Altar

Altar Foundation:

(i) "a decentralized alternative to insurance",

(ii) a psychedelic research fund and

(iii) events and tools to (a) build community, (b) discover+create consensus, and (c) to coordinate action among community members to achieve specific outcomes, like the development of professional standards, changes in law and policy, public education and community-driven research that moves the space forward.

—Dec 2022—

After a period of dormancy, this project is now entering its third evolutionary phase.

Beyond the name change, we are re-working the proposed structure of the organization and of the token. And due to the bankruptcy of Regis Mutual, our initial mutual management partner, we are also in the process of looking for a new partner to design and manage the mutual.

In the spirit of sharing everything, even the rough, unrefined and now abandoned versions of the project I’ve included the original versions of Psymurf below.

This following write-up captures the original version of PsyMuRF. I’m including it here in the interest of transparency, so that everyone can track the evolution of the project through time.

PsyMuRF is (i) "a decentralized alternative to insurance", (ii) a psychedelic research fund and (iii) a mechanism to build community and amplify the energy of that community into meaningful change in the world.

PsyMuRF facilitates three things:

(i) General liability and malpractice coverage for therapists, guides and related organizations+facilities working with psychedelics. Coverage is offered through a member-based risk sharing capital pool known as a "discretionary mutual" and,

(ii) A research fund focused on expanding knowledge and understanding of psychedelics, psychedelic-assisted therapy and psychedelic-spiritual experiences and,

(iii) A new way to (a) build community, (b) discover+create consensus, and (c) to coordinate action among community members to achieve specific outcomes, like community-driven research that moves the space forward.

Crypto-tokens are an emerging path for doing all of this, where the token can serve as a lens to capture and amplify the passion and commitment of a community.

PsyMuRF supports safe access to therapeutic and spiritual psychedelic experiences by offering comprehensive general liability and malpractice coverage to therapists, guides and related organizations+facilities working with psychedelics. This coverage is offered through a member-controlled risk sharing pool in the form of a discretionary mutual.

PsyMuRF uses blockchain technology to create a decentralized capital/risk pool that offers financial protections to qualified practitioners and organizations.

Our hope is that these financial protections will allow practitioners and related organizations to expand their well-designed treatment offerings even in today's uncertain legal environment, bridging the gap between the full legalization of psychedelic-assisted therapy and the legal grey area (and attendant confusion and risks) that practitioners face today.

The PsyMuRF Research Fund is a community-controlled organization dedicated to promoting basic research and educational work that supports the positive role of psychedelics in the world.

Community Controlled Research

The PsyMuRF Research Fund consists of two components:

PsyMuRF Reseach Fund DAO is a community-controlled decentralized organization that manages a capital pool dedicated to funding research and education related to psychedelics.

All SMRF token holders are members of the community and may:

(i) participate in community discussions,

(ii) submit funding proposals,

(iii) vote on funding proposals and,

(iv) discuss, propose and vote on capital-pool management and investment strategies

The PsyMuRF Research Foundation ("PsyRF") is a real-world non-profit organization dedicated to funding research and education related to psychedelics.

PsyRF exists to carry out the mission of PsyRF-DAO - a formal legal entity to interface with the real world and make the PsyRF-DAO vision a reality.

PsyRF is funded by PsyRF-DAO and by other donor/contributors.

Proposed Areas of Research

As a community-controlled research organization the PsyMuRF Research Fund will be 100% community-controlled - any use of PsyRF-DAO research funds will be discussed and voted on by the community.

The areas of research discussed below represent potential areas to explore but none of these avenues of work have been formally approved by the PsyMuRF community and the community will have final say on how funds are used.

At this early stage we envision beginning with a structured program of study and exploration to inform the development of a long term funding strategy.

PsyMuRF funds research on psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapy to:

(i) support research and development related to safe practice standards,

(ii) to further basic cultural, religious and scientific research that expands our knowledge and understanding of psychedelics and other non-ordinary states,

(iii) to encourage equitable access to treatment,

(iv) to promote public education and awareness,

(v) promote research related to efficient and effective training pathways for therapists, guides and facilitators to understand how to best support the growth of this critical group within the community and,

(vi) all PsyMuRF-covered practitioners participate in the Psychedelic Data Collection Project (PsyDaCo /ˈzīdəˌkō/). PsyDaCo provides a basic template to practitioners for collecting anonymized information on the patient and the therapeutic process, in the weeks leading up to the experience and in the years after the experience. The goal is for this longitudinal data to provide insight into the effectiveness of various therapeutic methods, dosage, patient risk-factors and more.

