Introducing the IP-NFT V2

The growing DeSci ecosystem

Since the first implementation of the IP-NFT, VitaDAO has funded several research projects via this novel mechanism. Inspired by VitaDAO, an increasing number of BioDAOs have formed, looking to fund research in specific scientific areas. Due to the initial success of the IP-NFT and the DeSci ecosystem's growing interest in adapting the mechanism to more use cases, the Molecule team has been hard at work on a new version of the IP-NFT. 

Enabling collaboration within the DeSci ecosystem

Today we are excited to introduce the next generation of IP-NFTs: the IP-NFT V2, in closed beta. Version 2 builds on the proven components of the IP-NFT and extends it with new features to service the ever-growing need for novel funding mechanisms in the decentralized science ecosystem. The goal of the V2 is to: 

• Allow BioDAOs to mint IP-NFTs using a new minting front-end, and
• Enable DeSci developers to utilize IP-NFTs within their own infrastructure for dedicated use cases.‍

‍IP-NFT V2 - How does it work?

The IP-NFT V2 is built with modularity in mind to enable users and builders to tailor their own use cases. In addition, it allows developers to extend its functionality by adding to existing modules or creating completely new ones. Before diving into the different modules, let’s briefly have a look at how Molecule currently executes IP-NFT minting and transacts with the assets. These are the steps required to mint an IP-NFT V2, ordered chronologically: 

  1. Legal Agreement Negotiation and Signing (Application Layer): Two parties negotiate and sign a legal contract that includes two agreements:   a. The first agreement states the rights of the asset holder (dataset, future IP, etc.) and the price paid for the asset. In our case, these agreements are often lined out as Sponsored Research Agreements (SRAs) but they could be any other kind of legal agreement.

   b. The second agreement assigns the rights of the buyer within the first agreement to the holder of a certain token of the IP-NFT smart contract. After execution, the token holder becomes the legal counterparty of the agreement.

  2. Encryption and Storage (Decentralised Storage Layer): The legal contract containing the two agreements is encrypted with a new symmetric key on the minter’s side and uploaded to a decentralized storage system.

  3. Storage of decryption key (Access Control Layer): An access control condition marks holders of the IP-NFT token as being allowed to decrypt the content. The symmetric key from step 3 is encrypted using a threshold cryptography protocol (Lit) so it can only be recovered by a majority of external key shareholders. Thus only the entity that holds the IP-NFT can request a sufficient amount of key shares to reconstruct the encryption key and decrypt the contract associated with the agreement.