DNA, NFTs, and ART
How EncrypGen pioneered the bridge among all three
In March of 2021, EncrypGen was undertaking its first Security Token Offering on the CoinMetro/Ignium platform, raising funds to broaden its public outreach for its free market for de-identified genomic data: The Gene-Chain. Meanwhile, the NFT craze was begining to reach its peak, with the sale by Beeple of his record-breaking NFT art for about $69,000,000. NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are digital objects whose chain of custody and unique “possession” make them interesting potential objects for a variety of uses. Nevermind that the law has not evolved to the point of helping them fulfill their full promise, and that many people confuse “ownership” (really just possession) of NFTs with ownership of the underlying intellectual property, the idea is neat: enforced scarcity of digital objects via a blockchain using smart contracts.
NFTs are virtually useless for genomics for a number of reasons. Many have proposed using them to provide “ownership” of one’s genomic code. This is nonsense, unfortunately. As mentioned, having an NFT gives you no way to prevent copying of the intellectual property (IP) underlying it. This has been done with the Beeple NFT, digital copies of which are easy enough to get. Secondly, the NFT does not give you ownership in any legal way of the IP that comprises the NFT, so the owner can do what they want with that IP, and even preclude other uses of what you bought. Finally, there is no intellectual property right to naturally ocurring data like a genome. Producing an NFT of it does not magically create ownership for the data since there is simply no legal way to own genetic data that hasn’t been created (edited, for instance, through genetic engineering) by humans.
Given these currently insurmountable facts, EncrypGen decided to explore the world of NFTs in the way most people are: through art. We worked with the innovative digital artist Michael Connolly and asked him to develop a reproduceable algorithm to turn the raw genetic data from CEO and co-founder Dr. David Koepsell’s genotype file into something artistic. Mr. Connolly did so, brilliantly. He created a way to take the data, which varies only slightly from person to person, into identifiably unique artworks. All the data used is preserved in the production of the art, and each such piece will be unique, and the idea was to create a new way for those already using the Gene-Chain to monetize their de-identified data to express their connection with their very personal data, all while preventing the re-identification of the data.
On November 6, 2018, EncrypGen performed the first blockchain-mediated sale of de-identified genetic data, and on April 5, 2021, sold the world’s first (we believe, at least) DNA-based generative artwork which was auctioned for .5 ETH on OpenSea, marking the first of what think will become many such transactions, eventually. In fact, since then, even George Church, whose genomic data is very public, has decided to follow suit to try selling his data as an NFT as well. We hope this trend continues, as it represents a unique and actually useful employment of NFTs in genomics. Perhaps over time, if the law begins to recognize rights to our genetic data, NFTs can be used for other things in genomics. Meanwhile, we are pleased to see the use of this technology to promote genetics in general, and the aesthetic connection we have to this beautiful data.
