good morrow,
so there we were on a lazy sunday evening probably contemplating some existential rumblings when suddenly inspiration struck like a perfectly timed liquidation: "you know what base needs? more girltech coins" and boom $Blonde was born. It was inspired by my girls group chat and was deployed on Base via Clanker for the girls and for the boys who support the girls.
and as destiny foretold, we accidentally went viral. $blonde hit a $10M market cap, the community grew to over 9k token holders, 700 group chat members, and 1,400 Twitter followers with thousands of mentions, and it went trending to #1 on Base. It sparked rumors involving prominent figures, spinoff concepts with other hair color coins, and drama with other chains. We created a new meta of "girltech coins," onboarded hundreds of new women to crypto, and there are rumors that Phantom integrated Base specifically for $blonde.
tech and culture exist in a cycle of mutual constitution. social experiments like this — even if fleeting — can help bridge the gap between creation and adoption, between function and culture. it's unity it's empowerment it's probably going to look great in a pink hardware wallet.
xx c
Pump.fun faces backlash over harmful content on livestream feature and was forced to shut down livestreaming. Phantom adds support for Base in multi-chain push. Daily transactions on Base hit an all-time high (thank you blonde?). Starknet becomes the first rollup to deploy native staking. A recent CoinShares report revealed that crypto assets recorded their largest weekly inflow last week, bringing in $3.13B. DeSci’s total market cap now sits at $1.2B following the success of launchpad Pump Science, and increased coverage of the sector from notable investors. Clanker is on the rise. and immutable smart contracts just beat the treasury department in court.
DeSci
Last week's episode on IE delved into the challenges and opportunities within decentralized science (DeSci) and how crypto can revolutionize traditional scientific research and funding mechanisms. Tyler Golato, our guest, is building Triplicate, an investment collective aimed at addressing broken incentives in science by leveraging decentralized tools and crypto-based mechanisms.
DeSci is a way to unbundle research from the existing power structures in which the incentives are not aligned with rapid progress. Putting the above definitions together we can define DeSci as an experimental quest for better explanations that is independent of institutional or state-controlled funding. It is market over status. DeSci has rapid discovery of information as a clear goal. @mattigags
Triplicate - Building the toolkit for science
Triplicate supports scientist-founders that are building the future toolkit for discovery and pushing the limits of human knowledge.
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Current Problems:
Traditional institutions centralize resources for science but often prioritize their survival over innovation.
Funding models, like those of the NIH, favor older researchers and established practices, neglecting young scientists and high-risk, high-reward projects.
Misaligned incentives: Scientists aim for publications and tenure rather than pursuing bold ideas.
Institutions prioritize funding volume over groundbreaking research.
Current system is plagued by publication bias, funding bottlenecks, and slow knowledge dissemination
DeSci as a Solution:
DeSci proposes a more open, democratized funding ecosystem using crypto and decentralized communities.
Rapid capital formation around scientific goals or R&D. Decentralized funding: Direct contributions from communities bypass traditional gatekeepers.
Automation and AI: Integration with robotic labs and AI agents to streamline experimentation and research processes.
Co-creation with attribution, combining financial and social incentives. IP ownership: Researchers and communities can co-own outcomes, benefiting from their success.
Alignment of incentives through cohesive microeconomic models.
Governance proxies, enabling collective decision-making.
The 3 Theses of DeSci
Philosophical: DeSci aims to unbundle science from academia, bureaucracy, and government funding, replacing it with entrepreneurial freedom fueled by crypto incentives. This empowers scientists to prioritize innovation over navigating institutional constraints.
Speculative: DeSci embraces the volatile, speculative nature of crypto and creates markets for early-stage scientific proposals.
Commercial: By integrating open funding, DeSci brings science closer to the public. Tokens become a productized representation of scientific research. Speculation and tokens make science accessible to a wider audience.
Promising Projects:
Molecule DAO has pioneered the DeSci ecosystem without a token, creating IP-NFTs and IPTs, launching the first BioDAO (@vita_dao), building @bioprotocol, incubating most BioDAOs, and establishing funding platform Catalyst and pumpdotscience.
pump.science: Combines the speculative excitement of memecoins with the discovery and funding of experimental clinical trials in longevity research. Citizen scientists can propose new molecules, which are then traded on pump.fun. As market cap milestones are reached, funding is unlocked to run trials on these molecules, with the process streamed live on the platform. It gamifies funding and participation, making longevity research more engaging and accessible.
