Donovan Choy

This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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About 11 months after its initial <a href="https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/1790458663926219212">announcement</a>, the mainnet of Lens Chain goes live today with its V3 deployment.



Lens Protocol launched in February 2022 on the Polygon sidechain.&nbsp;



In May 2024, Lens announced that it was migrating off Polygon to its own L2 chain built within the zkSync Elastic Network. For the deal, Lens was <a href="https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/lens-promised-possibly-tens-of-millions-to-go-to-zksync/">reportedly</a> paid 0.5% of the total ZK token supply (worth about $6.5M today).



The shift to its own L2, however, was motivated primarily by costs and scalability.&nbsp;



Building Lens on the Polygon sidechain made sense in 2021, but once L2s were available, they provided a better cost basis for transactions, Lens founder Stani Kulechov told me last September at Token2049 Singapore.



“The costs on Polygon don&#8217;t scale to mainstream usage for social transactions. Compared to a rollup, the cost savings looks 30 to 50 times lower,” Kulechov said.



Rather than posting data to the Ethereum L1, Lens Chain is using <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/0xresearch/e91db748-d67d-11ee-8d92-8b61dd33eafb">Avail</a> as its data availability (DA) layer. That makes Lens Chain technically a <a href="https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/validium/">validium</a> rollup that also enjoys the security of Ethereum’s settlement.



Lens’ migration to its own chain is purportedly one of the largest. According to an official blog, the entire social graph to be migrated comes out to about 125GB of historical data and 12M+ content posts.



Users on Lens Chain will enjoy near-zero gas fees and can pay in Aave’s GHO stablecoin.



All content will also be stored onchain. This is thanks to <a href="https://lens.xyz/news/introducing-grove-onchain-controlled-storage">Grove</a>, Lens’ new storage infrastructure. Grove allows developers on Lens to have customizable access and control over user data. Platform data can be either permanent or deleted.



This makes all Lens’ social data fully onchain and decentralized, in contrast to competing Web3 social platforms like Farcaster, where only user profiles are onchain.



This, at its core, is what forms the foundation of Lens V3, what the team has termed a modular social protocol.



In addition, Grove also promises to deliver the “speed and cost-efficiency of leading Web2 solutions like AWS S3 and Cloudflare R2,” its blog says.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The state of Lens</h2>



Today, Lens boasts about 650,000 user profiles and 28 million social connections.



That is still a far cry from being a serious challenge to traditional social media platforms, but consider how far the promise of “social media on the blockchain” has come.



As far back as 2016, companies like Steem, a social project that was bought by the Tron Foundation in 2020 and subsequently hardforked by its original community into what is known today as the HIVE blockchain.



What does Lens do differently?



Recall that Lens is not a social media platform per se, but a protocol where apps can be built on top of it.



Lens&#8217; protocol is decidedly taking a builder-centric growth strategy. Lens wants to target app builders, in particular Web2 developers who have historically been deterred by the clunky UX and complexity of Web3.



“Our strategy focuses on social plus finance apps: projects where people connect, create and earn. Just like YouTube unlocked a new class of creators, Lens is unlocking a new class of SocialFi apps,” the Lens team told Blockworks.



In other words, the freedom to monetize on a permissionless infrastructure without gatekeepers.



Signature Lens apps since day one are migrating to Lens chains. These include the Twitter-like apps such as Orb and Hey, the AI launchpad Bonsai, Tape, a Tiktok-like short-form app, and more.



It’s hard to imagine Web3 socials ever toppling the incumbent Big Tech platforms today. But take heart in the fact that the mainstream media and experts of the 2000s felt just the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/feb/08/business.comment">same</a> about competitors to MySpace.



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0xResearch Newsletter

Lens launches mainnet today, bringing a potential new era to SocialFi

Macauley Peterson

On-chain social network infrastructure Lens is getting a new home.



The new Lens Network will build upon the work of the original Lens Protocol as one of zkSync’s ZK Stack hyperchains.



Lens Lab develops the protocol under the umbrella of Avara, which also built DeFi giant Aave.



But <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-companies-rebrands-avara">Avara CEO Stani Kulechov</a> told Blockworks that the non-financial use cases of crypto — citing identity and online social interactions — have the potential to be even bigger.



“The way I think about finance and social [spaces] is that there are a lot of people who have financial capital, but everyone on the planet has social capital — the content we create, the relationships we create and the identities we interact with,” Kulechov said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web2-social-media-kinda-sucks">Web2 social media kinda sucks. So why aren’t people using Web3 platforms?</a>



The ZK Stack chain will serve as a “central hub” for Lens, which, according to a blog <a href="https://app.t2.world/article/clw6l2z0018727620mc1dq26xr2">post</a> released Tuesday, will “seamlessly integrate with other EVM and non-EVM blockchains.”



