Changpeng Zhao’s next step may involve decentralized science.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao's tenure as CEO of Binance may be over, but the exchange's massive losses could be beneficial to the decentralized science (DeSci) sector.
In a comment on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, November 28, the former CEO of Binance expressed interest in the fast-growing sector.
Reading about biotech, thinking about how crypto can be used to accelerate research funding there.
Keep building!
— CZ BNB (@cz_binance) November 27, 2023
In November, Cointelegraph reported that the investigation of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on Binance ended with a $4.3 billion exchange. As part of the settlement, CZ will be required to personally pay US authorities $50 million and step down from his leadership role at Binance.
The transition from the leader of the world's largest crypto exchange to a man of endless entertainment could not have gone well with the crypto billionaire. The 46-year-old businessman started working as a teenager and had no intention of retiring before joining the DOJ.
With plenty of time and money, CZ's options are plentiful, but if the former Binance boss chooses to jump into DeSci, he'll join a dynamic sector that includes decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), biotech, financing, publishing, data storage, foundations and more. More.
It is still a sector with a lot of opportunity. A spokesperson for OpSci, an independent research community, told Cointelegraph that DCS is still in its early days and is “finding its footing in the wider scientific community.”
The form of medicine that comes
DAOs are among the main trends driving the growth of DeSci. Medicine's next wave of innovation has 20 or more Daoists at work, and more will emerge.
One such DAO is VitaDAO, a decentralized collective working to advance longevity research and extend human lifespan. Cointelegraph spoke with VitaDAO Awareness Manager Alex Dobrin to learn more about the market and what makes longevity science such an attractive field of study.
“DeSci offers a new way for people to get involved in funding and projects. Instead of relying on traditional methods like for-profit initial public offerings or philanthropic models, DeSci creates a new model,” Dobrin said. When he receives it, he can contribute both skills and capital.
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Dobrin believes that DeSci is especially important in areas that have been dismissed or forgotten by existing players.
“The best example is aging research and longevity biotech,” argued Dobrin. “Crypto is also dismissed by the authorities, but at least anyone can build something from a laptop. Imagine if it takes 10-15 years to get expensive equipment and billions of dollars to deploy a product under the control of bureaucratic regulators, government grants and certificates.
According to Dobrin, organizations like VitaDao help biotech science escape the industry's so-called “valley of death.” This valley is said to be the gap between scientific discovery and the time when a pharmaceutical company or venture capitalist wants to invest.
As a new funding model, VitaDAO and others can bridge that gap by helping bring new ideas and innovations to market.
A faulty incentive system is a broken system
If you ask DeSci proponents why we need to decentralize science, they'll point to the current state of the centralized medical profession — especially in pharmaceuticals.
Tyler Golato, founder of Molecule — a decentralized biotech company inspired by the open science movement — told Cointelegraph that decentralized science has a positive impact on the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
“Biotech and drug development suffer from a perverse incentive problem: the patients and researchers who drive much of the value creation are excluded from governance, ownership, non-profits and consumer choice,” Golato said.
“Most of the drugs on the market are discovered in academic laboratories, but the researchers who develop them and the patients who take them are completely separated from the development process.”
Gelato argues that when these incentives are met, better medical outcomes follow: “Companies support health care economics that require a patient to take medication every day for life, and are often mistaken for good health care outcomes.
Decentralization changes this – patients, researchers, parents of children with rare diseases and fans can contribute funding, work and data to projects in a more open way, and be incentivized and rewarded for governance and ownership in projects. “This will allow us to collaborate and develop truly new ways to align biotechnology with medicine,” he said.
A great vision for the future
One of the things that makes DeSci so powerful is its ability to include people from different disciplines and backgrounds. Major contributors in the field are often involved as a point of sentiment and belief.
AthenaDAO contributor Sarah Peoples, who works for public relations firm YAP Global, is a prime example. People's career began in law before moving into marketing, but at Atenadão she took her knowledge to the field of medicine, working to improve health outcomes for women suffering from diseases specific to women.
Peoples told Cointelegraph, “Whether the strengths are in operations, tokinomics, communications and cognitive or traditional scientific research, there is such a genuine welcome to anyone who brings new skills to the community.”
Each individual can help DeSci serve in a way that best suits their abilities. The dream of many people in the sector is to bring about lasting changes for the better.
“With DeSci, there is the potential to reinvent the traditional research and funding model and open it up to be not only more transparent, but also more efficient. It can also encourage research in areas that are currently chronically underfunded – from common diseases, to areas that should rightly be seen as mainstream, but are underfunded.
Peoples describes this as a “total paradigm shift” towards greater transparency and less gatekeeping.
“Women's health issues are underserved, incredibly poorly funded, and there is a real poverty of information that stems from a reluctance to fund critical research on women's health,” Peoples said.
What does CZ do?
If CZ enters the DeSci sector, there are many things the former Binance man can do.
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Vitadao Dobrin looks forward to CZ's recent field interest.
“High-profile people like CZ can draw attention and resources to the cause of DeSci and people who have a long-term interest in it,” Dobrin said. “Diversity is good. It is important to focus on the common goal of promoting decentralization, advancing science and medicine, and ultimately benefiting the well-being of mankind.
Zhao is not the only big hitter in crypto, People said, taking an interest in the field.
“CZ's interest in biotech is just one example of how big names in crypto are backing DeSci's startup but exciting space. We've already seen Vitalik Buterin and Brian Armstrong of Coinbase express their interest in the area.
