Introducing Helena: The Future of Advisory Research

How Helena is solving the research gap in the blockchain space

“Helena” — derived from the Greek ‘Ελενη (Helene) “torch” or “corposant,” meaning an electrical discharge accompanied by a corona of ionization in the surrounding atmosphere.

In recent years, the advisory research industry has been undergoing a structural change. With information now so widely accessible, paid research providers struggle to define their value proposition as well as their pricing structure. Research clients, on the other side, are questioning the value of the research they are paying for, especially when it comes directly out of their P&L.

Moreover, the wide and direct access to sources of information around almost any topic lowers the barrier for those who can write insightful research. Today’s analysts do not need to be part of a globally established company in order to write high-value research. However, distributing research and competing with large established research providers remains a challenge.

What better way to solve that challenge than building an open platform that provides contributors greater agency and shared value? This is exactly what the ConsenSys Labs venture studio has committed itself to building and supporting.

Toward Distributed Research

Helena, a ConsenSys spoke, is a consumer-curated advisory research distribution platform, empowering analysts to distribute high value research while enabling consumers to curate quality. Helena is also part of the Brooklyn Project, an industry-wide initiative to promote token-powered economic growth and consumer protection.

The Helena value proposition centers on three main principles:

Transparent Curation. Helena is introducing a new token model, the Token-Ranked List (TRL), to enable consumers to evaluate and curate analyst performance. Helena is also built on top of the Gnosis infrastructure and uses prediction markets to track analysts’ recommendations. Curation will be completely transparent to all participants of the platform.

Full Ownership. Helena research analysts and consumers will have full ownership over the way research is generated, distributed, consumed, and curated.

Global Network. Helena is open to research analysts and consumers from any part of the world to onboard and contribute.

Blockchain Research Competition and Bounties

To start, Helena will focus on onboarding research providers and consumers who are exploring blockchain and token-based projects. There is a big research gap in the blockchain space. The industry is still discovering basic information about blockchain and crypto, including token models, business models, the state of the technology and adoption, etc. While some good research providers have started to emerge, most institutions still rely mostly on social media (Twitter, Medium, Reddit, etc.) to get their research. Blockchain projects beg for new metrics and methodologies for technology and business analysis.

Helena is launching two initiatives in the coming month:

Blockchain Research Competition. We will be working with the top schools in the US to launch a Blockchain Research Competition. Students will onboard onto the Helena MVP to write and publish research analyzing blockchain technologies and blockchain projects. Enterprises and funds in need of research will receive the research through the Helena platform and curate the quality. If you are an institution in need of research and would like to be part of this competition, please sign up as an institutional research consumer.

Blockchain Research Bounties. We will be partnering with Bounties Network to launch a bounties research competition focused on blockchain and crypto. If being an entrepreneurial blockchain research analyst excites you, please sign up as a research analyst. If you are a potential user of analyst advice and have research requests, please sign up as a bounty research consumer.