Let's walk into the DeSci investment panorama, Alpha incubation ideas, and future development trends of Paramita Venture.

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

First, let's rewind to a year ago:

Messari released the "Messari Theses 2024" report, expressing optimism about Solana, AI + Crypto, and DeSci.

Looking back over the past year, the market has witnessed the rise of the Solana ecosystem and the explosive development of AI + Crypto, which also validates the value of Messari's annual report as a top crypto research institution.

As for DeSci, with endorsements from heavyweight figures in the crypto industry like CZ and Vitalik, DeSci has become the hottest track in November 2024. However, with the ongoing attention grab from AI Agents and the Trump effect, the community's attitude towards DeSci seems to be polarizing.

Skeptics argue that DeSci is a pseudo-proposition that attracts community FOMO under the hype of celebrities.

Firm believers assert that DeSci can genuinely bring transparency, democratization, and global collaboration to scientific research, making it not only the next trend in the crypto world but also an important force in advancing human scientific development.

At this moment of community debate, we are fortunate to have an in-depth conversation with Paramita Venture's Investment Director Tykoo and Investment Manager Eva.

As a "principle-driven" investment institution that has been involved in Crypto since 2021, Paramita focuses on promoting innovations in decentralized information, decentralized science, and decentralized society, thereby building a more open and secure network future. The DeSci projects we are familiar with today, including Bioprotocol and VitaDAO, have all received support from Paramita Venture.

When the community is curious about how Paramita Venture has honed its sharp vision to become a leading investment institution in DeSci projects, Tykoo states:

Our expertise tends to focus on the process stages. The core issue we always pay attention to is what problem the project is solving, rather than just looking at its research field. Additionally, the project founder is a very important investment judgment criterion; their ability to assess market narratives and control product rhythms is crucial.

When discussing the community's discussions about DeSci and Paramita Venture's long-term confidence in building in the DeSci track, Eva candidly shares:

DeSci is destined to be a long-cycle "scientific social movement." Even if it experiences a "small cycle" fluctuation, "science is valuable." Those who truly believe in and invest in it will gain deeper value and returns.

In this issue, let's follow the insights of Tykoo and Eva as we delve into Paramita Venture's DeSci investment panorama, Alpha incubation ideas, and future development trends.

Exploring the Four Major Stages of Research: A Look into Paramita's DeSci Investment Panorama

Deep Tide TechFlow: It's a pleasure to have the opportunity for an in-depth exchange with both of you. First, could you please introduce yourselves (sharing some past educational experiences, relevant industry/entrepreneurial experiences, and how you came to join Paramita Venture)?

Tykoo:

Hello everyone, I am Tykoo. Previously, I focused on AI and Web3 tracks at a Web2 dollar fund. Currently, I serve as an investment manager at Paramita, responsible for investments in decentralized AI and decentralized research tracks. I'm glad to have this opportunity to discuss the DeSci track with you today.

Eva:

Hello, I am Eva. I am also responsible for the DeSci sector's investments at Paramita and am a co-founder of AuraSci, a project community deeply supported by Paramita. Before joining Paramita, I worked in a Layer 2 public chain team and was involved in NFT projects. I am currently all in on DeSci and hope to communicate and exchange ideas with everyone.

Deep Tide TechFlow: If you had to summarize what Paramita Venture is doing or its investment philosophy in one sentence, how would you describe it?

Eva:

Paramita is a "principle-driven" investment institution focused on public protocols. We advocate for promoting innovations in decentralized information, decentralized science, and decentralized society by establishing deep consensus among different entities (intersubjective) and minimizing reliance on single points of trust (trust-minimization), thereby building a more open and secure network future.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Aside from the recent endorsements from CZ and Vitalik, most people are not very familiar with DeSci. Could you please share what advantages DeSci has compared to traditional scientific research?

Tykoo:

For DeSci, I believe if we summarize the research process into four major stages:

• Topic Selection and Funding

• Research Collaboration

• Peer Review and Publication

• IP Commercialization

DeSci aims to address the pain points of traditional research using blockchain technology at each stage.

In terms of Topic Selection and Funding:

Traditional research is determined by a few funding sources, with a lengthy approval cycle. DeSci not only opens a channel for individual investors to participate in funding cutting-edge or niche topics but also helps researchers raise research funds more quickly and flexibly. Essentially, DeSci efficiently answers a critical question in the research field:

"Who" decides "what" research gets funded?

In terms of Research Collaboration:

In the collaboration between the public and researchers, the public can contribute more than just funding; they can provide any resources, such as dynamic terminal data from hardware/DNA testing, computing/storage resources, etc. DeSci leverages the rights attribution characteristics brought by blockchain technology, which can not only track contributions but also enhance the transparency of resource allocation and incentivize contributors.

