Molecule Launches Catalyst, a New Platform for Funding Science Using Tokens
Early-stage biomedical research funding is plagued by a mismatch between funded and impactful research. This disconnect results in significant diseases being underfunded despite their impact on public
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7 min read
•Jillian Casalini
Early-stage biomedical research funding is plagued by a mismatch between funded and impactful research. This disconnect results in detrimental diseases being underfunded despite their impact on public health. For instance, conditions like longevity, hair loss, women’s health, cryonics, and brain aging often receive disproportionately less funding compared to their prevalence and burden on society.
Public funds play a substantial role in financing research. In Europe, approximately 0.74% of GDP is allocated to research and development (R&D), representing a significant public investment. In the United States, the investment is even higher, with R&D expenditures accounting for around 3.4% of GDP. Despite this forced, substantial investment by taxpayers, the public has almost no influence over how these funds are allocated.
Enter Catalyst. By utilizing blockchains, Catalyst democratizes research funding, allowing individuals to directly support projects that resonate with them. This decentralized model aims to rectify the inefficiencies of the current research funding apparatus, ensuring that funding better aligns with societal needs.
Catalyst empowers individuals to use their cryptocurrency to make impactful decisions, fostering a more transparent and impactful research funding protocol.
Introducing Catalyst: Aligning Incentives Through Onchain Intellectual Property
Molecule is thrilled to unveil Catalyst, the decentralized science (DeSci) funding machine. Catalyst aims to fuel scientific advancements by enabling democratized research funding through tokenizing intellectual property (IP).
Catalyst forms communities around the drug development process and empowers individuals to support meaningful scientific research. In exchange for funding the research, funders receive tokens with rights to the research IP. This creates aligned incentives for researchers and funders to collaborate to bring more breakthroughs to those in need.
Benefits of Catalyst
For Funders:
Purchase Tokens to Fund Research: Funders can contribute directly to advancing scientific research ideas.
Take Part in Research and Licensing Decisions: In exchange for funding contributions, funders receive IP tokens, which gives them the right to participate in certain research and IP licensing decisions.
About the author
Jillian Casalini
I'm a biotech strategist and marketer with a foundation in traditional pharma and a vision for decentralized innovation. My career began in traditional pharma at Eli Lilly, where I learned how large-scale organizations bring rigor, regulation, and reach to life sciences. I also built a strong foundation in go-to-market strategy—bridging science with storytelling and turning complex research into clear, compelling narratives. That experience now fuels my passion for building at the intersection of biotech and decentralized science (DeSci)—where transparency, open collaboration, and new funding models are reshaping how research gets done.
Trade Tokens to Match Evolving Interests: Funders can trade their IP tokens on decentralized exchanges, giving them the flexibility to match their evolving interests.
For Researchers:
Access to a Network of Global Funders: Catalyst opens up new avenues for funding beyond traditional sources.
Build Community Around Your Research: IP Tokens are tools for building engaged communities around research, so researchers can connect with passionate supporters and collaborators.
Focus on Science: Researchers can concentrate on pursuing and advancing scientific work.
How Catalyst Works
Catalyst works by turning scientific ideas into digital tokens (IP Tokens). IP Tokens allow researchers to grant funders rights in exchange for backing their project. These rights create a shared incentive for researchers and funders to collaborate together to make the research valuable.
But what rights do these IP Token holders have? The right to govern and access IP is limited by the IP-NFT holder. The governance decisions could include:
Voting on proposed IP licenses
Deciding on the distribution of proceeds earned from the IP-NFT and its IP
Signaling support for experimental and clinical trial designs
Using IP Tokens and shared governance rights, Catalyst aligns the interests of researchers and funders, making it easier for them to collaborate around budding research ideas.
The Foundational Pieces of Catalyst
Catalyst brings together key infrastructure to tackle the scalability and incentive challenges traditional research funding models face. These components include:
Democratized Funding: Catalyst creates access to funding opportunities without the need for traditional intermediaries, enabling anyone to participate in funding research projects.
IP Tokenization: Catalyst converts research funding into IP Tokens. IP Tokens grant the token holder rights to exclusive data, voting on project execution details, licensing the intellectual property to patients and pharmaceutical organizations, and determining how proceeds earned from licensing are distributed to token holders.
Bonding Curves: Bonding curves distribute IP tokens, rewarding early funders with a larger share of tokens. Funders can contribute or withdraw funds until a project meets its funding goal, making funding science unruggable.
Liquidity Provision: A portion of IPTs is used to set up a liquidity pool on a decentralized exchange, allowing funders to swap their tokens and enhancing flexibility.
A New Era of Incentive-Driven Research Funding
By leveraging blockchain technology and tokenized intellectual property, Catalyst creates a dynamic, democratized funding marketplace that brings together researchers and funders, accelerating scientific progress. For more information, check out our documentation.
Jumpstart the DeSci Machine; Get Insider Access
Molecule is gearing up for Catalyst’s beta launch. We invite you to be among the first to experience funding groundbreaking research projects and join the DeSci movement.
To celebrate the upcoming launch, we encourage you to sign up for Catalyst Insider Access. By joining now, you'll be the first to receive exciting updates and exclusive information on what's coming next. Trust us—you won't want to miss out on what's coming.
Be the first to know, and get ready to jumpstart the future of decentralized science funding.
About Molecule
Molecule is dedicated to advancing scientific research through democratized funding and the tokenization of intellectual property (IP). By transforming IP into liquid, onchain assets, Molecule aligns the incentives of researchers and funders, fostering a more collaborative and efficient research ecosystem.
