The fountain of youth has never been found–but humans have long been hot on the trail.

Five hundred years ago, when Ponce de Leon scoured the New World for a mythical serum, the average person died at 35. In the last half-millennia, we’ve improved diet and sanitation, dentistry and infant mortality. A thousand small changes, put together, mean that people are living five decades longer.

At the same time, we’ve discovered other medicinal wonders that border on the magical. Chiefly, from the point of view of this Decentralized Autonomous Organization, psychedelics.

The West’s most common psychedelics have changed art, music, festival culture, science, and society. LSD and psilocin (which is what psilocybin breaks down to in the body) have shaped the Beatles and Shpongle, Woodstock and Burning Man, pharmaceuticals and clinical research. Dozens of trials aim to put LSD and psilocin on the doctor’s shelf as treatments for anxiety and depression.

Yet there’s still so much we don’t know. Very little research has been done on LSD and psilocin and one very important topic: what is their relationship to the fountain of youth? Meaning: could LSD and psilocin make you live longer? Or, on the other hand, could they cause you to die sooner?

Hints are peeking out from scientific studies.

Recent studies suggest that classic psychedelics may directly modulate aging biology. LSD extends worm lifespan by about 25%. (1) Psilocin extends survival in aged mice, preserves telomeres, reduces senescence markers, and enhances stress-resistance pathways. (2) Together, these findings provide convergent evidence that serotonergic psychedelics can engage conserved longevity mechanisms across species.

Race to the Finish Line: LSD vs. Psilocin

In a novel first, we are pitting these two psychedelics against each other in head-to-head trials for longevity. We’ll see which leads to longer lives in flies and mice. If results are positive and safe, we’ll move on to humans.

Directly comparing LSD and psilocin side by side offers unique scientific advantages. While both act on the serotonergic system, they differ in receptor affinity, metabolic stability, and signaling bias, making them ideal comparators. A head-to-head pipeline can reveal whether their anti-aging effects are conserved and generalizable or compound-specific, while enabling direct benchmarking across worm, flies, mice, and ultimately humans. This comparative design maximizes insight into serotonergic modulation of aging, creates a richer dataset for researchers, and fuels community engagement through a clear narrative: the first psychedelic longevity “race.”

We’ll give LSD and psilocin to flies and mice to see how the drugs affect lifespan and other measures.

The Swiss labs of Juvion have been tasked with testing the fruit flies. Juvion is a leader in testing compounds that could improve healthspan and preserve mobility for active aging. We’ll see how the the psychedelics affect the flies’ movement (speed, distance) and negative geotaxis–do they climb the wall of the testing chamber more slowly.

Next, we’ll dose mice with LSD and psilocin. We’ll be looking at survival rates, how well the mice run mazes, and whether the psychedelics affect their weight, temperature, plasma, and organs.

VivoArchitect will test the mice. VivoArchitect is a preclinical Contract Research Organization (CRO) in Switzerland specialized in aging, healthspan and lifespan research. It provides biotech and pharmaceutical companies with high-quality in vivo models to accelerate drug development.Follow the tests on X: X.com/PumpPsy

Pump up the Science

To bring awareness of these tests to the public, we’re happy to partner with Pump.Science.

Pump.science, a Solana-based protocol that funds experiments via token trading fees, provides the ideal platform for this work.

Pump.Science is a crypto-powered, game-like protocol that brings token-based participation into longevity research — aiming to extend lifespan and enhance healthspan, meaning the quality of life lived.

At Pump.Science, developers propose a potentially life-extending compound or "cocktail," which becomes the basis of a new token once it passes basic checks.

Experiments on fruit flies and mice are streamed live so everyone can monitor results as they happen.

This is stadium science, research for the people. It transforms traditional, slow, expensive research into an open, speculative, and dynamic process

Pump.Science was co-founded by Benji Leibowitz and is supported by other members of the BioProtocol ecosystem. Pump.Science has found success and attention testing a number of compounds. That includes Urolithin A, which exists in pomegranates and other foods and clears out old mitochondria. Urolithin A has been shown to extend lifespan in worms. Pump.science also tested Rifampicin, an antibiotic with emerging promise in aging research. Drugs made from Urolithin A and Rifampicin could someday be as common and important as Vitamin D or fish oil.

$LSD and $PSILO Tokens

To fund our tests, we’re minting $LSD and $PSILO tokens, available on Solana. Trading fees are generated every time the tokens are bought and sold. If the trading volume is high, PsyDAO can fund even more science, moving on from flies and mice to decentralized human trials.

The contract addresses of the tokens are:$LSD - UcqRYpsSSnqod6jTHDY6U5xtsQ3JCxSGV8yrAcqdrug

$PSILO - UfNSoWxHgcqFLaRRvQnbAnZa7KMc5aKmXvkS1F4drug

Read about our main tokens, $PSYC and $PSY

What is PsyDAO?

PsyDAO changes how psychedelic science and art happen.

How? We're using blockchain technology to enable wide participation.

Part of the Bio.xyz network that has deployed millions of dollars into decentralized science, PsyDAO has a broad mission to improve the human condition.

**Read about our research into a novel dissociative, DMXE, how we partnered with Amazonians to build a cafe and lifestyle brand, and how we launched a multi-agent AI system to study psychedelics.

Token Buy Back

PsyDAO plans to partner with companies in the psychedelic space to sell legal products adjacent to LSD and psilocin. For example, mushroom grow kits and artistic blotter paper. The online partners will geoblock anyone who is not allowed to buy these products, preventing banned sales. We plan to have affiliate links for these products. From these links, a portion of revenues the DAO collects will be dedicated to buying back $LSD and $PSILO tokens.

Scientific Rigor

The goal of the study is to publish the data to advance the state of psychedelic science.

To ensure our results are trustworthy and unbiased, we're following gold-standard scientific practices at every step. We have strict safety rules: if either compound shows signs of harming the animals or reducing their lifespan, we immediately stop that part of the study. If we advance to human trials, participants will need institutional review board approval, full informed consent, and continuous safety monitoring—the same rigorous protections used in all legitimate research.

Research for the Ages

In the end, $LSD vs. $PSILO is the first crypto-funded, open-science investigation into whether LSD and psilocin can help us live longer and healthier. This head-to-head race makes cutting-edge science as accessible as checking your phone.

What’s more, $LSD and $PSILO holders become active participants in this historic experiment. Trading fees directly fund the lab work. Excitement and interest draw attention that leads to more research.

The search for the fountain of youth looks different five hundred years later; the goal is just the same. Who could’ve guessed that LSD and psilocin would be part of the quest?

Ready to participate in the future of psychedelic research?

DAOs are powered by regular people working toward their passions. If you believe in the power of psychedelics and Web3 and want to contribute to PsyDAO, please:

• Join our Discord. Discord is the main way DAO members coordinate.

• Follow PsyDAO on X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and engage.

• Follow our AI research bot, BeeARD, on X.

• Use psychedelics responsibly, and tell us how it went.

Sources:

1. Carrilho et al. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide extends lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans. bioRxiv. 2025.06.16.659936; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.16.659936

2. Kato et al. Psilocybin treatment extends cellular lifespan and improves survival of aged mice. NPJ Aging. 2025 Jul 8;11(1):55. doi: 10.1038/s41514-025-00244-x