Crypto-based assets open the door to novel offerings like the PsyMuRF Mutual. In the absence of a crypto-token, the psychedelic community might need to wait years, perhaps decades, for the insurance and regulatory landscape to evolve to a place where insurance companies would offer affordable and mainstream access to general liability and malpractice cover for professionals working with psychedelics.

The PsyMuRF token (SMRF) is an essential element of the PsyMuRF ecosystem. SMRF facilitates coordination between mutual-members and other SMRF owners. (add more here)

SMRF also has the potential to act as a bellwether for popular interest in psychedelics. Crypto tokens, perhaps uniquely so, can come to represent the energy of an entire community. In the case of SMRF, holding the SMRF token can be a public signal of support for psychedelics and, simultaneously, a way to fund research that will increase our understanding of psychedelics and how to use them safely, wisely.

Two Classes of Tokens: Class-Y || Class-X

There are two classes of SMRF tokens, (1) Class-Y tokens (SMRFy) are member-owned tokens and (2) Class-X tokens (SMRFx) are non-member owned tokens:

SMRF Token Launch: Bicycle Day - 02022.19.04

--in progress. (all of this is in progress, but this section more so than most of the others ;)

connect an existing, disparate community and to expand that community, and to facilitate seamless coordinated action to allow the community to act together, as one body, on matters where rough consensus has been achieved.

Copied from above, but I like this section and I believe that it’s worth either just re-stating directly and re-wording it: “SMRF also has the potential to act as a bellwether for popular interest in psychedelics. Crypto tokens, perhaps uniquely so, can come to represent the energy of an entire community. In the case of SMRF, holding the SMRF token can be a public signal of support for psychedelics and, simultaneously, a way to fund research that will increase our understanding of psychedelics and how to use them safely, wisely."

Cognitive Liberty

We are building PsyMuRF because of our fundamental belief and faith in cognitive liberty - the idea that every person has a right to freedom of mind; a right to access both ordinary and non-ordinary states of consciousness through meditation, movement, diet, breath, prayer, psychedelics or whatever means they choose.

Our founding principle is our belief that people have a right to access the full range of conscious experience that Nature has made available to them. And to share those experiences of exploration with consenting partners.

Still, despite strong scientific evidence and thousands of years of sacred practice across a wide variety of religious traditions, psychedelics live in a zone of legal and social risk that threatens users and those who support them with the most powerful coercive punishments available to governments.

At present, the potential therapeutic and spiritual benefits of this work are, aside from a few tiny clinical trials, accessible only to the very few people who can afford to take these risks. Or to people who are so desperate for help that they are willing to accept almost any risk for the healing they need and deserve.

This healing and sacred work remains out of reach to almost everyone else. Out of reach to the millions suffering from PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, addiction and other mental health conditions.

And practitioners+facilitators live at risk bcs of the current legal uncertainty around the work of supporting their clients in their intentional therapeutic and spiritual explorations.

...

Mental Health + Human Welfare

Mental health crisis... suicides... opiates... addiction... suffering on a vast scale

Millions of members of society who are unable to find the healing and meaning they desperately need, unable to escape their suffering, unable to be their best selves, unable to share their full gifts with the world.

PsyMuRF believes that psychedelics have a chance to play an important role in improving mental health for millions...

PsyMuRF Psychedelic Assisted Therapy-related cover raises two significant legal issues:

Our answer to the first question informs our answer to the second because, as offered by Sidney Simon in Insurance Coverage for Illegal Acts, "Agreements involving an illegal subject matter have, of course, always been unenforceable".*

This issue has relevance for PsyMuRF because if Psychedelic Assisted Therapy ("PAT") is illegal, then PsyMuRF may not be able to legally offer coverage for PAT.

A detailed exploration of the legal boundaries of PAT is necessary as we define the types of cover and limits of cover offered.

Legality of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

It is widely recognized that some versions of PAT are fully legal within the United States, notably all FDA-approved clinical trials.

There is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the legality of PAT that occurs outside of these tightly regulated clinical trials. PAT practice raises many questions and, to our knowledge, most of these questions have not been well addressed in statutory law, case law, academic legal analysis or in legislative commentaries/history.

Questions

Many of these questions exist in a legal grey area. To our knowledge these issues are not well addressed in the legal code, legislative history or in case law. Additionally, to our knowledge there has been only one prosecution related to PAT, globally.

Neither have these issues have been well explored through scholarly legal writing. As things stand today, much of the legal terrain around PAT is entirely dark.

