The Quantum Biology DAO, explained.

Biology runs on the laws of quantum physics. It’s a hard truth, because math is hard, but it’s a necessary one, because we don’t get to choose what our biology is or isn’t made of.

Quantum mechanics was developed in the early 1900s. It’s been almost a hundred years since then. Theorists as early as Schrödinger postulated a role for quantum physics in biology. Decades have passed, and the evidence for quantum effects in biology has mounted. Now, with the help of cutting edge technology from quantum sensing and new organizational structures, like the Quantum Biology DAO, it is possible to finally investigate quantum states inside cells at room temperature and learn how they work.

Our goal isn’t just learning, however. We want to change the world. The knowledge that comes from advancing the basic science of quantum biology will give rise to an entire industry of quantum biological applications.

Our first stop is biomanufacturing. Companies are growing wheat, coffee, and more inside bioreactors specially designed to make cells multiply. They aren’t using all of the tools nature gives us, though, because they aren’t using quantum. Quantum physics explains how weak magnetic fields, like the Earth’s magnetic field, which life evolved within, can have effects in biology — like cell division rate. Biologists haven’t been able to apply magnetic fields to samples, at least, not easily, because they haven’t had the instruments or the knowledge of quantum physics.

The Quantum Biology DAO is paving the way. We’re building the instruments biologists need to work with weak magnetic fields. We’re funding the basic science so they can understand the quantum states they’re interacting with. You can imagine magnetically-powered bioreactors churning out more stuff now and in the future when we’re in space or on other planets.

Biomanufacturing is just the first step. After that, the real target is health. Weak magnetic fields impact many aspects of the cells, potentially including cell-wide phenomena such as metabolism and apoptosis — which means, keeping cells healthy and clearing out senescent cells.

Companies are already using weak magnetic fields to improve people’s health. Novocure, a publicly traded company with over a billion-dollar market cap, uses weak magnetic fields to treat cancer. Other companies have used weak magnetic fields to reduce symptoms from diabetes. They haven’t been able to systematically tune their effects or intelligently search for new ones, though, because they don’t have the underlying formulas that tell them how quantum effects work in biology.

The real future quantum biology offers is one where we, as a species, have mastered quantum effects in biology and, along with that, weak magnetic field effects. Weak magnetic fields are cheap to produce, don’t require surgery or pills, and can be carefully targeted and controlled using smart clothing and a cell phone. We imagine a future with over-the-air updates making your clothing and your environment better able to produce the right sorts of magnetic fields to make ourselves healthier, more energetic, and able to live a lot longer.

Those aren’t the only effects we look forward to. Even though weak magnetic fields are important, they aren’t the only point of quantum biology. Quantum biology includes prolonging room temperature superpositions, something that quantum computing desperately needs to learn how to do. It also covers potentially more efficient processes for generating energy, like nature already does with photosynthesis in the cell, and greater knowledge of chemical interactions, including molecular recognition which is relevant to drug discovery.

Getting to these effects requires serious translational efforts — translating basic science to practical applications and translating the deep mysteries of quantum physics into a language that everyone, including biologists, can understand. The Quantum Biology DAO is positioned to perform these translational efforts, building new instruments, funding crucial research, and putting into place everything else needed for the field of quantum biology to succeed and the industry of quantum biology to be born.

Join us! And may the quantum be with you!

The Quantum Biology DAO governs by proposals which are made by DAO contributors and voted on in accordance with the DAO’s system of governance. There are three phases of governance, each intended to give different stakeholders a voice. Two of the phases use QBIO, which is an Ethereum-based crypto token, to manage voting power. The DAO passes proposals pertaining to governance, committees, grants, treasury management, the QBIO token, and any other topic related to advancing the field of quantum biology.

As a legal entity, the DAO is currently represented by the Quantum Biology DAO Association, a Swiss association incorporated in the canton of Zug.

Phases of Governance

The Quantum Biology DAO has three phases of governance, which are described in detail in proposals DP-1 and DP-14.

Phase 1 is drafting in Discord. In the DAO’s community Discord, there is a channel for proposals. Any member of the community may make a proposal. Proposals are typically given their own sub-channel and then debated by the community. The authors of the proposals may make revisions in response to feedback. Once a sufficient number of 👍s are received, including enough from DAO Core Contributors, the proposal passes on to Phase 2.

