The back of a person walking through a residential street at dawn toward a distant cityscape — a symbol of ESPL's premise: designing reasons to walk

Mechanism

How ESPL works

A behavior-change app that designs reasons to walk

ESPL is not just a step-tracker. It manufactures reasons to walk by designating the walker, the sponsor, and the recipient of the sponsorship.

Before starting a challenge, the step goal, the period, the sponsorship, and the recipient are all set in advance. Whether the goal is met or missed, the sponsorship reaches a pre-decided recipient. So a mere goal becomes a promise worth keeping.

  1. Sponsor sets the challenge and the sponsorship

    The step goal, period, sponsorship, and recipients for both success and failure are all decided in advance.

  2. Challenger takes on the step goal

    Daily walking is recorded automatically by the smartphone's step counter.

  3. Based on the outcome, the sponsorship reaches the pre-decided recipient

    • To the recipient set for success
    • To the recipient set for failure

The key is: before walking, decide who receives the sponsorship on success, and who receives it on failure.

  • The three-actor structure and how money moves
  • Success / failure flows with concrete examples
  • The three feelings that build staying power
  • The roles of the patent, IDOM, and JPYC
App Store Google Play Use JPYC See the user guide

01 / Comparison

Fundamentally different from step-counting apps

Most health apps focus on recording the fact that you walked. Records are useful, but reasons to keep walking don't emerge from records alone.

ESPL intervenes before you start walking — at the stage of deciding who it's for, how much to stake, and how to distribute. Turning reasons to walk into design is what builds staying power.

Primary purpose and reason-to-keep-going for step counters, health-points apps, and ESPL
Type Primary purpose Reason to keep going
Step counter Record the steps you've taken Your own willpower
Health-points app Walk to earn points Small rewards
ESPL Design a walking promise and sponsorship Loss aversion, commitment, altruism
See the detailed comparison (6 axes × 5 types)

Legend

  • Strong / automatic / systemic
  • Medium / present
  • Weak / limited
  • None / not applicable

  • Step counter

    Step recording
    Automatic
    Continuation mechanics
    Records only
    Relations with others
    None
    Money flow
    None
    Clarity of success/failure
    Optional goal-setting
    Strength of behavior change
    Depends on willpower

  • Habit tracker

    Step recording
    Mostly manual entry
    Continuation mechanics
    Notifications, task tracking
    Relations with others
    Loose or none
    Money flow
    None
    Clarity of success/failure
    Self-reported
    Strength of behavior change
    Medium

  • Health-points app

    Step recording
    Automatic
    Continuation mechanics
    Points awarded
    Relations with others
    Self-contained
    Money flow
    Points only
    Clarity of success/failure
    Achievement visualized
    Strength of behavior change
    Weak if rewards are small

  • Peer-support app

    Step recording
    Automatic
    Continuation mechanics
    Friends encourage each other
    Relations with others
    Share with peers
    Money flow
    None
    Clarity of success/failure
    Loose
    Strength of behavior change
    Encouragement is temporary

  • ESPL

    Step recording
    Automatic
    Continuation mechanics
    Loss aversion × commitment × altruism
    Relations with others
    Involves sponsor and recipient
    Money flow
    Stake sponsorship, auto-distribute by outcome
    Clarity of success/failure
    Achievement check → auto-distribute
    Strength of behavior change
    Strong

ESPL is not an app for recording steps.

The feeling of not wanting to lose, the feeling of keeping a promise, the feeling of trying for someone else — combining these three is how the app manufactures reasons to walk.

02 / Behavioral Economics

Three feelings that build staying power

Keeping up exercise is hard on willpower alone. ESPL uses three feelings to manufacture reasons to walk.

In behavioral-economics terms, this combines loss aversion, commitment, and altruism — findings from a Nobel-recognized field, applied through a three-actor structure.

  1. A man watching gold sand slip between his fingers in evening light — a symbol of the pain of losing

    Loss Aversion

    “I don’t want to lose this” — so I walk

    People feel the pain of losing more than twice as strongly as the joy of gaining — that's loss aversion (Prospect Theory; Kahneman).

    ESPL isn't “walk and gain” — it's structured so that the staked sponsorship “leaves you if you don't walk”.

    It's the pain of loss, not the expectation of gain, that drives the behavior.

  2. A man and woman looking at each other while linking pinkies in a yubikiri promise — a symbol of commitment

    Commitment

    “I made a promise” — so I keep going

    People don't want to break a promise they've spoken aloud. And when you “stake” something visible, that promise gets much stronger.

    In ESPL, by setting the step goal, period, sponsorship, and recipient — and by staking the sponsorship — a goal turns from “I'd like to try” into “a promise worth keeping”.

    Because I decided, I keep going. That's the state the mechanism is designed to create.

  3. A small girl letting a small boy taste her ice cream, both laughing in park light — a symbol of pure altruism

    Altruism

    “For someone else” — that's why I push through

    People can push harder for someone else than they can for themselves.

