What Is Lens Protocol, How Does it Work, And Why It Is Important?

A blockchain-based open-source social graph called Lens Protocol was developed to alter social media notions in the Web3 and decentralized eras. Lens Protocol is intended to be permissionless and capable of empowering content creators to “own their digital roots” and enable people to uncompromisingly own the connections between themselves and their communities. This is in contrast to contemporary Web2 social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook that use social graphs to develop interconnections among users of social networks only in a centralized manner.

The creation of the Lens Protocol resulted in the establishment of a decentralized social network that users completely own. It’s  regaining control over their information and links as well as giving them access to features that allow them to monetize their content.

Due to the revolutionary nature of the social networking product and the well-known AAVE, Lens Protocol was released in early 2022 and received a lot of attention in the blockchain and cryptocurrency circles. The Lens Protocol, a branch of one of the major lending platforms in the Ethereum ecosystem, aims to fix important shortcomings in the present social media landscape. It succeeds in doing so, steadily building a network of devoted users in a Web3 ready community.

How does the Lens Protocol function?

The social network of Lens Protocol is created using a graph database. These databases store data in graph topologies, which have individual nodes, edges connecting them, places, things, and other attributes. These graphs display the connections between network members.

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The smart contract-based social graph used by Lens Protocol, however, differs from centralized social media graphs in that access to the data is restricted to the centralized services in the latter scenario. Users, other parties, and even initiatives that might want to interface with the service are specifically denied access. The centralized network operator locks and maintains profiles, materials, and connections.

Furthermore, when a single server stops working, any centralized service may briefly turn into a single point of failure. Lens Protocol’s open social graph architecture enables any blockchain-based social media platform or decentralized application (DApps) to plug into it, with a focus on developing social networking decentralized apps (DApps).

Furthermore, the modular nature of Lens Protocol, in contrast to centralized services’ rigid structures, allows for the implementation of the newest features and updates while simultaneously safeguarding user-owned material and social interactions. Built on top of the Polygon proof-of-stake blockchain, which is environmentally friendly, is Lens Protocol. Additionally, it supports cryptocurrency wallets like MetaMask, Gnosis Safe, and Argent, promoting platform compatibility.

What is different in Lens Protocol?

The Lens Protocol’s reality is distinct due to nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and modularity, two fundamental ideas. The foundation of the protocol is the establishment of user profiles as NFTs. The low-cost layer 2 scaling solution from Polygon holds all the data, allowing Lens Protocol’s decentralized social network users to create, maintain, and own their content and profiles represented through NFTs.

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Such an architecture aids in giving users total control and ownership of the content. Any posted content, including text, images, and even avatar changes, is accessible on-chain. The Lens Protocol’s social network is available to all creators who are willing and ready to propose and implement new features since modularity, which is a system property, alludes to innovation, availability, and connectivity.

Community members also have the authority to decide whether to support users who agree on which features to include in the most decentralized and open manner. These methods allow for the emergence of new social media networks while preserving the right to free expression because there is no single entity in control of the information.

Advantages:

The advantages of the protocol stem from the Web3 principles that form its fundamental core. A censorship-resistant environment that cannot be interrupted is first and principally created by the permissionless independent network of the Lens Protocol. No third entity, not even centralized authority, has the power to delete, edit, or ban any content or profile.

With it, users of the Lens Protocol own their data and content, and they can use them in any DApp or social networking platform that is based on the protocol. Additionally, using Lens Protocol, a complete Web3 social platform can be created. Applications built on the Lens Protocol benefit from the thriving ecosystem as well as from the modularity and highly customizable aspects of the protocol.

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Last but not least, the proof-of-stake algorithm used by Lens Protocol makes its blockchain economical and energy-efficient, especially when compared to the proof-of-work (PoW) process that uses a lot of computing resources.

Disadvantages:

Despite the apparent benefits of the Lens Protocol, there are a number of drawbacks that must be taken into consideration. Because the on-chain storage capacity of blockchains is frequently constrained, not all material and NFTs can be stored there and must be stored somewhere else.

Publications created using the Lens Protocol have a unique ContentURI that points to the material they include, be it text, an image, a video, etc. Distributed file storage platforms like IPFS, Arweave, or even services like AWS S3 house all original files. As a result, any user’s content may be altered.

Security concerns are closely related to the storage problem. Original files could be lost or harmed if they are not stored on a blockchain. As there are numerous ways that hackers might attack decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, there is also a risk associated with smart contracts and NFT upkeep.

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Web3’s Future in Social Media

People utilize social media constantly and everywhere in the twenty-first century, despite the fact that centralized social networks have several drawbacks. The main problems with the present social media ecosystem are the absence of user rights over their data because the content they create does not belong to them and censorship because the platforms have the authority to remove any content or accounts that do not adhere to their rules.

Web3 and blockchain have evident advantages for social media and can have a big influence by introducing new ownership and customization patterns. They hasten the social media revolution being driven by the community-owned social graph of Lens Protocol and related initiatives. They significantly affect the communication paradigm by empowering their users and giving them the choice of how they want their social networks to be developed and monetized.