Orvium

Overview

Orvium is an open source and decentralized platform to manage and feature peer-reviewed, scholarly publications. Orvium aims to eliminate several inefficiencies pertaining to the scientific publishing model and enhance the quality and effectiveness of scientific journals.

Amongst the rampant issues within the scientific publishing industry include:

Misalignment of Interest: A serious issue in the scientific community is the publication model, where scientific authors are charged for publishing their academic journals instead of the traditional publishing model which pays content creators. This misalignment arises when the scientific community carries out peer review – a form of scientific validation required for scholarly publishing – for FREE, yet scientific publishers get paid billions annually.

Excessive Fees: The high fees charged by scientific journal publishers has created a corporate-like structure which potentially compromises the quality of scientific research. Ultimately, the central component for a scientific journal to be published is the fees to be paid to publishers.

Content Copyrights: The copyrights of the academic journals are held by the publishers, instead of scientific content creators. Future earnings resulting from re-publication into our mediums or selling the copyrights to the content is only due to the publishers, not the content creators.

Applications

Due to a misaligned model that potentially compromises the current scientific publication industry, there is a surge in the migration to open source initiatives (e.g.arXiv & PLOS ONE). Therefore, the evolution towards a blockchain-based solution is a natural progression that would positively disrupt the scientific community. The model will work as follows:

Orvium establishes a decentralized, immutable and independent process that enables time-stamped proof-of-existence (POE), authorship and ownership for scientific content. The blockchain enables Orvium to keep a public trace of all activities relating to a given content, including first submission, revisions, accepted and rejected peer reviews, copyright and user license changes, among other activities.

Orvium features a host of functionalities for stakeholders that include:

Continuous, Transparent Peer Review: Pursuant to openness and public accountability required for a credible peer review process, Orvium offers that and much more, enabling reviewers to have a full life cycle traceability of the journal via the blockchain. Having access to all the information since the inception allows reviewers to determine the validity and soundness of the scientific work. Additionally, multi-author reviews can also be undertaken.
Zero-Day Publication: All content – even in early draft status – are immediately available online once they’re transmitted into the Orvium platform.
Manuscript Versioning: Scientific work can be created systematically on the platform, with multiple changes and versions being continually upgraded. This means authors can label their work as ‘Work-in-Progress’ and only they can see the modifications. These versioning capabilities enhance the content creation process, enabling Orvium’s solution to be the solution towards digitization as well.
Custom Copyrights & User Licenses: Although Orvium fosters open access publications, there are options for authors or institutions to opt for licensing/subscription models since stakeholders can define user conditions (via Decentralised Autonomous Journals)
Decentralized Journals: This is a unique value proposition of Orvium which will be discussed in the next few sections under ‘Unique Differentiator’
Accommodation of Gray Literature: Traditional content or research that doesn’t pass the traditional peer review or screening process would be accommodated in the Orvium platform to allow for a more thorough peer review process and ensures that these potential nuggets of knowledge can be salvaged and saved.

Technology Breakdown

A more technical breakdown of Orvium’s platform architecture is as follows:

Orvium will be built on the Ethereum blockchain. The main programming language for the Orvium platform is JavaScript, with Solidity being used for the development of smart contracts. The definition of the architecture will be conceived using Hasicorp Configuration Language (HCL) while the frontend application will leverage on Angular and webpack.

In terms of storage solutions, data storage will be achieved using NoSQL & SQL databases for document and relational data while the binary storage will be achieved using different decentralized solutions that is currently being assessed, that include IPFS, Swarm, Sia and Storj.

Unique Differentiator

Decentralized Autonomous Journals (DAJ): Similar to Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Orvium allows anyone (individual authors, institutions or users) to create their own autonomous journals, where they can determine personalized governance rules, licensing/subscription models and contribution rights of participants.
Integration of Social Dynamics: Orvium will also be a social platform that fosters participation among stakeholders and users through opening the definition of journals, the creation of challenges or rewards for reviews to increase scientific validation, the promotion of patronage campaigns and the funding of research lines to the general public. We opine that if done right, this could be ground-breaking as it allows for greater participation from the general public into the traditionally closed (and some would argue exclusive) scientific circles. Greater mass participation would undeniably enhance the advancement of scientific solutions that could be pressing towards the real needs of society. Just imagine cancer research funded by the masses instead of authors depending on research grants that are dependent on many inefficient variables.

