Update on ResearchHub and ResearchCoin
ResearchHub is a project I co-founded with Patrick Joyce, whose mission is to accelerate scientific research. The idea came out of a blog post I wrote a while back on how to improve scientific research. We also believe that the tools emerging in crypto can be useful to help us improve collaboration in science.
A prime example is ResearchCoin. A separate foundation, the ResearchHub Foundation, created ResearchCoin, and we’ve adopted the use of ResearchCoin on ResearchHub to help reward members of the community and to facilitate moderation. In the event ResearchCoin is listed on various crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, I want to share a few details to make sure the community understands what precautions have been put in place to ensure there are no conflicts of interest, and ensure that ResearchHub is building for the long term.
All assets that get listed on Coinbase go through our Digital Asset Listing Group (DALG) committee. This committee reviews every asset that gets listed on Coinbase from a legal, compliance, and cybersecurity perspective. I am not a member of the DALG, and so have no voting authority on which assets get approved for listing. If any meetings were to come up at Coinbase where ResearchCoin was discussed, I would make sure to recuse myself to avoid any accidental influence. My affiliation with ResearchHub was disclosed to our board, and I trust the rest of the Coinbase team to reach the appropriate conclusion in any review process that may take place, given their experience reviewing hundreds of assets at this point.
The full analysis that the team performs on each asset is beyond the scope of this blog post, but one key fact that I want to highlight here is that ResearchHub and its owners (including me) have never sold ResearchCoin.
Some participants in ResearchHub who have helped contribute content to the ResearchHub site have earned ResearchCoin as a reward token, and they are the folks who may choose to sell ResearchCoin if it becomes more liquid. If ResearchCoin is listed on Coinbase or other exchanges, the value of it may change considerably. Due to the small supply, it may even be quite volatile or reach prices that do not reflect its true value (however one were to estimate that). As with any crypto purchase, I would encourage anyone thinking of buying ResearchCoin to exercise caution in this situation, and not to buy ResearchCoin without fully understanding it.
It’s important for me to let folks know publicly that I have no intention of selling ResearchCoin in the near term, whether it is listed on Coinbase or any other exchange. In fact, I’m committing to never sell ResearchCoin for at least four years from the date of this post.
I figured it would be a good idea to publicly share the precautions taken to make sure everyone is aware. My hope is that ResearchHub and ResearchCoin will be good for the world in terms of helping accelerate scientific research, and that I can help set it up for long term success.
