug discovery, our focus for this year is to grow our team, incubate and launch more BioDAOs, fund more IP-NFTs, expand our footprint, and continue to connect DeSci to the real world - Let’s build!