Team

Orvium team looks to be impressively capable. There’s a rich line of engineers, developers and technical architects guided by an impressive list of scientific and business-oriented advisors. A majority of their team member is affiliated with CERN, which is one of the world’s largest and most respected institutions for ground-breaking scientific research.

Founding Team

The founding team consists of well-established individuals in the scientific circle. Manuel Martin – Orvium’s lead and blockchain expert – has worked in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider or the most complex experimental facility ever built. He has also has collaborated with NASA, GSI and the US Department of Energy. His career was focused on supporting large-scale collaborative practices for technological innovations. Antonio Romero is the technology architect of Orvium and has led several big-data and machine-learning collaborations between CERN and ICT market leaders. He has accelerated cutting-edge predictive-maintenance and machine-learning solutions for CERN accelerator. Lastly, Roberto Rabasco is Orvium’s application & cloud technology expert with a decade of experience in developing software solutions for international companies such as Deutsche Telekom, Just Eat and Asos Ltd

Tech Team

At the engineering and development front, Orvium features a strong tech team with individuals and experts from CERN and Volkswagen data labs. Covering a range of expertise in software and computing engineering, economics and security, it seems that Orvium is well-equipped to advance their vision.

Advisors

Orvium features a distinguished list of scientific advisors from academics to experts in renown institutions. They include Alberto Di Meglip Ph.D., head of CERN’s Open Lab, Tom Soderstrom, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, and Chris Mattmann, Ph.D., associate CTO and innovation officer of the NASA JPL, as well as a member of the board of directors for the Apache Software Foundation.

Roadmap

The following section describes the different phases of the project regarding the development and deployment of the Orvium platform, foundation of the core team, institutional agreements and other actions.

Note about the platform releases: Orvium follows an evolutive approach for developing the platform. The team will continuously deploy new features over time adding more functionalities to the solution. These releases will be first deployed on the Testnet and, after a public testing period, we will promote them to the Ethereum Mainnet.

Phase 0: Nebula

Goals:

Idea conception and development
Assemble team
White paper creation
Incorporate company and legal framework definition
Establish collaboration frameworks for partners
Functional prototype (Web interface, API, smart contracts)
Marketing campaign
Development of Token Generation Event smart contracts

Timeline: 2017 Q1 to 2018 Q1

Phase 1: Red Giant

Goals:

Token Generation Event:
- Public audit of Token Generation Event smart contracts
- Launch
- End of sale report publication
- Independent audit of fund disbursement
Talent finding and recruitment
MVP release

Timeline: 2018 Q2 to Q3

Phase 2: Supernova

Goals:

Platform:
- Orvium Supernova Release and Deployment in Mainnet
  - User identification
  - Paper submission
  - Peer review
  - Manuscript management
  - Blockchain Integration
- Bug bounty program
Support for Science and Technology:
- Develop research institution collaboration program
- Develop grant R&D program

Timeline: 2018 Q4 to 2019 Q1

Phase 3: White Dwarf

Goal:

Platform:
- Orvium White Dwarf Release and deployment in Mainnet
  - Improved lifecycle traceability
  - Decentralized Autonomous Journals management
  - Licenses and Copyrights management
Support for Science and Technology:
- Establish agreements with universities and research organizations to incentivize the Orvium publication model
- Launch grant R&D program

Timeline: 2019 Q2 to Q3

Phase 4: Neutron Star

Goal:

Platform:
- Orvium Neutron Star Release and Deployment in Mainnet
  - Patronage
  - Funding campaigns
Support for Science and Technology:
- Patronage of research lines in collaboration with institutions

Timeline: 2019 Q4

Phase 5: Pulsar

Goal:

Platform:
- Orvium Pulsar and Deployment in Mainnet
  - Integrate big data analytics
  - Fine tune the operational efficiency
  - Adiabatic and continuous integration of the R&D results to the Orvium platform
Market capture and expansion of the business model
Support for Science and Technology:
- Enhance collaboration programmes and frameworks

Timeline: 2020 Q1

The first version of Orvium’s public release is scheduled for the last quarter of 2019, which is a long wait. However, their minimum viable product (MVP) will be released at the 2nd/3rd quarter of 2018, which means users can utilize their beta platform thereafter.

