Balázs Szigeti is a researcher at the University of California San Francisco, studying some tricky subjects, such as the effects of psychedelics for chronic pain, eating disorders, and depression. He conducted one of the largest real-world, placebo-controlled studies on psychedelics, along with Robin Carhart-Harris, Amanda Feilding and David Nutt. In it, psychedelic microdosers were sent surveys and asked to self-report on cognitive tasks at various time points—to see if microdosing is helpful, harmful or neutral.

With a study like this, there is, of course, a huge hurdle: People are people—they get distracted, they lose track of their survey logins, and the questions go unanswered.

"You launch these studies and the attrition rate tends to be very high," Szigeti says. "Only about half of the people who sign up are actually completing them."

High dropout rates mean a huge waste of time for the researchers, and big gaps in their knowledge. No research team has yet found a way out. And attrition is a systemic problem in subjects beyond psychedelics.

"Attrition is a headache, but dropping out is understandable," Szigeti says. "After all, participants are not compensated in any form."

A New Ecosystem Arrives

Today, Szigeti is teaming up with PsyDAO, a community owned and governed research funding network, to use new technologies to launch an exciting solution. He's working with Chris Byrnes, a lawyer with Calyx Law, re-imagining intellectual property, Tyler Quigley, a technical specialist at Calyx Law, and Warren Winter, a developmental neuropsychology researcher turned data scientist.

They've created OPSY—the Open Psychedelic Science ecosYstem. OPSY is a portal through which data can be submitted to a research project and participants are rewarded.

Like so many projects at PsyDAO, OPSY aims for more participation in science—and therefore better results.

The Magic of Tokens

In the past, researchers have rewarded survey participants with money or gift cards.

OPSY uses tokens.

Tokens, as you might know, are valuable digital assets—the most famous token is Bitcoin.

Tokens open an exciting world of possibilities that has never existed before, for both participants and researchers.

“In traditional survey studies, value is created only for the researcher who publishes the data,” says Szigeti. “With OPSY we want to change that, and reward participants, so now the value creation is bi-directional.”

OPSY tokens not only have monetary value, but they can also represent partial intellectual property and governance rights.

Using the tokens, people can vote on the project’s future. If someone has 5% of the tokens, they could have about a 5% vote in some governance decisions about the project's future. This helps study participants feel invested in the project.

OPSY tokens can be more anonymous than dollars. And in some cases, token holders can track project funding.

With these perks, the team hopes to motivate participants to stay in studies for longer. Broader, more comprehensive datasets could provide valuable insights into how substances work in the real world, which could lead to better medicines in the long run.

OPSY integrates with a tool researchers already use to gather data, Qualtrics. Once a participant finishes a Qualtrics survey, the data is submitted through OPSY, and tokens can be sent to their wallet.

Meanwhile, researchers can capture rare/difficult datasets, including psychedelics.

Beyond Psychedelics

OPSY will begin with psychedelics, because there is more of a need for real-world data there. But the tool can be used for any real world research that faces financial or privacy-related challenges in recruiting and retaining human research subjects. For example:

• How do lifestyle changes affect diabetes?

• What side effects did a clinical trial miss?

• How effective are existing drugs for off-label use?

[Read more details in the OPSY WhitePaper]

Tokens are Here Now

Tokens may seem like some futuristic abstraction. Yet, Bitcoin's price is discussed on the evening news, and Justin Bieber's ownership of a Bored Ape NFT makes the front page of the Daily Mail.

With all this press attention, awareness and use of tokens is growing. One estimate is that, while less than half of Americans knew about the technology in 2021, now 80 percent do. And somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of Americans now own tokens.

OPSY is tapping into that growth, putting the power of tokens and DeSci in the hands of any researcher who wants it. OPSY Mints as IP-NFT

This week, OPSY took a technical step that is, nevertheless, important for the future of science: it registered the intellectual property of OPSY on the blockchain, minting its IP-NFT with Molecule. IP-NFTs are non-fungible tokens representing intellectual property rights, which enables programmatic licensing and revenue sharing.

[For more, read "Intro to IP-NFT" and "Why mint an IP-NFT?" by our incubator, Molecule.]

DeSci: A New Scientific Funding Mechanism

OPSY lets any research team get in on the ground floor of an exciting new field: Decentralized Science, or DeSci.

DeSci is a new financial layer built on crowd participation and the magic of the blockchain to pay for research and dole out intellectual property. This crowdfunding model can give scientists more independence from traditional grant systems.

“If you have a good idea and you can convince the community, you can get money,” says Szigeti.

PsyDAO is part of the BIO Protocol, a group of DeSci DAO’s using blockchain to solve fertility, long COVID, and neurodegeneration. BIO's project was recently opened to the public and is now valued over half a billion dollars. The public who are backing BioDAOs are betting that this new financial layer can lead to quicker and better science.

Funders can directly back PsyDAO on its BIO funding page.

Ready for Some Technical Details?

OPSY's tokens are built not on the Bitcoin blockchain, but on Ethereum—a decade-old, well-trusted blockchain network used by computer scientists, artists, and innovators using the programmability of tokens and smart contracts to solve real-world problems. Ethereum can handle complex tasks like managing scientific data and automatically sending rewards.

OPSY's smart contracts guarantee that when participants submit data through an OPSY-facilitated study, they will be rewarded with Ethereum-based tokens such as the stable coin $USDC—which can easily be exchanged for dollars—without compromising their privacy along the way. Participants will also be awarded OPSY intellectual property tokens (IPTs), which give them governance rights over OPSY, empowering participants to play an active role in how their data is used.

The USDC tokens will work for anyone who has a crypto wallet, including very common ones like CoinBase and Metamask.

[Read about PsyDAO's tokens, and how our $PSY token sale raised $2 million for psychedelic science and culture.]

First Projects

The OPSY team is in talks to launch our first collaborations with some of the best and brightest in the psychedelic field. The first project planned will focus on long-term psychedelic use. Why is this important? The vast majority of studies focus on what happens after a few psychedelic drug sessions. Here, the team instead wants to focus on how years, and decades, of psychedelic use affects people in ways that are not feasible in traditional clinical trials.

Soon, OPSY will mint IPTs for the project. A portion of the OPSY IPTs will be sold to the general public to fund the initial OPSY projects.

“Everybody understands traditional academia is broken, we just do not have an alternative yet," says Szigeti. "Experimentation is the heart of science and DeSci is an experiment to fix science. I am beyond excited to be a part of this experiment."The data, and the breakthroughs, are closer than ever before.

To learn more about OPSY or use the tech in your research, email tyler@psydao.io* or join the PsyDAO Discord channel about OPSY.*

Our psychedelic research and culture organization is fortunate to be able to fund artists and storytellers at the heart of psychedelics with our Alchemist grants.

With a grant from PsyDAO, artist and facilitator La Curandera Morgana Sin has created an installation called The Cosmic Womb.

It's a stunning, physical embodiment of a psychological process—and it's a prototype for a new form of psychedelic therapy she is developing.

In Search of Inspiration

Initially, Morgana didn't turn to psychedelics to heal.

It was the fall of 2018, and Morgana felt she needed new business ideas.

She remembered reading how Steve Jobs used psychedelics for creative inspiration. "If it worked for him," she thought, "it could work for me." She brewed San Pedro tea and waited for the creative spark.

Instead of insight, she was confronted with buried memories of childhood abuse.

After weeks of contemplation, she finally chose to confront the darker aspects of her life through psychedelics. Uncertain about where it would lead, she experimented with freebase DMT, mushrooms, and ayahuasca.

At the time, she was pre-diabetic and weighed nearly 300 pounds. "Every step was a struggle," she says.

With the help of mushrooms, she discovered the deep-seated hatred she had developed toward her body. Raised in a conservative Catholic Mexican household, she was expected to adhere to strict rules as a woman, while the men were treated like royalty. This imbalance fostered a resentment toward her female body, rejecting the conventional roles of womanhood, motherhood, and caregiving—including the sexual aspect, which she associated with shame.

