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Web3, the third iteration of the web, is quickly approaching the buyer 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 atmosphere through 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, resembling loans and staking, and user-governed decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO).
A Lens Protocol mission assertion was cryptographically signed and endorsed by quite a lot of high-profile figures from throughout 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 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 worldwide enterprise growth 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 guide 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 business has witnessed the emergence and adoption of digital identification companies resembling Ethereum Title Service (ENS) domains, Solana Title Service domains and NFT.com, amongst others. Beltramini shared her ideas on how the profile facet of Lens Protocol compares and differs from these examples:
“Title companies don’t join wallets to wallets or social alerts. With ENS, I’ll know what your pockets is and I’ll be capable of switch to you, however I received’t truly be capable of 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 elements of the Lens mannequin. Issued to a person’s pockets handle, they goal to function a Web3 headquarters of types, 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 amassing distinctive items of content material. Moreover, mirroring allows customers to share, or primarily 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 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 aware, deliberative determination to metaphorically symbolize “proudly owning your digital roots” and nurturing a ground-up ecosystem that “we domesticate collectively because the neighborhood” earlier than stating:
“We’re the applying layer, and having a number of protocols that talk collectively to construct completely different experiences and functions on Lens is absolutely with the neighborhood from the choice making and the way the protocol will likely be ruled.”
Societal issues across the environmental expenditure of Bitcoin (BTC) mining and NFT minting have sparked decisive behaviors from crypto corporations searching for to stay on the cultural forefront. Lens Protocol was constructed on the Polygon community to focus inherently on “scalability and environmental” components, Beltramini mentioned.
She additionally added that there was a pre-existing “deep relationship between Polygon and the Aave corporations on the DeFi facet” in order that “when the protocol was being constructed a 12 months and a half in the past, it was actually the one scaling answer.”
The social graph
Beltramini famous the idea of social graphs, an interconnected map of connections fashioned by individuals and mutual buddies in a dispersed community. An software constructed throughout the Lens ecosystem known as Cultivator depicts this community as an observatory of night-sky constellations.
Decentralized social media has arguably grow to be a buzzphrase inside Web3 over the previous few years, however in accordance with Beltramini, the imaginative and prescient for Lens incorporates the truest values and ideas of Web3.
“We consider on the Aave corporations that your social content material and community needs to be a public good, and there shouldn’t be massive moats that gatekeep you to completely different platforms,” she mentioned.
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 might be understood as one kind of character for work contacts on Linkedin, whereas others for household and buddies on Instagram.
Asserting the purpose of self-custody, she continued, “We received’t be solely utilizing three platforms. We will use no matter platforms we resolve and have the power to actually 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 up to now. Usually, such protocols can have strict software processes or eligibility standards for builders to move. The Lens mannequin does have some fundamental entry factors however is basically open. Beltramini mentioned:
“Proper now in Web2, it’s very onerous to start out a brand new social software since you primarily have the chilly begin challenge bringing individuals into the funnel. So, the concept [with Lens] is that builders will be capable of 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 most well-liked software 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 in its place 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 can have the chance to foster and maintain their very own communities.
Integrating NFTs allows the creator to totally 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 completely different experiences due to the expansion hacking, neighborhood constructing, and open-source nature.”
