Ephemera

What began as a shared vision between long-time friends Matt Galligan and Shane Mac has evolved into Ephemera, a company at the forefront of redefining digital communication for the web3 era. Formerly known as XMTP Labs, the journey of Ephemera is rooted in the founders' extensive experience in the tech world, having navigated the complexities of messaging, social platforms, and crypto for over a decade. Their paths, marked by both successes and valuable failures, converged on a critical realization: the internet was missing a fundamental layer for secure, private, and user-owned communication. This wasn't just a technical gap; it was a barrier to realizing the full potential of a decentralized web where users are in control of their digital identities and interactions. The genesis of Ephemera was fueled by the clear and pressing needs of the crypto community. Influential figures in the space highlighted the absurdity of managing billions in assets without a reliable way to communicate with stakeholders. The rise of NFTs further underscored this problem, as the desire to connect, negotiate, and build communities around digital ownership was hampered by the spam and insecurity of existing platforms.

Ephemera's mission crystallized around these challenges: to build XMTP (Extensible Message Transport Protocol), a permissionless, crypto-native communication protocol. This wasn't about creating another walled-garden messaging app, but rather a foundational, open-source network that empowers developers to build a new generation of applications with secure, interoperable messaging at their core. The rebranding from XMTP Labs to Ephemera signifies a crucial distinction: Ephemera is the company dedicated to nurturing the XMTP protocol, with the ultimate goal of the protocol becoming a self-sustaining, decentralized public good. The name itself reflects the philosophy that the company's role is temporary, designed to shepherd the protocol to a point of true community ownership. Today, Ephemera operates as a fully remote, globally distributed team of passionate engineers, designers, and leaders. They are not just building a product; they are championing a movement towards a more private, secure, and user-centric internet, one message at a time. Their commitment is to the long-term vision of a world where communication is not controlled by central authorities but is a fundamental, inalienable right in the digital realm.