Psychedelics helped her confront her depression, her suicidality, the darkest aspects of her past, and some of the roots of her unhappiness—including sexual abuse that started at age 4. At just 5 years old, her father attempted to murder both her and her mother.

She came to understand that, having been a victim of childhood sexual abuse, sex was viewed as something dirty, disconnected from love, a source of disgust she preferred to ignore.

The extra pounds she carried were, in fact, a form of armor.

"Being morbidly obese created this false sense of security," she says. "Like, if I made myself unattractive to men, they wouldn’t want to touch me."

(Read more about how PsyDAO works, including our tokens.)

From the Shadows, Ayahuasca Offered a New Path.

She says:

In one particular vision in 2019, I was faced with my deeply rooted discomfort and disgust toward the female anatomy. I found myself in what appeared to be a vaginal tunnel, and to my surprise, it was connected to a sexual energy. In the distance, I saw a dark, blob-like figure coming toward me. Trapped in the tunnel, I was forced to face my past sexual abuse. As the energy approached, it conveyed the beauty of what resided within me. I felt the essence of female energy—though not defined by societal standards of femininity. It wasn’t about gender; the energy chose the vessel, and my strength wanted to emerge, to shift my perspective on the female body. I realized that everyone had come into this world through such a spiritual portal. I understood the beauty and power in the creation of life and the strength inherent in that process.

As she began to shift her behavior patterns, she noticed a gradual transition in her life from darkness to light.

She recognized it was time to begin healing the trauma stored in her body. This realization ultimately led her to have a gastric sleeve procedure in January 2024.

A year later, she stays fit pole dancing, and weighs 175 pounds. "I feel like a completely different person," she says. "My energy has returned. It’s such a joy to feel free, even in small moments like picking clothes off a rack."

(Read about how PsyDAO funds psychedelic science and culture.)

Becoming a Guide for Others

“Psychedelics aren’t a miracle cure, but they can be powerful tools for healing deep emotional wounds.” Psychedelics played a pivotal role in helping her confront her struggles, ultimately allowing her to reclaim her life.

"The healing I’ve done has changed everything about my life," she says. "After what I experienced with psychedelic healing, staying silent wasn't an option anymore."

She stepped out of the shadows, and now she is currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology, furthering her education with a focus on integrating indigenous methods with modern psychology.

Born and raised in Southern California, she is the first in her family born in the U.S. Her ancestry traces back to an isolated and poor Purépecha community in Santa Cruz de Morelos, Michoacán, Mexico—a place so remote that it remained unaware of the modern world for many years.

She is dedicated to researching a healing approach that combines three essential elements: mind, body, and spirit, inspired by ancient Mesoamerican traditions. These traditions taught that true healing requires the balance of all three components.

[Read about PsyDAO’s new AI research project, BeeARD.]

Transformative Groups

In her home in Berlin in August, she brought people together to teach the ceremonial use of DMT and mushrooms, blending Western psychological practices with indigenous healing methods.

She says:

This idea of the cosmic womb naturally grew out of these healing circles.

I noticed that for the first two hours of the journey, it was a very introspective journey. Nobody was moving—everyone was deep in their own mind, going through the experience. Then, there came a moment where it felt like they were emerging from a cocoon, like butterflies. They started becoming more active, so I provided a space where they could move around freely and explore.

I had set up different things for them to interact with, almost like a little playground. Since I didn’t have all the materials at the time, we pretended—like children—that they were going through a tunnel under a bush. It was as if they were returning to the womb. When they were ready, they passed through the "vagina tunnel," symbolizing a rebirth.

I started inviting participants to imagine themselves entering a tunnel that embodied the feminine, life-giving energy of the womb.

Facing trauma is hard enough, so I wanted to create a space that nourishes the inner child. I firmly believe that if you want to connect with Spirit, you can do it more easily by tapping into the wonder and playfulness of a child.

As children, life feels full of amazement, wonder, and joy—things we often lose as we grow older.

The Cosmic Womb

With the grant from PsyDAO, Morgana was able to develop the first prototype of the Cosmic Womb. Visitors are guided through a soft, red chute, lined with plush material, creating a sensory experience that evokes the feeling of being reborn.

By constructing the Cosmic Womb, she realized she was confronting her shadow self—unresolved feelings about her own female anatomy.

As she created this spiritual portal, she reconnected with her inner child—the part of her that had been hidden beneath layers of self-defense. Through this creative process, she began to explore a new form of psychedelic healing, one that emphasizes play and imagination.

“Why not approach difficult emotions with a sense of wonder?” she reflects. "What if there was a psychedelic playground designed to explore how integrating play into the healing process could awaken the inner child and restore its happiness?"

This playful approach to healing helped her reclaim her inner worth and rediscover the joy and creativity she had lost.

Now that the art installation is complete, she's seeking the perfect location for its launch. An art gallery or studio space would be ideal. She's also looking for investors/sponsors to help cover the costs for a booth at Psychedelic Science in Denver in June 2025, the largest psychedelic conference in the world.

She's also developing a psychedelic brand that offers high-quality psychedelic products.

A New Perspective

The spirit child enters the world full of wonder, curiosity, and limitless potential. However, as life unfolds, this sense of awe begins to fade, and with it, the child within starts to lose its soul.

The Cosmic Womb represents the unity of all beings, a reminder that everyone enters the world in the same way and shares a deep connection to the Earth. By embracing what was once feared, they can discover the return of laughter, with humor drawing them closer to the source of all life.

One thing I’ve learned is that when you’re going through your own suffering, it’s easy to think you’re alone. I used to believe I was the only one going through such a dark period. But as I started interacting with more people, I realized I wasn’t alone.

[PsyDAO is a collective of people organizing around the tools of Web3 and crypto to do psychedelic research and art in a new, decentralized way. Join us on Discord and Twitter to guide our evolution and be part of a team. Apply for an alchemist grant here. Be well and use psychedelics responsibly, either in low doses or as part of a group, with supervision.]

The Psychedelic DAO is fortunate to be able to fund artists and storytellers at the heart of psychedelics with our Alchemist grants. (Apply for an alchemist grant!)

With $2,000 from PsyDAO, artist and psychedelic facilitator La Curandera Morgana Sin has created an installation called The Cosmic Womb.

It's a stunning, physical embodiment of a psychological process—and it's a prototype for a new form of psychedelic therapy she is developing.

Initially, Morgana didn't turn to psychedelics to heal.

A Steve Jobs Moment

It was the fall of 2018, and Morgana felt she needed new business ideas.

She remembered reading how Steve Jobs used psychedelics for creative inspiration. "If it worked for him," she thought, "it could work for me." She brewed San Pedro tea and waited for the creative spark.

Instead of insight, she was confronted with buried memories of childhood abuse.

After weeks of contemplation, she finally chose to confront the darker aspects of her life through psychedelics. Uncertain about where it would lead, she experimented with freebase DMT, mushrooms, and ayahuasca.

At the time, she was pre-diabetic and weighed nearly 300 pounds. "Every step was a struggle," she says.

With the help of mushrooms, she discovered the deep-seated hatred she had developed toward her body. Raised in a conservative Catholic Mexican household, she was expected to adhere to strict rules as a woman, while the men were treated like royalty. This imbalance fostered a resentment toward her female body, rejecting the conventional roles of womanhood, motherhood, and caregiving—including the sexual aspect, which she associated with shame.

Psychedelics helped her confront her depression, her suicidality, the darkest aspects of her past, and some of the roots of her unhappiness—including sexual abuse that started at age 4. At just 5 years old, her father attempted to murder both her and her mother.

She came to understand that, having been a victim of childhood sexual abuse, sex was viewed as something dirty, disconnected from love, a source of disgust she preferred to ignore.

The extra pounds she carried were, in fact, a form of armor.

"Being morbidly obese created this false sense of security," she says. "Like, if I made myself unattractive to men, they wouldn’t want to touch me."

(Read more about how PsyDAO works, including our tokens.)

