Open Longevity is Attempting the ICO Route for Fundraising

The Open Longevity group is a Russian non-profit volunteer organization that emerged from the Science for Life Extension Foundation community, and is working to organize responsible, open trials of potential therapies to address aspects of aging. They are a little too focused on tinkering with metabolism rather than repair of the damage that causes aging for my tastes, but each to their own. Based on recent news it seems they are going to try the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) path of fundraising for their ongoing efforts. It will be interesting to see how this goes, as just about anyone who has watched the frenzy over ICOs this past year has probably at some point wondered how to tap this flow of funding. A few months ago I asked whether or not ICOs are a viable approach to pull funding into the field of longevity science. Here I mean in any capacity, whether that is running patient-paid clinical trials, conducting fundamental research, commercializing a senolytic drug candidate, and so forth. You should probably look back at that prior post for a brief overview of what an ICO is, how it relates to blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and why ICOs presently look like magical money fountains from some angles. Groups with very little credibility are raising tens of millions of dollars via this mechanism, bypassing traditional venture funding mechanisms. If they can do it, why not credible efforts in the field of rejuvenation research? Following that...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs