Web3, the third iteration of the web, is quickly approaching the patron mainstream with the promise of disrupting the established order of digital interactions and creating a brand new paradigm for democratic engagement.
Lens Protocol is a decentralized social graph constructed by Aave with the imaginative and prescient of cultivating a Web3 surroundings wherein creators are the first level of focus.
Centered round nonfungible tokens (NFT), Lens hosts capabilities for builders to construct purposes analogous to social media, in addition to analytic instruments, integrations of decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities, akin to loans and staking, and user-governed decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO).
A Lens Protocol mission assertion was cryptographically signed and endorsed by a variety of high-profile figures from inside the crypto and DeFi house, together with Ryan Selkis, Ryan Sean Adams, Gmoney, Camila Russo, Andrew Wang and Josh Ong, amongst others.
Cointelegraph sat down with the pinnacle of progress and partnerships at Aave firms Christina Beltramini in the course of the NFT.NYC in June to debate the intentional progress trajectory of Lens, social graphs within the period of Web3 and the way forward for content material creation.
After working for the likes of JPMorgan and Tidal, Beltramini assumed the function of world enterprise improvement of music partnerships at outstanding social media platform TikTok in mid-2019.
It was throughout this time she witnessed what she described as an innate lack of autonomy and bureaucratic constrictions that TikTok content material creators expertise when utilizing the platform, most notably in the course of the frequent requests to reinstate mistakenly deactivated accounts.
The evolution of Web3, coupled together with her intrinsic want to help the creative expressions of content material creators, was sufficient to persuade Beltramini to pursue contributions towards a decentralized social future.
Excited to welcome Christina, coming from TikTok to Aave fam to steer the expansion for the decentralized social graph, and all of the innovation popping out of Aave. 2022 goes to push web3 nearer to the mainstream https://t.co/SksQVdq2QQ
— stani.lens (,) (@StaniKulechov) December 21, 2021
Over the previous few years, the trade has witnessed the emergence and adoption of digital id companies akin to Ethereum Title Service (ENS) domains, Solana Title Service domains and NFT.com, amongst others. Beltramini shared her ideas on how the profile side of Lens Protocol compares and differs from these examples:
“Title companies don’t join wallets to wallets or social indicators. With ENS, I’ll know what your pockets is and I’ll have the ability to switch to you, however I gained’t truly have the ability to see the connections inside your pockets. So, with Lens, your profile’s an NFT, [and] once you observe somebody, that’s an NFT as properly. And that’s what ties the affiliation collectively.”
Profile NFTs are one of many core parts of the Lens mannequin. Issued to a person’s pockets tackle, they purpose to function a Web3 headquarters of kinds, enabling self-custody of knowledge, the power to publish genuine items of content material on-chain, and built-in governance capacities ought to customers want to assemble their very own DAO.
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Modules and logic capabilities open up a whole ecosystem of interoperable NFTs. Different customers of the platform can attain a FollowNFT for following a profile and CollectNFT for accumulating distinctive items of content material. Moreover, mirroring permits customers to share, or basically reblog, content material whereas acknowledging the unique proprietor.
By democratizing person knowledge and attaching NFTs to the person motion, Lens significantly advances upon the normal experiences of social media, commerce and digital client interplay.
Digital roots
The title Lens was impressed by the Lens Culinaris, the inexperienced flowering plant whose seeds produce the lentil.
Beltramini expressed that this selection of branding was a aware, deliberative choice to metaphorically symbolize “proudly owning your digital roots” and nurturing a ground-up ecosystem that “we domesticate collectively because the group” earlier than stating:
“We’re the applying layer, and having a number of protocols that talk collectively to construct completely different experiences and purposes on Lens is de facto with the group from the choice making and the way the protocol can be ruled.”
Societal issues across the environmental expenditure of Bitcoin (BTC) mining and NFT minting have sparked decisive behaviors from crypto firms looking for to stay on the cultural forefront. Lens Protocol was constructed on the Polygon community to focus inherently on “scalability and environmental” elements, Beltramini stated.
She additionally added that there was a pre-existing “deep relationship between Polygon and the Aave firms on the DeFi facet” in order that “when the protocol was being constructed a yr and a half in the past, it was actually the one scaling resolution.”
The social graph
Beltramini famous the idea of social graphs, an interconnected map of connections shaped by individuals and mutual associates in a dispersed community. An utility constructed inside the Lens ecosystem known as Cultivator depicts this community as an observatory of night-sky constellations.
Decentralized social media has arguably turn out to be a buzzphrase inside Web3 over the previous few years, however in keeping with Beltramini, the imaginative and prescient for Lens incorporates the truest values and rules of Web3.
“We imagine on the Aave firms that your social content material and community ought to be a public good, and there shouldn’t be massive moats that gatekeep you to completely different platforms,” she stated.
Beltramini additionally raised the importance of customers having the ability to management parameters of privateness, sustaining quite a few personas throughout completely different platforms on a single social graph. In conventional social media, this is able to be understood as one kind of persona for work contacts on Linkedin, whereas others for household and associates on Instagram.
Asserting the purpose of self-custody, she continued, “We gained’t be solely utilizing three platforms. We are able to use no matter platforms we determine and have the power to really digitally exit a platform.”
“I nonetheless have Fb purely as a result of I’ve my contacts from 10 years in the past in school, however not as a result of I align myself with the values of that platform, or I need to be on Fb. It’s as a result of my social graph is there. So, we’ll dispel the notion of being tied to a platform simply because your social graph is there.”
Lens has registered over 100 purposes on its server thus far. Typically, such protocols can have strict utility processes or eligibility standards for builders to cross. The Lens mannequin does have some primary entry factors however is basically open. Beltramini stated:
“Proper now in Web2, it’s very arduous to begin a brand new social utility since you basically have the chilly begin difficulty bringing individuals into the funnel. So, the thought [with Lens] is that builders will have the ability to extra simply construct for the expertise versus progress hacking for the social graph and spending thousands and thousands of {dollars} in CPA [cost per action] spend.”
The preferred utility on Lens on the time of writing is Lenster, a permissionless, decentralized social media most intently corresponding to Twitter by way of its person interface and on a regular basis expertise however gaining traction instead mannequin within the house.
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In precept, Web3 social platforms will grant creators the liberal autonomy to personal and govern their work like by no means earlier than. Artists and even journalists won’t be stringently tied to the platforms or publications they publish on however may have the chance to foster and maintain their very own communities.
Integrating NFTs permits the creator to completely capitalize on the information metrics extracted from their profile, providing a extra tailor-made, personable and distinctive expertise to their viewers, whereas retaining monetization rewards in situations of virality.
Beltramini concluded by stating that “Web3 social goes to speed up completely different experiences due to the expansion hacking, group constructing, and open-source nature.”
