On this episode of Lifespan News, Ryan O’Shea showcases an Ending Age-Related Diseases panel that featured the worlds of crypto and longevity being brought together.
Script
We’ve mentioned the growing crossover between the longevity community and the cryptocurrency and blockchain community quite a bit, and today we have more. Lifespan.io has released a recording of their Crypto Meets Longevity panel from the most recent Ending-Age Related Diseases Conference. We’ll tell you what was said, and how it relates to some exciting things happening right now, in this episode of Lifespan News!
Viewers of this show know about the longevity philanthropy of Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin, of Richard Heart’s well known support of the SENS Research Foundation, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s involvement in New Limit, the goals of Transhuman Coin, VitaDAO, and more.
But why is there such a crossover between the longevity community and the crypto community? That was one of the topics addressed during the panel discussion. Qiao Wang, a core contributor of leading Web3 accelerator and founder community DeFi Alliance, traces the roots of this back to the early stages of crypto – with Hal Finney, who received the first ever Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto, choosing to be cryopreserved in hopes of future reanimation upon his death in 2014. Here’s what he had to say:
Another panelist was Marc Bernegger, a Swiss entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Maximon, a longevity company builder. He hinted that there are some well-known and wealthy members of the crypto community involved in the background of Maximon’s work, and that this cross-community collaboration helps to provide mutual stability.
Another concrete example that was brought up was Vitalik Buterin’s donation of a large percentage of all Dogelon Mars coins in existence to the Methuselah Foundation, a non-profit medical charity focused on extending the healthy human lifespan by making 90 the new 50 by 2030. The foundation could have instantly tried to cash in by selling the coins, but instead they announced that they would seek to maximize the coin’s long term value. This provided inherent alignment between the Dogelon holders and the Methuselah Foundation, and by extension, the larger longevity community. Here is Qiao explaining it:
I agree with that sentiment, and it’s time that we change that. And it’s important to note that this panel wasn’t entirely cryptocurrency focused. There’s potential for blockchain in general to play a huge role as well. Here’s Lifespan.io President Keith Comito discussing his plans for the organization.
You can find the full video of this panel on the Lifspan.io YouTube channel, linked in the video description. The potential of this technology, and the decentralized science movement in general, is huge. And if you share these goals, and agree with Qiao that there’s not enough money in longevity, right now you have the opportunity to take advantage of Quadratic Funding and change that.
Lifespan.io is currently participating in Gitcoin Grants Round 13, which has a pool of funding specifically focused on decentralized projects sustaining longevity. Among them is the Web3 initiative that Keith explained in that clip. You can learn more, and find instructions on how to donate, linked in the video description. You’ll have to hurry, though – Round 13 is only open until March 24, 2022. Together, we can help make this vision a reality.
As you can see, the longevity and blockchain communities have considerable overlap, and this is still very early stages – we’re not even yet beginning to realize the potential of these technologies. I think it would be a safe bet to say that the future of health, science, investment, and charitable giving lie at the intersection of blockchain and longevity. So expect that we’ll have a lot more to share on this soon. Subscribe and hit the bell icon if you want to hear about it first. I’m Ryan O’Shea and we’ll see you next time on Lifespan News!
