DeSci Ep #5: An Investor’s Perspective on DeSci—with James Sinka of Orange DAO

Why invest in decentralized science?

James Sinka is a classically trained chemist and materials engineer and DeSci investor at Orange DAO, a fund for crypto projects supported by an alliance of Y Combinator alumni.

On this episode of Boost VC, James joins us to discuss where he sees opportunities in DeSci, describing the benefit of publishing null results and how open science helps us get to the truth more quickly.

James explains how the Orange Fund and Orange DAO work together to finance crypto projects and shares his advice to scientist-founders on generating your own luck through action.

Listen in for James’ insight on the first use cases for decentralized science and learn how investing in DeSci can democratize access to research and help rebel scientist-entrepreneurs ship products in the real world!

Topics Covered

How James defines science

• Process to uncover truths about world
• Not an institution of truth

What attracted James to DeSci

• Benefits of publishing null results
• Less wasted science effort and money

How James got into crypto

• Exposed to Bitcoin in college
• Offers financial freedom to bet on self

How Orange DAO works

• $50M fund for crypto projects
• Y Combinator alum support efforts

James’ advice for founders

• Bias toward action
• Be willing to be wrong

Where James sees opportunity in DeSci

• Free flowing access to information
• Get to truth more quickly

What’s wrong with academic science now

• Research for prestige, not passion
• Value determined by citation numbers

How the Alzheimer’s fraud happened

• Conflict of interest at NIH
• No reverse accountability system

What inspires James to invest in DeSci

• Push boundaries of scientific research
• Help scientists build real products

James’ take on the first use case for DeSci

• Data warehousing (null results)
• New forms of publication open to all

James’ definition of success

• Time, space and resources
• Ability to do what you love

Connect with James Sinka

Orange DAO https://www.orangedao.xyz/

Orange DAO on Discord https://discord.com/invite/DVncb7UxGB

Orange DAO on Snapshot https://snapshot.org/#/orangedaoxyz.eth

Orange DAO on Etherscan https://etherscan.io/token/0x1bBD79f1Ecb3f2cCC586A5E3A26eE1d1D2E1991f

Orange DAO on OpenSea https://opensea.io/collection/alumni-gems

Orange DAO on Twitter https://twitter.com/OrangeDAOxyz

James on Twitter https://twitter.com/jamessinka  

Resources

Through the Wormhole https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1513168/

Y Combinator https://www.ycombinator.com/

NEAR Protocol https://near.org/

Algorand https://www.algorand.com/

Blockchain Capital https://blockchain.capital/

The Memo by Howard Marks https://link.chtbl.com/thememobyhowardmarks

Multicoin Capital https://multicoin.capital/

Solana https://solana.com/

Exploring Decentralized Science with Balaji Srinivasan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrcRI_hYDtQ

Naval https://nav.al/

Brian Armstrong https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong

Epsilon3 https://www.epsilon3.io/

Benchling https://www.benchling.com/

Amplitude https://amplitude.com/

Sci-Hub https://sci-hub.se/

Patrick Joyce on the Boost VC Podcast https://www.boost.vc/bvc/2022/08/04/desci-ep-2-addressing-the-misalignment-of-incentives-in-science   

DeSci Labs https://desci.com/

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

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Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

Boost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/