Phase 2 is discussion and voting on Common. The DAO uses a website called Common, which hosts public discussion and voting by communities. When a proposal reaches Phase 2, it is posted to Common. It stays there for 1 day (fast), 3 days (normal), or 7 days (slow), depending on the speed the proposal was set at. During that time, anyone may post a public comment; in order to vote, a person must connect a wallet holding 10,000 QBIO. To move from Phase 2 to Phase 3, at least 10 votes must be cast and a majority must be in favor. This phase is meant to be “1 person, 1 vote” and provides greater power to small token holders.

Phase 3 is token voting on Snapshot. For the final phase of governance, the DAO uses a website called Snapshot, which lets people connect their wallets and vote using their tokens. To pass Phase 3, at least 3% of tokens must be used vote and a majority of votes must be in favor. This phase is meant to be “1 token, 1 vote” and provides greater power to large token holders.

DAO governance can be modified through DAO proposals. This happened before, when a flaw in Phase 2 was identified and patched.

The QBIO Token

The Quantum Biology DAO uses a blockchain-based electronic token called QBIO for governance. Tokens were initially auctioned off in December 2024 in order to raise money for the DAO. Tokens were also given to DAO co-founders and to BIO Protocol in return for helping incubate and launch the DAO.

The QBIO token is now available for purchase on the decentralized exchanges Uniswap for Ethereum users and Raydium for Solana users. The contract addresses are:

• — Ethereum — 0x3e6a1b21bd267677fa49be6425aebe2fc0f89bde
• — Solana — qbioCGDnUBGX5qcK1Fc4zg19GaQEPmxHFMPMZQm4LZ8

People sometimes speculate on crypto tokens. However, QBIO is not a security and its being available for trade on decentralized exchanges is not meant to suggest any probability of economic return or any existing or future economic rights in the DAO’s treasury or assets. QBIO is a governance token. Holding it allows one to participate in the governance of the Quantum Biology DAO. The purpose of the Quantum Biology DAO is to advance the field of quantum biology, and the decisions of its token holders will determine how it does that.

Annual 2025 Budget

The DAO has a budget of $120,000 for February 2025 through January 2026. It is allocated as follows; details are included in DP-6.

The DAO conducts its business through a set of committees (or “working groups”). Right now, there are five committees: Science, Communications, Product, Treasury, and Operations. Each committee has one or more leaders. The details of how committees work are described in DP-4 and DP-15.

Science

The Science committee reviews papers and discusses hypotheses pertaining to quantum biology, contributes to the DAO’s scientific planning, helps to determine priorities for grants to scientists and advises the DAO on science-related matters. It is currently led by Jonathan Heppner.

Communications

The Communications committee manages social media and the community Discord, maintains community engagement and motivation, enforces community standards, and leads the effort to educate people about quantum biology and the Quantum Biology DAO. It is led by Kyra Gardner.

Product

The Product committee designs instruments to be used in quantum biology research, with an eye to commercialization. This involves identifying market opportunities and potential customers, as well as making and executing marketing and distribution plans. It is led by Geoff Anders and Alessandro Lodesani.

Treasury

The Treasury committee develops and executes the strategy for managing the DAO’s treasury. It is led by Mike Montague.

Operations

The Operations committee tracks contributions from community members, manages scheduling, tracks spending, and maintains legal compliance. It is led by Jennilyn Gaitan.

The governance system of the DAO exists in order to harness the energy of a growing community of supporters of the field of quantum biology and to direct the resources of the DAO to advancing the field of quantum biology. Some of the DAO’s work has already been completed; other projects are being worked on right now.

Work So Far

The DAO has accomplished several major tasks so far.

• — Fundraise. The co-founders of the DAO, Geoff Anders, Clarice Aiello, and Alessandro Lodesani, ran a large promotional campaign to raise money for the DAO. This succeeded, with QBIO tokens being auctioned off for $6.8 million.
• — Token launch. With the assistance of BIO Protocol and the encouragement of the community, the DAO launched the QBIO token, making it transferable and publicly tradeable. The token is now available on Ethereum (via Uniswap) and Solana (via Raydium).
• — Community building. Through ups and downs, many people, including Geoff Anders, Kyra Gardner, Jennilyn Gaitan, Stanley Bishop, Cryptonurse, Holypanetone, TheWeb5sASI, Royalty, DePaul, Kenichi, iFun, Scagria, Nonye, Michael_019, Timmygram and others, helped to grow and build the community. Through that work, there are now more than 50 people actively involved in the DAO.
• — Organizational setup. The DAO also set up its own governance structure and committees, selected committee leaders, divided tasks, and took steps to ensure organizational efficiency.
• — First major grant. The Quantum Biology DAO gave its first major grant, of 500 ETH (~$1.3 million at the time) to the Quantum Biology Institute to support its foundational work in the field of quantum biology. QBI’s major project is creating a microscope capable of detecting quantum states inside cells and room temperature, and also applying magnetic fields to probe and interact with those quantum states. It’s very exciting work, and it is only possible now because of the DAO’s support.

