Social media platforms time-suck 500 million collective years from humanity every year: an extinction-level waste of human potential. This is time that could be spent on creativity, wellbeing and genuine connection, but has instead been monetised to the tune of nearly $2 trillion since the advent of the smartphone, and is currently costing global industry over $1 trillion annually in lost productivity due to digital distraction.

Reflecting this unhealthy state of affairs, the wellness economy is projected to grow to $9 trillion by 2028. Yet it lacks the foundational infrastructure or unification to operate at a scale that stands a chance of countering such algorithmically controlled extraction. The wellness space has no AI-native human-first operating systems. No decentralised financial rails. No adequately guardrailed protocol layers enabling safe and fair value capture, never mind personal and community agency, or data sovereignty and interoperability.

Rather than just shrugging our shoulders at such a seemingly overwhelming challenge, Maloka Labs has rolled up its sleeves and is working on the solution. We're not waiting for regulation or naively hoping that platforms reform themselves. Because the only viable counter to extractive infrastructure is alternative infrastructure. Or what we call our 'third-eye' way.

Founded in the UK, but bringing together a bootstrapped tribe of passionate innovators from around the world — including storytellers, educators and wellness professionals; AI researchers and blockchain developers; crypto journalists and white-hat hackers; financial and mobile wizards — Maloka has conceived and blueprinted its alternative infrastructure specifically to help the wellness economy bypass extractive Web2 platforms and efficiency-obsessed AI systems, both of which have clearly failed to adequately protect their most vulnerable users.

Emerging from a period of deep R&D, our team greets 2026 locked and loaded, now ready to pioneer an entirely different kind of human-first experience on infrastructure that has been architected to place what we call our 'operating soul' at the heart of every phygital wellness activity, service and product hosted on our platform.

Rather than offering reactive apps competing for attention, our intelligent systems will proactively guide users along their wellness journey, orchestrating everything from wellbeing-oriented communities to personalised interventions across online spaces where every member of the family — or enterprise employee — can be inspired to escape the exploitative grips of social media and be rewarded for shaping their better selves, no longer a slave to the algorithm.

Unlike traditional wellness solutions, Maloka is building the foundational layer that will make the next generation of wellbeing experiences possible: intelligent, interoperable, and structured in a way that gives their own communities a say about their organisation.

This approach will deliver the first AI-native platform exclusively dedicated to serving both individual and collective human flourishing — rather than encouraging and exploiting digital addiction — all while operating on our own purpose-built infrastructure with total data sovereignty.

In short, think of it like placing a personal guardian angel in your pocket.

For further information about Maloka's mission and vision for a healthier digital future, sign up to our whitelist and receive our whitepaper directly to your inbox in Q1 2026.