The blockchain-based Lens Protocol reimagines social media for the Web3 era. This Aave project offshoot, however, embraces decentralization and wants all users to own their content and even monetize it, unlike contemporary social media platforms.
What is Lens Protocol?
With the use of web3, the project Lens Protocol aims to reimagine the concepts and possibilities of social media.
Social media companies in web2 primarily develop their social graphs. Nodes in a social graph stand in for people, groups, and the relationships between them.
Common social media platforms that make use of social graphs keep track of all the data in one place. In other words, the data used on the site is not genuinely owned by the users.
Blockchain technology can help restore some control for common users on web3.
Lens Protocol presents itself as a decentralized and composable social graph that functions on blockchain. The program focuses on making it simple for users to build their own web3 social media platforms. User ownership sits at the heart of the social graph, and the customizability of the features is an essential part of the project.
Since it was announced in early 2022, the project has received much interest. This has a lot to do with the team that is working on it. The project is a spinoff of Aave, one of the key Ethereum lending platforms, and was created by Stani Kulechov, the company's founder.
How does Lens Protocol work?
The project's use of a decentralized social graph is its core part. Creating this is generally achieved through the use of a graph database (GDB). Data is stored in a GDB using graph structures, which have nodes, edges, and different properties. In Other words, these graphs show the network's participants and also their relationships.
It is crucial to learn how Lens Protocol differs from its competitors to fully understand how it works. A social graph can be structured in several ways. Most well-known social media platforms, like Facebook or LinkedIn, rely on a centralized service.
Data silos are used in the creation of social graphs as well. In this case, data is unavailable to other applications that might want to integrate with the platform. This means that the platform's structure cannot be changed. It also indicates that the platform can have a single point of failure, making it impossible to use if the server goes down.
Lens Protocol uses an open-source and composable social graph. Creators wanting to launch their own social media platform on web3 can use this without restriction. NFTs are used to represent user profiles. All of the profiles are stored in the Polygon PoS layer 2 solutions . Additionally, the platform works with wallets like MetaMask, Gnosis Safe, and Argent. This encourages interoperability across platforms.