From the shadow of self-denial and hiding, ayahuasca offered a new path.

She says:

In one particular vision in 2019, I was faced with my deeply rooted discomfort and disgust toward the female anatomy. I found myself in what appeared to be a vaginal tunnel, and to my surprise, it was connected to a sexual energy. In the distance, I saw a dark, blob-like figure coming toward me. Trapped in the tunnel, I was forced to face my past sexual abuse. As the energy approached, it conveyed the beauty of what resided within me. I felt the essence of female energy—though not defined by societal standards of femininity. It wasn’t about gender; the energy chose the vessel, and my strength wanted to emerge, to shift my perspective on the female body. I realized that everyone had come into this world through such a spiritual portal. I understood the beauty and power in the creation of life and the strength inherent in that process.

As she began to shift her behavior patterns, she noticed a gradual transition in her life from darkness to light.

She recognized it was time to begin healing the trauma stored in her body. This realization ultimately led her to have a gastric sleeve procedure in January 2024.

A year later, she stays fit pole dancing, and weighs 175 pounds. "I feel like a completely different person," she says. "My energy has returned. It’s such a joy to feel free, even in small moments like picking clothes off a rack."

(Read about how PsyDAO funds psychedelic science and culture.)

Becoming a Guide for Others

“Psychedelics aren’t a miracle cure, but they can be powerful tools for healing deep emotional wounds.” Psychedelics played a pivotal role in helping her confront her struggles, ultimately allowing her to reclaim her life.

"The healing I’ve done has changed everything about my life," she says. "After what I experienced with psychedelic healing, staying silent wasn't an option anymore."

She stepped out of the shadows, and now she is currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology, furthering her education with a focus on integrating indigenous methods with modern psychology.

Born and raised in Southern California, she is the first in her family born in the U.S. Her ancestry traces back to an isolated and poor Purépecha community in Santa Cruz de Morelos, Michoacán, Mexico—a place so remote that it remained unaware of the modern world for many years.

She is dedicated to researching a healing approach that combines three essential elements: mind, body, and spirit, inspired by ancient Mesoamerican traditions. These traditions taught that true healing requires the balance of all three components.

[Read about PsyDAO’s new AI research project, BeeARD.]

Transformative Groups

In her home in Berlin in August, she brought people together to teach the ceremonial use of DMT and mushrooms, blending Western psychological practices with indigenous healing methods.

She says:

This idea of the cosmic womb naturally grew out of these healing circles.

I noticed that for the first two hours of the journey, it was a very introspective journey. Nobody was moving—everyone was deep in their own mind, going through the experience. Then, there came a moment where it felt like they were emerging from a cocoon, like butterflies. They started becoming more active, so I provided a space where they could move around freely and explore.

I had set up different things for them to interact with, almost like a little playground. Since I didn’t have all the materials at the time, we pretended—like children—that they were going through a tunnel under a bush. It was as if they were returning to the womb. When they were ready, they passed through the "vagina tunnel," symbolizing a rebirth.

I started inviting participants to imagine themselves entering a tunnel that embodied the feminine, life-giving energy of the womb.

Facing trauma is hard enough, so I wanted to create a space that nourishes the inner child. I firmly believe that if you want to connect with Spirit, you can do it more easily by tapping into the wonder and playfulness of a child.

As children, life feels full of amazement, wonder, and joy—things we often lose as we grow older.

The Cosmic Womb

With the grant from PsyDAO, Morgana was able to develop the first prototype of the Cosmic Womb. Visitors are guided through a soft, red chute, lined with plush material, creating a sensory experience that evokes the feeling of being reborn.

By constructing the Cosmic Womb, she realized she was confronting her shadow self—unresolved feelings about her own female anatomy.

As she created this spiritual portal, she reconnected with her inner child—the part of her that had been hidden beneath layers of self-defense. Through this creative process, she began to explore a new form of psychedelic healing, one that emphasizes play and imagination.

“Why not approach difficult emotions with a sense of wonder?” she reflects. "What if there was a psychedelic playground designed to explore how integrating play into the healing process could awaken the inner child and restore its happiness?"

This playful approach to healing helped her reclaim her inner worth and rediscover the joy and creativity she had lost.

Now that the art installation is complete, she's seeking the perfect location for its launch. An art gallery or studio space would be ideal. She's also looking for investors/sponsors to help cover the costs for a booth at Psychedelic Science in Denver in June 2025, the largest psychedelic conference in the world.

She's also developing a psychedelic brand that offers high-quality psychedelic products.

A New Perspective

The spirit child enters the world full of wonder, curiosity, and limitless potential. However, as life unfolds, this sense of awe begins to fade, and with it, the child within starts to lose its soul.

The Cosmic Womb represents the unity of all beings, a reminder that everyone enters the world in the same way and shares a deep connection to the Earth. By embracing what was once feared, they can discover the return of laughter, with humor drawing them closer to the source of all life.

One thing I’ve learned is that when you’re going through your own suffering, it’s easy to think you’re alone. I used to believe I was the only one going through such a dark period. But as I started interacting with more people, I realized I wasn’t alone.

[PsyDAO is a collective of people organizing around the tools of Web3 and crypto to do psychedelic research and art in a new, decentralized way. Join us on Discord and Twitter to guide our evolution and be part of a team. Apply for an alchemist grant here. Be well and use psychedelics responsibly, either in low doses or as part of a group, with supervision.]This story contains content many readers will find disturbing, including harm to a child.

The Psychedelic DAO is fortunate to be able to fund artists and storytellers at the heart of psychedelics with our Alchemist grants. (Apply for an alchemist grant!)

With $2,000 from PsyDAO, artist and psychedelic facilitator La Curandera Morgana Sin has created an installation called The Cosmic Womb.

It's a stunning, physical embodiment of a psychological process—and it's a prototype for a new form of psychedelic therapy she is developing.

Initially, Morgana didn't turn to psychedelics to heal.

A Steve Jobs Moment

It was the fall of 2018, and Morgana felt she needed new business ideas.

She remembered reading how Steve Jobs used psychedelics for creative inspiration. "If it worked for him," she thought, "it could work for me." She brewed San Pedro tea and waited for the creative spark.

Instead of insight, she was confronted with buried memories of childhood abuse.

After weeks of contemplation, she finally chose to confront the darker aspects of her life through psychedelics. Uncertain about where it would lead, she experimented with freebase DMT, mushrooms, and ayahuasca.

At the time, she was pre-diabetic and weighed nearly 300 pounds. "Every step was a struggle," she says.

With the help of mushrooms, she discovered the deep-seated hatred she had developed toward her body. Raised in a conservative Catholic Mexican household, she was expected to adhere to strict rules as a woman, while the men were treated like royalty. This imbalance fostered a resentment toward her female body, rejecting the conventional roles of womanhood, motherhood, and caregiving—including the sexual aspect, which she associated with shame.

Psychedelics helped her confront her depression, her suicidality, the darkest aspects of her past, and some of the roots of her unhappiness—including sexual abuse that started at age 4. At just 5 years old, her father attempted to murder both her and her mother.

She came to understand that, having been a victim of childhood sexual abuse, sex was viewed as something dirty, disconnected from love, a source of disgust she preferred to ignore.

The extra pounds she carried were, in fact, a form of armor.

"Being morbidly obese created this false sense of security," she says. "Like, if I made myself unattractive to men, they wouldn’t want to touch me."

(Read more about how PsyDAO works, including our tokens.)

From the shadow of self-denial and hiding, ayahuasca offered a new path.

She says:

In one particular vision in 2019, I was faced with my deeply rooted discomfort and disgust toward the female anatomy. I found myself in what appeared to be a vaginal tunnel, and to my surprise, it was connected to a sexual energy. In the distance, I saw a dark, blob-like figure coming toward me. Trapped in the tunnel, I was forced to face my past sexual abuse. As the energy approached, it conveyed the beauty of what resided within me. I felt the essence of female energy—though not defined by societal standards of femininity. It wasn’t about gender; the energy chose the vessel, and my strength wanted to emerge, to shift my perspective on the female body. I realized that everyone had come into this world through such a spiritual portal. I understood the beauty and power in the creation of life and the strength inherent in that process.

