Author: Mae Cornes
Photo Courtesy of: Jerry Lopez
Jerry Lopez’s story begins not with venture capital or flashy tech incubators, but in the neighborhoods of Bayamón, Puerto Rico — raised by a single mother, shaped by scarcity, and determined to chart a different course. By 25, he had already become a self-made millionaire in construction. But it’s what came after that defines his trajectory. Now leading a company valued at USD 1.5 billion, Lopez is reshaping digital engagement into a mechanism for generosity, using faith, community, and technology to confront what he calls “poverty of purpose.”
PhilSocial and the Push to Redefine Online Value
PhilSocial is a blockchain-based social media platform where users can earn digital rewards, but only after giving to a cause. It’s a reversal of the standard social media model. Built under PHL Information Technology, the platform allows users to create, post, and interact, but its mechanics are tethered to a rewards system that prioritizes generosity over virality. The tokenized architecture runs on the Polygon blockchain, a deliberate choice to support scalability and decentralization.
According to internal figures, PhilSocial has grown to a community of more than 250,000 users across over 100 countries. The company has been self-funded by Jerry Lopez and his family in excess of USD 35 million over the past five years, with additional early support from churches and friends that helped launch Philcoin and drive adoption. Combined with USD 10 million in outside funding, PhilSocial recently reached a valuation of USD 1.5 billion. That growth has caught the attention of global media, including a Nasdaq billboard appearance in New York’s Times Square, and won accolades such as “Social Impact Project of the Year” at AIBC Malta.
The platform operates on a mechanism it calls “Get2Give,” which rewards users only after they contribute to others. It’s both a structural deterrent to extraction and a digital experiment in behavioral design. In this model, engagement isn’t the end goal; meaningful contribution is.
Jerry Lopez and the Discipline of Redirection
Jerry Lopez doesn’t present himself as a technologist in the traditional sense. His early success came from general contracting, not code. By his late teens, he had already broken into a field where few his age held licenses, let alone companies. But instead of staying in the trades, Lopez redirected his momentum toward systems that he believed could rewire how people interact with wealth and identity.
His leadership philosophy is rooted in a framework he calls Faithonomics, which he describes in his recently published book of the same name. Rather than build for personal gain, Lopez channels his resources into platforms that integrate giving, belief, and digital infrastructure. The technology he now oversees is less about scale for its own sake and more about embedding intention into the systems people use every day.
Internally, Lopez guides with an emphasis on dual disciplines – what he describes as “two swords”: one for business and one for the spiritual challenges that accompany influence. This duality shapes the culture within his company and the language of his public talks, which blend entrepreneurship with ministry and long-view thinking. His daily work spans software decisions and global partnerships, but also mentoring faith-driven leaders and advising nonprofits.
Lopez has positioned himself as a founder who treats distribution and ethics as design variables, not afterthoughts. While critics may question whether a faith-based digital model can scale across secular markets, Lopez appears to see that tension not as a liability, but as part of the test.
Creating Systems That Encourage People to Build, Not Just Scroll
PhilSocial’s broader mission stems from a problem Lopez describes as “poverty of purpose.” It’s a diagnosis that extends beyond income brackets and geographies. For him, the challenge isn’t just economic inequality, it’s the absence of meaningful direction in a world saturated with distractions.
Through its token system and reward structure, PhilSocial introduces friction where most apps aim for frictionless interaction. Users cannot simply consume or earn; they must contribute. Every feature is designed to prompt decisions around what matters, rather than keep attention trapped in loops of dopamine and algorithmic bait.
The company’s operations reach beyond North America, with active growth strategies in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and parts of Europe. The infrastructure is multilingual and mobile-first. While the blockchain foundation allows transparency and autonomy, the framing is distinctly values-based, shaped by Lopez’s personal convictions but deployed in ways that aim for global accessibility.
The broader constellation of Lopez’s work includes Philcoin (a crypto-based giving network), Kingdom Arc Ministries (a leadership development nonprofit), and the Faithonomics movement itself – all of which reflect variations on the same question: what if every interaction was capable of building something lasting?
Building With Intent in an Attention Economy
Jerry Lopez is not selling another app. He’s attempting to rewire how people relate to digital platforms, and to each other. PhilSocial doesn’t promise escape from modern systems – it offers a way through them, with different incentives and a different moral compass. Whether it can compete with social media giants on engagement remains to be seen. What’s clearer is the seriousness of its leadership, and the philosophical depth behind its construction.
If the valuation is any indication, others are starting to take notice. Not just to what Lopez is building, but to why he’s building it, and what that could mean for a generation asking harder questions about legacy, responsibility, and the architecture of belonging.
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Disclaimer: Any forward-looking statements or projections are based on internal data provided by the sponsoring organization and have not been independently verified. Forbes does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the claims made in this piece.