Over the next months and years, PsyMuRF Research intends to shine a light on this dark space to better understand the legal landscape. For now, we have undertaken an initial legal analysis and believe that PAT can be legal when the relationships between the therapist/facilitator, the patient and the controlled substance are properly aligned.

Designing A Legally-Compliant Protocol for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy in a Secular Setting

We believe PAT is legal when structured as follows:

Path I

Path II

Path II modifies the 4th condition, requiring the patient to consumer any controlled substance independent and without the knowledge of the TFD. This element adds a layer of impracticality, but it moves us to firmer legal ground by further distancing TFD from any controlled substance.

It may be possible to have two separate legal parcels that are geographically adjacent, thereby providing the strongest legal defense while maintaining a protocol that is workable in practice.

Minimum Standards + Best Practices

Add bit on Minimum Standards + Best Practices

PsyMuRF will work with experienced community members to establish a set of minimum standards and best practices that will be included in the Terms+Conditions for any cover.

Our intention is to design guidelines that improve safety and positive outcomes for all parties. In crafting these guidelines will look to weave recent scientific evidence together with the wisdom from long-standing religious/spiritual traditions to encourage safe and positive growth-oriented psychedelic experiences.

This will very likely include:

These standards and best practices may not be a legal requirement, but still useful to mention here bcs following a well-established industry standard may improve the likelihood of achieving a favorable outcome for fact patterns that are in a legal grey area

Footnote

* As a matter of public policy, this seems reasonable, if coverage for illegal acts were available then actors with criminal-intent could buy coverage to mitigate the risk of being caught and punished. A would-be-murderer who can go and buy $10M of "If I get caught" coverage may be emboldened to carry out their plan now that the availability of 'murder insurance' has shifted the risk calculus in their favor.

Coverage for illegal acts could destabilize our system of justice and punishment, leading to a rise in anti-social behaviors.

It is worth noting that historically there are been real debate over this, "Originally, life insurance was banned in several countries as gambling on lives and encouraging murders, fire insurance was viewed with suspicion as a temptation to commit arson, and even marine insurance received its share of public condemnation as an encouragement to crime. At one time, it was also contended that liability insurance was illegal because it tended to make the insured careless of the safety of others." ibid.

I. June-Dec 2021: Early stage development. Exploring the idea space to better understand each element, potential design approaches and basic feasibility.

II. Jan 2022: Sharing the idea with a select group to get feedback. Refining the ideas, the system architecture, the economic model, the visual presentation and accessibility. Connecting with and identifying potential partners for development of core elements, including the creation of the legal mutual; the technical design, implementation and security review of the mutual, the DAOs and the token; and finally an exploration of token economics, fundraising, community + early team rewards and public sale.

Expand team and create operational plan in preparation for opening the project to the broader community and in anticipation of early investment.

III. Feb 2022: Strategic raise (aiming for $1M-$3M for 11% stake)

IV. Feb-Mar 2022: Three prongs:

V. Apr 2022: Public Sale - Bicycle Day!

VI. 2022 Q2-Q3: Work towards launch of mutual and first offer of cover

PsyMuRF consists of five interrelated components:

I. PsyMuRF Mutual Capital Pool (PMCP)

II. PsyMuRF Mutual DAO (SMRF-DAO)

III. Claims Process + Claims Review Board (CRB)

IV. PsyMuRF Foundation + PsyMuRF Research Fund DAO

V. PsyMuRF Token (SMRF) + SMRF DAO

I. PsyMuRF Mutual Capital Pool

II. PsyMuRF Mutual DAO (PsyMuRF-DAO)

(ii) Why DAO?

III. Claims Review Board + Claims Review Process

IV. PsyMuRF Foundation + PsyMuRF Research Fund DAO

V. PsyMuRF (SMRF) Token

See above / TBD

Next Steps

Review of Existing Insurance Providers in the Health/Therapy Space

Review of Existing Crypto Insurance Projects

Token Economics

Claims Process

Investment Strategy

Beyond Psychedelics

Random Notes

People

It would be very cool to have a map of people and organizations involved in this space. And some notes/keywords on their roles + expertise + interest

Backstory

About a year ago I was looking to for a psychedelic guide/therapist to work with. The process of finding someone was very challenging.

I thought about why so few people were willing to do this work. And to do it openly.

There are many reasons: Legality, training (or lack of) and, among other things, lack of insurance.

At that point I began imagining a community-controlled insurance fund for therapists and guides working with psychedelics.. Perhaps if we could reduce the financial/professional risks that are currently part of working with psychedelics, maybe we could open the door a bit wider and more well-trained practitioners would be willing to work with psychedelics.