New Priorities

The DAO has several top priorities at the moment.

A new scientific granting process — The DAO needs to set up a granting process that will guide its future grants to scientists who will advance the field of quantum biology. Researchers and academics are thoroughly dissatisfied with the granting system that currently exists. We have the opportunity to improve on it!

The entire DAO will cover this.

Health effects from weak magnetic fields — The biggest and most immediate point of contact between people’s everyday lives and quantum biology are the potential health effects of weak magnetic fields. These are frequently ignored because the fields are thought to be too weak; however, there are quantum effects that are strong precisely when the fields are weak. These may be effects that researchers and government bodies looking at health effects are unaware of.

The Science committee will cover this.

DAO website refresh — The DAO’s website is sorely out of date. It was current in December 2024 when the initial fundraise took place. However, a lot has happened in the months since then.

The Communications committee will cover this.

First patent and tokenized IP — One reason scientists do not look into quantum biology is that they do not know how to apply magnetic fields to biological samples. The first step in solving this is to create an easy-to-use adjustable magnetic ring that biologists can use in experiments. This can be patented and then tokenized, with ownership of the tokens determining licensing rights. Getting a patent will demonstrate commercial opportunities within quantum biology and tokenization will demonstrate a practical use case for blockchain technology.

This is the Product committee’s first project. See the Quantum Biology DAO’s product roadmap.

Treasury management strategy — Thus far, the DAO has simply held ETH and staked some of that ETH. It is important to develop a new treasury management plan in communication with the DAO’s stakeholders, designed to optimize the DAO’s management of risk.

This is the Treasury committee’s aim.

The Quantum Biology DAO was originally founded by Geoff Anders, Alessandro Lodesani, and Clarice Aiello. It is now composed of its Core Contributors, committee leaders and participants, QBIO token holders and other members of the community lurking in the Discord or elsewhere.

Core Contributors

Core Contributors to the DAO are people who put substantial effort into making the DAO work. They have special powers, which include approving proposals to pass from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of governance and directing the committees; details are described in DP-1.

The current list of Core Contributors is:

• —Geoff Anders
• —Alessandro Lodesani
• —Clarice Aiello

There are several people who are prospective Core Contributors. That means that they are not Core Contributors yet, but are on their way. These are:

• —Kyra Gardner
• —Mike Montague
• —Jennilyn Gaitan

Over time, in accordance with the ethos of progressive decentralization, it is expected that the number of Core Contributors will increase and the dependence of the DAO on any single person or group of people will decrease.

Committee Leaders

DAO committee leaders are selected by DAO proposal. Their powers and responsibilities are described in DP-4 and DP-15.

The current committee leaders are:

• —Geoff Anders — Product
• —Alessandro Lodesani — Product
• —Kyra Gardner — Communications
• —Mike Montague — Treasury
• —Jennilyn Gaitan — Operations
• —Jonathan Heppner — Science

By default, committee leaders retain their positions for one year. The current set of leaders was affirmed at the end of May, 2025 in DP-15.

Community Members

Beyond leaders, the DAO has many community members. Community members attend DAO committee meetings, vote on DAO proposals, join in fun activities like the semi-monthly quantum biology trivia contest, and so forth.

There are presently more than twenty-five community members, not counting Core Contributors and committee leaders, including Royalty, Kenichi, Mikasa | Scribe, iFun, Scagria, Nonye, DePaul, Cryptonurse, Gavin, TheWeb5’sASI, Eagleye, gbarbied, goldenGM, Erik Van Winkle, Odetta, James Sinka, Limbofeather, Michael_019, Misery, Olli Payne, Reneedaos, Stanley Bishop (aka Science Stanley), Silent Spring | Product, Timmygram, Zicjoe, Leo Boltz, Ash Manchester, and others.

