The emerging longevity sector is attracting many crypto natives, who can both benefit from it and contribute to it with blockchain tools.
The nascent longevity industry focuses on the research and implementation of solutions and technologies to extend the lifespan of human beings — making people live healthier, longer lives.
Longevity is not yet considered an official medical term, and aging is not officially considered a disease but a natural occurrence in every living thing.
However, some biologists, researchers and practicing doctors believe this approach should change, and they are striving to discover the mechanisms of aging in humans. In doing so, they are creating age clocks by defining biomarkers for measuring biological age, exploring the best lifestyle habits and natural supplements, and inventing new drugs that could stop us from getting older.
Longevity has been on the radar of crypto leaders for some time already, which is not a surprise given that the industry promises to improve humankind through innovation. Indeed, one prominent event in the longevity industry, the Longevity Investors Conference, is organized by Marc P. Bernegger and Tobias Reichmuth, who were previously involved with the Crypto Finance Group.
At the most recent iteration of the Longevity Investors Conference in September 2022, speakers taking part in the “Crypto meets longevity” panel noted that both industries — crypto and longevity — are disruptive fields that challenge established norms.
“Everybody here in this room is, to a certain extent, a pioneer because we really come together in a phase where it’s similar to the internet, Bitcoin and other exciting industries,” said Bernegger, who is the founding partner at Maximon — an accelerator for longevity companies.
Aubrey de Grey, an English author and biomedical gerontologist, highlighted that the mindset of crypto and longevity innovators is very much alike, with both being “completely comfortable working in an area that is still very unorthodox and needs to be taken forward.”
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Ryan Pyle, founding partner at Maine Investments — a Zug-based company managing digital assets — said that the longevity industry reminds him of what crypto was like in 2013 and that while no one knows precisely where the industry will be in five to 10 years, the potential is very promising:
Bernegger also shared that because the longevity industry is at such an early stage, it’s currently a highly attractive period for investors to enter and that “similar to Bitcoin back then, it is less about the price but also about the underlying technology and potential.”
On the application of blockchain technology itself, Bernegger is less optimistic, stating, “I think it’s difficult, then, to combine [blockchain] technology with another exciting field like longevity. […] From my side, personally, I think the biggest synergy is less in combining two technologies and really more the money.” On the potential in the investing and funding side of crypto, Bernegger added:
Bernegger also mentioned the compliance aspects of both industries, stating that regulators might be a burden to research and adoption not only due to their role to protect end customers but “to another extent also to protect the status quo.”
The longevity industry is still in a very nascent stage and has not seen many blockchain-related use cases yet. Nevertheless, knowing what kind of problems have already been solved with the help of blockchain technology allows some professionals to see potential applications.
Claire Cui, a self-described longevity enthusiast and blockchain adviser, mentioned decentralized data as one potential use case:
Data ownership also allows users to earn from sharing it with companies that use it for scientific research. Thus, regular users become part of the revenue chain.
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Another application of blockchain in the longevity industry is decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, and decentralized intellectual property. One existing example is a platform called VitaDAO, a DAO for community-governed and decentralized drug development that collectively funds and digitizes research in the form of nonfungible tokens representing IP. Christian Angermayer, founder of Apeiron Investment Group, said:
The longevity industry seems to be an exciting area in which the crypto community can explore investment and use cases, particularly because, by its nature, it is reminiscent of blockchain’s early days. At the same time, many existing areas of blockchain adoption can be applied to the longevity industry to solve some of the problems it’s facing.
