The World of DeSci: Devcon 8 India Community Hub
RFP-13: Devcon 8 India Community Hubs
Summary of Proposal
The World of DeSci is a Community Hub where open science meets Ethereum. Building on our Hubs at Devcon Bangkok (2024) and Devconnect Argentina (2025), we bring decentralized science to India: a four-day space for scientists, builders and funders to connect, onboard and co-create tools that turn research into a public good.
Motivation and Rationale
How would this Community Hub enhance the attendee experience? The World of DeSci gives Devcon attendees something the rest of the program rarely offers: a direct bridge between scientific research and the Ethereum ecosystem. Instead of a single talk, attendees get a persistent space to meet DeSci referents, onboard as academics or developers, and find concrete ways to contribute — from peer review onchain to funding models for research.
How would it complement Devcon 8 India? What unique piece does it add? DeSci is still underrepresented in the global Ethereum community. A dedicated Hub adds a use case beyond DeFi, NFTs and infrastructure, showing builders a novel, mission-driven demand for Ethereum: making science open, verifiable and accessible. It complements Devcon’s technical program with real-world impact.
Why is a Hub the best format (vs. a one-time talk or workshop)? DeSci thrives on continuity and community. A Hub lets communities from different regions share regional challenges, explore collaborations and co-design solutions across all four days, something a single session cannot achieve. It is also where onboarding actually happens: academics need repeated, low-pressure touchpoints, not a one-off.
How would this Hub support builders and their journey? (free, open, private, verifiable) We connect researchers and developers with the tools and models of decentralized science, so they can improve their own workflows and build new use cases. DeSci maps directly onto Ethereum’s core properties: reproducible, verifiable results onchain; open science as open source; and community-owned funding for public goods.
Have you organized a Community Hub before? What did you learn? Yes, this is our third edition. The World of DeSci ran at Devcon Bangkok 2024 and was selected for Devconnect Argentina 2025 (the first Ethereum World’s Fair). What began as a single Hub has since grown into DeSci DAY, now hosted in a decentralized way by projects worldwide. Key lessons we carry into India:
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A Hub is only as strong as its coalition. In Bangkok, our first draft was flagged for being pushed by a single group; it became strong once many communities joined. We come to India already multi-community, and will keep the proposal open on the forum for others to join.
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Onboarding scientists requires public access. Paid-only activities limit participation to those already in crypto. We will include public-facing moments to reach new academics.
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Include existing communities early. We are reaching out to India’s DeSci and Ethereum communities from day one to co-design the Hub, not just host it.
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DeSci is broader than public goods. We frame it as a full rethink of how science is produced, governed and funded.
Implementation
Devcon provides the core space and standard setup (screens, chairs, whiteboards, power). In addition, our Hub is built around three formats we have run before: a dedicated booth with DeSci referents and onboarding stations for academics, talks and workshops, and a hackathon to introduce Ethereum-native developers to DeSci problems.
Special production requirements we plan to source or request (subject to confirmation):
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Real-time translation: especially valuable given India’s linguistic diversity and Devcon’s global audience.
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A media team for content production and documentation.
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Booth space for project demos and a small area for global DeSci communities (LATAM, Asia, Africa, India) to interact with attendees.
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Promotional and onboarding materials (banners, printed explainers for newcomers to DeSci).
We would also welcome guidance on what falls within Devcon’s standard provision so we can focus our own sourcing on what is genuinely additional.
A note on our team and funding
The World of DeSci Hub is organized by a deliberately distributed, multi-community team: Joshua Bate (DeSciWorld | Bonfire, UK), Rodrigo Nuñez (MesoReef DAO | AuraSci, Mexico) and Brenda Palavicino (DeSci LATAM, Argentina) bringing together three continents and several DeSci communities. Being spread across the globe is exactly what lets this Hub act as a genuine bridge between the European, LATAM and Asian DeSci ecosystems, but it also means travel is our main cost: we estimate roughly 9,000 USD to bring the core organizing team to India.
We want to be fully transparent: we are committed to bringing the DeSci Hub to Devcon India and to raising these funds ourselves through DeSci-aligned grants, public-goods funding and community support, never through on-site commercial sponsorship, in full respect of Devcon’s neutrality guidelines. Given current market conditions we cannot promise today that we will reach the goal, but as DeSci builders we will give our absolute best to get there. This Hub is a multi-community effort, and we would rather commit honestly and fight for it than let the momentum and our drive to make science open and accessible to everyone fade. If Devcon offers any travel support or scholarships for Hub organizers, we would gladly explore that as part of closing the gap.
Programming
Possible speakers and topics
Our network across the three organizing communities (Bonfire, MesoReef, DeSci LATAM) and allied DeSci communities gives us a broad speaker pool. We are actively confirming speakers and will keep this list updated on the forum as the program takes shape. In line with the collaborative spirit of the Hub, speakers will be drawn from the organizing communities, our allied DeSci network, and India-based communities we are bringing on board.
Communities we have collaborated with and plan to invite: DeSciWorld, DeSciers, Bio.xyz, MesoReefDAO, MicrobiomeDAO, AuraSci, CryoDAO, ValleyDAO, DeSci México, and India-based DeSci groups (in conversation).
