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 by which creators are the first level of focus.
Centered round nonfungible tokens (NFT), Lens hosts capabilities for builders to construct functions 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 throughout the crypto and DeFi area, together with Ryan Selkis, Ryan Sean Adams, Gmoney, Camila Russo, Andrew Wang and Josh Ong, amongst others.
Cointelegraph sat down with Christina Beltramini, head of progress and partnerships at Aave, 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 distinguished 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 assist 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 couple of years, the trade has witnessed the emergence and adoption of digital id companies akin to Ethereum Identify Service (ENS) domains, Solana Identify 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:
“Identify companies don’t join wallets to wallets or social alerts. With ENS, I’ll know what your pockets is and I’ll be capable to switch to you, however I gained’t truly be capable to see the connections inside your pockets. So, with Lens, your profile’s an NFT, [and] whenever you observe somebody, that’s an NFT as nicely. 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 deal with, they intention to function a Web3 headquarters of kinds, enabling self-custody of knowledge, the flexibility 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 complete ecosystem of interoperable NFTs. Different customers of the platform can attain a FollowNFT for following a profile and CollectNFT for amassing distinctive items of content material. Moreover, mirroring permits customers to share, or primarily reblog, content material whereas acknowledging the unique proprietor.
By democratizing consumer information and attaching NFTs to the person motion, Lens significantly advances upon the standard experiences of social media, commerce and digital client interplay.
Digital roots
The identify 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 acutely aware, deliberative resolution 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 totally different experiences and functions on Lens is absolutely with the group from the choice making and the way the protocol can be ruled.”
Societal considerations across the environmental expenditure of Bitcoin (BTC) mining and NFT minting have sparked decisive behaviors from crypto corporations in search of to stay on the cultural forefront. Lens Protocol was constructed on the Polygon community to focus inherently on “scalability and environmental” elements, Beltramini mentioned.
She additionally added that there was a pre-existing “deep relationship between Polygon and the Aave corporations on the DeFi aspect” in order that “when the protocol was being constructed a 12 months 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 mates in a dispersed community. An utility constructed throughout the Lens ecosystem known as Cultivator depicts this community as an observatory of night-sky constellations.
Decentralized social media has arguably change into a buzzphrase inside Web3 over the previous few years, however in line with Beltramini, the imaginative and prescient for Lens incorporates the truest values and ideas of Web3.
“We imagine on the Aave corporations that your social content material and community needs to be a public good, and there shouldn’t be giant moats that gatekeep you to totally different platforms,” she mentioned.
Beltramini additionally raised the importance of customers with the ability to management parameters of privateness, sustaining quite a few personas throughout totally different platforms on a single social graph. In conventional social media, this might be understood as one sort of character for work contacts on Linkedin, whereas others for household and mates 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 flexibility 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 functions on its server to this point. Usually, 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 essentially open. Beltramini mentioned:
“Proper now in Web2, it’s very exhausting to start out a brand new social utility since you primarily have the chilly begin problem bringing individuals into the funnel. So, the thought [with Lens] is that builders will be capable to extra simply construct for the expertise versus progress hacking for the social graph and spending hundreds of 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 carefully corresponding to Twitter when it comes to its consumer interface and on a regular basis expertise however gaining traction as a substitute mannequin within the area.
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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 cases of virality.
Beltramini concluded by stating that “Web3 social goes to speed up totally different experiences due to the expansion hacking, group constructing, and open-source nature.”
