Lens Protocol Launches Social Graph

[TL; DR]

Lens Protocol launched a decentralized social platform on 18 May.

Lens Protocol is open source, meaning that independent platforms can establish their social media dApps on it.

The main advantage of blockchain based social media platforms is that they are censorship resistant.

Lens Protocol has unveiled a $250 000 grant for developers to establish their dApps on the platform.

Keywords: Lens Protocol, DAO, Social media, NFT, Aave

Lens Protocol, Aave’s social media project, has launched its social graph which is a model of social network. To start with, on 22 February Lens Protocol, a competitor for centralized social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, introduced the idea of a decentralized social media platform.

Basically, Lens Protocol is a software which enables developers to build decentralised social media platforms that compete with traditional social networks like Twitter and Facebook. By using a decentralized protocol like Lens protocol, the social media users remain owners of the content they create. They also remain firmly in control of their accounts. This also means that the users do not fear to lose their audience since there is no central authority which can suspend or delete their accounts.

As well, since Lens protocol is a decentralized autonomous organization the social media users have the power to decide on the features that they want. They will achieve this through giving proposals as well as voting on developmental issues. However, it is not yet clear if Lens Protocol will have its own governance token. This is because the protocol has not yet made any statement about that.

One of the added advantages of blockchain based social media platforms is that they are censorship resistant. What we mean by this is that there is no central authority that defines what people should post or not. People are free to post as they see fit. Thus, the environment is open and fair.

Today, the interesting news is that Lens Protocol launched its social graph on the Polygon blockchain on 18 May. Polygon, a proof-of-stake blockchain, is scalable and less costly than many existing networks. Already, over 50 applications which include GoldenCircle, Lenster, Social Link Lens Booster, Swapify SpamDAO and PeerStream are on the protocol

Lens Protocol’s vision

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The long term vision of the team is to have a social media environment composed of small but independent platforms which are linked to each other. The other important fact is that Lens Protocol is open source, meaning that anyone can easily contribute to its development at any time. In its stride towards its vision, Lens protocol has unveiled a $250 000 grant to support developers to create applications on the protocol.

Source: 1Upzone

The problems Lens Protocol aims to solve

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Lens Protocol aims to overcome the downside of the centralized social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook through empowering the users to be in control of their content and accounts. In contrast, the traditional social media giants control what people can see and what they cannot see. In other words, these social media platforms censor the content which the users should produce and share.

As a result, many social media accounts have been suspended or even banned on the pretext that the users have posted content which is against their policies. Definitely, this stance leads to the suppression of individuals who have dissenting voices.

In fact, one reason for the emergence of Lens Protocol is the rampant censorship from the current social media giants like Facebook. Specifically, Lens Protocol founder Stani Kulechov’s Twitter account was at one time suspended over a joke he wrote on the platform. His joke was “joining Twitter as interim CEO.” Nevertheless, although his account was later restored, the suspension gave rise to the idea of a decentralized social graph.

On the contrary, Lens Protocol does not only aim to remove media censorship but also to open new ways for the users to monetize their content. They will achieve this through the use of NFTs and other digital assets like cryptocurrencies.

How Lens Protocol works

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The first step is for each user to create a personal profile. This profile exists in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). As a result, each profile on the Lens Protocol is unique.

As you note, this is a deviation from how traditional social media platforms such as Twitter work. These traditional social media platforms use each person’s email address and username to create a profile. However, Lens Protocol uses cryptocurrency wallet addresses and NFTs to authenticate and monetize the profiles. This is the system which ensures that the user is in charge of his/her account.

The account holder is free to do the various activities which we do on the traditional social media such as posting articles, sharing content and commenting. However, the platform tokenizes each of these activities. In the end, the user profile NFT will contain all the activities you do. However, a wallet address can have more than one profile NFT.

Source: Pixabay

Key features

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Each module, which is an independent smart contract, is the operating system. Basically, there are three modules: follow module, collect module and reference module. Each of the modules has a specific function. For instance, the ‘collect module’s’ core function is to collect articles. Yet, the reference module is for interacting with other users in different ways such as commenting. As you may guess, the ‘follow module’ has links to profiles and enables users to follow each other.

Now, let’s focus on the key functions or aspects which the modules facilitate:

Publications: These are the original content of each user. For example, they include original posts, comments and mirrors of the user.

Mirror: Mirror is a form of sharing content similar to retweeting on Twitter.

Collects: This enables users to create their collections of content on the platform.

Following: Like the norm in most traditional social media platforms, users can follow each other. However, when a user follows another profile he/she gets a ‘follow NFT’ which has utility.

What is Aave?

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Earlier on we mentioned that Aave is the one that launched the Lens Protocol. Thus, it is essential to understand what Aave is. Aave is a decentralized finance protocol, existing on the Ethereum blockchain which allows people to lend or borrow cryptocurrencies.

Source: Coinbureau

As a blockchain, Aave has its own cryptocurrency called AAVE. Users of the Aave blockchain who hold the AAVE token get discounts when they make transactions. Already, the cryptocurrency AAVE is on various centralized exchanges including Gate.io.

There are different opportunities for you to invest in AAVE. First, you can spot trade AAVE on Gate.io at any time. Some of the popular cryptocurrencies you can exchange for Aave include USD, USDT and ETH.

Also, under Futures, AAVE is paired against USDT. In addition, you can use the Crypto Lending section to lend AAVE and earn interest. But that is not all. You can as well borrow it as long as you have the required collateral. Liquidity mining is another lucrative investment opportunity. In this case, you can provide liquidity to the AAVE/USDT pair by contributing an equal amount of funds for each of them.

It is equally important to note that you can easily purchase AAVE on Gate.io using credit cards, bank transfers or P2P trade.

Conclusion

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Aave’s launch of the Lens Protocol is one of the trending news. The reason is that decentralized social media gives hope to many people as it marks an end to an era of censorship by the traditional social media platforms such as Facebook. Further to this, decentralized social media comes with the possibility of monetizing content. Already, there are over 50 applications existing on the Lens protocol.

Author: Mashell C., Gate.io Researcher

This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.

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