In the collaboration among researchers, traditional research often faces isolation issues due to limitations in data sources, computing power, and storage resource allocation. DeSci can utilize on-chain records and smart contracts to track contributions, enhancing transparency in resource allocation and cross-institutional collaboration efficiency.

In terms of Peer Review and Publication:

In the traditional model, the review cycle is long and lacks incentives. DeSci can incentivize reviewers to complete their evaluations quickly and with high quality through tokens, while also reducing opaque operations and finding a balance between reputation and financial incentives.

In terms of IP Commercialization:

Regarding IP commercialization, it can profit not only through patent licensing and technology transfer (B2B model) but also by utilizing tokenization or decentralized recommendation mechanisms (similar to "Amway-style" word-of-mouth promotion) to reach more ordinary consumers, achieving a B2C commercialization approach.

This allows research results to reach the end market more directly, shortening intermediate links and enhancing monetization efficiency.

Overall, compared to traditional research, DeSci provides more flexible and transparent solutions to the questions of "who sets the research direction, how to allocate resources, improve review efficiency and incentives, and maximize research outcomes."

Of course, there are many issues that need to be discussed here, such as whether individual investors are a good fit for bearing the long cycles and high risks of research investments. Will secondary market fluctuations negatively impact research activities? Can token incentives maintain the rigor and neutrality of academic research? How to reasonably allocate IP ownership within legal frameworks for cross-institutional and cross-border collaborative research outcomes, and how to associate this with tokens, etc. We are actively engaging with industry builders to discuss and propose solutions to these issues.

Deep Tide TechFlow: It is understood that Paramita Venture established a focus on DeSci in its brand upgrade in July 2023, while the concept of DeSci had not yet truly entered the public eye. The community is very curious about how you and your team foresaw this trend and made the final decision?

Eva:

Our team began paying attention to this field four years ago, but at that time, the concept of DeSci was not yet clear; more people were discussing Open Science.

All of our fund partners come from scientific backgrounds, so we have always placed great importance on the academic IP sector. When we first encountered VitaDAO and learned about their efforts in promoting the IPNFT framework, we were deeply attracted to this idea and quickly completed our first layout in the DeSci field.

At the same time, we also established and supported the AuraSci community to explore the DeSci-related fields more deeply.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Can you introduce us to the current investment landscape of Paramita Venture? Including investment projects, key achievements, and other critical data?

Tykoo:

As I shared in the previous question, the research process can be roughly summarized into four major stages: Topic Selection and Funding; Collaboration; Peer Review and Publication; IP Commercialization.

Paramita Venture's investment layout revolves around these four stages:

In the Topic Selection and Funding stage, Paramita Venture's investments include Bioprotocol and BioFoundry;

In the Collaboration stage, Paramita Venture's investments include Hetu protocol, Hippocrat, Avinasi labs, Data Lake, DeSci World, BiohackerDAO;

In the Peer Review and Publication stage, Paramita Venture's investments include ResearchHub;

In the IP commercialization stage, the projects invested by Paramita Venture include Quantum Biology, VitaDAO, AthenaDAO, ValleyDAO, and others.

It can be seen that Paramita Venture's investments currently encompass not only several well-known projects in the DeSci sector but also cover the complete research process from funding, collaboration, publication, to commercialization.

From Selection Criteria to Outcome Quantification: Capturing the Next Alpha in the DeSci Track

Deep Tide TechFlow: From VitaDAO, which studies longevity, to ValleyDAO, focusing on climate change and food security, and AthenaDAO, which emphasizes women's health… DeSci is flourishing in various subfields. As an institution, what type of DeSci products does Paramita Venture prefer?

Tykoo:

This question is actually asking from another investment angle, which is to approach based on research fields. However, I believe our expertise leans more towards positioning ourselves in the process stages rather than delving into specific research subfields.

Of course, many new projects are emerging. In addition to the climate security and food security mentioned in the question, there are also projects in the quantum field, materials field, and even space exploration. This is definitely not our strongest area, but investing in them helps us understand DeSci, the industry, and build key connections.

So, many times, aside from investing in some early projects, we also donate as public participants to support ecological development.

Another very noteworthy point is why the bio field has become a representative sector for funding.

This is because fundraising activities for venture capital funds in the biotechnology and life sciences sectors peaked in 2021 and have gradually slowed down, with 2024 becoming the lowest level since 2019, while Crypto is in a bull market. There is a cyclical capital mismatch issue, so the emergence of Bio just happens to solve this problem.

However, applying the same logic to Space Technology may not hold, as there is a large influx of hot money into the space sector. The pain points in each subfield are different. For example, AI as a research field may have more pain points in the data collaboration stage, which is also where we tend to provide support.

Therefore, the core issue we focus on is what problem the project is solving, rather than simply looking at its research field.

Deep Tide TechFlow: When selecting specific projects for investment, what dimensions does Paramita Venture evaluate and filter?

