Encrypgen — ICO review

Encrypgen has created a blockchain solution, called the Gene Chain, to address the need to ensure confidentiality, accountability, and data integrity around the use of genomic information in scientific, medical, and healthcare related research. The Gene Chain provides the framework for storing genomic information more securely, in a way that tracks its uses, so that donors of this information can both control and be rewarded for its uses in both personal and large-scale studies.
Collecting genomic data is important both for scientific research and for personal medicine and healthcare, and has commercial applications besides. The development of technologies that allow us to cheaply and rapidly gather genetic data, and the promise of emerging techniques that allow us to utilize that data, also raise concerns about the privacy and security of genomic databases. The frameworks which currently exist to accumulate and proliferate genomic data for collective and personal use are insufficiently secure or open. The challenge is to create a secure database for use in both personal genomics and large-scale science, impenetrable to malicious hacking or other unauthorized uses, and controllable and trackable for individual donors. Encrypgen has identified blockchain technology as the best technical means to achieve these aims.
Encrypgen’s Gene-Chain is designed to work with existing systems and also as a standalone solution. The Encrypgen team is currently in the process of developing a suite of products (currently in beta) for the life sciences industry. These include: Gene-Chain Link, for organizations with existing storage and analytics solutions who wish to expose their resources to the Gene-Chain; Gene-Chain Lab, for labs who wish to enhance their storage and computation solutions using the chain’s deep learning compression algorithms, or who wish to selectively expose their data; and Gene-Chain Commerce, for organizations with very large computational capacity and storage needs, and for which a customized deep learning system will be implemented.
Encrypgen’s lead team is comprised of David Koepsell, J.D./Ph.D., CEO & Founder (background in law and ethics, author of numerous books and articles on genes, ownership, and ethics), Vanessa Gonzalez Covarrubias, Ph.D., Co-Founder/ Genomic Science Advisor (a decade of experience in genetic science including research and publications in numerous journals; currently researches pharmacogenomics), Maurizio Viviani, Ph.D., Lead Developer (expertise in programming, parallel processing, and supercomputing; founder of numerous FabLabs and technology companies), and Gianfranco (Gianni) Tavella, Software Engineer (expertise in business intelligence and knowledge management, expert in Big Data management and Deep Learning). The company has partnered with Curlew Research, Sapience, The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, NVIDIA Inception Program, and Multichain.
In order to accelerate the platform’s development, the company has launched an ICO campaign through which it plans to raise a total of 1000 BTCs worth of funds. As of 7pm July 6, 1 BTC or equivalent buys 60,000 Gene-Chain Coins (DNA), and the price increases by 5% weekly until the ICO’s end on July 18. Encrypgen is offering 80M of its 100M tokens to the public, while retaining 10M for its development team, 5M for marketing purposes, and 5M for bonuses. As of July 11, the campaign has raised: 146 BTC, 3132 ETH, 22 DASH, 77 LTC, 112 ETC, or about 550 of the 1000 BTC, with 35M tokens left. Investors receive a signed SAFT agreement, and Gene-Chain coins will be made available after the token sale ends.
*Disclosure — At the time of writing, coins.best staff owned no Encrypgen tokens.