A testnet release of the new network is still months away. The current version of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/lens-protocol">Lens</a> has been operational on Polygon’s PoS chain since May 2022.



The modular, open-source ZK Stack framework, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksyncs-evm-era-opens-to-the-public">based on the zkSync Era code</a>, will provide Lens with horizontal scaling, connecting as many Lens chains as needed by zk bridges, according to Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski.



“You can add one billion users and you will not lose any of the properties of verifiability,” Gluchowski told Blockworks. “Every single transaction of those millions and billions of users will be verified by every single Ethereum validator — which is the magic of zk,” he said.



Lens pioneered on-chain social infrastructure, but was initially conceived and developed at a time when <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/zero-knowledge-rollup">zk rollup</a> technology was still seen as years away from production at scale.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-launches-op-stack-rival">ZkSync launches rival to Optimism’s OP Stack</a>



“We want to build something that enables open and fair social spaces that anyone can participate on a network level, and because of the ownership aspect that also means you can own your social capital,” Kulechov explained.



That’s not possible with today’s social networks. User-created content is owned by the platforms, giving users limited ways to monetize without locking them in or relying on advertisers.



“We see Lens as the forebearer of Ethereum values when it comes to social,” Gluchowski said. “Lens is the only network that is actually making users the owners of their identities and their content. Everything is happening on-chain.”



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/empire-newsletter-crypto-users">Empire Newsletter: Here’s where all the crypto users really are</a>



That’s in contrast to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/farcaster">Farcaster</a>, where posts and interactions are primarily off-chain, as are user profiles, although they are linked to an on-chain Ethereum address.



Mainstream <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web2">Web2</a> social options like Facebook are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-web2-interoperability-mistakes">centralized and silo user-generated content</a>.



“Our mission is to change the relationship to be more fair [and] give more ownership and power to the users. Hopefully that user choice creates more open social spaces where users can choose algorithms and experiences as well, and there’s more competition on the application level,” Kulechov said.



The parties did not disclose any financial terms related to the move, or a strategy to incentivize users to migrate to the new version.



“We haven’t had any thoughts on migration incentives,” Kulechov said, adding: “I think people will organically migrate from the existing structure into the Lens Net fork down the line.”



But Kulechov noted that the phased approach to the rollout would include inviting users to migrate during a testnet phase and then be upgraded into the mainnet when ready.



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Lens Protocol

Lens Network to migrate to zkSync

James Cirrone

Lens Protocol’s next iteration is on the way, coming more than a year after its creators released the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-launches-alternative-to-traditional-social-media">first iteration of the Web3 social platform</a>.



Lens Protocol is an open-source tech stack that allows developers to build social media apps. A number of apps have launched on Lens, including Lenster, a Twitter alternative.&nbsp;



The team behind the project announced details about Lens’ second version Monday. In a Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/LensProtocol/status/1680872697033818112">thread</a>, they called it “the next chapter in the evolution of Lens.”



For developers and app creators, V2 promises a host of new features.&nbsp;



Among them are Open Actions, which will allow users to execute external smart contract actions directly on Lens apps that integrate the feature. For example, a user could mint an NFT on OpenSea via a post on Lens without having to actually visit the marketplace’s website.



Developers for the protocol say the new version enables ways to connect to other networks and platforms, including DAOs, Gitcoin and virtual worlds such as Decentraland or the Sandbox.&nbsp;



In the case of the Sandbox, a user could give their virtual plot of land, a tokenized NFT, a Lens profile and open a mailbox to communicate with other pieces of land.&nbsp;



“This functionality gives NFTs their own social relationships, voice and monetization opportunity. For example, CryptoKitty can own a Lens profile, follow other CryptoKitties and publish content, creating its own value chain,” according to a blog <a href="https://mirror.xyz/lensprotocol.eth/-hJH-2IYSe56rK7IEdwSI17hUWt-paTyAs1r4Zes0uQ">post</a> from Lens Protocol.



Lens V2 also introduces features that have been part of the core functionality for existing social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram for years.



With V2, a profile’s follow button has been updated so all relationships are attached to a profile and not the follower. Additionally, Lens profiles can now block other profiles on-chain. If a user blocks a profile, it can’t follow, comment, mirror, quote or conduct an open action on that user’s posts.



