When decentralized artificial intelligence meets decentralized science, the result can be a completely new way of solving problems that have resisted progress for decades.
NOVA, grounded on Bittensor’s Subnet 68 and created by Metanova Labs, is one of the clearest real world examples of what happens when these two sectors converge.
It shows how open incentives, global computation, and transparent reward systems can reshape the earliest and most expensive stages of drug discovery.
This overview, curated from an article written by Sentri (A DeAI explorer), explains what Metanova Labs is building, why it matters, and how it turns Bittensor into a scientific engine rather than a simple blockchain experiment.
The Problem Drug Discovery Has Not Solved
Drug discovery is slow, expensive, and highly inefficient. Three interconnected problems define the space:
a. The molecular search space (the vast landscape of all possible molecules, used in drug discovery) is overwhelming. There are roughly ten to the power of sixty possible molecules. Searching them through manual lab work or trial and error is impossible.
A single decade of drug discovery costs on average $2.6 billion and the success rate sits near 10%.
b. Pharmaceutical companies rarely explore new territory. Most rely on existing drugs and make small improvements.
This keeps innovation shallow and reduces the chances of major breakthroughs.
c. Profit-driven incentives limit the diseases that receive attention. If a condition affects only a tiny fraction of the population, the financial case for developing a treatment becomes weak even if hundreds of thousands of people are affected globally.
These issues form a bottleneck that slows global medical progress and keeps many treatments out of reach.
What Metanova Labs Is Building
Metanova Labs focuses on improving the top funnel of the drug discovery pipeline.
They do this by coordinating large scale virtual screening and algorithm development through a permissionless and open Subnet ‘68’ on Bittensor.
This turns miners into contributors and validators into judges, all rewarded based on the usefulness of their work.
Their system works through two primary mechanisms.
1. Nova Compound: Decentralized Virtual Screening
Nova Compound functions as a global open drug screening engine. Every 12 seconds, miners submit proposed molecules and validators evaluate them using deterministic AI scoring models.
Here is how it works.
a. Miners search enormous chemical libraries including a curated dataset of roughly 1.75 billion synthesizable compounds.
b. AI models are used to predict which molecules are likely to bind a specific biological target.
c. Validators evaluate each proposed molecule through an open oracle model such as PSICHIC or Boltz-2.
Because all validators run the same scoring model, they reach the same result and the highest scoring miner receives the reward.
This turns early stage drug discovery into an open competition where better approaches are rewarded instantly. The process covers chemical space far more efficiently than any single laboratory could manage.
In simplified terms, NOVA handles the medical logic while miners handle the raw computation. The Bittensor network supplies continuous incentives so the system does not need to hire traditional teams or maintain large physical infrastructure.
2. Nova Blueprint: A Nonstop Algorithm Competition
Nova Blueprint builds on the first component by introducing a parallel competition focused not on molecules but on the algorithms used to discover them.
Miners submit search algorithms. Validators evaluate their performance. When a better algorithm is discovered, it can be adopted across the full network. This creates a self improving engine where the community upgrades the system continuously.
The impact is already visible. The first winning Blueprint algorithm delivered more than four times the performance of a naive random search. This pushes the entire field forward and reduces reliance on the founding team for innovation.
Nova Blueprint represents one of the clearest examples of decentralized science in practice. It rewards many minds for improving the accuracy and efficiency of drug discovery.
The Team and the Path to Revenue
Metanova Labs is led by a small team with strong backgrounds in biotech, artificial intelligence, and crypto.
a. Micaela Bazo, Chief Executive Officer, brings deep experience in crypto investing and an early vision of how decentralized incentives could reshape scientific research.
b. Pedro Penna, Chief Scientific Officer, is a neuroscientist and computational biologist with experience leading AI driven therapeutic discovery.
c. Amanda Casadei, Chief Technology Officer, contributes machine learning and engineering expertise.
d. Brayden Miller supports platform engineering and development.
The team expects multiple revenue paths. Their virtual screening system can be offered as a service to smaller research labs and may attract pharmaceutical companies seeking to optimize early discovery.
Their model also allows for potential future buybacks which could influence subnet token performance.
How It Compares to Other DeSci Projects
Metanova Labs differs from many DeSci projects on other networks. While platforms such as Pump Science or BioProtocol operate as launchpads or funding hubs, Subnet 68 functions more like a scientific computation engine. It resembles Bittensor itself more than a crowdfunding platform.
Metanova’s openness has already created positive cross community engagement.
They have acknowledged work done by BioProtocol and other teams, showing that DeSci is evolving with cooperative elements rather than pure competition.
Closing Thoughts
The convergence of open artificial intelligence and decentralized science is still young, yet Subnet 68 demonstrates how powerful this combination can be.
It shows how global incentives can accelerate research for diseases that traditional structures overlook. It also proves that permissionless contributors can make meaningful progress on problems normally restricted to specialized laboratories.
This piece is an attempt to highlight innovation in a space that often gets buried beneath market noise. Many respected voices in the Bittensor community speak highly of Metanova Labs.
Their progress suggests that Subnet 68 is becoming an important reference point for how decentralized research can work at scale.
It is a project worth paying attention to.
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