Development Project - Funding science through generative art

Overview

$16 trillion. That's the estimated size of the global funding gap for scientific research. Nearly 85% of research proposals go unfunded every year. Beyond that, the research that does get funded is not done so efficiently, and researchers often spend more than half their time looking for new funding sources. Few options exist today for interested individuals to actively support scientific research in an engaging, transparent, and accessible way. This disconnect between researchers and the broader community has led to poor commercialization rates and a waning public trust in the scientific process.

inTheory Research presents an alternative method for science funding. By leveraging community momentum and the latest in web3 and generative AI technology, inTheory allows users to own a piece of the fundamental research they believe in by simply purchasing and collecting project-inspired digital artworks.

How did I contribute? Supported by my friend and co-founder, Cameron Nili, I served as the sole researcher, designer, and developer of the inTheory funding platform. In that capacity, I created all logos, mock-ups, and branding assets for the platform, then subsequently wrote all front-end, back-end, and smart contract code. I accomplished this despite having no previous background in digital design or front-end development. Bootstrapped by the Angelblock Impact Startup grant, a Gitcoin DeSci grant, and the Celo Camp Innovation Prize, we launched the beta platform on the Celo and Polygon blockchains in early 2023.

Where is the project today? Unfortunately, this project never made it past its beta testing phase. With an expected public launch in July 2023, we were derailed by the rapid decline in seed-stage venture funding, coupled with a rising skepticism in web3 technologies.

While this outcome was certainly not what we had hoped, I still consider this project to be a failure that I take great pride in.

Check it out for yourself: inTheory Research

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