Token Holders

Many participants in the DAO are token holders, which means that they own one or more wallets that contain QBIO, the Quantum Biology DAO’s governance token. Being a token holder means having at least 1 QBIO, though there are hundreds of small token holders and approximately 25 large token holders, with more than 1,000,000 QBIO each.

Service Providers

The Quantum Biology DAO works with a few service providers who are close enough to count as part of the community. These are Smarter With Science, a science education firm, and BIO Protocol, the Decentralized Science token launch platform that provided incubation services for and helped launch the Quantum Biology DAO.

Mascot

The DAO’s mascot, chosen through a community mascot design contest, is Qubie, the quantum biology fish. Qubie is a new member of the team and we expect great things!

The Quantum Biology DAO is affiliated with a number of groups, movements, and organizations, including many similar DAOs. The most important of these are the Quantum Biology Ecosystem, the Decentralized Science movement, and the BIO ecosystem.

Quantum Biology Ecosystem

The Quantum Biology Ecosystem is a network of three organizations:

• —Quantum Biology Institute
• —Quantum Biology DAO
• —Quantum Biology Incubator

The Quantum Biology Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in California. It is devoted to performing the basic research needed to lay the foundation for the field of quantum biology. It has a lab in Los Angeles, where it is building a microscope that will allow it to examine quantum states inside cells at room temperature. It also has a smaller lab hosted at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Maryland, where microbiology experiments are performed to better understand the effects of weak magnetic fields in biology.

The Quantum Biology Institute was originally founded by Clarice Aiello in 2024. It is now led by Anna Stillwell, with support from the team, which includes Alessandro Lodesani, Mike Montague, Jennilyn Gaitain, and others.

The Quantum Biology DAO is the organization described in this document! It was conceived in April 2024 and debuted in November 2024. It differs from the Institute in that it involves many different people, is officially headquartered in Switzerland rather than Los Angeles, and is focused on the translational efforts needed to bridge from the basic science to commercialization, rather than simply on the basic science.

During the initial DAO fundraise, Geoff Anders and Clarice Aiello pitched the entire Quantum Biology Ecosystem, as a three-organization structure needed to build a new industry. The Quantum Biology DAO was explained as the second of three organizations, with the intention that half of the money raised would go to the Quantum Biology Institute and half to the rest of the field. This was explained with the proviso that, since final decision making power at the DAO rests with the token holders, all allocations of money would be subject to the token holders’ approval.

The Quantum Biology Incubator [website is being reposted] is a new organization, ready to be founded, which will help equip startups in the quantum biology space with the scientific knowledge, cutting edge technology, and business know-how needed to succeed. According to the Quantum Biology Ecosystem roadmap, the Incubator is slated to launch in mid-2025:

In order to keep the three organizations distinct but aligned, each was given its own overlapping but related mission. Also, it was planned that the Quantum Biology Institute and the Quantum Biology DAO would both receive a portion of equity from the Quantum Biology Incubator. If everything goes according to plan, every successful exit of an incubated company will feed money back into the system, helping to fund the Institute and the DAO. In this way, it becomes possible for quantum biology to become a completely self-sustaining sector.

The Quantum Biology Ecosystem website also contains a large number of briefs, designed to teach people about the relationship between quantum biology and other fields. These include:

• — Testing the Quantum Biology Hypothesis
• — Building the Quantum Biology Industry
• — Quantum Biology and Artificial Intelligence
• — Quantum Biology and Biomanufacturing
• — Quantum Biology and Brain Function
• — Quantum Biology and Defense
• — Quantum Biology and Drug Development
• — Quantum Biology and Health
• — Quantum Biology and Longevity
• — Quantum Biology and Nanotechnology
• — Quantum Biology and Quantum Computing
• — Quantum Biology and Space Exploration
• — Quantum Biology and The Future
• — Quantum Biology and Whole Brain Emulation
• — Quantum Biology as an Experiment in Open Science
• — The Tadpole Experiment

Decentralized Science (“DeSci”)

Decentralized Science, or “DeSci,” is a movement that has existed at least since 2018. Originally beginning with elements of the Open Science movement, as well as the advent of preprint servers, Decentralized Science moved onto the blockchain, with many groups launching crypto-native organizations seeking to improve science through the use of blockchain technology.