Topic pool: decentralized funding of science, onchain peer review, IP-NFTs, public-goods funding for research, reproducibility and open data, biotech, longevity, climate and biodiversity, AI + science, and developer tooling for DeSci.
(If you’d like to speak or suggest a topic, comment below we’re building this program together.)
Sample program (9am–6pm, across 4 days)
We organize the Hub into thematic days (a format that worked well in Argentina), while keeping open hours and networking throughout. Topics are open to democratic modification with participating communities.
**Sample day (hour-by-hour)
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| Time | Block |
|---|---|
| 09:00–10:00 | Welcoming & onboarding — intro to DeSci for newcomers, booth open |
| 10:00–11:00 | Opening talk (theme of the day) |
| 11:00–13:00 | Structured sessions / panels with community leaders |
| 13:00–14:00 | Networking lunch — open hours at the booth |
| 14:00–16:30 | Workshops + hackathon working time |
| 16:30–17:30 | Demos & lightning talks |
| 17:30–18:00 | Closing circle — recap and next-day preview |
Four-day arc:
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Day 1 — Body: biotech, aging, rejuvenation, biohacking.
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Day 2 — Mind: AI, data, space.
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Day 3 — Heart: climate, microbiology, biopreservation, biodiversity.
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Day 4 — Soul: community, developer tooling, academic engagement — plus the Hub closing and hackathon showcase.
Programming is a collaborative effort: each day will have designated community leaders, assigned together with the participating communities, and we spread the work across all of them, including India-based ones.
How the topic supports Ethereum’s core properties, open-source ethos and bridge-building
DeSci is a natural expression of Ethereum’s values: verifiability (reproducible research and data anchored onchain), openness (open science as open source), and community bridge-building (connecting India’s, LATAM’s and the global Ethereum research communities around a shared mission). The Hub is designed to move people from spectators to contributors.
Audience
Who is the Hub for? Scientists and academics (both crypto-native and new to Web3), Ethereum builders and developers, funders of public goods, students, and the curious — technical and non-technical alike.
Which groups do we especially want to engage? India’s growing research, academic and Ethereum communities; global DeSci DAOs; and funders looking for high-impact, real-world use cases. We specifically want to onboard traditional scientists who have never engaged with Web3.
As a team based outside India, how will we connect with India’s community? This is our main context change from previous editions, and we take it seriously:
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Co-host with India-based DeSci / Web3 communities and invite local organizers and speakers into the core team, from the design phase onward.
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Adapt our “Road to DeSci” model (in Argentina we ran a lead-up tour before the Hub) to India/Asia — building relationships and momentum ahead of the event.
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Pursue travel and participation support for local students and researchers, as we did in Argentina with regional universities.
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Keep the proposal active on the forum to attract Indian collaborators and contributors.
Team
The dedicated organizers responsible for the Hub:
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Joshua Bate — DeSciWorld | Bonfire (UK)
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Rodrigo Nuñez — MesoReef DAO | AuraSci (Mexico)
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Brenda Palavicino — DeSci LATAM (Argentina)
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Swift Evo — DeSci Asia (Hong Kong)
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We are in active conversation with India-based DeSci / Ethereum communities to bring on local co-hosts, plus allied communities joining as contributors.
Why we are best-suited to lead this. We have a proven track record: The World of DeSci at Devcon Bangkok 2024 and Devconnect Argentina 2025 (selected). DeSci LATAM has been active since 2022, and our work has been supported by public-goods and Ethereum-ecosystem grants. We grew a single Hub into DeSci DAY, a decentralized global movement. Each organizer brings a distinct DeSci community, expertise and region to the table.
How we keep the Hub neutral and welcoming. The Hub will be free from marketing or promotion of specific tokens, projects or commercial interests. Our safeguards:
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The organizing team is multi-organization and multi-region by design (DeSciWorld, Bonfire, MesoReef DAO, AuraSci, DeSci LATAM), which structurally prevents any single commercial interest from dominating.
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Sessions are framed around the DeSci movement and shared problems, not around promoting the organizers’ own projects.
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Any funds we raise for travel and logistics come from DeSci-aligned grants and community support never from on-site sponsorship or branded placements inside the Hub.
How we are connected to the communities the Hub serves. DeSci LATAM is the decentralized science community of its region; Bonfire and MesoReef bring their own established communities. For India, we are building genuine connections with local DeSci and Ethereum groups so the Hub is co-created, not imposed.
Languages. Our distributed team covers English (Josh, UK) and Spanish (Rodrigo, Mexico; Brenda, Argentina), and we offered real-time translation in previous editions. For India we will add local-language coverage through our Indian co-hosts, so the Hub is accessible to as many attendees as possible.
Links & supporting material
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Web: descilatam.org · X: @descilatam
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Recaps and photos: The World of DeSci: Bangkok 2024 & Devconnect Argentina 2025
*This proposal is open and collaborative if you’d like to contribute or co-host, comment below and join us. Let’s bring DeSci to Devcon India.