As she began to shift her behavior patterns, she noticed a gradual transition in her life from darkness to light.

She recognized it was time to begin healing the trauma stored in her body. This realization ultimately led her to have a gastric sleeve procedure in January 2024.

A year later, she stays fit pole dancing, and weighs 175 pounds. "I feel like a completely different person," she says. "My energy has returned. It’s such a joy to feel free, even in small moments like picking clothes off a rack."

(Read about how PsyDAO funds psychedelic science and culture.)

Becoming a Guide for Others

“Psychedelics aren’t a miracle cure, but they can be powerful tools for healing deep emotional wounds.” Psychedelics played a pivotal role in helping her confront her struggles, ultimately allowing her to reclaim her life.

"The healing I’ve done has changed everything about my life," she says. "After what I experienced with psychedelic healing, staying silent wasn't an option anymore."

She stepped out of the shadows, and now she is currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology, furthering her education with a focus on integrating indigenous methods with modern psychology.

Born and raised in Southern California, she is the first in her family born in the U.S. Her ancestry traces back to an isolated and poor Purépecha community in Santa Cruz de Morelos, Michoacán, Mexico—a place so remote that it remained unaware of the modern world for many years.

She is dedicated to researching a healing approach that combines three essential elements: mind, body, and spirit, inspired by ancient Mesoamerican traditions. These traditions taught that true healing requires the balance of all three components.

[Read about PsyDAO’s new AI research project, BeeARD.]

Transformative Groups

In her home in Berlin in August, she brought people together to teach the ceremonial use of DMT and mushrooms, blending Western psychological practices with indigenous healing methods.

She says:

This idea of the cosmic womb naturally grew out of these healing circles.

I noticed that for the first two hours of the journey, it was a very introspective journey. Nobody was moving—everyone was deep in their own mind, going through the experience. Then, there came a moment where it felt like they were emerging from a cocoon, like butterflies. They started becoming more active, so I provided a space where they could move around freely and explore.

I had set up different things for them to interact with, almost like a little playground. Since I didn’t have all the materials at the time, we pretended—like children—that they were going through a tunnel under a bush. It was as if they were returning to the womb. When they were ready, they passed through the "vagina tunnel," symbolizing a rebirth.

I started inviting participants to imagine themselves entering a tunnel that embodied the feminine, life-giving energy of the womb.

Facing trauma is hard enough, so I wanted to create a space that nourishes the inner child. I firmly believe that if you want to connect with Spirit, you can do it more easily by tapping into the wonder and playfulness of a child.

As children, life feels full of amazement, wonder, and joy—things we often lose as we grow older.

The Cosmic Womb

With the grant from PsyDAO, Morgana was able to develop the first prototype of the Cosmic Womb. Visitors are guided through a soft, red chute, lined with plush material, creating a sensory experience that evokes the feeling of being reborn.

By constructing the Cosmic Womb, she realized she was confronting her shadow self—unresolved feelings about her own female anatomy.

As she created this spiritual portal, she reconnected with her inner child—the part of her that had been hidden beneath layers of self-defense. Through this creative process, she began to explore a new form of psychedelic healing, one that emphasizes play and imagination.

“Why not approach difficult emotions with a sense of wonder?” she reflects. "What if there was a psychedelic playground designed to explore how integrating play into the healing process could awaken the inner child and restore its happiness?"

This playful approach to healing helped her reclaim her inner worth and rediscover the joy and creativity she had lost.

Now that the art installation is complete, she's seeking the perfect location for its launch. An art gallery or studio space would be ideal. She's also looking for investors/sponsors to help cover the costs for a booth at Psychedelic Science in Denver in June 2025, the largest psychedelic conference in the world.

She's also developing a psychedelic brand that offers high-quality psychedelic products.

A New Perspective

The spirit child enters the world full of wonder, curiosity, and limitless potential. However, as life unfolds, this sense of awe begins to fade, and with it, the child within starts to lose its soul.

The Cosmic Womb represents the unity of all beings, a reminder that everyone enters the world in the same way and shares a deep connection to the Earth. By embracing what was once feared, they can discover the return of laughter, with humor drawing them closer to the source of all life.

One thing I’ve learned is that when you’re going through your own suffering, it’s easy to think you’re alone. I used to believe I was the only one going through such a dark period. But as I started interacting with more people, I realized I wasn’t alone.

[PsyDAO is a collective of people organizing around the tools of Web3 and crypto to do psychedelic research and art in a new, decentralized way. Join us on Discord and Twitter to guide our evolution and be part of a team. Apply for an alchemist grant here. Be well and use psychedelics responsibly, either in low doses or as part of a group, with supervision.]

BeeARD was designed by Jay, a member of PsyDAO and an AI researcher. We chatted with Jay about his creation.

Could you start by telling us how BeeARD originated and evolved?

BeeARD began at PsyDAO, originally as PsyBEE, an initiative leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve the scientific research process. We recognized key challenges: limited high-quality research proposals, complex IP negotiations, slow research pipelines, and siloed data management. These issues were not unique to PsyDAO; many bioDAOs faced similar problems. As a result, it evolved from being psychedelic-specific PsyBEE into BeeARD (short for Bioeconomic Environment for Autonomous Research Discovery) a multi-agent platform designed to accelerate scientific dealflow, simplify IP acquisition, streamline data analysis, and unlock fragmented datasets across scientific communities.

So BeeARD isn't limited to psychedelic research only?

No. While BeeARD’s initial development was created for PsyDAO and funded by its community, the platform’s design is field-agnostic. It can be adapted to any research domain, ensuring that the same approach—autonomous agents working with human researchers and verified knowledge—can accelerate innovation in fields well beyond psychedelic science.

Where did the idea for BeeARD come from?

I’ve been following the decentralized science movement since its early days and was inspired by the community’s vision for reimagining how we conduct and fund research. My collaborations with Jesse from PsyDAO, alongside our shared interest in scientific innovation and psychedelic research, led me to pivot from a traditional academic background to building a multi-agent system that would boost the volume and quality of research proposals within the PsyDAO community. Over time, that concept expanded into BeeARD’s broader mission.

[Learn more about PsyDAO tokens and governance.]

What exactly is BeeARD?

BeeARD is a decentralized research ecosystem where AI agents and human collaborators join forces to drive scientific innovation across various fields. It is a multi-agentic system, enabling AI-driven tasks like data extraction, hypothesis generation, and IP management. In essence, BeeARD provides the infrastructure for AI agents to operate as autonomous researchers, continuously learning and improving from both human feedback and a verified knowledge base of scientific literature.

What makes BeeARD’s ecosystem unique?

The heart of BeeARD is its multi-agent system (MAS). Here, human researchers, AI agents, and knowledge graphs are integrated into a collaborative research network. In this framework, AI models function not as isolated tools but as active collaborators—supporting data collection, hypothesis refinement, and research workflow optimization. This synergy allows BeeARD to tackle some of the biggest hurdles in scientific research, from improving the interpretation of complex data to speeding up the entire research pipeline.

[Are you a researcher looking for funding from PsyDAO? Click here.]

How does BeeARD address the limitations of language models, like hallucinations?

Language models often “hallucinate” because they predict the next word based on statistical patterns rather than grounded facts. BeeARD is designed to overcome this by anchoring the AI agents in a well-curated, verified dataset of open-access scientific literature. We are going to train specialized LLMs for scientific reasoning and integrate them with a knowledge graph of validated data. This knowledge graph serves as an external, fact-checked resource, helping the models reason more reliably and reducing the likelihood of fabricating information.

So the AI agents improve over time within this system?

