Research Dao

Research DAO is a decentralised platform designed to transform how research is conducted and advanced, with a mission to empower researchers through secure and efficient blockchain technology. The platform offers encrypted paper submission to ensure data integrity, alongside facilities for decentralised collaboration to help create networks of diverse, cross-disciplinary researchers.

The initial DAO is focused on the biomedical sector, due to a need for increased security and collaboration in this field. A key aspect of the platform is its community-led governance model, which will allow researchers to steer research directions, manage funding allocations, and unlock collaboration opportunities. This inclusive approach ensures that the DAO evolves in response to the real needs and priorities of the biomedical research community.

Next, Research DAO plans to implement funding mechanisms to support promising projects directly. This will look like allowing members to vote on funding allocations to distribute funds for research.

As this was my first time building on the blockchain, I wanted to keep it simple - I knew I needed to think about secure storage, smart contracts and what to use for frontend. I was also thinking about making accessibility of encrypted research papers only to authorised users, so I wanted to implement a token-based access control mechanism within the smart contracts, where tokens represent permissions to access specific papers, however I did not get time to complete this.

So here is the current breakdown: Blockchain: Ethereum for smart contracts. Storage: IPFS for encrypted storage of research papers and data. Frontend: React with Ethers.js for DApp interaction. Development Tools: Hardhat for development and local testing.