NOVA
Unleashing Decentralized Intelligence to Revolutionize Drug Discovery
The following whitepapers chart the development of NOVA powered by Bittensor Subnet 68. From early architectural decisions to advanced incentive mechanisms, each release reflects a distinct stage in our push to build a self-improving, adversarial, and model-agnostic drug discovery engine.
While these versions document important conceptual shifts, the protocol continues to evolve rapidly. For the most current implementation and community coordination, check our GitHub and Discord channel.
tracking the evolution
V1 - March 2025
Focus: Core architecture, deterministic scoring, and single-molecule optimization
This foundational version introduces NOVA as a decentralized competition layer for virtual screening. Miners submit candidate molecules from the SAVI 2020 library (~1.75B compounds) and are rewarded based on binding affinity scores predicted by PSICHIC, a GNN-based oracle. The system runs winner-takes-all challenges on fixed protein targets, establishing the core validator-miner feedback loop and emphasizing adaptive search over brute force enumeration.
V2 - april 2025
Focus: Multi-molecule submissions, adversarial incentives, and chemical diversity metrics
This whitepaper outlines the Shannon Upgrade, which introduces a multi-molecule challenge format, randomized target–antitarget assignments, and frequency-adjusted scoring. Submissions are now evaluated not only for potency but for their internal structural diversity, calculated using MACCS key fingerprints and a full Shannon diversity index. This model-agnostic upgrade increases pressure on miners to innovate, stress-tests prediction models, and enhances the breadth and quality of molecular discovery.
V3 - May 2025
Focus: Epoch-based competition, anti-target penalties, and entropy-weighted scoring
This update introduces weekly target locks, hour-scale epochs, and a refined scoring framework. Submissions now include 100 molecules per epoch, and a hard duplicate-invalidation rule ensures novelty across the target-week. Scoring incorporates target vs. anti-target differentials and a decaying Shannon entropy bonus, which rewards early-stage chemical diversity. The system now better reflects real-world lead optimization dynamics and discourages redundant exploration.
