Lens Protocol is designed to power social media platforms that can rival centralized giants like Twitter, and is powered by NFT.
Web3 startup Aave launched a Twitter-like social media platform using Polygon’s blockchain. The new project called Lens Protocol uses NFTs for a unique social experience on web3. Users can coin their own profiles as NFTs, monetize their content and more.
Bloom into a new era of social 🌿 Lens Protocol is ready for you to build the next gen of social media apps. The garden is open… https://t.co/bhzgxs9JFt pic.twitter.com/m2IqtIfb7P
— LensProtocol.lens 🌿 (@LensProtocol) May 18, 2022
What differentiates Lens Protocol from Twitter?
Aave’s new social media project will give users full ownership over their social profiles and content through NFTs. The company’s CEO, Stani Kulechov, believes that people need a new way to socialize virtually. Indeed, we have all been using similar social media platforms for the past few years.
However, lately the web3 space is expanding at breakneck speed. Aave aims to use the latest technology, including NFTs, to deliver experiences that are more social than Twitter:
“As seen in Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter, people are ready for a better experience than they are used to. Ownership not only over the content you create online, but also over your profile and your social network is long overdue, and empowering users is what Lens aims to achieve,” the CEO said in a statement.
At the moment, the Lens protocol has several unique social applications. For example, users can enjoy Swapify, Peerstream and Lenster, all of which are built on the Polygon blockchain. Bottom line,
Will Aave’s social platform become the new Twitter?
It’s too early to tell whether Aave’s NFT-powered social platform Aave will overtake Twitter.
Of course, Lens Protocol also has some competitors in the web3 sector. For example, NFT’s marketplace Gamma will soon launch the web3 social network.
Meanwhile, web3 social media platform Playground has also caught the attention of users recently. However, all platforms allow new forms of web3-style socializing to be explored.
Social networks are seen as an ideal use case for blockchain technology, as they allow platforms to be censorship-resistant and allow users to own, control and possibly profit from their own content.
These types of platforms have yet to approach the scale of giants like Twitter and Facebook, although Minds, built on Ethereum, is a notable example: it claims to have 14 million total users by June 2021.
Lens Protocol was first announced last June, when Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov tweeted:
Since @jack is going to build Aave on Bitcoin, Aave should build Twitter on Ethereum
— stani.lens (🌿,👻) (@StaniKulechov) July 17, 2021
It wasn’t a throwaway comment: Aave actually started developing a decentralized social networking rival, but ultimately opted to build on Polygon instead of Ethereum’s mainnet.