Exactly. By tying the AI to a structured knowledge graph and continuously feeding it new, verified information, the models evolve into more robust reasoning engines. This process helps them synthesize evidence-based insights, supporting more informed responses to complex scientific questions. Human-in-the-loop feedback plays a crucial role in aligning the models with the bioDAOs' values and interests, guiding their development toward becoming advanced research assistants rather than just text generators.

[Read the PsyDAO whitepaper here.]

How can AI, as implemented in BeeARD, transform scientific and healthcare innovation?

I believe AI can accelerate the entire continuum of scientific discovery, both through capabilities already in use and those likely to emerge in the future. First, AI can quickly generate novel hypotheses or research directions that humans might not think of. Next, it can predict the viability and success rate of these ideas, effectively becoming a built-in prediction market for emerging science. Finally, with enough personal biometric data, it could suggest personalized interventions or treatments. Over time, this integrated approach has the potential to reshape both research and patient care, leading to more efficient innovation cycles and individualized healthcare solutions.

What are you working on now?

Right now, our primary focus is tweaking the tech, securing funding and expanding the core team.

Will there be a new roadmap soon?

Yes. We plan to release a new roadmap alongside our website this winter. Once funding is confirmed, we’ll share detailed milestones and strategies that outline how the BeeARD ecosystem will evolve over time.

Can you share a bit about those plans?

We aim to make BeeARD a platform for newly-created AI agents, bootstrapping the acceleration of scientific discovery in various niches.

What’s your background, and how is the team structured?

I have a background in mathematics, statistics, and machine learning, with experience in building large datasets, training/fine-tuning language models, and improving them through continual learning, primarily in academic settings. This expertise aligns with BeeARD’s goal of creating a continuously evolving AI-driven research network.

Our core team is small but diverse, covering AI/ML development, tokenomics, legal, operations, and communications. We actively engage regularly with advisors, investors, and the DeSci community. We’re currently expanding the team to ensure that AI and machine learning guide every layer of BeeARD’s research ecosystem.

**

PsyDAO is a collaborative effort. To be part of the development of BeeARD and PsyDAO, join the BeeARD Telegram group, follow BeeARD on Twitter, join the PsyDAO Discord or Telegram groups and follow PsyDAO on Twitter.

BeeARD was designed by Jay, a member of PsyDAO and an AI researcher. We chatted with Jay about his creation.

Could you start by telling us how BeeARD originated and evolved?

BeeARD began at PsyDAO, originally as PsyBEE, an initiative leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve the scientific research process. We recognized key challenges: limited high-quality research proposals, complex IP negotiations, slow research pipelines, and siloed data management. These issues were not unique to PsyDAO; many bioDAOs faced similar problems. As a result, it evolved from being psychedelic-specific PsyBEE into BeeARD (short for Bioeconomic Environment for Autonomous Research Discovery) a multi-agent platform designed to accelerate scientific dealflow, simplify IP acquisition, streamline data analysis, and unlock fragmented datasets across scientific communities.

So BeeARD isn't limited to psychedelic research only?

No. While BeeARD’s initial development was created for PsyDAO and funded by its community, the platform’s design is field-agnostic. It can be adapted to any research domain, ensuring that the same approach—autonomous agents working with human researchers and verified knowledge—can accelerate innovation in fields well beyond psychedelic science.

Where did the idea for BeeARD come from?

I’ve been following the decentralized science movement since its early days and was inspired by the community’s vision for reimagining how we conduct and fund research. My collaborations with Jesse from PsyDAO, alongside our shared interest in scientific innovation and psychedelic research, led me to pivot from a traditional academic background to building a multi-agent system that would boost the volume and quality of research proposals within the PsyDAO community. Over time, that concept expanded into BeeARD’s broader mission.

[Learn more about PsyDAO tokens and governance.]

What exactly is BeeARD?

BeeARD is a decentralized research ecosystem where AI agents and human collaborators join forces to drive scientific innovation across various fields. It is a multi-agentic system, enabling AI-driven tasks like data extraction, hypothesis generation, and IP management. In essence, BeeARD provides the infrastructure for AI agents to operate as autonomous researchers, continuously learning and improving from both human feedback and a verified knowledge base of scientific literature.

What makes BeeARD’s ecosystem unique?

The heart of BeeARD is its multi-agent system (MAS). Here, human researchers, AI agents, and knowledge graphs are integrated into a collaborative research network. In this framework, AI models function not as isolated tools but as active collaborators—supporting data collection, hypothesis refinement, and research workflow optimization. This synergy allows BeeARD to tackle some of the biggest hurdles in scientific research, from improving the interpretation of complex data to speeding up the entire research pipeline.

[Are you a researcher looking for funding from PsyDAO? Click here.]

How does BeeARD address the limitations of language models, like hallucinations?

Language models often “hallucinate” because they predict the next word based on statistical patterns rather than grounded facts. BeeARD is designed to overcome this by anchoring the AI agents in a well-curated, verified dataset of open-access scientific literature. We are going to train specialized LLMs for scientific reasoning and integrate them with a knowledge graph of validated data. This knowledge graph serves as an external, fact-checked resource, helping the models reason more reliably and reducing the likelihood of fabricating information.

So the AI agents improve over time within this system?

Exactly. By tying the AI to a structured knowledge graph and continuously feeding it new, verified information, the models evolve into more robust reasoning engines. This process helps them synthesize evidence-based insights, supporting more informed responses to complex scientific questions. Human-in-the-loop feedback plays a crucial role in aligning the models with the bioDAOs' values and interests, guiding their development toward becoming advanced research assistants rather than just text generators.

[Read the PsyDAO whitepaper here.]

How can AI, as implemented in BeeARD, transform scientific and healthcare innovation?

I believe AI can accelerate the entire continuum of scientific discovery, both through capabilities already in use and those likely to emerge in the future. First, AI can quickly generate novel hypotheses or research directions that humans might not think of. Next, it can predict the viability and success rate of these ideas, effectively becoming a built-in prediction market for emerging science. Finally, with enough personal biometric data, it could suggest personalized interventions or treatments. Over time, this integrated approach has the potential to reshape both research and patient care, leading to more efficient innovation cycles and individualized healthcare solutions.

What are you working on now?

Right now, our primary focus is tweaking the tech, securing funding and expanding the core team.

Will there be a new roadmap soon?

Yes. We plan to release a new roadmap alongside our website this winter. Once funding is confirmed, we’ll share detailed milestones and strategies that outline how the BeeARD ecosystem will evolve over time.

Can you share a bit about those plans?

We aim to make BeeARD a platform for newly-created AI agents, bootstrapping the acceleration of scientific discovery in various niches.

What’s your background, and how is the team structured?

I have a background in mathematics, statistics, and machine learning, with experience in building large datasets, training/fine-tuning language models, and improving them through continual learning, primarily in academic settings. This expertise aligns with BeeARD’s goal of creating a continuously evolving AI-driven research network.

Our core team is small but diverse, covering AI/ML development, tokenomics, legal, operations, and communications. We actively engage regularly with advisors, investors, and the DeSci community. We’re currently expanding the team to ensure that AI and machine learning guide every layer of BeeARD’s research ecosystem.

**

PsyDAO is a collaborative effort. To be part of the development of BeeARD and PsyDAO, join the BeeARD Telegram group, follow BeeARD on Twitter, join the PsyDAO Discord or Telegram groups and follow PsyDAO on Twitter.

BeeARD was designed by Jay, a member of PsyDAO and an AI researcher. We chatted with Jay about his creation.

Could you start by telling us how BeeARD originated and evolved?

BeeARD began at PsyDAO, originally as PsyBEE, an initiative leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve the scientific research process. We recognized key challenges: limited high-quality research proposals, complex IP negotiations, slow research pipelines, and siloed data management. These issues were not unique to PsyDAO; many bioDAOs faced similar problems. As a result, it evolved from being psychedelic-specific PsyBEE into BeeARD (short for Bioeconomic Environment for Autonomous Research Discovery) a multi-agent platform designed to accelerate scientific dealflow, simplify IP acquisition, streamline data analysis, and unlock fragmented datasets across scientific communities.

