Although the Science Asset Project is a technological and social experiment, we also want to establish a viable business model, that can be replicated and scaled, providing scientific publishing with a better and brighter future, or at least an interesting alternative to the status quo.
To illustrate how “Publishing-as-a-Service” (PaaS) might differ from the Subscription and Open Access publishing model, refer to the table below. These ideas are still a work in progress, but we believe they present a viable commercial pathway for scientific publishing on the decentralized internet.
| Scientific publishing model | Subscription | Open Access | Publishing-as-a-Service |
| Ownership of journal | Publisher | Publisher | Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) |
| Ownership of scientific paper | Publisher (copyright protected) | Public domain (creative commons license) | Author, but distributed freely |
| Compensation for authors, editors or reviewers | Usually not | Usually not | Yes (in tokens) |
| Income for publisher | Subscription fees | Publishing or manuscript processing fees | Share of journal revenue or a management fee |
Under the Publishing-as-a-Service model, the income a publisher generates would compensate them for providing administrative and software services to the journal, giving the journal the freedom to change service provider with relative ease. After all, the content of the journal (its scientific papers) are hosted on the decentralized internet, while its editors, authors and reviewers collaborate directly without interference from the publisher.