Science's Pirate Queen Gets A Memecoin: Sci-Hub Explores New Funding
Alexandra Elbakyan has been called many things: "Science's Pirate Queen," a "Robin Hood of science," and by Nobel laureate Randy Schekman, simply "a hero."
The 36-year-old Kazakhstani computer programmer created Sci-Hub in 2011, a website that provides free access to millions of academic papers normally locked behind expensive paywalls. According to a 2018 study, Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature.
Now, Elbakyan is experimenting with perhaps the most unlikely funding mechanism yet: memecoins. In November 2024, anonymous supporters launched $SCIHUB, a community-driven cryptocurrency token designed to fund Sci-Hub's operations.
The project reached a $20 million market cap and raised $500,000 from a 2% token liquidation by Elbakyan, with 20% of the total token supply dedicated to Sci-Hub funding. But the unconventional funding experiment has been anything but smooth.
The Economics of Academic Publishing
To understand why Elbakyan has turned to cryptocurrency, one must first grasp the economics of academic publishing. Researchers produce knowledge in the form of research papers that do not belong to them, while a few mighty businesses make huge amounts of money from it.
Publishers like Elsevier charge universities thousands of dollars for journal subscriptions, creating what critics call a "double-dipping" system where institutions pay both to produce research and to access it.
The Rise of Sci-Hub
Elbakyan's solution was characteristically direct: she created a PHP script that bypassed publisher paywalls to download papers for free. The impact was immediate and massive. Sci-Hub contains 88 million research papers and serves 80+ million users annually.
The Controversy Surrounding Elbakyan
But it also made Elbakyan a target. In 2015, Dutch publisher Elsevier sued Sci-Hub in U.S. court, winning a $15 million judgment and forcing Elbakyan into hiding due to the risk of extradition.
The case echoes the tragic story of Aaron Swartz, the internet activist who was prosecuted for downloading millions of academic articles from JSTOR in 2011. Facing decades in prison, Swartz died by suicide in 2013.
Elbakyan's Background and Political Views
Alexandra Elbakyan herself cuts an unusual figure in the world of academic activism. Born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, she identifies as multiracial, with Armenian, Slavic and Asian roots, and was raised by a single mother who was an accomplished computer programmer.
She started programming at age 12 and performed her first computer hack at 14, using SQL injection to obtain access to all logins and passwords of her home internet provider. Her political views are equally unconventional.
The Memecoin Funding Experiment
Elbakyan has stated that she is inspired by communist ideals and considers the common ownership of ideas to be essential for scientific progress. She views the current system of producing knowledge in science as "a classical example of a failed capitalist system" where "researchers are being exploited."
The $SCIHUB token experiment combines viral meme coin appeal with meaningful cause, featuring active recipient support from Elbakyan and transparent blockchain structure.
The Challenges and Controversies Surrounding the Memecoin
But the project has been plagued by complications that highlight both the promise and perils of cryptocurrency funding. In a lengthy Twitter post in June 2025, Elbakyan revealed problems with the original token: Her solution was to create a new token address controlled directly by Sci-Hub and migrate funds there.
But this move sparked accusations from some crypto community members that she was "rugging" the original project, crypto slang for abandoning a project and taking investor funds.
The Cultural Gap Between Elbakyan's Academic Mission and Cryptocurrency
"I want to emphasize that Sci-Hub coin should be considered, first and foremost, as a donation to support open science, not as an investment tool," she wrote in her announcement.
The Appeal of Memecoins and the Challenges of Traditional Funding
Like the parable of blind men describing an elephant by touch alone, cryptocurrency debates are confused because participants focus on distinct but overlapping elements.
Cryptocurrency attracts the institutionally displaced: not just get-rich-quick speculators, but also ideologically driven builders creating alternative economic infrastructure.
Elbakyan's Journey and the Broader Transformation of How Knowledge, Money, and Power Operate in the Digital Age
The stakes extend far beyond Elbakyan’s personal story. With 75% of scholarly literature remaining behind expensive paywalls and academic publishing having become increasingly monopolized by a handful of publishers, the questions raised by Sci-Hub and its cryptocurrency funding experiment touch on fundamental issues of how society produces and shares knowledge in the digital age.
