Lens Protocol offers a platform for the creation of decentralized social networks capable of rivaling industry giants like Twitter.
Decentralized lending protocol Aave has changed course, looking for new use cases beyond DeFi. One of the projects that has caught the most attention of users is Lens Protocol, a social graph designed to offer social media developers a foundation with which to create decentralized networks and which, for a few weeks now, also operates on the network.
El Lens Protocol's main goal is to dethrone centralized social networks like TwitterTo do this, the platform takes a different approach, allowing users to control their content by being able to store it as NFTs within their own wallets.
Lens Protocol, which was Initially built on Polygon, offers faster, cheaper and less energy-intensive transactions, being one of the best options for a social network built on a NFT consumption dynamic.
What is Lens Protocol?
Lens Protocol is a open source social graph that allows developers to create Web 3-ready social media platforms and profiles. It is built on Ethereum's layer 2 solution, Polygon and works to enable developers to maintain intellectual property rights over their content wherever it goes in a Web 3 environment.
Lens Protocol is designed with modularity in mind, allowing for new features to be created and fixes to be added, ensuring that the social graph is always kept up to date and keeps up with the constant evolution of Web 3.
The protocol was first announced in July 2021, when its creator Stani Kulechov tweeted: “If @jack (Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter) is going to build Aave on Bitcoin, Aave should build Twitter on Ethereum.”
Who created the decentralized social graph?
Behind Lens Protocol is part of the Aave development team, the decentralized lending protocol. Among them, Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave and its CEO, Alexander Svanevik.
The team also includes CTO Jan Isakovic, who worked on 0x smart contracts, and Filip Martinka, as product manager.
What is a Social Graph?
Building a social network from scratch can be a daunting task. A social graph is a map of relationships between people and is made up of nodes (individuals and organizations) and edges (relationships) that connect them.
A social graph is nothing more than a database of graphs. The most common way to use data is from centralized services such as Twitter or Facebook, which are stored on a central server and are very easy to use. However, they are owned by a single company, so accessing them is usually a matter of paying.
Lens Protocol has created a decentralized social graph, censorship-resistant and Web 3-ready. Being decentralized, Lens Protocol's social graph is open and user-owned, so users can export it to any social network the user connects to (as long as it is built on the protocol).
How does Lens Protocol work?
Lens Protocol's open-source social graph enables content creators owning the relationships created with their followers, from the content they publish and from their community, since they can convert them into NFTs.
The protocol use NFTs to represent user profiles. Users can create profiles that interact with each other, forming a social graph. User data and relationships are stored on Ethereum’s layer 2 solution, Polygon. This allows data to be moved from one platform to another without the need for a central authority.
At Lens Protocol, everything runs on the blockchain, from the profile picture to the account settings and followers. This way, users have full control over their data.
Furthermore, the protocol allows for the development of other social media platforms and profiles. compatible with DeFi wallets like MetaMaskThis compatibility allows users to log into their social media accounts using their Web 3 wallets without having to create a new account for each platform they interact with.
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Profiles
Lens Protocol NFT profiles are the foundation of how it works. Ownership of these profiles gives you control over content and the ability to publish to an address. An address can contain more than one profile NFT.
The profile NFT contains the history of all posts, comments, replies, and any generated content. Additionally, they contain a tracking module that contains the logic to issue tracking NFTs to different accounts to record their relationship to the main profile.
Profile NFTs can only be minted by addresses included in the governance whitelist, ensuring that profile names will not be registered by malicious actors.
Publications
Posts can be of three types: posts, comments, and replies. They are published directly on the profile's NFT, so it is registered and owned by the user.
Posts also have two modules attached to them: Collect and Reference. The Collect module has the logic that allows other users to mint your posts on NFTs, by implementing a URI to the original post. The Reference module handles references to the post itself and contains the logic that determines who can comment on or share (mirror) the post.
Mirror
The Mirror or Mirrors are like retweets on Twitter, allow you to repost other creators' content.
Since they reference other posts, they are subject to the conditions of the original post's referral module. If a post has a referral module that limits mirrors to only accounts that follow the original author, and the account doing the mirroring does not have a following NFT, the mirror will fail.
Replicas do not have their own collection module, as they only forward existing content. However, they can have a reference module, as it is possible to establish who can replicate or comment on the replica itself.
Collects
The Collects allow creators to monetize their contentThese are collectibles in the form of NFTs that users can purchase.
When a user creates a post on their profile NFT, they can turn it into a Collect. By doing so, they establish a module that will allow other users to mint an NFT that they link to the ContentURI of the post. This module contains any arbitrary logic to apply to the minting process and the resulting NFT.
A creator can attach a collect module that allows collecting to be open for a set amount of time or only allows a certain number of collections. Developers can also create their own collect modules to add even more functionality.
Follow
In Lens Protocol the follow will work differently than centralized social networks. In this case, when a user makes a comment, follow to another account, receives a tracking NFT, which creators and communities can encode to add additional value.
For example, a tracking NFT could include a tracking module that requires a user to pay 5 MATIC to receive a tracking NFT.
The ID of each newly issued follower NFT for a given profile is incremented by 1. This way, the first follower will have an ID of 1, while the 99th follower will have an ID of 99.
Tracking NFTs too have built-in governance capabilities, such as voting delegation, which will allow DAOs to be created.
DAOs
To create a DAO, users will be able to deploy a contract that interacts with the built-in functionality of the tracking NFT. It should allow for the creation of proposals and interact with profile tracking NFTs.
A governance contract will have to manage:
- The creation of proposals.
- Voting with FollowNFTs in the given past snapshot.
- Queuing proposals.
What are the benefits of Lens Protocol?
By having an open social graph, users no longer have to worry about losing their audience or content when switching between social networks. This is especially important when it comes to professionals who use social media for a living.
Lens Protocol is designed to solve these problems by giving users the power to launch their social media platforms and control their profiles, which can be carried with them from one platform to another.
Every app built on Lens Protocol benefits the entire ecosystem, turning gaming into collaboration so developers can design more meaningful social experiences.
Freedom of speech
In centralized social networks, the company that owns the social graph controls what content users can and cannot see. This often leads to suppression of dissenting voices and censorship.
Secondly, centralization leads to the selection of content that appeals to the lowest common denominator. This in turn leads to the creation of echo chambers where people only consume content that reflects their same views and repeats their opinions.
Modularity
Modularity is the foundation of Lens Protocol's design. Everything in the protocol is built with the community expansion and continued development of new and innovative features.
Modules are autonomous contracts, with whitelisted governance, that adhere to a specific interface. These modules maintain state and have unlimited potential scope beyond adherence to the interface.
Lens Protocol has three different types of modules:
- Tracking modules
- They are linked to a profile and contain the logic that will be executed when a user attempts to follow a specific profile.
- Collection modules
- These modules are tied to specific posts (except mirrors, which cannot be fetched) and contain the logic that will be executed when a user attempts to fetch a particular post.
- Reference modules
- They are linked to specific posts and contain the logic that will be executed when a user attempts to comment or share a post.
- The original content and its reference module are used in case a replica attempts to point to a replica.
Why use decentralized social networks?
Since its activation in February 2022, Lens Protocol already has more than 50 social applications up and running.
Stani Kulechov warned about the need for decentralized social networks by exposing the case of Twitter and the Elon Musk's attempted purchaseThe developer noted that users want a new experience, where they control their profiles and their content.
The 50 tools built on Lens Protocol, such as Peerstream, Lenster, Swapify or Spamdao, range from social applications to monetization tools for creators.
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