Bio.xyz: Driving biotech innovation through decentralized funding and coordination. BIO lets anyone fund, develop and govern tokenized scientific IP from universities, companies and researchers worldwide.
Long Covid Labs: a condition with diverse symptoms and phenotypes that has been largely overlooked by the medical establishment. The project aims to aggregate patient data from sufferers into a repository for analysis and use this information to conduct decentralized clinical trials.
HairDAO: a community-driven initiative led by passionate individuals who have personally experienced hair loss. Members experiment with treatments and share insights. Using funds raised through HairDAO, they established a lab in New York and partnered with leading hair researchers to patent innovative therapeutics. Remarkably, they have raised more funds for hair loss research than the entire global R&D spend in this area, highlighting the underfunded nature of the field. This is likely due to hair loss being treated as a cosmetic issue, with limited insurance coverage and commercial incentives. This project further exemplifies how decentralized, community-driven efforts can address neglected areas and drive impactful innovation.
Curetopia: an emerging decentralized initiative focused on rare diseases, an area often neglected by traditional pharma companies and medical institutions due to low commercial incentives. The project aims to unite patients and their families, many of whom face limited options, to collectively fund early-stage research at universities where interest exists but commercial backing is absent. By focusing on societal benefits rather than profit, they seek to drive impactful advancements in rare disease research through collective action.
The Big Vision:
DeSci has the potential to reshape science, making it more accessible, innovative, and aligned with the curiosity and passion of individual researchers rather than institutional agendas. We need new funding models, distribution mechanisms, and infra to make this vision a reality. Tyler envisions a future where DeSci integrates decentralized funding, AI-driven hypothesis testing, and robotics for experimentation into a seamless system. This infra would empower scientists globally to innovate beyond institutional constraints. Tyler encourages scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors to explore this space, seeing DeSci as an area ripe for growth and transformative change.
Challenges ahead...
Gaining credibility within traditional academic and scientific communities.
Balancing the speculative culture of crypto with meaningful scientific outcomes.
Creating sustainable economic models for decentralized organizations.
There’s a need for a breakthrough event that shows tangible real-world impact. This could emerge from areas underfunded by traditional systems, like rare diseases or community-driven R&D
Why manifesto? Maybe because my conviction on this was forged in the depths of the bear market and finally first positive outcomes start to manifest.
DeSci Manifesto
Totally supercool and chilled VC investing in programmable assets, collaborative intelligence and other buzzwords.
Distribution-First Software
Traditional distribution strategies focus on aggregating attention on a platform and retaining it. The distribution-first approach flips this, prioritizing pushing products into existing social contexts and channels where users already engage, making them immediately accessible and engaging where users already interact.
Examples of Distribution-First in Action:
Clanker: An AI-driven token deployment tool that allows users to quickly launch tokens on Base through the Farcaster client. Tokens gain immediate attention because they exist in spaces where users are already interacting and engaging with related content. Enables users to directly receive 40% of the fee share (including ETH and tokens).
AnonCast: A platform where anonymous posts are curated by the community and distributed across networks like Warpcast and Twitter. Features zero-knowledge proofs for anonymous participation, creating a novel and engaging user experience.
anon is for those who
-have something to confess but just cant in personal acc
-have something to say but their reach is narrow
-want to quality shitpost without getting judged by others
-possess game-changing secrets that will disrupt industry
-just want to have fun
-has slick…Embrace Distribution as a Core Strategy: Own distribution by engaging users in contexts where they already operate. Open social platforms like Farcaster, Lens, and others are critical in this landscape, enabling programmable, distributed media networks. Distribution-first software also aligns well with the emerging "agentic world," where interactions between decentralized agents (like bots or token ecosystems) drive value.
Leverage Niche Markets: Smaller, highly engaged communities (e.g., “a thousand true fans”) can create significant value.
Use tokens to align incentives, enable global capital formation, and provide governance tools. They represent a convergence of branding and utility, turning ideas, memes, or even experimental science into tradable, valuable assets. Tokens can be both products and distribution mechanisms, driving engagement in creative ways.
High-Agency Approaches: Play at the edges of innovation, navigating rapidly shifting trends
Live & online Fridays at 10am PT / 1pm ET.
solana culture: if you don't pump my goddamn token right now i'm going to machete your fucking grandma right here in your bedroom john
