Anti-aging ICO seeks to eradicate the disease we call aging

Youthereum Genetics

This is one of the first anti-aging ICOs that I'm aware of. Their mission is to study genetics in an attempt to end aging as we know it. The method they will be trying is based on the Nobel prize winning work from Shinya Yamanaka. They used a method to rejuvenate old cells called "OSKM transcription factors". In their animal study (mice) they proved that the mice live 50% longer which is excellent progress at least in mice. I will remind readers to always treat animal studies with skepticism because what works in mice or rats or rabbits or chimps will not necessarily work in humans.

This ICO however wants to fund the research necessary to determine whether or not it can work in humans. A quote from their website states:

These results underlie our working hypothesis that aging can be rolled back by periodic induction of certain transcription factors (e.g. OSKM). Our project is aimed at validating this hypothesis and then translating it into a safe therapy that produces sizable, noticeable rejuvenation. In short, we strive to develop an epigenetic rejuvenation gene therapy of aging.

One problem I see here is they may be vulnerable to confirmation bias. They seek to validate a hypothesis which is the wrong way to go about it. Should they not seek to try to invalidate rather than validate? In other words a randomized control trial is necessary and perhaps an ICO can be used to both volunteer humans as participants in this trial and reward those humans with a supply of treatments should it work. Many people who are old, sick, or who just don't want to grow old, will sign up to participate and even pay to directly fund the research if the incentives were set up right in my opinion.

I actually think the model of their token sale looks good. If you hold their tokens you gain some perks:

To raise funding for our project, we plan to issue UTH tokens to our backers. All therapies developed by Youthereum Genetics will only be sold in exchange for UTH tokens until the expiration of the UTH exclusivity period.

UTH exclusivity period will begin from the time of the first commercial availability of the human therapy and will last for 20 years or until the expiration of the project's last-to-expire patent, whichever is earlier. Upon expiration of the UTH exclusivity period, all therapies developed by Youthereum will be available to the general public at a 25% markup of their manufacturing costs.

Also not a bad model and similar to Kickstarter. Also not likely to be seen as a security interestingly enough but more like a membership voucher of some sort. Overall the idea is good but it is a long shot. This is a good first attempt at building an incentive structure around ICOs to solve the most a problem we all face.

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References

1. http://youthereum.io/
2. https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2017/10/an-interview-with-yuri-deigin-of-youthereum-genetics-the-merging-of-an-initial-coin-offering-and-pluripotency-factors/