Tykoo:

In the early years, I developed a comprehensive project evaluation system, breaking it down into dozens of dimensions, each with its own weight.

However, I later found that as projects develop through different stages and are influenced by various power structures, these evaluation dimensions and weights are actually dynamic. Grasping these weights has become one of the most important capabilities.

Especially the longer I stay in the primary market of Crypto, the more I realize that for early projects, particularly in a nascent industry like DeSci, the team seems to be the only important indicator: the team's judgment of market narratives, control over product rhythms, and even their ability to pivot are all crucial.

Some people are just very energetic; for example, Paul, the founder of Bio, is a very energetic person who has the ability to unite many people around him.

For instance, RSC was founded by Brian Armstrong, and the entire ResearchHub team gives a solid impression of getting things done. Patrick often talks to us about how to get real researchers to use their products more to solve the real problems they face. Additionally, we are also promoting the establishment of ResearchHub China and welcome everyone to learn and communicate.

Deep Tide TechFlow: What foundational infrastructure do you think will support the explosion of DeSci? How is Paramita Venture positioning itself in this regard?

Tykoo:

First, it can be stated that our fund's style has always favored infrastructure-type products.

Regarding this question, as mentioned in the previous sharing about the four major stages, I believe the main infrastructure needs will appear in the second stage, which is the collaboration stage.

In this stage, there are many opportunities for infrastructure across different industries. Of course, we do not approach DeSci investment layouts based on the logic of infrastructure, middle layers, and applications, mainly because this field is still very early, and there are not many application-layer products that have emerged. So where does the demand for infrastructure come from?

In fact, I find that much of the infrastructure in the landscape is actually industry-agnostic, such as in storage and data fields. Therefore, we look more at specific cases, specifically what actual problems have been solved in their subfields or research processes, and many of these actual problems manifest as applications.

Some real needs that may exist in the research field include:

How to put real-world research data on-chain and ensure its authenticity? Similar to what oracles do.

How to correspond real-world rights to the chain within a legal framework? Similar to what RWA is doing.

There are more questions, including how to deal with off-chain governance, how to determine the contributions of different researchers, and how to attribute contributions. Regarding this issue, traditional research often uses the number of journals, journal weights, citation counts, and a simple algorithm to determine reputation. In our investment landscape, Hetu protocol is trying to address this issue.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Research outcomes are often difficult to quantify, but as a VC, the focus is often on results. How does Paramita Venture respond to this challenge?

Tykoo:

This is a great question. In fact, much of the work of DeSci projects is trying to quantify research outcomes by introducing market competition, because traditional research has not been easily quantifiable, which is why it cannot provide corresponding rewards.

Deep Tide TechFlow: There are currently some projects in the track that are based on the concept of "community-driven DeSci financing platforms." What do you think are the advantages of Paramita Venture compared to them?

Tykoo:

I think that's great; the market is free.

If project parties can raise more funds in the public market, why should they necessarily accept VC funding? As long as these funds genuinely flow to those DeSci projects with the right values, we sometimes even encourage project parties to test the waters in the public market. We can also directly support them in the public market; there is absolutely no problem with that.

Paramita's advantages mainly lie in our capacity as an institution, which has a stronger risk tolerance, can accept longer time cycles, and possesses stronger asset discovery and risk pricing capabilities, as well as the repricing ability brought by post-investment services.

Additionally, when discussing advantages, I must mention my excellent colleagues: for example, Eva's work with the Aurasci scientist community, Frances's Udaya developer community, Celine's Moksha Labs incubator, and our partners' early selfless donations to the DeSci community.

These efforts have allowed us to establish some key resource layouts in the DeSci ecosystem in North America and Asia.

From Meme to DeFi: Exploring the Future Trends of Deep Integration between DeSci and Crypto

Deep Tide TechFlow: Pump Science has made a splash, and the community is engaging in extensive discussions about the intersection of DeSci and Meme. How do you view the convergence of these two tracks?

Tykoo:

I believe every field has meme attributes, with both commonalities and individuality.

The commonality is that meme in DeSci is still the exchange and interplay of traffic and capital across different fields: The story told in Web2 is that memes bring attention to scientific subfields, popularize science, bring funding, and advance science; in Web3, the earnings come from the legitimacy of scientists' backgrounds bringing trading volume to memes. If DeSci is viewed as a scam-like fundraising tool, its credibility could be severely damaged.

Some friends may lose money on certain memes positioned in DeSci and then question the entire track, which is something we, as industry builders, least want to see. I think the main issue with memes is how to punish wrongdoing, and this needs to be designed and resolved from a mechanism perspective, which is a very worthwhile topic to explore.

The individuality lies in that the story of DeSci requires specialization in subfields. When we play with memes, we often say to find angles, but due to the specialization of DeSci, some people may not find the right angle, yet their positions are already full. This imbalance can easily harm the progress of scientific research.

