Today, scientific research is increasingly data-centric and compute-intensive, relying on data and models across distributed sources. However, it still faces challenges in the traditional cooperation mode, due to the high storage and computing cost, geo-location barriers, and local confidentiality regulations. The Jupyter environment has recently emerged and evolved as a vital virtual research environment for scientific computing, which researchers can use to scale computational analyses up to larger datasets and high-performance computing resources. Nevertheless, existing approaches lack robust support of a decentralized cooperation mode to unlock the full potential of decentralized collaborative scientific research, e.g., seamlessly secure data sharing. In this work, we change the basic structure and legacy norms of current research environments via the seamless integration of Jupyter with Ethereum blockchain capabilities. As such, it creates a Decentralized Virtual Research Environment (D-VRE) from private computational notebooks to decentralized collaborative research ecosystem. We propose a novel architecture for the D-VRE and prototype some essential D-VRE elements for enabling secure data sharing with decentralized identity, user-centric agreement-making, membership, and research asset management. To validate our method, we conducted an experimental study to test all functionalities of D-VRE smart contracts and their gas consumption. In addition, we deployed the D-VRE prototype on a test net of the Ethereum blockchain for demonstration. The feedback from the studies showcases the current prototype's usability, ease of use, and potential and suggests further improvements.

翻译：当前，科学研究日益以数据为中心且计算密集，依赖于分布式来源的数据和模型。然而，由于高昂的存储与计算成本、地理障碍以及本地保密法规，传统协作模式仍面临诸多挑战。Jupyter环境近年来兴起并发展成为科学计算的关键虚拟研究环境，研究人员可利用它将计算分析扩展至更大规模数据集和高性能计算资源。然而，现有方法缺乏对去中心化协作模式的强有力支持，无法充分释放去中心化协同科学研究的潜力，例如无缝安全的数据共享。本研究通过将Jupyter与以太坊区块链能力无缝集成，改变了现有研究环境的基础结构和传统范式。由此，我们构建了一个从私有计算笔记本到去中心化协同研究生态系统的去中心化虚拟研究环境（D-VRE）。我们提出了一种新颖的D-VRE架构，并原型实现了若干核心D-VRE要素，以支持基于去中心化身份的安全数据共享、以用户为中心的协议制定、成员管理及研究资产管理。为验证该方法，我们开展了实验研究以测试所有D-VRE智能合约的功能及其燃气消耗。此外，我们在以太坊区块链测试网上部署了D-VRE原型进行演示。研究反馈表明当前原型具备可用性、易用性和发展潜力，并指出了进一步改进方向。