The Impossibility of VEROs

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of skeptical arguments have been raised against VEROs. Here we try to address each and every one of them.

There is no market for VEROs. Who is going to buy them?

Yes, right now there is no market for them because most people are unaware of this concept. That’s where the promotional power of museums can come in very handy. Museums should be able to sell this idea to the public with relative ease. VEROs are rare assets that link buyers with a part of their scientific and cultural heritage. They can be displayed to the world from the comfort of your living room. They can be bought and sold online. They take up no physical space or space on your hard drive. They can even be incorporated into online games and apps, where buyers can interact with them (a VERO can be your avatar, for example). VEROs are also impossible to damage through interacting with them, unlike real objects. 

Who is going to pay for the storage space for all those 3D models?

This problem has already been solved. Many NFTs are stored away on the interplanetary file system, which is a decentralized network that can allow for the storage of many 3D models, including many backups, for very little money. If you are worried about the cost of storage, check this link out.

VEROs will make real specimens commercially valuable, making it harder to move those specimens across international borders.

Specimens have had monetary value since the time of Aristotle, if not before. Museums regularly appraise the worth of biological specimens for the purpose of insurance, taxes, etc. Specimens also have value as genetic resources and because they have the potential to be used for developing pharmaceutical products. All of this means that specimens are already seen by the governments of many countries as immensely valuable. Consequently, specimens are becoming impossible to move around because laws that prohibit or impede the movement of specimens are built on the understanding that specimens are valuable. And whether we like it or not, scientific value converts to commercial value. It seems likely that VEROs will add more monetary value to specimens, but importing specimens from some places is already almost impossible. A high resolution 3D digital substitute will go a long way towards solving this problem.

But VEROs will not lead to the production of realistic, high resolution 3D models for small organisms such as insects. All the models I have seen of my group don’t look very realistic or detailed.

Have you seen a high quality micro-CT scan of any member of your group? Many taxonomists think that 3D models are not realistic based on photogrammetry. It is true that photogrammetry does not often generate high resolution 3D models, especially for small organisms. But CT and confocal laser scanning microscopy can generate extremely high resolution 3D models of small organisms. This is not cheap. VEROs can be used to subsidize the costs of generating high resolution 3D models of important specimens, which will be useful to the scientific community.

Can or should an institution mint VEROs from specimens when they have been permanently loaned or donated from other institutions on the understanding that the receiving institution does not generate anything commercially valuable from them?

In the case of permanent loans, any VERO that is minted would belong to the institution that owns the specimen. But if specimens have been donated on the understanding that only scientific work should be carried out on the specimen, then the associated VEROs should be donated back to the institution that donated the specimens. In this case, the donor of the actual specimen may choose to fund the costs of producing the 3D model and the associated VERO in return for the VERO.

It is unethical to sell VEROs from specimens that have been collected from developing countries. By funding the generation of high resolution 3D models, VEROs will allow taxonomists that are based in developing countries to look at 3D substitutes of important specimens such as holotypes. If institutions wish to make amends for the removal of valuable specimens from developing countries, the proceeds from any profits can go to collections in the affected country.

NFTs require smart contracts. Who is going to make that happen for VEROs?

The smart contract is up and running. Now, it is down to museums to start minting VEROs. We recommend practicing on the test network before you do this for real. If you make a mistake, it may end up costing you around $50 dollars. That is how much it costs to mint an NFT.