One important aspect of DeSci has been the adoption of DAOs. “DAO” stands for “Decentralized Autonomous Organization,” a special type of organization that should be made possible by the blockchain. Over the years, different teams have experimented with different degrees of decentralization and autonomy, with the general consensus now being that decentralization and autonomy are good and that a progressive move towards each over time is the best overall strategy.

The Quantum Biology DAO is a member of the Decentralized Science movement. We have participated in several DeSci conferences, including DeSci Bangkok and DeSci London, and have attended DeSci events at larger crypto conferences including ETH Denver. We expect that DAO community members will continue to participate in and contribute to the DeSci movement, at least in the form of participation, if not (eventually) in the form of leadership.

As a DAO, the Quantum Biology DAO has the goal of progressively moving towards greater decentralization and autonomy. That means that the DAO is aiming to cause power at the DAO to be held by more and more people over time and for the DAO to operate in an increasingly automatic way over time. Premature decentralization and premature automation are two major causes of DAO failure, so we are being careful. But these are ideals we take seriously and believe we are making progress towards.

BIO Ecosystem

One of the most prominent organizations in DeSci right now is BIO Protocol, the organization affiliated with the BIO token. BIO Protocol incubates and launches DeSci DAOs, which then become part of its ecosystem. The BIO Ecosystem now contains many DAOs, including VitaDAO (longevity), HairDAO (baldness), ValleyDAO (synthetic biology), AthenaDAO (women’s health), CryoDAO (cryopreservation), PsyDAO (psychedelics), Cerebrum DAO (brain health), MycoDAO (fungi), SpineDAO (spine health), Long Covid Labs (long covid), Curetopia (rare diseases), and, of course, the Quantum Biology DAO (quantum biology).

BIO Protocol arose from an earlier organization, Molecule, which has pioneered different means to put science and intellectual property onto the blockchain. There are now a network of organizations with the BIO ecosystem working together to advance the cause of science through the DeSci movement and web3.

Despite its relative short history, the Quantum Biology DAO has had a pretty wild ride so far! Read on to learn about the ups and downs, as well as accomplishments and next steps.

As a summary, the history of the DAO can be broken down as follows:

• — Pre-History 📜 ???
• — Incubation 🌱 April-November 2024
• — Debut 🕺 November 2024
• — Token Auction 🪙 December 2024
• — Initial Setup 🏗️ December 2024-January 2025
• — Token Launch 🚀 January 2025
• — Two Crashes ☄️ January-February 2025
• — Two Hacks 🔓 March-April 2025
• — Recovery 💪 May 2025
• — Setup Complete ☑️ May 2025
• — First Major Grant 💰 June 2025
• — Next Steps 🛣️ June 2025-

Pre-History 📜

For several years, Clarice Aiello had been advocating for resources and attention to go to the field of quantum biology. With her training as a quantum engineer and experience in quantum sensing, she realized that it was likely that biological cells were engaging in quantum sensing also — but that very few people had realized this.

Why did few people believe that cells were engaged in quantum sensing? Most scientists were unfamiliar with quantum physics and were scared of the mathematics. Those that did study quantum phenomena usually did so under very controlled circumstances, frequently at very low temperatures. These scientists, including those working on quantum computers, found it extremely difficult to preserve quantum states for long periods of time, and so it was believed that quantum states could not exist for long enough in the chaotic environment of the cell to be biologically relevant.

However, there was evidence that cells were somehow preserving and relying on quantum states, despite being very complicated and existing at room temperature. This evidence came primarily in the form of effects from weak magnetic fields. Many organisms experienced effects from weak magnetic fields, including fields as weak as the one produced by the Earth. These effects had been observed for decades and—this was the important part—in most cases there weren’t good classical (meaning, non-quantum) explanations for how the effects came about.

Rather than argue, Clarice set out to build a microscope capable of looking inside cells and seeing whether quantum states actually did last for long enough to be biologically relevant. She created a research plan and tried to raise money. While she was successful to a degree, it was hard to find the institutional support she needed, so she ended up leaving academia and striking out on her own.

Just before leaving, Clarice happened to reach out to an organization called Leverage (leverage.institute). Leverage specializes in helping scientific fields that are stuck to become unstuck. In 2023, she had several conversations with the Leverage CEO, Geoff Anders. Geoff became convinced that quantum biology was an extremely important field and that it could be unstuck with the right effort.