    In ESPL, you can design the success-case sponsorship to reach family, friends, or a charity. The failure-case recipient is also free to set.

    Walking becomes a gift to someone, and a motivation arises that doesn't rest on willpower alone.

Plenty of apps use one of these three levers in isolation. ESPL lets you combine all three, in your own context.

03 / Structure

Money and steps, assembled across three actors

ESPL runs on three actors: the walker (the Challenger), the person who provides the sponsorship (the Sponsor), and the person who receives it (the Recipient). Let's walk through them in order.

Glossary

What's a Recipient

The person or organization that receives the sponsorship based on the outcome.
You can set family, friends, the Challenger themselves, the Sponsor themselves, or a charity, and the success-case and failure-case recipients can be different.

Solo OK

You can start solo

Be your own Sponsor, take on your own Challenge, and set family as the success-case recipient — a self-contained, solo design. No need to invite anyone.

A figure walking quietly alone beneath young roadside trees — a symbol of a Challenger taking on a walk

01 / 05 · Challenger

The Challenger walks

The person who joins the challenge and aims to hit the step goal. They can take on a challenge they designed themselves, or join one a Sponsor set up.

An envelope passed gently from one hand to another in warm light — a symbol of a Sponsor staking the sponsorship

02 / 05 · Sponsor

The Sponsor stakes the sponsorship

The person who designs the challenge and backs the walker. They set the step goal, period, sponsorship amount, and recipient. The walker, family, friends, or a company can all be Sponsors.

Golden light pouring into outstretched hands — a symbol of a Recipient receiving the sponsorship

03 / 05 · Recipient

The Recipient receives the sponsorship

The person or organization that receives the sponsorship based on the outcome. The walker, family, friends, or a charity can be set. The destination can also differ between success and failure.

Gold coins quietly held in a glass jar on a wooden table — a symbol of sponsorship staked into a smart contract

04 / 05 · Money Flow

The sponsorship is staked into a smart contract

The sponsorship the Sponsor stakes is held in a smart contract on the blockchain. No one can move it until the challenge ends.

Gold coins passed gently from an elder's hand to a child's palm — a symbol of automatic distribution after achievement

05 / 05 · Settlement

Achieve → success-case recipient. Miss → failure-case recipient

The Challenger's steps are sent daily. At the end of the period, the smart contract judges the outcome and auto-distributes the sponsorship.

See the whole picture in one diagram
How ESPL works: the Sponsor sends challenge conditions and sponsorship to a smart contract, the Challenger sends step data, and on completion the smart contract auto-distributes to the pre-set success-case recipient — or to the pre-set failure-case recipient on a miss

One person can play multiple roles. For example: be your own Sponsor, take on your own Challenge, and set family as the Recipient.

04 / Flow

Success and failure flows

The most important feature of ESPL is that the sponsorship doesn't disappear — it always reaches someone. And you decide who, in advance.

Where the sponsorship goes on success vs. failure
Outcome What happens Where the sponsorship goes
Success The step goal is met To the success-case recipient
Failure The goal wasn't met To the failure-case recipient

Either way, the destination is decided when the challenge is created. The operator doesn't change it after the fact.

Step 0: Set up the challenge

  1. Step 0-1

    Choose the goal and period

    Say, 8,000 steps/day for 30 days, or “build the habit in three months”. Set up by the Challenger or by someone backing them.

  2. Step 0-2

    Stake the sponsorship

    The Sponsor stakes the sponsorship (JPYC or yen-equivalent) into the challenge. The moment it's staked, the goal turns into a promise worth keeping.

  3. Step 0-3

    Set the recipients (success and failure)

    Decide in advance where the sponsorship lands on success and on failure. A recipient can be one person, multiple people, or a charity.

A family of three walking hand in hand along a tree-lined avenue lit by sunset — a symbol of the sponsorship reaching family after a successful challenge

If you succeed

  1. Daily steps flow in automatically from a step app (HealthKit / Google Fit)
  2. Achievement is judged at the end of the challenge period
  3. The sponsorship auto-distributes to the pre-set success-case recipient

Example: if I succeed, the sponsorship reaches the family who supported me.
Example: join with teammates and split among everyone who achieves the goal.

Both hands gently placing a single golden leaf into a wooden donation box in evening light — a symbol of the sponsorship reaching the pre-set recipient even on failure

If you don't

  1. Marked as a miss at the end of the challenge period
  2. The sponsorship auto-distributes to the pre-set failure-case recipient
  3. The failure-case recipient can be the Sponsor themselves, family, a charity, etc.

Example: if I miss, it goes to a charity (my missed steps still help society).
Example: if I miss, it goes to a rival (I don't want to lose to them).

The sponsorship doesn't disappear.
It always reaches someone you've chosen.