Of course, in the long run, the market will correct this behavior.

Another individuality is that the market's tolerance for certain memes in DeSci may be higher, somewhat akin to the logic of buying lottery tickets: if you lose, you just consider it a contribution to science.

**Deep Tide TechFlow: While DeSci has grand visions, ordinary users often have a weak perception of it, so market attention is always drawn to products with intuitive financial return attributes. The crypto economy is also largely built on *DeFi* finance. In this regard, do you think the deep integration of DeSci and DeFi will bring more attention to this track?**

Tykoo:

Absolutely. Not only the combination of DeSci and DeFi, but even the combination of traditional research and traditional finance will certainly bring more attention to research.

As long as research is given certain financial attributes and a speculative market is created for this field, it will definitely attract the participation of profit-seekers.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Indeed, DeSci is still in a very early stage of development, presenting both opportunities and challenges for early movers. What problems do you think currently exist in DeSci's development? How will Paramita Venture respond?

Tykoo:

I believe that right now, the entire DeSci field has an issue with managing investor expectations. If project parties convey unclear information, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it will lead investors to not know exactly what they are buying. Therefore, there is insufficient understanding of the investment cycle/risk and even the corresponding rights behind it, which can be very damaging to the market.

Scientific research requires a dedicated approach, while the market needs new information to generate emotions. Therefore, more transparent methods, such as live streaming or prediction markets, may attract more market attention; these types of projects are more about popular science than research.

Additionally, there is a lack of effective supervision and punishment mechanisms for bad market participants.

Furthermore, like many RWA/Oracle products, DeSci involves real-world rights and the flow of real-world information, which necessitates the construction of more foundational protocols.

Industry Trend Insights and Future Roadmap

Deep Tide TechFlow: Discussions about DeSci on social media have become polarized. As a long-term advocate in the DeSci field, how do you view the skepticism within the community regarding DeSci? What allows you and your team to navigate through the FUD emotions and firmly choose DeSci?

Eva:

The skepticism and debates appearing on social media actually prove that this emerging phenomenon, DeSci, is gaining attention and discussion from more and more people. As long-term advocates in the DeSci field, we welcome and understand these doubts.

Any social movement aiming to change traditional systems is bound to face differing opinions and even fierce opposition, as it indicates that it is challenging the existing order and bringing new possibilities.

Our steadfast choice of DeSci amidst FUD emotions is primarily based on the following beliefs and observations:

• Long-termism: From "Small Cycles" to "Big Narratives"

DeSci is a social movement that relies on blockchain and decentralized concepts to reshape research funding and collaboration methods. Compared to traditional scientific systems, this transformation cannot be completed in one or two years; it requires a long-term narrative and practice.

From our early participation in the DeSci ecosystem, even experiencing fluctuations in a "small cycle," we can see its potential for continuous iteration in community, technology, and ideas. This shared belief in scientific value and decentralization allows us to maintain a long-term perspective rather than just focusing on short-term market trends.

• Continuous Evolution: The Emergence of New Combinations and Playful Approaches

This wave has seen more innovative combinations and playful approaches, such as the integration of MEME culture and the concept of DeScAI, merging decentralized open collaboration with AI's powerful data processing and predictive capabilities.

These new explorations not only broaden the application scenarios of DeSci but also bring more creativity to future research models. When the decentralized characteristics of DeSci deeply integrate with cutting-edge AI technologies, it may form a more disruptive research ecosystem.

• The Value of Science Itself

Most importantly, we firmly believe that "science is valuable."

Regardless of market sentiment fluctuations, the value of scientific research remains unshaken. The significance of DeSci lies in providing a more open, transparent, and incentivizing environment for science. If this environment can truly nurture groundbreaking research outcomes—such as accelerating drug development through large-scale data analysis by AI or utilizing decentralized funding to support more grassroots research projects—then the long-term value of DeSci can be fully validated.

This is a "scientific social movement" destined for a long cycle, requiring time, belief, and collective wisdom to cultivate and witness. The voices of skepticism can help the DeSci community continuously reflect and iterate, while those who truly believe in and invest in the DeSci ecosystem will gain deeper value and returns in this evolving process.

Deep Tide TechFlow: For the final question, please share Paramita Venture's focus for 2025 so the community can better understand the upcoming milestones.

Eva:

In 2025, Paramita Venture will continue to focus on the fields of DeSci and AI, and will keep exploring more interesting combinations.

We hope to drive more interdisciplinary and cross-community collaboration based on consolidating existing investments and research outcomes, injecting new imagination and creativity into the ecosystem.

At the same time, we will further improve our post-investment support system for projects, providing continuous assistance for research and blockchain projects that can genuinely solve pain points and possess long-term value, from technical empowerment and funding relay to community co-construction.

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