Karyon DAO

n=1 to n=∞

Community-powered research for the future of health.

Karyon is world's first decentralized CRO, where every person's "n=1" experiment becomes part of a living, crowd-powered clinical trial. We unite distributed data, open protocols, and shared governance to accelerate drugs from bench to bedside.

→ Karyon Litepaper

Karyon Litepaper

July 2025 · Version 2.0

Abstract

Karyon transforms disparate n=1 self-experiments into pharmaceutical-grade datasets by combining split-sample, on-chain quality verification with open, federated research workflows and community DAO governance. Participants follow guided study protocols, receive tamper-proof compound assurance, and share in downstream value. Pharmaceutical sponsors and regulators gain access to cost-effective, machine-readable real-world evidence suitable for regulatory submissions—dramatically reducing time, cost, and barriers to trial participation.

1. Introduction

A global community of biohackers, bodybuilders, and patients conducts individual trials on peptides, nootropics, and enhancement compounds, sharing outcomes in Discord threads, forum posts, and Reddit discussions. Despite a research-chemical and nootropics market valued at USD 5 billion–10 billion annually, this data remains unstructured, unverifiable, and invisible to traditional research pipelines. Karyon bridges this gap by cryptographically anchoring laboratory analytics on a Layer-2 blockchain, publishing open-source trial protocols under MIT license, and coordinating decentralized trials through a token-weighted DAO. By linking participants, researchers, sponsors, and labs directly, Karyon delivers transparent quality assurance, guided workflows, and shared economic upside—at a fraction of legacy trial costs.

2. Market Hypothesis

2.1 Trial Costs & Delays

The global clinical trials ecosystem spends over USD 100 billion annually, with an average USD 2.6 billion outlay per new drug and 87 % of trials missing enrollment targets. Recruitment delays account for roughly half of setbacks under centralized site models that exclude diverse populations and impose travel burdens.

2.2 Decentralized Research Benefits

Decentralized study designs can reduce execution costs by about 30 % while improving patient retention by nearly 40 %, and nearly 80 % of pharma executives plan to expand remote trial elements—though most current solutions remain hybrid and beholden to traditional CRO gatekeepers.

3. The Uncaptured Research Economy

3.1 Scale of Participation

Cohort	Size	Annual Spend (per person)
Proactive health seekers	~10 million	USD 500–1 000
Core biohackers	~ 50 000	USD 2 000–5 000

3.2 Lost Data Value

Every digital phenotype, safety signal, and efficacy observation vanishes into chat logs when lacking structure. Pharmaceutical companies and regulators miss early efficacy or safety indicators; participants forfeit collective insights and IP-sharing opportunities; and millions of potentially transformative data points remain trapped in unindexed forums.

4. The Quality-Control Crisis

Traditional PDF-based certificates of analysis (COAs) are easily manipulated—vendors cherry-pick samples, raw lab outputs aren't machine-readable, and COAs never accompany distributed lots—resulting in chain-of-custody gaps and widespread distrust. FDA warning letters reveal high rejection rates for peptides due to unreliable COAs, forcing pharmacies to re-test at additional cost. Complete validation demands mass spectrometry, amino acid analysis, and HPLC, yet most vendors provide only basic purity percentages.

5. Solution Framework

Karyon's architecture unites on-chain quality verification with federated, open-source research protocols under a participant-owned DAO.

5.1 Cryptographic Quality Assurance

Split-sample testing by two independent ISO-17025 labs; raw spectra and chromatograms are cryptographically hashed on a Layer-2 rollup; zero-knowledge proofs confirm authenticity without revealing proprietary methods—eliminating cherry-picking, enabling real-time verification, and preserving lot-level chain of custody.

5.2 Federated, Open-Source Protocols

MIT-licensed standard operating procedures, case-report forms, and analysis scripts; guided workflows integrate wearable biomarker submissions and e-diaries; federated learning aggregates insights without centralizing personal data; smart contracts automate milestone payments and token rewards for compliance.

