“If I can bring forward the defeat of aging even one day, I would have saved the lives of 110,000 people.” – Dr. Aubrey de Grey at EmTech Asia 2019.
The age-old quest for immortality was largely confined to the myths and legends of past civilizations until about just two decades back when telomerase, the active component for the gene that confers immortality to cells was successfully isolated in a science laboratory. That turned the tide on the entire conversation from whether aging could be treated, to how it could be treated.
Since then it has spawned a whole new medical field – ‘healthspan’ – where scientific research is conducted with the aim of extending healthy human lives for as long as hundreds and thousands of years, if not outright immortality. It is not surprising that the intensive research into anti-aging technologies has attracted financial backing from those who are interested in technological progress – the tech community, the likes of Google and even cryptocurrency tycoons such as Ethereum Founder, Vitalik Buterin, who donated $2.4 million worth of ether to the nonprofit foundation SENS Research Foundation, of which Dr Aubrey de Grey is the Chief Science Officer.
A collaboration between online technology company Enjin and the SENS Research Foundation has just been announced with the bold plan to mobilize a community of 20 million video gamers to help fight aging.
Enjin is a cryptocurrency and online video game company with a plan to change how donors and charities interact in a bid to make fundraising for globally important causes more effective.
This collaboration with SENS Research Foundation is the first program on the road to this goal. The project is essentially gamifying the fundraising experience to make it more fun and engaging for donors. To achieve this, donors get rewards for their donations in the form of blockchain-based collectibles known as “non-fungible tokens” (NFTs).
Enjin, an information technology company focused on online gaming and the cryptocurrency sector, has been at the forefront of blockchain innovation for over a decade. Unlike the vast majority of decentralized projects that have no real products and struggle for adoption, Enjin boasts an ever-growing portfolio of products, including: Enjin Network, Enjin Wallet, EnjinX, Efinity and Enjin Coin (ENJ), and a thriving global community of over 20 million registered gamers. By leveraging its leading-edge technology and active ecosystem, Enjin is positioning itself to revolutionize how donors interact with the charities and social impact organisations they care about most.
Multiple users are reporting on social media that they are currently unable to delete their Coinbase accounts. This news comes as some cryptocurrency enthusiasts continue to clamor for a boycott of the exchange giant over its recent acquisition of Neutrino.
Amid the clamor for a boycott on Coinbase, some users are saying that the company is preventing them from closing down their accounts. Respondents say they followed the fairly easy account closing procedure only to be met with error messages.
Even more puzzling is the fact that these users say they have gotten rid of their dust – infinitesimal cryptocurrency fractions leftover from transactions. Self-professed Bitcoin maximalists like Adam Moore and Jeremy Seaside report zero account balances but still unable to close their accounts.
Last week JP Morgan announced that it had developed its own cryptocurrency, the“JPMCoin”. Lost in the much of the noise about whether or not the JPMCoin is a real blockchain or cryptocurrency is the fact that, for mainstream blockchain adoption, the announcement is a big deal. Don’t get me wrong. The JPMCoin is no more a cryptocurrency than say Fortnight’s V-Bucks or your airline miles are. However, for blockchain the technology (even if JPMorgan isn’t actually using a blockchain) the mere mention of the possibility that blockchain like tech is being adopted by the 6th largest bank in the world, a meaningful way, is a big step towards mainstream adoption.
As you consider this here are a few points you can confidently share with your colleagues and friends:
That doesn’t matter because JPMorgan’s modern day #DigitalAbacus does solve real business problems and proposes real operational cost savings, aka revenue generators
Because JPMorgan didn’t adopt #blockchainlike technology for accounting, for the greater good of transparency, trust, blah blah blah
They did it for operational efficiencies that would translate into revenue 6 Coincidentally, Ripple rejoices! As the #JPMCoin validates their entire business model as only the 6th largest bank in the world can.
Too, JPM’s entry into the internal/private permissioned psuedo #blockchainworld of operational efficiency disrupts Ripple’s competitors. This is a blessing for Ripple, as it is easier to take down a global banking middlemen (Swift) if another global banking titan (JPMorgan) decides it wants to cannibalize its fellow banking middleman.
In conclusion, if you look beyond the hype you’ll see a landscape of operations & technology innovations, with incremental process improvements that = real $$$$. Too, you’ll see an international chess board where the major players are strategically positioning their businesses to take advantage of the most efficient (profitable) and complementary services available. Stay tuned. Blockchain in finance and banking is just getting started. Next, regulatory hurdles.
About the Author
My name is Samson Williams. I am a Professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, human and an anthropologist at Axes and Eggs. You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram @HustleFundBaby and on LinkedIn. I encourage you to share this post and feel free to tag me in relevant post. Finally, I would say thoughts are my own but I probably stole them from a woman. #mansplaining #equalpay