That felt like a path worth exploring. As part of that I began investigating how a risk-mitigation offering might be structured and I thought of Nexus Mutual. Nexus is a crypto-based decentralized alternative to insurance currently offering coverage for smart contract risk.

So I began researching mutuals as a way to offer coverage. As part of that research I spoke with a team at Regis Mutual, the same folks that set up the mutual for Nexus Mutual, and they (1) were interested in the project, (2) thought it was viable, and (3) were ready to begin working on a formal feasibility study.

I was starting to feel like this could work.

And while I was researching the mutual, I began imagining a research fund powered by the token, where the token could become a signaling mechanism within the psychedelic community. And that the token, if it became sufficiently well-adopted + loved by the psychedelic community, could (by way of capturing the energy of the community’s belief) infuse the token with enough value that the token could then be used to power community-driven research.

but then I started wondering: Is there really a market for this kind of mutual insurance-like product? How much interest is there right now given the where the psychedelic therapy world is right now? Would I just be building an offering that no one actually wants?

And more broadly I wondered: What is the first thing a psychedelic community DAO should do? and how much interest is there in a psychedelic community DAO at all, especially given some of the divisions within the psychedelic world at the moment - is a “community” DAO practical? and would it help move the space forward in a meaningful way? PsyMuRF is designed to be a community-driven + controlled project, but how do we get the community involved enough to help decide the first steps??

I got bogged down in these questions and my interests shifted to other things.

But I keep cycling back to this idea and feeling like there’s something of value here, maybe the way forward is to have conversations with a few people and to learn from them and get their perspective and go from there..

Goal: Meaningful Contributions to the Psychedelic Community

Potential Areas of Focus / Contributions

Risk Mitigation

via Mutual and/or Insurance Offerings (sketched out in more detail at psymurf.org)

Research Fund

The DAO research fund would be a community-controlled organization dedicated to promoting basic research and educational work that supports the positive role of psychedelics in the world. (see more at psymurf.org)

Investment Fund

TBD

One on hand it would be cool to be able to invest in psychedelic startups, to fund research that may have a for-profit element to it, to offer loans to early stage psychedelic-related businesses or to therapists interested in psychedelic-therapy training, etc...

There are some important legal aspects that need to be resolved. I haven’t done the heavy lifting yet to sort out how an investment vehicle would need to be structured so that it could be nested within the PsyMuRF world, while avoiding the more onerous regulatory quagmires that could create issues for the entire DAO.

Legal Research / Public Policy work

There is so much important work to be done here. Obv on a policy level, but also just a better understanding of the current legal landscape. As I was researching the law (in the United States) around psychedelic-assisted therapy I was surprised at how much grey area there was and at the lack of high-quality legal research on the subject.

I worked with a friend who has decades of drug law experience and we agreed that there may be a viable path, right now, for licensed therapists to legally work with patients who have consumed psychedelics during their psychedelic experience.

This is contrary to current+widespread belief.

There’s much more work to be done on this subject to better understand and support the path (I’ve outlined the basics below, and at psymurf.org). And this is just one of many avenues for legal research..

Mapping the Space

Research + collect data on active members in the “psychedelic community” - bothindividuals and organizations. This would include persons conducting academic/medical research related to psychedelics, therapists/guides focused on psychedelic-assisted therapy, writers/journalists, artists, chemists-researchers, investors/VCs

Why Psychedelics?

Answering the question about why psychedelics might be an important catalyst for humans at this particular time

State of Mental Health

State of Academic / Medical Research

A collection of academic+medical research related to psychedelics.

Social Presence + Campaign

TBD

Token

TBD

Lots to discuss. Prob best to see the write up in psymurf.org for a quick intro to core ideas

Art Series

TBD

Art!

tap in to the creativity around psychedelics as a way for people to emotionally engage with the broader mission

Collections of Writing

TBD

a modern/current-generation take on psychedelics and their place in our world/culture

a mix of writing that really speaks to the current moment. and serves as another way to engage our community. and as an interesting+entertaining entryway for newcomers

—

Tagline brainstorming

a community powered revolution in ??

The Velveteen Rabbit

We live in a time when an idea can shape reality, can conjure things into existence

When enough people believe something, the belief exerts an alchemical force and can give life.

And this idea can be shared with just a click.

And we are constantly clicking.

If we choose to click together

with intention

we can change the world

(insert link to that bit from Inception where he talks about the power of an idea)

https://twitter.com/punk4156/status/1498330039993221124