Crowdfunding science to create long, healthy lives
/A new initiative is dedicated to a crowdfunding campaign that will accelerate advances in longevity research.
A web-based crowdfunding organization, Angel Protocol, has just launched a longevity initiative aimed at “crowdfunding better aging for everyone”.
The initiative enables donors to make cryptocurrency contributions to three nonprofit organizations: Methuselah Foundation, Life Extension Advocacy Foundation, and SENS Research Foundation. Funds will be used to support longevity research the three organizations have underway, as well as new initiatives that come up in the future.
Methuselah Foundation has been investing in longevity research since 2001. In 2009, we helped to create the SENS Foundation, whose mission is to “help build the industry that will cure the diseases of aging”. Life Extension Advocacy Foundation, better known as Lifespan.io, was founded in 2014 to support fundamental research on the mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases.
The first $10,000 in donations through Angel Protocol will be matched by the Angel Alliance, a group of more than 125 Protocol partners that commit a portion of their revenue to fund nonprofit organizations and changemakers in perpetuity.
While crowdfunding has been used to support longevity research for many years, the Angel Protocol effort is unique because it makes donating easy by enabling donors to link their digital wallets to make gifts. The site, launched just before Christmas, comes as many people are looking for end-of-year donor opportunities. All three groups are official nonprofit organizations and a donation will immediately produce a tax receipt that can be used as proof of contribution on tax returns.
Donors also have the option to direct gifts to an individual organization by visiting the group’s page on the Angel Protocol site. For example, Methuselah Foundation has a page that provides a little background on what we do and permits people to donate. SENS Foundation and Lifespan.io also have pages.
The cryptocurrency community has demonstrated significant interest in – and support of – longevity research. Vitalik Buterin, a visionary computer programmer and co-founder of Ethereum, generously gave Methuselah Foundation 43% of the world’s Dogelon Mars ($ELON) cryptocurrency. Since then, the fast-growing Dogelon Mars community has demonstrated support for Foundation initiatives and agreed to fund bioprinter research in space.
We hope the Angel Protocol initiative raises awareness of and enthusiasm for the important work being done to increase human longevity.