By Professor Yu Xiong, President & Chief Scientist, Endless Protocol

When I co-founded Endless Protocol, our mission wasn’t simply to build another blockchain — it was to build bridges. Bridges between Web2 and Web3, between platforms and people, between today’s messy digital attention economy and tomorrow’s programmable loyalty economy. We knew that the biggest breakthrough wouldn’t come from a better layer-one chain — it would come from helping real people derive value from their digital behavior in a persistent, ownable way.

That’s why I believe the most important product in the Endless ecosystem may not be infrastructure at all — it’s Luffa, a messaging app.

But to call Luffa a “messaging app” is like calling Ethereum a “database.” It obscures the radical shift underneath. Luffa is the programmable, identity-aware layer that finally makes Web3 usable for creators, fans, and the emerging class of cultural institutions that need more than vanity metrics and rented audiences. It brings together loyalty, memory, and messaging — three pillars that, when connected, can transform how value flows in digital economies.

Let me explain why this is more than a UX story, why it’s an economic shift that may define the next decade of internet innovation.

The Failure of Platforms, and the Rise of Wallets

For more than a decade, creators, fans, and brands have lived under the thumb of closed platforms. Facebook, TikTok, YouTube — each promised reach, connection, and monetization. What they delivered instead were opaque algorithms, extractive economics, and unstable relationships. You can have a million followers and still not own your audience.

This isn’t a coincidence — it’s a feature of the model. In Web2, platforms own the data, intermediate the trust, and monetize the memory. In Web3, we have an opportunity to flip that script. But only if we build systems that let people own their identity, carry it with them, and benefit from their behavior. This is exactly where Luffa comes in.

From Identity to Incentives: The Luffa Model

Luffa merges wallet-native identity, programmable loyalty, and messaging into one composable interface. Fans join SuperGroups, complete quests, tip creators, mint tokens — and every action is remembered, rewarded, and owned.

The significance here goes deeper than engagement mechanics. Luffa builds a persistent, interoperable social-financial graph, a living record of fandom, participation, and community value. It’s the Web3 answer to the broken feedback loops of Web2.

In academic terms, it maps closely to what scholars call “constructive loyalty architectures, ” systems that reward sustained engagement, not just attention. Research has shown that such systems drive higher retention, better monetization, and healthier community dynamics.

In practical terms? It means creators finally own their audience data. Fans finally get credit for being early, active, or loyal. And brands get to build campaigns around verified attention, not rented impressions.

Why Messaging Is the Ultimate Trojan Horse

There’s a reason we started with messaging. Everyone already knows how to use it. It’s immediate. It’s emotional. It’s where culture happens. But in Luffa, messaging isn’t just communication — it’s infrastructure. It’s how fans interact with creators, how campaigns are run, how rewards are earned. In a single interface, Luffa unites four critical primitives:

  • Wallet – the key to ownership
  • Identity – persistent reputation and history
  • Community – SuperGroups and creator hubs
  • Loyalty – actions, quests, tokens, and perks

No other platform does this. And because it runs on Endless Protocol, Luffa is composable and interoperable with broader ecosystems, from DeFi to consumer apps to enterprise tools.

For Creators: Beyond Monetization, Toward Ownership

Today’s creator tools are fragmented and brittle. Email lists. Patreon tiers. Discord chaos. Social algorithms. None of it integrates, and none of it puts creators in control.

Luffa gives creators a single, programmable layer to build campaigns, activate superfans, run quests, drop content, and receive tips or recurring payments — directly, transparently, and portably.

Importantly, this doesn’t just enhance monetization. It enables network effects based on memory. A fan who supported your first tour? They’re now at the top of the list for future perks. Someone who tipped during a livestream? They get early access to the next drop. And because Luffa tracks all this on-chain, it’s composable with any other app built on Endless. This is CRM for culture, and it’s a game-changer.

For Fans: Identity That Actually Belongs to You

In Web2, being a fan meant you clicked “like” and hoped the platform let you see the next post.

In Luffa, being a fan means building a decentralized identity that reflects your actions, where you showed up, who you supported, and what you unlocked. Every touchpoint is logged in your wallet and owned by you. And that identity becomes your passport across an expanding ecosystem of music, games, education, and community.

This aligns with growing interest in self-sovereign identity models in both academic and policy circles. As digital rights and data ownership become pressing issues globally, models like Luffa offer a concrete path forward, one where your attention is treated like capital.

The Academic Model Behind Endless

As an academic and entrepreneur, I believe in building systems rooted in research. Endless Protocol emerged not just from a business thesis but from decades of inquiry into platform economics, data trust, and digital systems design.

The unique partnership between Endless and the University of Surrey reflects a new model for translational research, where insights from the lab become tools for real users. Universities often struggle to turn research into products. Endless is proof that the gap between academia and unicorn-scale impact can be bridged.

Messaging Is the Interface, Loyalty Is the Engine

Web3 doesn’t need more speculative assets. It needs systems that earn people’s time, reflect their intent, and reward their history. That’s what Luffa offers.

By turning every fan action into part of a living, ownable graph, Luffa helps users build capital out of culture. It’s the inverse of Web2’s surveillance capitalism: a participatory economy where memory creates value.

This isn’t theory. It’s already live. And it’s working.

What’s Next

Over the coming year, we’ll be rolling out Luffa to creators, brands, labels, and fan communities across music, esports, education, and beyond. Each partner will bring new integrations, new campaigns, and new use cases for this loyalty-powered messaging layer.

We’re building not just a product but a protocol for persistent, meaningful connection. And as more apps plug into this loyalty graph, we believe it can form the foundation of a new cultural economy, one where fans are stakeholders, creators are in control, and every interaction builds lasting value.

The future of Web3 won’t be built on block rewards or memecoins. It will be built on attention, memory, and loyalty. Luffa is where all three converge. And that’s where the next trillion-dollar market begins.