Genecoin Developers on Storing DNA with Bitcoin and ‘Growing Blockchain Creatures’

Woolly mammoth tusks for sale, dark web drug drama, blockchain-based Internet of Things project – Bitcoin is rife with astonishing news.
Enter Genecoin. The developers of the mysterious project have proposed storing DNA on the blockchain. Storing DNA with Bitcoin sounds especially odd to people who aren’t familiar with Bitcoin’s interesting storage capabilities, and it has generated flush press for that reason.
Preserving DNA from generation to generation is an ‘unreliable’ method according to the developers. They’re opening the idea, to gauge market interest before they move forward with the project. The developers told CoinTelegraph in an email:
‘We’re helping humans transition into the era of all-data-everything and network fitness.’
Genecoin sends over a kit to sample your DNA, they have the genome in question sequenced, and then store it on the blockchain. It’s an expensive process. But if sequencing the genome is within your budget, then storing the genome on the blockchain should be within reach, they said.
‘Make a backup with yourself using Bitcoin,’ the website reads.
George Church’s skeptical take
Harvard professor and geneticist George Church expressed his doubts: ‘’Preserves your genetic material indefinitely’ is an interesting claim,’ he said. ‘The record for storage of non-living DNA is now 700,000 years (as DNA bits, not electronic bits). So ironically, the best way to preserve your electronic bitcoins/blockchains might be to convert them into DNA.’

This post was published at Coin Telegraph on 2014-11-17.