The goal of the Scientific Asset Project is to experiment with a new scientific publishing system that takes full advantage of an emerging decentralized internet (“Web3“) and related technologies such as blockchain. The project aims to deliver a more stable distribution channel for scientific papers, greater autonomy for editorial teams, and more balanced economic incentives for authors, editors, reviewers and publishers.

In this section, the most significant current challenges of scientific publishing are presented, followed by an analysis of how a new Web3-centered academic publishing model can begin to address them.

Emerging Web3 technologies offer opportunities for experimentation and innovation of the scientific publishing system. They can potentially resolve some of the current frictions within the system, including providing compensation for editors, authors and reviewers, improving article distribution, and providing opportunities to create new decentralized governance models.