What can blockchain do to increase human lifespan?

The nascent longevity industry focuses on the research and implementation of solutions and technologies to extend the lifespan of people – enabling people to 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 all living things.

However, some biologists, researchers and medical practitioners believe that this approach should change, and they strive to discover the mechanisms of aging in humans. In doing so, they are creating age clocks by defining biomarkers to measure biological age, exploring the best lifestyle habits and natural supplements, and inventing new drugs that can stop us from aging.

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 humanity through innovation. In fact, a prominent event in the longevity industry, the Longevity Investors Conference, is organized by Marc P. Bernegger and Tobias Reichmuth, who were formerly involved with the Crypto Finance Group.

Crypto meets longevity

At the latest iteration of the Longevity Investors Conference in September 2022, speakers participating in the “Crypto meets longevity” panel noted that both industries — crypto and longevity — are disruptive fields that challenge established norms.

“Everybody in this room is a pioneer to some degree because we’re really coming together in a phase where it’s similar to the internet, Bitcoin and other exciting industries,” said Bernegger, who is the founder of Maximon, an accelerator for longevity businesses.

Aubrey de Grey, an English author and biomedical gerontologist, highlighted that the mindsets of crypto and longevity innovators are very similar, and both are “completely comfortable working in an area that is still very unorthodox and needs to be taken forward.”

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Ryan Pyle, founder of Maine Investments – a Zug-based company that manages digital assets – said that the lifetime industry reminds him of what crypto was like in 2013, and that while no one knows exactly where the industry will be in five to 10 years, the potential is very promising:

“So I see the ecosystem as very exciting, and I think what Maximon is trying to do at this longevity conference is very early stage — like probably two or three years, maybe too early, which is great. It’s there you want to be, right? You’d rather be too early than too late. A lot of crypto people have invested in this area just because they fully accept this level of risk.”

Bernegger also shared that because the longevity industry is at such an early stage, it’s currently a very attractive period for investors to enter, and that “like Bitcoin back then, it’s less about the price, but also about the underlying technology and the potential.”

How blockchain can apply to longevity

As for the use of blockchain technology itself, Bernegger is less optimistic, saying: “I think it’s difficult to combine [blockchain] technology with another exciting field such as longevity. […] From my side, personally, I think the biggest synergy is less in combining two technologies and really more money.” On the potential of the investment and financing side of crypto, Bernegger added:

“I personally would rather focus on the funding side and less on the technology side, not forgetting that there are few exciting projects in DeSci [decentralized science] place that definitely has great potential. But I think it will take years to really see tangible products solving a real problem there.”

Bernegger also mentioned the compliance aspects of both industries, stating that regulators can be a burden to research and adoption, not only because of their role in protecting end customers, but “to another extent also in protecting the status quo.”

The lifetime industry is still in a very nascent stage and has not seen many blockchain-related use cases yet. Still, knowing what kinds of problems have already been solved using blockchain technology allows some professionals to see potential applications.

Claire Cui, a self-described longevity enthusiast and blockchain advisor, mentioned decentralized data as a potential use case:

“What crypto has figured out is basically [the potential of] blockchain technology to cover some of the problems that people have today, such as privacy, data ownership. So that’s where people are very curious. And in terms of health, it is even more sensitive. No one wants his DNA in health records leaked somewhere because someone hacks it.”

Data ownership also allows users to profit from sharing them with companies that use them for scientific research. Thus, ordinary users become part of the revenue chain.

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Another application of blockchain in the long-term industry is decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, and decentralized intellectual property. An existing example is a platform called VitaDAO, a DAO for community-led and decentralized drug development that collectively funds and digitizes research in the form of non-fungible tokens representing IP. Christian Angermayer, founder of Apeiron Investment Group, said:

“I think an interesting part of blockchain technology might be that we kind of make sure that people can collaborate better, but also that literally everyone collaborates and gets a fair share of what comes out of it, both reputationally and specifically also financially.”

The lifetime industry appears to be an exciting area where the crypto community can explore investment and use cases, especially because it is inherently reminiscent of the early days of blockchain. At the same time, many existing areas of blockchain adoption can be applied to the longevity industry to solve some of the problems it faces.