5.3 DAO Governance & Revenue Sharing

A token-weighted treasury subsidizes lab costs; participants earn CYTE tokens for data contributions; licensing proceeds are shared directly with contributing participants; token holders vote on research priorities, budget allocations, and governance rules.

6. Dual-Value Proposition

Participants receive tamper-proof compound testing, structured research workflows, direct revenue sharing, and governance rights. Pharmaceutical sponsors gain early safety and efficacy signals at a fraction of traditional trial costs, along with access to enhancement-application data in healthy populations and FDA-ready, machine-readable datasets.

7. Technical Architecture

7.1 Blockchain-Verified Quality Control

Split-sample testing outputs are hashed and committed to Layer-2 rollups; zero-knowledge proofs validate results in real time, replacing manual PDF checks with mathematical certainty while preserving laboratory confidentiality.

7.2 Research Infrastructure

Ethical oversight via IRB approvals; biomarker integration with continuous glucose monitors, wearables, and validated questionnaires; 24/7 adverse-event monitoring supported by healthcare partner networks; federated data ownership ensures participant control over personal data.

8. Economic & Token Model

8.1 Revenue Streams

Pharmaceutical data licensing: Structured dataset access for regulatory submissions.
IP revenue sharing: Royalties from optimized protocols and biomarker discoveries.
Custom research services: Commissioned studies for biotech firms, academics, and agencies.

8.2 Tokenomics

Allocation	Percentage
Community treasury (research funding)	40 %
Research participants (rewards)	20 %
Core team (vesting)	20 %
Laboratory partners & operators	10 %
Academic collaborators (oversight)	10 %

CYTE tokens confer governance rights, staking-based revenue share, proof-of-data rewards, buy-and-burn deflationary mechanics, and treasury growth via IP-NFT ownership.

9. High-Value Research Targets

Tier 1 – Fully DAO-Funded
GLP-1 agonists (single, dual, triple etc.), Mitochondrial-Derived Peptides, Other longevity compounds

Tier 2 – Partially Subsidized
BPC-157 (tissue repair & gut health), TB-500/TB-4 (wound-healing protocols).

10. Competitive Moat

Karyon's network effects amplify statistical power and longitudinal insights with each new participant. Its unique fusion of cryptographic quality assurance and federated research infrastructure is unmatched by traditional CROs or testing services. DAO-based community ownership fosters participant loyalty, reputation building, and high switching costs.

11. Roadmap & Milestones

Timeline	Milestone
Q4 2025	• Secure seed funding & onboard core team • Initiate IRB approvals and compliance alignment (HIPAA, GDPR, DPDP) • Architect core platform and Facet MVP • Establish academic, lab and supplier partnerships • Finalize regulatory frameworks and data-privacy protocols • Complete Facet MVP feature set and internal alpha testing • Solidify supplier & distribution agreements
Q1 2026	• Beta-launch Facet to first participant cohort (1 000+ users) • Distribute CYTE tokens and stand up DAO governance • Close Series A funding & onboard industry sponsors
Q2 2026	• Launch community-voted pilot protocol via Facet • Open IP-NFT marketplace for anonymized data assets • Execute initial data licensing agreements
Q4 2027	• Scale to 100 active protocols across diverse use-cases • Cement Karyon as the go-to infrastructure for community-powered clinical research

12. Regulatory & Safety Oversight

All protocols carry IRB approval and mandatory medical screening to exclude high-risk profiles. Adverse-event monitoring operates through 24/7 support and insurance partnerships. IND-exempt observational designs generate real-world evidence without regulatory hurdles, while Data Safety Monitoring Boards, telemedicine support, on-chain hashing with Arweave timestamping, and compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, and India's DPDP framework ensure participant safety, data integrity, and audit readiness.

13. Vision: From n=1 to n=∞

Karyon reimagines clinical research as a living, decentralized network where every self-experiment contributes to collective discovery. By fusing cryptography, federated analytics, and open governance, we empower individual optimization goals to align with scientific advancement—tile by tile shaping a karyon of tomorrow's breakthroughs.

Genesis Launch: Q1 2026
Get Involved: https://karyondao.com