Token Economics & Utility

Here is the breakdown of Orvium’s token supply:

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Token Utility

Orvium is a utility token built on the Ethereum blockchain, functioning as the main currency for the following use cases:

Peer Review Reward: Researchers that engage in the process of peer-reviewing scientific journals would be rewarded with ORV tokens
Payment for Content Usage: If a paid licensing model is utilized, users will have to pay for accessing, downloading and reproducing the content using ORV tokens. Orvium will take a small transaction fee which is unspecified at the moment
Creation & Management of DAJs: Orvium holders can contribute to the creation and operation of DAJs by staking ORV tokens into DAJs smart contracts
Scientific Patronage: Orvium allows the public to challenge the scientific community to solve specific, pressing need in society. Anyone can create this ‘challenge’ by staking ORV into smart contracts and will be disbursed to the author of the published solution

We opine that there are strong use-cases for ORV on the Orvium platform, given the nature of inclusivity that the project offers. It can easily be envisioned that the public would be interested to engage in efforts to advance scientific discoveries and progress (especially on pressing humanitarian issues), and through the platform of scientific patronage and the creation of DAJs that targets the general public, there’ll potentially be huge traction. Greater public participation will result in greater demand for ORV tokens for the staking process, which will, in turn, drive up prices for ORV tokens since the supply is fixed.

Here are the token details for Orvium:

Strengths

Extensive Documentation: Orvium features an extensive white paper. There’s also a technical document that details the platform architecture of Orvium, as well as a light paper which summarizes the detailed white paper.
Solid Team & Advisors: Orvium is backed by a strong technical team of experts and technical individuals that possess the capacity to make the project a success. With distinguished advisors that include individuals from NASA, CERN, and Apache foundation, it seems that Orvium has gained considerable credibility.
Strong Unique Value Proposition: The introduction of Decentralised Autonomous Journals looks to be an interesting innovation that combines the advancement of blockchain technology and the scientific publishing industry that badly requires a systemic overhaul. Equally important is their social platform mechanism that would foster great participation from the general public; this would advance scientific work in a variety of pressing issues surrounding humanity.
Interest Alignment of Stakeholders: Orvium reinvents the scientific publishing model by rewarding researchers who engage in the peer review process, which is the core process of validating scientific findings. This is a disruptive model that a blockchain-based solution offers; tokenization of rewards. This would enable the enhancement of a more robust publishing framework.
Strong Token Utility: Orvium’s platform and functionalities allow for the inclusive participation of the general population in advancing scientific solutions, which would, in turn, enhance the token utility within its platform. Given a variety of use-cases, ORV tokens look to be a token that will achieve high velocity in the near future.

Weaknesses

Long Release Date: Orvium’s fully functional release is scheduled for the last quarter of 2019, which is a long wait relative to the ICO project landscape.
Potentially Slow Implementation: It can take a long time before Orvium gains traction due to the sluggish nature of the scientific, academic community. Disrupting this industry would require a strong number of partnerships and collaborations at the grassroots level, which isn’t obvious at the moment.

Summary

Given the inefficiencies of the scientific publishing industry, Orvium’s solution is an innovative approach to disrupting not only the industry but effecting change towards the advancement of science through its inclusive nature. However, the tectonic challenges facing the industry coupled with its long-release date could be a source of concern for the short-term market. With a highly competent team and a distinguished line of advisors, Orvium looks to be a blockchain-based solution that has a good chance of carving a sizeable lead in this niche.