  Data science and artificial intelligence have become an indispensable part of
scientific research. While such methods rely on high-quality and large
quantities of machine-readable scientific data, the current scientific data
infrastructure faces significant challenges that limit effective data curation
and sharing. These challenges include insufficient return on investment for
researchers to share quality data, logistical difficulties in maintaining
long-term data repositories, and the absence of standardized methods for
evaluating the relative importance of various datasets. To address these
issues, this paper presents the Lennard Jones Token, a blockchain-based
proof-of-concept solution implemented on the Ethereum network. The token system
incentivizes users to submit optimized structures of Lennard Jones particles by
offering token rewards, while also charging for access to these valuable
structures. Utilizing smart contracts, the system automates the evaluation of
submitted data, ensuring that only structures with energies lower than those in
the existing database for a given cluster size are rewarded. The paper explores
the details of the Lennard Jones Token as a proof of concept and proposes
future blockchain-based tokens aimed at enhancing the curation and sharing of
scientific data.