So BeeARD isn't limited to psychedelic research only?

No. While BeeARD’s initial development was created for PsyDAO and funded by its community, the platform’s design is field-agnostic. It can be adapted to any research domain, ensuring that the same approach—autonomous agents working with human researchers and verified knowledge—can accelerate innovation in fields well beyond psychedelic science.

Where did the idea for BeeARD come from?

I’ve been following the decentralized science movement since its early days and was inspired by the community’s vision for reimagining how we conduct and fund research. My collaborations with Jesse from PsyDAO, alongside our shared interest in scientific innovation and psychedelic research, led me to pivot from a traditional academic background to building a multi-agent system that would boost the volume and quality of research proposals within the PsyDAO community. Over time, that concept expanded into BeeARD’s broader mission.

[Learn more about PsyDAO tokens and governance.]

What exactly is BeeARD?

BeeARD is a decentralized research ecosystem where AI agents and human collaborators join forces to drive scientific innovation across various fields. It is a multi-agentic system, enabling AI-driven tasks like data extraction, hypothesis generation, and IP management. In essence, BeeARD provides the infrastructure for AI agents to operate as autonomous researchers, continuously learning and improving from both human feedback and a verified knowledge base of scientific literature.

What makes BeeARD’s ecosystem unique?

The heart of BeeARD is its multi-agent system (MAS). Here, human researchers, AI agents, and knowledge graphs are integrated into a collaborative research network. In this framework, AI models function not as isolated tools but as active collaborators—supporting data collection, hypothesis refinement, and research workflow optimization. This synergy allows BeeARD to tackle some of the biggest hurdles in scientific research, from improving the interpretation of complex data to speeding up the entire research pipeline.

[Are you a researcher looking for funding from PsyDAO? Click here.]

How does BeeARD address the limitations of language models, like hallucinations?

Language models often “hallucinate” because they predict the next word based on statistical patterns rather than grounded facts. BeeARD is designed to overcome this by anchoring the AI agents in a well-curated, verified dataset of open-access scientific literature. We are going to train specialized LLMs for scientific reasoning and integrate them with a knowledge graph of validated data. This knowledge graph serves as an external, fact-checked resource, helping the models reason more reliably and reducing the likelihood of fabricating information.

So the AI agents improve over time within this system?

Exactly. By tying the AI to a structured knowledge graph and continuously feeding it new, verified information, the models evolve into more robust reasoning engines. This process helps them synthesize evidence-based insights, supporting more informed responses to complex scientific questions. Human-in-the-loop feedback plays a crucial role in aligning the models with the bioDAOs' values and interests, guiding their development toward becoming advanced research assistants rather than just text generators.

[Read the PsyDAO whitepaper here.]

How can AI, as implemented in BeeARD, transform scientific and healthcare innovation?

I believe AI can accelerate the entire continuum of scientific discovery, both through capabilities already in use and those likely to emerge in the future. First, AI can quickly generate novel hypotheses or research directions that humans might not think of. Next, it can predict the viability and success rate of these ideas, effectively becoming a built-in prediction market for emerging science. Finally, with enough personal biometric data, it could suggest personalized interventions or treatments. Over time, this integrated approach has the potential to reshape both research and patient care, leading to more efficient innovation cycles and individualized healthcare solutions.

What are you working on now?

Right now, our primary focus is tweaking the tech, securing funding and expanding the core team.

Will there be a new roadmap soon?

Yes. We plan to release a new roadmap alongside our website this winter. Once funding is confirmed, we’ll share detailed milestones and strategies that outline how the BeeARD ecosystem will evolve over time.

Can you share a bit about those plans?

We aim to make BeeARD a platform for newly-created AI agents, bootstrapping the acceleration of scientific discovery in various niches.

What’s your background, and how is the team structured?

I have a background in mathematics, statistics, and machine learning, with experience in building large datasets, training/fine-tuning language models, and improving them through continual learning, primarily in academic settings. This expertise aligns with BeeARD’s goal of creating a continuously evolving AI-driven research network.

Our core team is small but diverse, covering AI/ML development, tokenomics, legal, operations, and communications. We actively engage regularly with advisors, investors, and the DeSci community. We’re currently expanding the team to ensure that AI and machine learning guide every layer of BeeARD’s research ecosystem.

**

PsyDAO is a collaborative effort. To be part of the development of BeeARD and PsyDAO, join the BeeARD Telegram group, follow BeeARD on Twitter, join the PsyDAO Discord or Telegram groups and follow PsyDAO on Twitter.

Before Bitcoin powered trillion dollar financial markets, it powered the psychedelic renaissance. The Silk Road marketplace, launched in 2011, became cryptocurrency's first major use case. By anonymously connecting buyers and sellers through Bitcoin, the Silk Road became the Amazon for all things taboo - including psychedelics. Before its dramatic shutdown in 2013 and the incarceration of its founder Ross Ulbricht, the notorious marketplace processed $1.2 billion in transactions and left a lasting impact on both the cryptocurrency scene and psychedelic culture.

But the connection between psychedelics and cryptocurrency runs far deeper than a digital black market. The cypherpunk movement—which ultimately gave birth to Bitcoin—emerged directly from the same countercultural soil as the psychedelic revolution. Both movements shared the fundamental vision of fostering individual autonomy and challenging traditional systems of control by utilizing tools, whether technological or chemical, to empower individuals to explore new dimensions of freedom and consciousness. The infamous prophet of psychedelics, Timothy Leary, recognized this parallel early on when he declared that "computers are the new LSD."

Today, this historical alliance between psychedelics and crypto technology is experiencing a renaissance of its own. From memes claiming that Satoshi smoked DMT to rumors about ayahuasca-spiked Soylent at Ethereum meetups, today's crypto culture pulses with psychedelic energy. But the true fusion of these worlds is happening in science itself, where a movement called Decentralized Science (DeSci) is revolutionizing how research is funded, conducted, and shared.

To explore these possibilities, PsyDAO recently partnered with the Psychedelic Society Maastricht to facilitate a groundbreaking series of talks on DeSci's potential to transform psychedelic research. The series brought together experts from across the field to envision a future where scientific collaboration transcends traditional boundaries—tackling everything from funding mechanisms to citizen participation in research.

Learn more* about PsyDAO and about psychedelic neuroscience on TikTok.*

The Promise of Decentralized Science

In our first session, Dr. Lukas Weidener, a medical doctor turned blockchain innovator, provided a comprehensive introduction to Decentralized Science (DeSci). As a co-author of a foundational paper on DeSci, his insights helped frame how this movement is reimagining scientific research.

Current Challenges in Traditional Science

Lukas highlighted several critical issues facing modern scientific research:

• Access Barriers: Many scientific publications remain behind paywalls, limiting global access to knowledge

• Reproducibility Crisis: Current systems don't incentivize the reproduction of studies, leading to challenges in validating research

• The "Valley of Death": A critical funding gap exists between early discovery and clinical trials, particularly in biomedical research

• Limited Participation: Traditional science often restricts participation to those with formal credentials

Follow PsyDAO on Twitter/X.

From Open Science to DeSci

Lukas emphasized that DeSci isn't emerging in isolation, but rather building upon and extending the established open science movement.

Open science has long advocated for:

• Making publications freely accessible to everyone

• Opening access to research data

• Removing institutional barriers to scientific knowledge

• Promoting transparency in research methods

DeSci can be understood as the next evolutionary step where:

• Technology Enables Implementation: Rather than just advocating for openness, blockchain technology provides the infrastructure to ensure it

• Incentives Are Built-In: Unlike traditional open science initiatives, DeSci incorporates token-based incentives for sharing and collaboration

• Governance Is Decentralized: Instead of relying on institutional goodwill, decision-making power is distributed through Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)

• Participation Is Permissionless: Beyond just access to read papers, DeSci enables anyone to actively participate in the scientific process

While blockchain technology enables DeSci's evolution beyond open science, what truly sets the movement apart is its fundamental values. Lukas emphasized that DeSci is, at its core, a value-based movement that reimagines not just how we do science, but who gets to participate and how they're incentivized to contribute.

