Author: Alex Liu, Foresight News
The heat of DeSci + MEME has not diminished, so what other good angles are there? Do these MEME coins really contribute to Science? Some people can't stand it anymore and shout out (always hyping desci) "Have you donated a penny to Sci-hub?"
What is Sci-hub?
According to Wikipedia, Sci-Hub is a shadow library. It uses various methods to bypass publishers' paywalls. In 2011, Kazakhstani graduate student Alexandra Elbakyan decided to set up Sci-Hub because the cost of research papers behind the paywall was too high. Its users are spread all over the world. In February 2021, Sci-Hub's homepage showed it had stored over 85 million papers.
Sci-Hub and Elbakyan have been sued for copyright infringement in the US twice. Both times they were found guilty by default judgment. Sci-Hub has been praised by the scientific community, academia, and the publishing industry for effectively disseminating knowledge in the scientific community and providing free access to government-funded research results to the public. Publishers, however, criticize it for infringing on copyrights, reducing their own revenue, and endangering university network security (though publishers may be exaggerating the threats. Sci-Hub also encourages publishers to make their paywalls even stricter.)
In defending Sci-Hub, Elbakyan has in turn questioned whether the publishers' business practices are ethical and in line with Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She insists that operating Sci-Hub is a moral imperative, and the law should not prevent her. She has stated: "If all Americans obeyed bad laws, they would still be under the rule of the Queen, and slavery would still exist."
MEME coin scihub
"Have you donated a penny to Sci-hub?", former chairman of the Peking University Blockchain Association 0xAA felt this question was reasonable, so he donated 0.1 ETH.
But if it had just stayed at a donation, there wouldn't have been the exciting story that followed - 0xAA bought 22% of the supply of the MEME coin named scihub.
This MEME coin called scihub skyrocketed to a market cap of $70 million overnight. And the 22% of tokens held by 0xAA were worth tens of millions of dollars. Will he donate 20% of the tokens as promised? Would donating 20% of the supply legitimize this near-crazy hype?
Initially, Sci-hub founder Elbakyan did not endorse this project.
But later she added an option to accept SOL wallet donations on the Sci-hub website.
Afterwards, 0xAA stated that he had reached a consensus with Elbakyan and would honor his promise to donate 20% of the tokens.
Controversy
The incident sparked huge controversy in the Chinese community, mainly on two points:
Rat-holing accusation
Some accused 0xAA of rat-holing, saying the 22% was only the tokens held in his public wallet, and the actual tokens he controlled were far higher than that proportion.
Why not donate directly?
Is it really to support research or just a money game? Some also think direct donation would be better than hyping MEME.
0xAA also said directly "I want to make money, the kind where everyone makes money together." He hopes everyone can win-win, both profiting from the MEME coin and supporting Sci-hub's operations.
Supporters' views
The opponents have their own views, but the community also has many people who support 0xAA's actions, comparing the use of MEME to raise funds and then donate part of the tokens to the lottery model.
