Just in, the spreadsheet lands on my desk, it's the who is who. I glance over the list and notice, not a biologist, not a scientist, did not make their money in biotech, science or biotech stocks. Yet, strangely, one aim brings them all together, albeit in their individual silos. I fold my glasses and place them on the desk and conclude, this is highly unusual, never have we seem so many successful people working on the one project. Dare i say it, this is not about the financial returns as much as it is about the product. Building it and more so having access to it. No other industry has brought together so many names under one cause.
Immortality.
I glance again at the spreadsheet and take note of the standouts, the Hevolution Foundation, the initiative of The Saudi royal family, by far the largest, dwarfing the old kids on the block, Alphabets Calico and Jeff Bezos New Altos and further down the list, here comes the crypto successful, those that have made their fortunes in crypto. Who are these people, and what are they saying about immortality?
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One such person is Richard Heart, HEX cryptocurrency founder, raised millions in a cryptocurrency initiative surrounding the launch of a new cryptocurrency, Pulse. The funds raised via an airdrop were estimated at approximately ~$27M and were donated to Aubrey Degray.
As Richard Heart mentioned, Peter Thiel, founder and former CEO of PayPal, was an early investor in immortality, making various donations. He also founded Breakout Labs, a nonprofit designed to support scientists working across biology and technology, including aging research.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google’s founders, formed Calico Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Alphabet, in 2013. The aim of this subdivision turned company is to understand the aging process and develop viable interventions.
Larry Ellison, co-founder of the software company Oracle, has been noted as investing $430 million into longevity research alongside an additional $200M into cancer research.
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Brian Armstrong, CEO and founder of the crypto exchange Coinbase, recently went public with his belief in immortality by vowing to invest 2% of Coinbase stock, estimated at approximately $54M into research.
Now, Brian discusses Decentralized science. DeSci seeks to resolve issues around research and investment to evolve current industries. Such as unlocking future tech, megaprojects, moonshots. Both Brian and Juan Benet, Protocol Labs founder, became one of the founding donors of the Impetus Grants, which delivers funding to researchers and scientists working on aging biology see the need for reform in how science is funded and the need for new R&D funding mechanisms along with open-access policies and information sharing as a standard. It eliminates paywalls that inhibit research and allows increased access and collaboration between scientists. Decentralized science, DeSci.
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H.E. Justin Sun has recently donated ~$51K to the Longevity Prize an