In April 2024, Geoff and Leverage team decided to go all in on quantum biology. Geoff and Clarice joined forces, and together they reached out to everyone in their combined networks, from contacts in government and defense to tech and crypto billionaires to colleagues at NIH and NASA, and more. One of the groups they reached out to was BIO Protocol, where Geoff and Clarice met Paul Kohlhaas, BIO’s CEO, and James Sinka, BIO’s Science Lead.

Incubation 🌱

Initially, Geoff and Clarice were wary. This was crypto, after all. Clarice did not have any experience with crypto. Geoff had previously advised a crypto project and thus had some familiarity, but neither had previously encountered BIO or “decentralized science.” The people seemed genuine, however, and the ideas seemed excellent. So Geoff and Clarice began developing the plan for the Quantum Biology DAO.

The process of incubation involved developing a bunch of ideas and materials which would be used as part of the DAO fundraise. Importantly, Geoff and Clarice were trying to raise between $5-20 million for quantum biology, and were still trying to raise money from government sources, philanthropists, and others during this time. Peter Thiel had suggested he would put in $5 million, conditional on another $15 million being raised. Geoff and Clarice thought they could raise $10 million from philanthropists and $5 million more from the DAO, which would be enough to unlock the last $5 million.

While speaking to so many parties, Geoff developed the design for the Quantum Biology Ecosystem, which included three organizations and a place for anyone with money to contribute. The Institute could raise money from government sources and philanthropists. The DAO could raise money from crypto investors. The Incubator could raise money from VCs. Together, the three organizations made it possible to speak to everyone interested and turn no one away.

Not everything went according to plan, however. One government source, which had credibly indicated a desire to put in several million dollars, had its own funding reallocated. One philanthropist, who had indicated serious interest initially, vanished near the end. It was too early for VCs and the best philanthropic opportunity wasn’t closing. It was now November 2024 and Clarice’s money had run out. Geoff had scrounged up enough money to keep the Institute running and fund the Tadpole Experiment, an experiment which showed that biological effects from weak magnetic fields were real. The science was good, but where was the money?

Debut 🕺

The team at BIO Protocol strongly encouraged Geoff and Clarice to travel to Thailand for DeSci Bangkok and Devcon 7. The two decided to go. On stage at DeSci Bangkok, Geoff presented the Quantum Biology DAO for the first time. Crypto VCs were interested. Geoff and Clarice were invited to a special Binance event. Things were on a knife’s edge. Should they launch the DAO, even though the rest of the money had not been secured? The choice may have been DeSci or nothing.

At the Binance event, two special guests were announced: Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, and CZ, founder of Binance. Both gave the nod to DeSci. This was an important area, they said. Geoff and Clarice each ended up with a moment to talk with Vitalik and Clarice spoke briefly with CZ. Not enough time, however, to really lay out the vision.

As Geoff and Clarice returned to the US, DeSci was exploding as a sector. Tons of interest was pouring in. The original plan with BIO had been to launch the Quantum Biology DAO in April 2025. It was now December 2024. Geoff and Clarice pulled in Alessandro Lodesani, the other scientist at the Quantum Biology Institute, and the three moved up the timeline and took the plunge… which meant launching immediately.

Token Auction 🪙

From December 4 through December 16, Geoff, Clarice, and Ale worked non-stop. Tons of materials had already been created. Oliver Carefull, at Leverage, had turned Clarice’s research plan and Geoff’s vision for the Quantum Biology Ecosystem into a compelling roadmap. The Leverage team had also taken scientific material from Clarice and turned it into more than a dozen briefs that related quantum biology to many other fields. Si Mclennan, sponsored by BIO and in collaboration with Oliver, produced four beautiful websites, one each for the Institute, DAO, and Incubator, and one of the Quantum Biology Ecosystem itself.

Geoff and Clarice, now joined by Ale, did non-stop X spaces at all hours, public interviews with scientists, conversations with crypto VCs, and produced new materials essentially non-stop. Materials included the Quantum Biology DAO Vision Paper, Roadmap, and Deck, as well as a growing list of advisors and endorsements, including a key endorsement at the last minute from a member of Merck Group, who wrote that Merck Group was interested in quantum biology — of the exact sort that we were working on.

