Coinbase billionaire goes full tech bro, co-founds life extension startup
Coinbase chief exec Brian Armstrong has earned billions with cryptocurrency. Now, he’s looking to profit by lengthening human lifespans.
Armstrong recently contributed to a $105-million pot to fund NewLimit, a biotech startup seeking to prevent or even reverse the effects of time with epigenetic programming.
In laymen’s terms, epigenetic programming relates to a relatively recent scientific discovery that showed cells can be recoded.
The crypto entrepreneur co-founded the company with bioengineering Ph.D. and investor Blake Bryce.
Bryce is described as an early investor in bio and fintech gambits, including NASDAQ-listed Robinhood and several pharma stocks.
“The mission of NewLimit is to radically extend human lifespan,” tweeted Armstrong earlier this week. Bryce detailed plans for the Redwood City-based startup in a blog post.
Bryce cited an example of cloning a mouse from the cells of an old mouse.
“You can scrape a skin cell off your arm and reprogram it into a brain cell,” wrote Bryce. “In fact, you can take a skin cell from an old mouse and clonally turn it into a newborn mouse with an entire life ahead of it.”
While cloning is nothing new (scientists successfully cloned Dolly the sheep back in 1996), Armstrong’s new venture wants develop therapies to keep humans younger for longer.
“Put simply, we want to figure out a way to restore the regenerative potential we all had when we were younger, but somehow lost,” said Bryce.
Coinbase’s billionaire chief wants hustlers
Per a Google form shared on NewLimit’s blog, Armstrong is recruiting a “super strong clinical lead” to work with the firm’s research team to “assess early (intermediate) product areas.”
According to the form, NewLimit’s initial areas of focus could be liver and skin regeneration. There are several other jobs on offer including executive and genetic specialist roles, and applicants should show “resilience” and “hustle.”
NewLimit makes no bones about the potential profits of eternal youth. In the blog post, Bryce makes it very clear what he and Armstrong are after.
“We are not trying to build an institute or academic-minded organization, where papers are more important than products.”
“Our goal is to build an ambitious, well-run, for-profit company that will deliver revenue-generating products on the way toward accomplishing its much bigger objective,” said Blake.
It’s not clear how much of the $105 million Armstrong fronted personally. Still, the pursuit of pseudo-immortality is a path well-trodden by wealthy crypto types.
Former Coinbase tech lead and prolific token gobbler Balaji Srinivasan stated that the ultimate purpose of technology is to eliminate mortality.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated considerable amounts of crypto and fiat to life extension projects. According to Buterin, anti-aging is the best cause for which one can contribute.
Read more: [Coinbase, MicroStrategy execs dump stock as Bitcoin buoys share prices]
Not to mention, apex tech bro Peter Thiel’s reported fascination with blood boys and their purported power to combat the wheel of time.
In any case, while Armstrong tasks NewLimit with discovering science’s answer to the fountain of youth, Coinbase users struggle with customer service issues.
And who knows, if his scientists are hot shit, Armstrong might live to see Coinbase users happy.
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