05 / Examples

Three ways to use it

You can start ESPL solo, with family, or with friends. Let's walk through three representative patterns to see how it's built.

  • Pushing yourself

    You sponsor, you challenge

    Aim for 8,000 steps/day for 30 days. Sponsorship: ¥3,000.

    Sponsor
    Yourself
    Challenger
    Yourself
    Recipient on success
    A gift to family
    Recipient on failure
    To a charity

    Easier to stick with: I want it to reach family, and even if I miss, it still means something.

  • Family backs you

    Family sponsors, you challenge

    A parent sponsors a challenge as a gift to a family member who's not exercising.

    Sponsor
    A parent or other family member
    Challenger
    You
    Recipient on success
    To you
    Recipient on failure
    Returned to the Sponsor, or to a charity

    Being backed becomes the reason to walk.

  • Team it up

    Take it on with friends

    Friends or coworkers tackle the same goal together.

    Sponsor
    All participants (jointly)
    Challenger
    Each participant
    Recipient on success
    Split among those who achieve the goal
    Recipient on failure
    To a pre-set recipient (e.g., a charity)

    Even people who can't sustain it alone get a push from the relationships.

You can freely design the combination of Sponsor / Challenger / Recipient to fit your own context. Start solo, or start with someone.

06 / Foundations

Two pillars supporting the design: the patent and IDOM

What's distinctive about ESPL isn't a single feature — it's the way of thinking about designing reasons to walk. Two pillars hold that thinking together: the patent and IDOM.

A hand pressing a vermilion seal onto washi paper under warm lamplight — a symbol of the patent as the design's foundation

Patent

Japan Patent No. 6,696,672 (“Challenge Support System”)

Not a single feature — what the patent protects is the combination of mechanisms that makes ESPL work.

  • The three-actor structure (walker, sponsor, recipient)
  • Staking the sponsorship and distributing it based on the outcome
  • Automatic execution on a blockchain

Patent applications are also pending in Europe, the US, and China — protecting this Japan-born behavior-change protocol internationally.

A brass compass on an open notebook with arrows radiating outward — a symbol of IDOM, the design philosophy that works back from motivation to outcome

IDOM

IDOM — Incentive Driven Outcome Management

IDOM is the idea of designing back from incentive to outcome.
Before saying “work hard at X”, it asks “what makes you motivated” and “whose outcome is this” — and assembles them.

  • Whose motivation, and how to build it
  • Who receives the success or failure outcome
  • How motivation and outcome connect

ESPL implements behavioral-economics findings and the patent-protected mechanism within an IDOM framework.

What's new — step counters and habit trackers stop at “record what you walked / remind you to walk”.
ESPL lets you reassemble the motivation before walking and the distribution after walking, across three actors.
So you can build a mechanism that sticks, in your own context.

07 / JPYC & Blockchain

Rules guarded by code, not by people

You don't need to know JPYC or blockchain to understand ESPL. What we've covered so far — set the step goal, sponsorship, and recipient in advance — is the core.

JPYC and smart contracts are the underlying infrastructure that keeps that promise from being rewritten on someone else's terms. “Could the operator change the rules later?” “Will the sponsorship really reach the person I chose if I fail?” — the answers live in code, in a public location.

Gold coins suspended inside a transparent crystal cube on a wooden table — a symbol of a smart contract that can't be rewritten by human hands

Smart contract — three jobs

  • 01

    Hold the sponsorship

    The staked sponsorship is held safely on the blockchain. No one can intercept it, and the operator can't rewrite it later.

  • 02

    Hold the conditions

    Step goal, period, and distribution rules are fixed at challenge creation. They're not conveniently changed later.

  • 03

    Judge and auto-distribute

    Automatically judge whether the step goal is met, and auto-distribute to the pre-set recipient. No human intermediation.

JPYC — why it fits

  • Rules and money in one layer

    Sponsorship (money) and distribution rules (conditions) run on the same smart contract. It's a design that settles “who pays whom, when” in one step, without human intermediation.

  • 1 JPYC ≈ ¥1 — matches your intuition

    Yen-denominated, so it's resistant to crypto-asset price swings. Stake ¥3,000 and it moves as ¥3,000-equivalent. A gift to family or a charity carries its plain meaning.

  • Gas: a few yen to a few dozen yen

    On networks like Polygon, blockchain fees that occur at challenge creation and distribution stay at a few yen to a few dozen yen. A cost level designed for daily use.

* Pricing follows JPYC Inc.'s announcements. Check the official site for current details.

ESPL does not treat JPYC or the blockchain as a speculation vehicle.
It uses them as a yen-denominated tool that executes sponsorships, promises, and outcome distribution without being shaken by anyone's convenience.

Concrete examples of JPYC-based sponsorship design — patterns combining family, friends, and charities — are covered on the JPYC page.

Next

Where to go next

Now that you understand how it works, explore how to apply it in your context.

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