Money moves around a lot in the DeFi world, often by pseudonymous online personas no one actually meets in real life. Some trade, some transact, and some just behave badly. However, sometimes, the people behind the avatars are not just certified good eggs; you might even consider them philanthropic heroes.
This might be the case with the huge boost open-access science got from DeFi do-gooder @0xAA_Science, who donated an eye-watering $190,000 worth of $scihub tokens to Alexandra Elbakyan, the founder of Sci-Hub, to help support decentralized research. Sci-Hub is an online repository providing free global access to academic research. We’re talking millions of academic papers and journals.
A WTF Donation to Assist Academic Research
This donation itself was for a cool 10 million $scihub tokens, which translates to an impressive 1% of the token’s total supply. Now, while it could look on the surface like a very friendly gift, the donation is, in fact, very on-brand with the good Samaritan. @0xAA_Science is actually the founder and owner of WTF Academy, a totally free Web3 Open University for developers.
Essentially, both projects seek to provide people with knowledge and resources to better their own minds, skillsets, and the world around them without a steep price tag. Plus, many agree that what Sci-Hub is doing is crucial and deserves financial support, because — in its own words — the ‘controversial’ project is laser-focused on providing “Free and unrestricted access to all scientific knowledge.”
This type of scientific data is typically locked behind expensive paywalls, meaning scientific research results are reserved for those with the deepest pockets. Now over 88 million academic papers and journals are ready and available for anyone to read at any time. Not only is this good for those searching for specific data, but as AI advances, it’s not a far stretch to imagine this information could be collated and used to find unexpected scientific breakthroughs.
Now the donor might be anonymous, but that doesn’t mean he’s unknown. @0xAA_Science is not only the creator of WTF Academy but also a popular DeFi influencer, with a strong following of over 133k on X. Not much of a surprise, but they are also a big supporter of the Sci-Hub project too. Lookonchain, a popular analytics project that tracks and showcases big transaction news, revealed that the influencer owns 226 million $scihub tokens, valued at $4.3 million at the time of writing, worth 22.6% supply.
New Donor, Who Dis?
While that level of holdings might be enough to scare the average shrimp investor right out of the DeFi seas, according to sources, this friendly whale has actually pledged to donate over 20% of their total holdings to the Sci-Hub founder. The aforementioned initial transaction was only a commencement of that agreement.
Bad Actors or Heroes of the People?
Most people would argue that everyone should have access to vital scientific information, allowing everyone the opportunity to contribute to the betterment of the human race. Sadly, money exists, and as such, scientific journals often impose steep subscription fees or charge per article, creating significant barriers for researchers, educators, and students — especially in underfunded institutions and developing nations — to gain access.
Sci-Hub, often described as the “Pirate Bay of Science,” has even caught the ire of governing bodies. In the UK for example, authorities warn students and universities not to use the site, as it allegedly gets its papers “through a variety of malicious means, such as the use of phishing emails to trick university staff and students into divulging their login credentials.”
This, if true, is not a good look for the project. But a larger point could be argued: If this information is already open to the public, there should be no reason to use underhanded tactics to acquire it.
Aside from the legality of it all, the project now appears to have some competition in the form of the University of California. The celebrated institution recently announced a major open access agreement with Elsevier (the world’s largest scientific publisher) to make a vast majority of the uni’s own research available to people worldwide, whenever they want it, at zero cost.
Free access to academic research? After all, like they say: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
