When we first thought up the idea of the Gene-Chain, we had a grand conception of creating an entire economy. DNA, we thought, is the one thing every living human being has, and its value when found in less-advantaged populations may even be greater than in those found in the developed world. Truly, we thought, we can use science and free market economics to provide wealth to everyone. Our token, $DNA, could be the foundation of a new economy where wealth flows from extracted information to the lab to wallets held by anyone, anywhere.

The economy we have created is in its infancy yet. Hundreds of people are already deriving value from their DNA data uploads, receiving $DNA from researchers who can freely search and buy de-identified data directly from the “owners” of that data.

So far, $DNA cannot be directly spent. We are working on that, however, and are having discussions with those who have crypto banks and their own fiat gateways. Ideally, your $DNA will be spendable through a debit card, or at least easily converted to spendable currencies. You can meanwhile, if you choose, use the $DNA to buy kits from our partners (with more choices coming soon) or buy data and do citizen science – who knows what breakthroughs could come through our democratized research platform? In the meantime, we want $DNA to be valuable as DNA is to researchers.

Starting today, we have built into the platform a reward system to encourage you to hold onto your $DNA while we devise easier mechanisms to make it spendable. Every wallet on the platform will receive rewards based on how long they keep their $DNA on the platform, rather than withdrawing it. Consider it like interest earned in your $DNA bank. The rate of interest is starting at .5% of your holdings per month, so 6% per year. Our goal is to create a vibrant foundational economy for what we think is a plausible future and one we are actively working toward: where your DNA data is easily accessible wealth you can use in day-to-day commerce via the $DNA token.

We are actively working toward partnerships that will help realize our original dream, with populations that are diverse and disadvantaged, and whose data is highly prized. Soon we will divulge more details of some of these efforts and upcoming pilots. The future of the DNA economy is bright, we feel, and the value of genetic data continues to be driving tremendous investment in the underlying science and medicine. We are on the ground floor and appreciate your joining us early on this journey. Let’s continue to untap the worth of our data and make it our own, make it work for us as individuals while benefitting science and society. If you haven’t created your profile yet, even if you haven’t got your genetic test results, you can take that first step at http://my.encrypgen.com