Lens Protocol is the newest take on the idea of decentralized social media
Blockworks took a look at this Polygon-powered platform in an article published this week. The team developing Lens Protocol, a base layer for decentralized social media, is the same team behind liquidity protocol Aave.
This concept of decentralized social media allows users to have complete control over their content.
4/ Lens Protocol has familiar social media functions like having a profile, commenting, resharing a post, and more – but unlike social media of the past, Lens Protocol is powered by NFTs, so you own and control all of your content. Here's how it works👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/LqnQ8Kr37w
— Lens Protocol 🌿 (@LensProtocol) February 7, 2022
Using NFTs as the base layer, platforms can integrate Lens to give their users control over their content. This is the natural progression in the integration of NFTs on the internet. Anyone who thought NFTs were simply JPEGs of cartoon monkeys is sorely mistaken.
What Does a Decentralized Social Media Look Like?
Every social media platform that you use at this point is run by a centralized body that has full control over the content you publish on their platform. That means that if Twitter doesn’t like something you’ve posted, they can delete it. The same goes for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. They also receive the entirety of monetization revenue and can distribute as they see fit. It is their platform and, technically, their content.
But, when you change this to a user-owned, collaborative eco-system, this changes. Users can:
- Create a profile
- Follow others
- Create or collect posts and comments
All on-chain with the technology of non-fungible tokens. When we mint these individually and store the access points on-chain, the platform is governed by the community as a whole. Additionally, revenue generation and splits completely change. Instead of the platform where the content is published owning the content, the creator does. This means that monetization is instead managed by the creator of the content.
This isn’t a new concept though. Plenty of examples exist and are actually running. A few examples include:
These are all examples of Web3, decentralized social media platforms. This is the start of this new trend in blockchain tech.
What Are Other Benefits of Decentralized Social Media?
NFTs have made the concept of “digital ownership” a reality. When you store NFTs in your non-custodial wallet, you own those items. The earliest use for this technology was used for art and community ownership. That makes perfect sense. The internet is a community-centric tool and ownership of digital art is a natural use-case for this tech.
But what NFTs actually do is so much more than just ownership of digital art. It can be ownership of everything you do and publish on the internet. In the case of a decentralized social media and Lens Protocol, this means owning your:
- Content
- Social network
- Data
- Revenue from monetization
While Lens Protocol and other examples of Web3 social media are extremely early examples of this tech, it definitely isn’t going anywhere. This is the natural progression of the internet. Instead of renting/borrowing your assets from the platforms you use, Web3 is giving users a chance to own them. Start making bets on this being a trend that takes over this next year. Tokens are available, just sitting and waiting for the internet to discover them.
NOTE: Remember always to do your research, make your own decisions, and invest in projects that interest you!
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