For over two decades, advancements in communication tech have constantly challenged the legacy institutions of old. We live in the millenium of internet dominance, where new disruptive ideas devour entire industries. AirBnb takes on hotels, services like Lyft displace taxis, and Bitcoin challenges the banking system we’ve known for generations. In 2018, these challenges are amplified by the prevalence of blockchain and all the solutions peer-to- peer protocols have to offer.

There are several cryptocurrencies that take on the system of publication and intellectual property, notably Publica and Po.et, but the scientific research model remains needlessly complicated, according to a new ICO called Orvium.

As noted by Orvium, the top five scientific publishers make up 50% to 70% of all publications in the world. The global market can produce up to $25 billion in science manuscripts in a year, and yet the economic model has been convoluted, even downright awkward for decades. The system of funding, reviewing, and publishing is primarily done with government oversight, since governments spend the most on research. So the science community has been weighed down by bureaucracy for over a century, and Orvium wants to step in. Should we continue to trust this arcane system with the most influential information in the world?

In a nutshell, Orvium is an open-source smart-contract system that aims to make the research, funding, validation, and publication process efficient and put the control back into the hands of the authors and general public. The Orvium business model would increase revenue while lending support to the research community. Almost every aspect of publication, including but not limited to peer-review, copyright licenses, and even subscription services would be open and available on the Ethereum blockchain. The Orvium token, ORV, will be the unit of exchange for the system, and it can be used to transact every detail of the process.

The Orvium whitepaper is comprehensive. The new protocol will combine four general technologies: blockchain and smart contracts, decentralized storage, cloud computing, data analytics and machine learning. Orvium has a huge list of goals, but the primary aim is to make science transparent and open-access. They want to make sure the authors get the recognition they deserve and to make scientific collaboration and validation more streamlined. Following the more common concept of Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Orvium uses what they call Decentralized Autonomous Journals or DAJs. These allow the users to set up their own rules of governance and contribution. According to Orvium, DAJs will reduce costs, improve organization and distribution, bolster democratization, and allow for “an everlasting and unbiased platform of science”.

The ORV token can be used in numerous ways. One example is to incentivize peer review. Authors, when submitting manuscripts for review, can stake tokens to be redeemed by reviewers. The reviews are then submitted and the manuscript is published immediately. Another example is in copyright and licensing, where authors are paid ORV tokens in exchange for the use of their material. There are 14 other specific uses outlined in their whitepaper. To see them all, check it out here: https://orvium.docsend.com/view/nvr6ywj

In addition to all these, Orvium will seamlessly integrate UX design in their user platform. This includes an open-source and public API. The API will allow free access to all information and smart-contracts on the blockchain, and will be easy to use. Imagine a user-friendly library of research you can access from any online device.

The Orvium roadmap is extremely thorough. It begins with the initial concept discovery in 2017, and continues all the way through to Q1 of 2020, when the full platform will launch. Needless to say, this is an ambitious project. The team is studded with success and accomplishment. Founders Manuel Martin and Antonio Romero are known for their work on the CERN project (aka The European Organization for Nuclear Research) as well as collaborations with NASA. They have a panel of academic and scientific advisors from NASA and notable universities. Bernd Lapp, their blockchain advisor, is a former advisor at the Ethereum Foundation. Almost the entire staff of engineers is from the CERN project. The team is extremely familiar with the terrain and has invaluable experience with with research community. These are the people we would want in charge of changing the system.

Orvium has a powerful vision and a complex but well thought-out proposal. If they succeed, we could see a dramatic improvement in the quality of research, which in turn will deliver more benefits of science to society. Token sale is set to begin in Q2 of this year. Visit https://orvium.io/ for more info or to register for
the pre-sale.