You know, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency by themselves are a wild concept. Along with NFTs, and all of these new developments are quite hard to keep up with. If you want to discuss the technology around all of that, I’m not your person. But, if you want to talk about how one “visionary” is trying to put bitcoin into mouse DNA, that’s me baby!
BitMouseDAO is trying to do exactly this, with two backers, and almost no money. Artist Eduardo Kac’s genetically engineered phosphorescent rabbit has been cited as their inspiration for the project. But BitMouseDAO says this would be really special to make a lifeform into literal money.
“We have tied the value of the mouse directly to Bitcoin, and it will fluctuate with the daily value of Bitcoin,” they said. “Maybe in ten years it will be worth $100 million, or maybe it will be worth nothing.”
To be purely scientific, in ten years ,the mouse will likely be dead. Given the lifespan of a mouse is from 5-7 years depending on the breed and how well they are taken care of ties into that directly, the mouse could pass away. What is the worth then I wonder?
BitMouseDao states that this is not ‘exactly’ a scientific venture, but a more artistic one. There have been studies of putting code into DNA, successfully integrated in a few cases, but this is also a moral issue for many people as well. Is it ok to mess with genetics when it’s not serving a scientific purpose but one for future financial gain?
How will they get the code into the mouse?
The plan is that they will try to inject the code into the embryo of the surrogate mouse. If that doesn’t work they will create a type of virus that will be injected into a mouse. The idea is that the offspring of the mouse will also carry the code, if they’re lucky and the offspring doesn’t reject it in gestation.
They are also planning on selling NFTs of said mouse. So it’s just a whole ordeal that a lot of people never thought possible. And probably never wanted to happen in the first place.