Gitcoin has launched its 15th funding round and is again supporting projects focused on aging and rejuvenation.
An alternative way to fund science
Gitcoin is a platform focused on supporting the development of open-source Web3 software. This is a decentralized system based on blockchain technology with the goal of funding “public good” projects that are intended to benefit everyone.
We were delighted to see projects focused on aging research being included during its three previous funding rounds, and this round is no exception.
As part of our commitment to advancing progress in the field, Lifespan.io has two project proposals in the GR15 funding round.
Lifespan.io is developing a therapy for Alzheimer’s
This year, Lifespan.io launched a research project called Mindset. This project is focused on developing a light and sound headset that may stop Alzheimer’s disease.
Thanks to generous donations in the GR14 round, we have already built a hardware/software system. The system has been tested, and it is confirmed that it can affect the brain through light and sound stimulation.
Our system has, so far, generated preclinical data that suggests effective neural entrainment in humans. Neural entrainment refers to the observation that brainwaves will naturally synchronize to the rhythm of periodic external stimuli, including flickering lights and sounds.
We started to develop this system based on evidence suggesting that entrainment therapy may reduce loss of functional connectivity and brain atrophy, improve cognitive function, and ameliorate several pathological markers of the disease.
We are hoping to raise $50,000 during this round, and if we do, we can obtain the equipment needed to build an inexpensive production prototype. This would give us the basis to build these devices at scale and get them to the widest number of people possible.
Web3 crowdsourced clinical trials
Our second project is the Lifespan.io Web3 program, which aims to improve how aging research and clinical trials are funded.
WIth your support, we can develop a new form of blockchain-based crowdfunding. This will allow us to maximize funding for large-scale projects such as developing therapies that may slow down or even reverse age-related diseases.
Traditional funding systems, such as grants, suffer from intense competition and a culture of risk aversion. Therefore, the cutting-edge therapies that our field is trying to develop often struggle to gain the funding they need.
With your help, we can create an alternative way of funding bold and moonshot research that has the potential to be truly game-changing.
How to donate to the projects
If you are new to the technology, we have included a step-by-step guide that uses an example of $100 and a small number of projects:
- Get a MetaMask wallet
- Acquire $100 (or whatever you like) worth of ETH via Coinbase or other methods. You may need more than you think for gas fees (see below).
- Send this ETH to your MetaMask from Coinbase (or wherever): this may incur a significant gas fee. You now have ~$70 worth of ETH in your MetaMask wallet.
- (Optional but recommended if supporting multiple projects) Go to https://wallet.zksync.io, connect your MetaMask, and transfer your ETH to zkSync
- This will trigger another gas fee, so you may now have $50 in ETH.
- Create a Gitcoin / Github account if you haven’t.
- If you’d like to magnify your matching effect, you can do verifications, including verifying your account with SMS, Facebook, and Google. The more ways, the more your power to pull in matching funds increases.
- Finally, go to Gitcoin and explore longevity projects, such as the Lifespan.io projects.
- Select “Connect Wallet” at the top of Gitcoin once logged in to connect your MetaMask wallet to the site.
- Select “Add to Cart” for the projects you want to help. Check out the full round project lists.
- Scroll up to the cart button at the top, and click it to go to the checkout
- Choose ETH as your currency in the upper left
- Put reasonable amounts in for each project, maybe .0025 ETH for each (about 10 dollars). Select a percentage for “Give back to the Gitcoin match pool” if you want to support the Gitcoin platform itself.
- Select “I’m ready to check out”, and select zkSync check out if you did step 5 above
- Go through the checkout steps, and it should ask you to sign a few steps on your Metamask wallet, finally saying “complete payment”. Click that, and then just wait for confirmation.
If it gets blocked, it likely means that you put in more money than you had, so just go back and reduce the amount for each to .002 ETH or so. If you did not use zkSync, you’d get charged with the large ETH gas fee for every project instead of just one fee for a few bucks.
This benefit compounds if you are donating to more projects at once. The matching amount you pull in diminishes after 10-dollar and 100-dollar thresholds. So, if you are not looking to donate a large amount, donating about $10 to each project that you care about will still yield a large matching effect. If you are planning on supporting just one or two projects, the above starting amount is likely to be sufficient.
Thank you for your contribution!