Catalyst

Catalyst is a decentralised research funding platform from Molecule that lets researchers raise money directly from the public and turns the resulting intellectual property into holdable on-chain claims. Researchers submit a plan, budget, milestones and data-sharing terms, backers contribute ETH or stablecoins, and once the target is met funds enter a regulated research agreement account released against milestones.

The ownership design is the point: on completion, the research agreement and assignment agreement are packaged into an IP-NFT, which is then split into IP Tokens that give holders governance and information rights by share, with any commercial revenue sharing set by the IP owner. IP Token prices rise along a bonding curve as issuance grows, so early backers enter at lower cost. The model has been used on several VitaDAO-funded projects.