The auction, which began on December 4, had a minimum threshold of $500 thousand. Had anything less been raised, the auction would have failed and all money would have been refunded. We hit $500 thousand within seventeen minutes. By the end of the first day, we were at just over $750 thousand, which certainly wasn’t bad. The team, however, had already decided that we needed to raise between $2 million and $2.5 million if the project would actually be able to proceed. Quantum instrumentation is expensive, which was one big reason this had never been done before.

At that point, people were still allowed to retract their bids. The total amount in went up and down, then, for the next week, hovering between $750 thousand and $900 thousand. After day 8, however, the amount pledged in bids began to rise. We hit $1 million by the weekend, and $1.4 million twelve hours before the close. In the last twelve hours, or really the last four, the auction went crazy. Bids started pouring in, and in the last few minutes we hit an asymptote. The auction closed and we had raised $6.8 million.

Where did the $6.8 million come from? On a technical level, the auction worked by allowing people to place bids. A weighted average of bids was then calculated, a single closing price determined, and all bids below that price rejected and refunded. All bids that were not rejected then paid the closing price. Of $8.2 million bid, $1.4 million of bids were rejected, leaving $6.8 million for us. It also so happened that ETH had spiked at that exact moment, putting it just below its three-year high.

In terms of who contributed, it’s hard to say. The blockchain is pseudonymous. A plot of the successful bids, however, was like the function f(x) = 1 / x. In other words, it was a smooth curve. A small number of large bids, a medium number of medium-sized bids, a large number of small bids. It seemed like everyone was on our side and agreed: now was the time for quantum biology.

Initial Setup 🏗️

After the auction, the team was exhausted. It was also the holidays, so Geoff, Clarice, and Ale took a week off. Little did they realize, crypto never sleeps. It’s 24/7. By the time the three logged back in, the community Discord was full of people clamoring for the token to be launched. We had raised money through the auction, but we hadn’t made the new QBIO token, which we had auctioned off, transferable or tradeable.

The team quickly moved to rectify the situation. They apologized for the delay, created the DAO’s governance system, and then made two proposals, one to make QBIO transferable and tradeable on the Ethereum blockchain, and the other to bridge to Solana, making QBIO accessible there as well. The proposals passed by a wide margin with many votes in favor.

The Ethereum launch happened soon after. The Solana launch was delayed due to technical difficulties from one of BIO’s providers. The token eventually became available on the Solana blockchain in March. In the meantime, the DAO co-founders created the DAO’s committees (aka “working groups) and passed a budget for the DAO. They also began proposing monthly grants to tide over the Quantum Biology Institute, where Clarice and Ale were working. This was enough to set up the DAO in a basic sense, though, of course, trouble was coming.

Token Launch 🚀

In the auction, 15% of the total supply of QBIO had been sold. Many people now had QBIO burning a hole in their pockets. QBIO, one will recall, is a governance token. It is a utility token meant to be used to vote on what the Quantum Biology DAO does. Nevertheless, people may have reasons to want to sell their QBIO tokens and do something else with their money. That’s perfectly legitimate as well.

For whatever reason, there was substantial pressure to make the QBIO token tradeable. BIO had not yet built infrastructure to ensure that new DeSci DAO tokens would be available for public trade right away. So holders of QBIO had been waiting for almost a month with the proposal to make QBIO tradeable passed.

As the date of the token launch approached, advisors to the Quantum Biology DAO became nervous. Some reached out and suggested in strong terms that launching the token now would be a mistake. The co-founders of the DAO consulted an independent advisor and heard the same message: now was a bad time to launch. Was it macroeconomic conditions? Was it the fact that the TRUMP token was set to launch essentially the same day?

The team quickly made a new proposal to delay the launch, but the community voted it down. There was now no choice. The team, with BIO’s technical assistance, unlocked the QBIO token and made it available for trade on Uniswap, a decentralized exchange on the Ethereum blockchain. QBIO began trading on January 17th, 2025.

Two Crashes ☄️

The Quantum Biology DAO team then experienced two crashes. The first was the QBIO token. It was initially listed at $0.03588, down from its auction price of $0.04583, since ETH had come back down. It then dropped to $0.005183 before recovering to $0.02094 and then going into a steady decline.

At its lowest point in January, QBIO was down 85.6% from its listing price and 88.7% from the original auction price. Other biology-related DAO tokens at the time also crashed, so it may have been market conditions or DeSci falling out of the limelight. In fact, QBIO did better than many other tokens, but that didn’t mean the crash was good.

