Meet Cryonics, the Company That Preserved Bitcoin Legend Hal Finney’s Body

This service, also known as cryopreservation, has several practical applications, including the preservation of whole bodies, body parts, organs and cells, as well as the study of future resurrection.

“We’re seeing what was science fiction: preserving people at the moment of death or for deep space travel,” said Alcor President and CEO James Arrowood. Decipher“We see that it has a number of other applications, such as in medicine and all kinds of science.”

Arrow noted that Finney is one of the people believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, and said that losing his brain would be unfair to humanity.

“I think it’s cosmically unfair to lose someone like him and his brain,” he said.

Founded in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation is a nonprofit organization that researches and develops cryonics technology. Cryonics refers to the practice of preserving people at extremely low temperatures after death, with the hope that future technology will be able to revive them and cure their ailments.

The concept of cryonics is attributed to American physicist and US Army officer Robert Ettinger, also known as the “father of cryonics.” Ettinger is the author of The Prospect of Immortality, Man into Superman, and Youniverse.

“Alcor started out as a crazy idea, a breakthrough, or what we call an ambitious technology,” Arrowhead said. “Finally — with some extra [technology] that have emerged over the last 20 years and have had time to really develop into a full-fledged science.”

Photo courtesy of Alcor Life Extension.

As Arrow explained, cryonic freezing preserves cells using extremely low temperatures — about -320°F (-196°C). The main challenge with cryopreservation is preventing ice from forming inside the cells, as ice can cause damage that would make the resuscitation process more difficult.

“There’s also research going on into what’s called intermediate temperature storage, which is much warmer, which could make it easier to recover or reverse the process,” Arrowhead said. “That’s around minus 80 [degrees]. Two commonly used terms are dry ice temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature.”

Arrowhead noted that the cost of preserving a whole body can be as high as $220,000, but life insurance can cover the cost if the company — in this case, Alcor — is named as one of the policy’s beneficiaries.

Arrow also said that while Alcor does not hold cryptocurrency due to the volatility of such digital assets, the nonprofit does accept bitcoin, as it has in the case of BTC donations from Finney’s fans. But the company converts them into fiat.

“I would like to keep some of the bitcoins we’ve made over the years because they would be worth a lot of money today,” Arrowwood joked.

According to Arrowwood, when Finney passed away on August 28, 2014, the price of one bitcoin was $510. As of August 9, 2024, one bitcoin is worth $60,349.

Skeptics have called cryonics pseudoscience and fake science. In a column for Scientific America, prominent skeptic and co-founder of the Skeptics Society Michael Shermer compared cryonics to religion.

“I want to believe in cryonics—I really do,” Shermer wrote. “I gave up religion in college, but I often return to my old evangelical zeal, now focused on the wonders of science and nature. But that’s precisely why I’m skeptical. It’s too much like religion: it promises everything, delivers nothing (except hope), and is based almost entirely on faith in the future.”

Arrowwood pushed back against the notion that cryonics is pseudoscience, arguing that every science has faced skepticism before it gains acceptance.

“Cryonics is simply the long-term storage of human remains or organs, as opposed to short-term storage for transplants, where that window is six hours, 10 hours,” Arrowhead said. “Cryonics is the idea that these cells can be preserved and revived after a longer period of cold storage.”

Although some call cryonics pseudoscience, many famous people, including Finney, Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams, and futurist FM-2030 (real name Fereydoun M. Esfandiari), have chosen this option. To date, Alcor claims to have 234 patients.

Arrow acknowledged that not everyone who approaches Alcor dreams of being revived in the future. Many simply want to be part of a groundbreaking scientific journey.

“I think people come with the intention of being a part of it or getting a seat on a cruise ship,” Arrowhead said. “They know it may never reach its destination, but they want to be a part of the journey, and I think that’s really important for people to understand.”