Lukso, a layer-1 blockchain for creative types co-founded by blockchain veterans Fabian Vogelsteller and Marjorie Hernandez, is releasing a beta version of its Universal Profile. This is a feature designed to provide users with a comprehensive "on-chain identity", including a recoverable crypto wallet and profile for interacting with social media applications.

Universal Profiles can be used for all kinds of applications on the blockchain (NFTs, decentralized social media, payments), consolidating a user's activities into one account that goes beyond just a wallet address.

Currently, the most common type of blockchain account known as an Externally Owned Account (EOA) has limited recovery options. If a user loses their private key, their crypto assets are lost forever. EOA accounts also cannot have any information attached to them that can be read by other smart contracts. EOA also prevents transaction fees from being paid by other parties. This means that the user is responsible for providing the gas price.

Lukso's universal profile comes with a recovery option using a smart contract account if you lose your keys, which can be restored via instructions or a key manager.
Additionally, universal profiles can read any information such as photos and videos, which can be attached to the profile and read by other decentralized applications or “dapps” on the blockchain.

The team says the aim of the project is to give brands the opportunity to bring their identity to the blockchain as a way to make Web3 more accessible to the masses.

“We’re trying to onboard 99% of users who haven’t used blockchain yet,” Lukso co-founder and Ethereum veteran Fabian Forgesteller said in an interview. “Because everyone who is currently using blockchain is a niche group of people who have learned to overcome the difficult steps.”

With a universal profile, users no longer have to pay gas fees (transaction fees) on the blockchain. The New Creative Economies Foundation, the organization behind Lukso, allocates a certain amount of his LYX as a user's gas usage and allows users to choose which relay to use to pay their gas bill. Setting up a marketplace. (It's like choosing a mobile plan.)

“We want to have a lot of transaction relay services that have their own business models and compete for users, because then we can get out of the problem.” Vogelsteller told CoinDesk.

Lukso's mainnet went live in May. Since then, around 57,000 validators have operated the network.

Vogelsteller boldly claims that eventually "Lukso will be bigger than Ethereum," but for now he sees it as just an improved version with more user-friendly features.
“It’s Ethereum, but it’s just a fantasy, it’s essentially Ethereum,” he said. “But what Ethereum lacks is easy adoption, ease of use, and a standard kind of capacity.”