The QBIO token crash was then followed by another crash: Ethereum. ETH had been at nearly $4,000 when the QBIO auction closed. By the end of February and into March 2025, ETH was on its way down, and would eventually bottom around $1,400. That may or may not have impacted the QBIO token, but it certainly impacted the Quantum Biology DAO’s cash reserves, which were still being held exclusively in ETH.

Voting Battle ⚔️

Right on the heels of two crashes, the DAO had a huge clash over governance. This was, in some sense, all part of the plan: DAO governance is real and there were competing visions for the future of the DAO.

The battle was sparked by a proposal to fund the Quantum Biology Institute, which had been circulating a proposed annual budget, covering all of its instrument, personnel, location, and other costs. The Institute team discussed it with their partners and the DAO discussed it with the community. The important point about the annual budget was that the price tag was high: $3.4 million.

A proposal to fund the QBI budget passed from drafting (Phase 1) to discussion and voting on Common (Phase 2). It looked like the proposal was going to pass, but then a large number of negative votes materialized as if out of nowhere. Spam filled the comments and there was a race between positive and negative votes, with negative votes winning out in the end.

Next, a proposal to fund QBI just for one month, as a tideover budget, also failed, again with a large number of negative votes and this time with a DAO community member being impersonated in the comments. Members of the DAO tried to identify any person who had voted negatively, since everyone who had spoken up in earlier discussions was in favor of funding the Institute. No one was identified, and there had been signs of irregularities in the voting, so the DAO voted to deactivate Phase 2 for repair.

For the next few months, proposals went straight from Phase 1 (drafting on Discord) to Phase 3 (token voting on Snapshot).

During this time, two different visions of DAO governance were presented. One side, led by Geoff Anders and Alessandro Lodesani, proposed adding a token gate of 10,000 QBIO to Phase 2 to make it harder for people to vote with multiple accounts, and sending known community participants 10,000 QBIO from the DAO treasury so they would be able to vote in Phase 2. The other side, led by Clarice Aiello and the BIO team, argued in favor of simplifying governance by removing Phase 2 and token-gating (i.e., having a token ownership requirement) for participating in drafting on the Discord.

After lengthy discussion, the issue was put to a vote in the Discord. The first proposal won out by a margin of 15-8. It then passed Phase 3. Phase 2 was reinstantiated with a token gate of 10,000 QBIO and a list of 40 community participants were given the option to receive 10,000 QBIO from the DAO treasury.

Recovery 💪

Two token crashes and a voting battle took up a bunch of attention. The DAO, however, bounced back. Starting in April and then going into May, ETH began its recovery, reaching back to $1,800 and then $2,500. The QBIO price also began to recover, with sequences of purchases at one point leading the QBIO price to triple.

A long discussion about how to fix Phase 2 of governance occurred, with one side arguing in favor of simpler, more centralized governance and the other side arguing for a token gate. In May 2025, the token gate side won out, Phase 2 was reinstalled, and DAO governance repaired. The source of the Twitter hack was also discovered and everyone received a primer on taking better security measures.

Throughout, morale at the Quantum Biology DAO remained very high. One key contributor was the fact that the community stayed positive. Maybe all the speculators left when the token crashed initially. Maybe the people who want to stick around for trivia and fun DAO mascots are people who don’t like FUD. Whatever the reason, the community stayed positive and the DAO overall stayed confident and ready to win.

Setup Complete ☑️

The DAO was now started to mature. DAO governance had been upgraded. New committees were added and committee leaders selected. Everyone was ready to go.

First Major Grant 💰

In June 2025, the DAO made its first major grant. It had been funding the Quantum Biology Institute month-to-month from February through June, but now voted to set aside 500 ETH for the Institute to draw on as needed. This was one of the two main reasons the DAO had been founded in the first place.

Next Steps 🛣️

What’s next? The DAO’s next steps, after having funded the Quantum Biology Institute, is to figure out what else is necessary to advance the rest of the field. There are instruments to build, other research avenues to fund, and more. The DAO is ready, the future is bright — and may the quantum be with you!

To learn more about the Quantum Biology DAO and to track progress in the field of quantum biology overall, please check out these resources:

• — Quantum Biology Weekly Digest — weekly news about the Institute, DAO, and more
• — Quantum Biology DAO Vision Paper — original vision statement used for the auction
• — Quantum Biology DAO Deck — original deck used for the auction