Aave, a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending project, has proudly introduced the foundation of upcoming Web3 social platforms. They call it the Lens Protocol, and it’s built on Polygon.
If that looks like a bunch of indigestible words from an alien world, picture it the following way.
The Lens Protocol will pave the path for a Twitter-like experience, but powered by NFTs.
If you could recall, graphic artworks were among the first to be represented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Games then rushed into the scene, hence the NFT games we’re now playing. Also, musical creatives will soon have their music NFTs celebrated outside of the reign of record labels.
In short, everything is going “decentralized.”
And now, even quotable thoughts often shared as “tweets”—every content you create, essentially, may soon be represented by NFTs.
It’s Kulechov’s vision.
After putting the power of lending back to an open-source finance protocol, Aave Founder and CEO Stani Kulechov is saying “content creators should own their audiences in a permissionless fashion.”
Decentralized social media has been in the works for some time. Finally, Aave has given birth to Lens.
The “permissionless” nature of this Lens Protocol rings good news to wordsmiths and creatives alike. Anyone can “mint” their own profile and build their following based on the value they offer with their masterpieces.
Share “any media type that inspires you.”
So, imagine this. You can snap a photo and post it just like on existing Web2 social media. You may also type in your deepest thoughts into a poem. That’s your content, your “publication.”
A publication may also be in the form of comments and “mirrors.”
Mirroring would simply be re-sharing content you like. Essentially, it’s like retweeting.
Lens is in; Facebook and Twitter are “social media platforms of the past.”
That’s how the Lens Protocol dev site is describing our current social platforms. They’re already part of the past.
And now the dawn of the “new” social media builds itself on one big promise. Users will have the power and control over their content. That includes “native content monetization,” too.
Everything builds on the idea of “ownership.”
With a decentralized social graph, users can now own their content, social network, data, and even the way they monetize.
Your profile, your content, and even your follows will all be NFTs. Your digital identity will now be yours.
“Lens Culinaris” is the inspiration behind Lens.
It’s a plant. It’s tall and has branches with pods of small lentils. The lentils have the shape of a lens.
This plant has a symbiotic relationship with a particular soil bacteria. If you leave its roots in the ground, these roots will provide a nitrogen source for its neighbor.
So, the idea is that the Lens Protocol has taken inspiration from the truly “organic” nature of the Lens Culinaris plant. Growing the root network organically brings benefits back to the individual parts of that network.
With such inspiration from a plant, the Lens Protocol uses terms such as “developer garden,” “digital garden,” and “native soil.” Even its cute illustrations represent the plant with all its developed root network.
Building Lens on Polygon agrees with the whole garden and eco-friendly idea.
Polygon is a Layer 2 chain that runs alongside the Ethereum blockchain. It processes transactions faster, and it’s more eco-friendly.
That means each “publication” of content on the Lens Protocol will have a low carbon footprint.
The Lens Protocol may shape the future of social media.
After all, they’re already claiming it.
As funny as the following graphic might look, it has a strong point. “Twitter” and “Discord” are already considered “previous gen social media.” The next-gen thing is here.
Just a reminder though: the Lens Protocol is not yet a social network of its own.
It’s a protocol. It’s an open-source, “permissionless, composable, and decentralized social graph” that allows devs to build their own social platform using Lens.
Try developing an application with the Lens Protocol.
Lens has issued a primer on how developers can start building with this new protocol.
If you’re on the genius end of the human spectrum, you could start taking advantage of Lens. The project is even offering a grants program so devs can help accelerate the ecosystem’s growth.
You can imagine the infinite possibilities. Tools, front-ends, social apps, content moderation platforms, and analytics systems are just some of them.
Get excited to reserve some of your golden tweets for Lens.
If you’re a wordsmith or any creative of any sort, you can step back for now and reserve your precious creations for the first social platform built with Lens.
Imagine truly owning your every post and everything you’re doing with your followers. In the meantime, if you resonate with what the Lens devs are fighting for, you can endorse their open letter to the Web2 era here.
As they said in that letter, “It’s time to own our digital roots.”
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