PsyDAO: Decentralized Psychedelic Science

The story of PsyDAO began with one of its founders, Jesse, whose journey took him from the pioneering pages of Erowid to the Amazon rainforest and ultimately to the forefront of technology. His unique background as an anthropologist and lawyer, combined with a deep respect for indigenous wisdom and his role at the decentralized science infrastructure provider Molecule, helped shape the vision that would become PsyDAO.

You can listen to his psychedelic origin story here:

The challenges of Psychedelic Science

PsyDAO emerged from a recognition that the traditional funding model for psychedelic research faces several critical challenges:

• Clinical Trial Bottlenecks: Traditional psychedelic clinical trials struggle with both participant recruitment and diversity issues, limiting the scope and applicability of research findings.

• IP Ethics Crisis: The psychedelic patent landscape has become what Jesse describes as "a warzone with an ethical minefield," with increasing concerns about monopolistic practices and ethical IP rights.

• Indigenous Knowledge Gap: Despite being the original stewards of psychedelic knowledge, psychedelic-endogenous indigenous tribes remain impoverished and often excluded from the benefits of modern research and commercialization.

Learn more about PsyDAO’s new Autonomous Research Discovery System BeeARD.

How PsyDAO Works

PsyDAO addresses these challenges through several innovative mechanisms:

Community-Driven Governance PsyDAO's dual-token system ensures ethical oversight and community participation:

• Core members (PSYC holders) provide strategic direction and ethical oversight

• Broader community (PSY holders) participates in funding and research decisions

• Transparent decision-making process

• Built-in mechanisms for sustainable growth and development

IP Tokenization Framework One of PsyDAO's most innovative contributions is their implementation of tokenized IP through IP-NFTs (Intellectual Property Non-Fungible Tokens) and fungible IPTs (IP tokens). This framework:

• Allows for fractional ownership and governance of research IP

• Creates transparent revenue sharing mechanisms

• Enables community funding while preserving researcher incentives

• Protects rights through smart contracts

Indigenous Wisdom Integration PsyDAO has developed unique frameworks to bridge traditional knowledge with modern science:

• Direct partnerships with indigenous communities like the Shipibo-Conibo

• Fair compensation through built-in royalty systems

• Preservation and protection of traditional knowledge

Follow* PsyDAO on Instagram.*

The Dawn of Decentralized Discovery

PsyDAO is moving from vision to implementation through several key initiatives:

• BeeARD: A swarm of AI research assistants functioning like tireless PhD candidates, continuously analyzing new research papers and identifying promising areas for new scientific research

• OPSY (Open Psychedelic Science ecosYstem): A web3-native platform bridging clinical trials and naturalistic experiences through:

  • Token-incentivized participation

  • User data sovereignty

  • Creation of a collectively owned knowledge library

• Research Facilities: Development of centers in St. Vincent, where psychedelics are legal for medical use

• Funding: With about $2 million in Ethereum raised, PsyDAO is now actively funding psychedelic science

Researchers and PhD candidates of all disciplines are encouraged to submit their proposals and contribute to decentralized psychedelic science. If there are any other ways you’d like to contribute to PsyDAO, feel free to connect with us on Discord.

DeSci in Action: The Future of Citizen Science

Aleksandra Wingert, a PhD candidate at the Center for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, presented her work on the Microdosing 2.0 trial, which exemplifies DeSci principles in practice. Building upon Balázs Szigeti's pioneering self-blinding study, this project demonstrates how decentralized approaches can transform psychedelic research from an exclusive academic pursuit into a community-driven scientific endeavor.

Democratizing Research Through Citizen Science

Citizen science refers to research conducted by regular people who step into researchers' shoes without necessarily having formal scientific training or credentials. In psychedelic research, this approach offers several key advantages:

• Cost-effective way to collect large-scale, real-world data

• Enables participation from diverse populations

• Bridges the gap between controlled trials and naturalistic use

• Creates opportunities for broader community involvement

While this approach presents challenges in controlling variables and standardizing procedures, the Microdosing 2.0 study demonstrates how rigorous methodology can be applied to citizen science research.

The Self-Blinding Protocol: Where Scientific Rigor meets DeSci

The Microdosing 2.0 study investigates the effects of psychedelic microdosing on people with mood problems through a unique self-blinding protocol. Unlike traditional clinical trials where researchers provide substances, participants use their own materials and follow a structured protocol:

• Participants prepare their own microdose and placebo capsules

• QR codes enable reliable self-blinding, ensuring participants don't know which days they take active doses

• Home testing kits verify substance content and quantity, ensuring research quality

• A combination of online questionnaires and laboratory measures tracks outcomes

This innovative approach enables the study of real-world microdosing while maintaining scientific rigor through careful measurement and controlled conditions.

Beyond Self-Reports

While traditional citizen science often relies solely on participant questionnaires, the Microdosing 2.0 study incorporates laboratory measurements to provide objective data. This combination of subjective experiences and biological markers offers a more complete picture of microdosing effects:

• EEG measurements of brain connectivity

• Blood samples for BDNF levels and immune response

• Sleep and heart rate monitoring

• Special focus on female health markers, including menopause and hormonal effects

By incorporating these rigorous measurements, the study aims to validate (or challenge) anecdotal reports with hard scientific data while maintaining the advantages of real-world research settings.

Beyond the Gateway: A New Scientific Frontier

This three-part series has taken us from the theoretical framework of decentralized science, through PsyDAO's practical implementation, to hands-on citizen science. The Microdosing 2.0 study demonstrates how research can become more accessible while maintaining scientific rigor. It only seems natural that future projects like this will be supported by the DeSci infrastructure that PsyDAO is building. With platforms for open science psychedelic research like OPSY on the horizon and an engaged community ready to contribute, it becomes obvious that the historic alliance between psychonauts and cypherpunks has come full circle. What began as a shared vision of individual freedom has evolved into something far more powerful: a revolution in how humanity explores consciousness and reality itself.

Connect* with PsyDAO on Discord. If you’d like to partner with PsyDAO, let us know!*

The sale netted the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) about $2 million to deploy towards its mission of progressing psychedelic science and art.

What Happened

The token sale started on Bicycle Day, anniversary of a great psychedelic science achievement.

This weekend, the DAO sold out its initial mint of 20% of all the PSY tokens. In total, the sale brought in 661 ETH. That much ETH is worth, as of this writing, about $2 million.

This new pile of ETH means that the DAO has new opportunities to work on research, provide grants, and develop our intellectual property strategy and portfolio.

(Contribute to PsyDAO on our Discord.)

What Are People Buying

Those who buy PSY tokens (i.e., $PSY holders), become participants in our ecosystem, as well as active stakeholders in our DAO's governance. They will have the right to vote on proposals that determine how funds are allocated, which research projects are pursued, and ultimately how the DAO evolves.

Their voting power is nested within the votes of holders of PSYC—a soul-bound token that grants more governance rights. Read more about PsyDAO’s two-token governance system based on Nobel prize winning economics.

(What's the difference between PSYC and PSY? Read our blog post.)

Riding a Bio Wave

PsyDAO sold out its tokens in the midst of a wider rush of enthusiasm for decentralized science.

A key factor was the announcement that Binance Labs, a leading venture capital firm investing in early-stage Web3 projects, was investing in the BIO Protocol. BIO, like PsyDAO, enables decentralized funding and ownership of scientific projects. BIO seeks to address key challenges in traditional research funding by focusing on areas like rare diseases, longevity, cryopreservation, and mental health treatments.

The DeSci excitement was further stoked at the DevCon Ethereum conference Thailand. At a DeSci meetup there, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Binance founder CZ were bullish on the DeSci future. 99 Bitcoins quoted CZ as saying he hoped he'd see “1,000 DeSci projects next year.” Vitalik and CZ's excitement seems to have gone viral, which sparked more interest in DeSci coins across the Etherum ecosystem, and leading to the end of PSY's sale.

Watch our intro video:

Beating Psychedelic Headwinds

The timing in the psychedelic world is notable. For the past few months, traditional psychedelic research initiatives and companies have been faltering.

One key reason was the denial by America's FDA of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD this summer. Psychedelic science companies have cut their staffs and lowered expectations, and as these companies and nonprofits face difficulties, psychedelic stock values have plummeted, optimism has waned, and state-level initiatives are seeing serious defeats.

Though most watchers expect psychedelic research to recover, most are slow-moving and dependent on grant funding or top-heavy institutional investors. Government investment in psychedelics is scarce.

PSY's sale, on the other hand, may suggest that a more democratic, transparent, and collaborative research landscape can earn the interest of token buyers — everyday stoned apes.

The successful fundraising for our DAO suggests growing interest in decentralized models for scientific advancement. We are hopeful that this innovative approach will lead to groundbreaking discoveries in the field of psychedelic science, ultimately benefiting humanity's collective well-being.

Decentralizing Science through IP-NFTs

One basis of our DAO is the IP-NFT. That is: intellectual property around psychedelics that can be bought or sold as a non-fungible token. The same way you'd buy or sell a bored ape yacht club NFT, you can buy or sell intellectual property generated by PsyDAO-funded projects.

Our first token is BeeARD. BeeARD is a project that uses an AI agent to scour the landscape of psychedelic science articles for potential intellectual property to invest in.

PsyDAO follows the lead of other decentralized psychedelic DAOs such as VitaDAO and CryoDAO, each targeting areas of science with huge potential—expanding and preserving life.

In VitaDAO, for example, holders of their tokens vote on the use of pooled funds to support longevity research proposals. A recent VitaDAO vote affirmed the deployment of funds into a project on preventing eyesight degeneration, for instance. In exchange, VitaDAO will retain partial ownership of the resulting intellectual property in the form of tokens, and holders of Vita tokens will own part of that intellectual property. VitaDAO has deployed more than $4 million in funding for longevity research, and just spun out its first company.

Psychedelic Science Finds New Paths

We know that the field of psychedelic science has immense potential to unlock breakthroughs in mental health treatment, addiction recovery, and personal well-being. And we know that traditional research funding models are often sluggish, filled with red tape, and constrained by vested interests.

Ways to Contribute

If you share our vision for a more democratic and collaborative future for psychedelic science, we want to hear from you. Take a microdose —of whatever is legal in your jurisdiction—and contribute:

• Learn more about our DAO and its governance structure by visiting our website and reading our blog.

• Become a token holder by buying Psy here.

• Join our Discord to drop memes or buy our merch (coming soon).

• Follow us on Twitter to spread the word.

[Cover image: A Kene tapestry. These woven textiles are an integral part of the Shipibo-Conibo culture. This particular textile is connected to one of PsyDAO’s PSYC soul-bound NFTs. As you can see in the PSYC NFT, this textile was woven by Elena Vargas Guerra, a member of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe. PsyDAO partners with a Shipibo nonprofit to ensure revenues from the textiles flow back to the Amazon.]

The sale netted the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) about $2 million to deploy towards its mission of progressing psychedelic science and art.

What Happened

The token sale started on Bicycle Day, anniversary of a great psychedelic science achievement.

This weekend, the DAO sold out its initial mint of 20% of all the PSY tokens. In total, the sale brought in 661 ETH. That much ETH is worth, as of this writing, about $2 million.

This new pile of ETH means that the DAO has new opportunities to work on research, provide grants, and develop our intellectual property strategy and portfolio.

(Contribute to PsyDAO on our Discord.)

What Are People Buying

Those who buy PSY tokens (i.e., $PSY holders), become participants in our ecosystem, as well as active stakeholders in our DAO's governance. They will have the right to vote on proposals that determine how funds are allocated, which research projects are pursued, and ultimately how the DAO evolves.

Their voting power is nested within the votes of holders of PSYC—a soul-bound token that grants more governance rights. Read more about PsyDAO’s two-token governance system based on Nobel prize winning economics.

(What's the difference between PSYC and PSY? Read our blog post.)

Riding a Bio Wave

PsyDAO sold out its tokens in the midst of a wider rush of enthusiasm for decentralized science.

A key factor was the announcement that Binance Labs, a leading venture capital firm investing in early-stage Web3 projects, was investing in the BIO Protocol. BIO, like PsyDAO, enables decentralized funding and ownership of scientific projects. BIO seeks to address key challenges in traditional research funding by focusing on areas like rare diseases, longevity, cryopreservation, and mental health treatments.

The DeSci excitement was further stoked at the DevCon Ethereum conference Thailand. At a DeSci meetup there, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Binance founder CZ were bullish on the DeSci future. 99 Bitcoins quoted CZ as saying he hoped he'd see “1,000 DeSci projects next year.” Vitalik and CZ's excitement seems to have gone viral, which sparked more interest in DeSci coins across the Etherum ecosystem, and leading to the end of PSY's sale.

Watch our intro video:

Beating Psychedelic Headwinds

The timing in the psychedelic world is notable. For the past few months, traditional psychedelic research initiatives and companies have been faltering.

One key reason was the denial by America's FDA of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD this summer. Psychedelic science companies have cut their staffs and lowered expectations, and as these companies and nonprofits face difficulties, psychedelic stock values have plummeted, optimism has waned, and state-level initiatives are seeing serious defeats.

Though most watchers expect psychedelic research to recover, most are slow-moving and dependent on grant funding or top-heavy institutional investors. Government investment in psychedelics is scarce.

PSY's sale, on the other hand, may suggest that a more democratic, transparent, and collaborative research landscape can earn the interest of token buyers — everyday stoned apes.

The successful fundraising for our DAO suggests growing interest in decentralized models for scientific advancement. We are hopeful that this innovative approach will lead to groundbreaking discoveries in the field of psychedelic science, ultimately benefiting humanity's collective well-being.

Decentralizing Science through IP-NFTs

One basis of our DAO is the IP-NFT. That is: intellectual property around psychedelics that can be bought or sold as a non-fungible token. The same way you'd buy or sell a bored ape yacht club NFT, you can buy or sell intellectual property generated by PsyDAO-funded projects.

Our first token is BeeARD. BeeARD is a project that uses an AI agent to scour the landscape of psychedelic science articles for potential intellectual property to invest in.

PsyDAO follows the lead of other decentralized psychedelic DAOs such as VitaDAO and CryoDAO, each targeting areas of science with huge potential—expanding and preserving life.

In VitaDAO, for example, holders of their tokens vote on the use of pooled funds to support longevity research proposals. A recent VitaDAO vote affirmed the deployment of funds into a project on preventing eyesight degeneration, for instance. In exchange, VitaDAO will retain partial ownership of the resulting intellectual property in the form of tokens, and holders of Vita tokens will own part of that intellectual property. VitaDAO has deployed more than $4 million in funding for longevity research, and just spun out its first company.

Psychedelic Science Finds New Paths

We know that the field of psychedelic science has immense potential to unlock breakthroughs in mental health treatment, addiction recovery, and personal well-being. And we know that traditional research funding models are often sluggish, filled with red tape, and constrained by vested interests.

Ways to Contribute

If you share our vision for a more democratic and collaborative future for psychedelic science, we want to hear from you. Take a microdose —of whatever is legal in your jurisdiction—and contribute:

• Learn more about our DAO and its governance structure by visiting our website and reading our blog.

• Become a token holder by buying Psy here.

• Join our Discord to drop memes or buy our merch (coming soon).

• Follow us on Twitter to spread the word.

[Cover image: A Kene tapestry. These woven textiles are an integral part of the Shipibo-Conibo culture. This particular textile is connected to one of PsyDAO’s PSYC soul-bound NFTs. As you can see in the PSYC NFT, this textile was woven by Elena Vargas Guerra, a member of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe. PsyDAO partners with a Shipibo nonprofit to ensure revenues from the textiles flow back to the Amazon.]