The Lens team has opened a waitlist for V2 access. At the time of publication, the waitlist link wasn’t operational.



Lens’ developers said once V2 launches on mainnet, they will “gradually onboard new profiles.” Existing Lens profiles will be able to migrate to the upgraded version at launch.



Monday’s announcement comes months after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lens-protocol-bonsai-launch">Lens launched Momoka</a>, its solution to speed up transactions while making them cheaper by storing them off-chain.



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Web3 social protocol Lens to drop V2 — here’s what’s new

Darren Kleine

Let’s face it. Web2 social media kinda sucks.



Even Twitter, a popular gathering point for many crypto enthusiasts, is not what it used to be. Sure, there seems to be less censorship and more transparency which is, arguably, a positive change. But lots of little things just don’t feel right.&nbsp;



The “for you” feed sends all kinds of irrelevant content, algorithms seem to change arbitrarily, and the search function is completely broken, to mention a few examples. And let’s not just pick on Twitter — competitors like Facebook and TikTok have their own long lists of problems.



Still, most of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a> world tends to congregate in Web2 platforms, despite their many flaws.



In the Web3 social media space, a couple apps like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-social-media-apps-to-watch">Lens</a> and Warpcast, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-social-feature-specific-apps">built on Farcaster</a>, have seen moderate success, but nowhere near the levels that would “disrupt” legacy platforms.



Back on Twitter, Icebergy has successfully built a substantial following, but he too finds Web2 services to be lacking.&nbsp;



The self-described developer and angel investor who created the popular market-tracking Twitter account, Whalebot Web3, spoke to Blockworks on a recent episode of the Empire podcast about Web3 social app adoption (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/5FLw82di9LpgUDgLaNBWWc?si=806ae887db1a4536">Spotify</a> / <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/empire/id1554930038?i=1000617736379">Apple</a>). 



While some Web3 social media apps are “pretty good,” he says, he doesn’t know what it will take “to get the snowball rolling of people actually logging in there and using it.”



The key challenge is to reach a critical mass where lots of people use the platform, but this usually only happens, paradoxically, if lots of people use the platform. “A lot of us are on Twitter because that&#8217;s where we engage with people,” podcast host Santiago Santos says.



It’s not easy to carve a viable niche out of massive corporate platforms, where everyone already gathers and feels at home. Web3 economic motivators can also attract negative behaviors, inauthentic engagement, and “paid shills,” for example, Santos says.&nbsp;



Genuine engagement and communication can be distorted when value is introduced, he says. “It just changes the game.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Just port over the content</h2>



Icebergy explains that old forums such as Twitter still hold certain advantages, primarily serving as a tool to “network and talk to people.”



“It&#8217;s like the best Google in the world where you can just ask a question and 10 people will tell you you&#8217;re right, 10 people will tell you you&#8217;re wrong.”



“It’s a very good public chat room,” says Icebergy.&nbsp;



To replicate this utility in Web3, the content needs to be imported, Santos says. He explains that he created his Web3 Lens profile to be “very transparent,” but the main barrier for usage requires changing the “flow” to attract users and develop new habits. 



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG6145872581" width="100%"></iframe>







As an early investor in Lens, he has spoken to developers about ways to “insert” adopters into that flow. “Can you create some sort of app where, if you tweet, it automatically posts on Lens by default as an initial hook? Just port over the content.”



He uses the example of Airbnb, which used a “great strategy,” he says, pulling listings straight from Craigslist and slapping on an attractive interface. “That was really all it took to source all the inventory and the content to the platform,” he says.



“Assuming you already have the content there — like, all my tweets are on Lens,” he says as an example, users could dive deeper into analytics, curation and engagement.&nbsp;



But <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-conquer-social-media">to attract users away from established platforms</a>, he says, there’s going to have to be a “value add” that doesn’t exist on Twitter.



Icebergy sees the list of upcoming Web2 social media platforms like Bluesky and Instagram’s Twitter clone, among others, and feels overwhelmed. “It just seems like too much.”



“But I feel like there has to be some opportunity here for something like that” in Web3, he says. For now, it seems to be “a forgotten aspect of crypto.”



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Empire

Web2 social media kinda sucks. So why aren’t people using Web3 platforms?

During the past week, six crypto firms collectively raised just short of $57 million. Among them, Lens Protocol, a company committed to providing a decentralized social media experience for Web3, secured $15 million in funding. The protocol, developed by Aave, said that it aims to expand its ecosystem and further enhance its product with the financial support, as <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/08/aaves-lens-protocol-raises-15m-to-build-the-decentralized-social-web/">reported</a> by TechCrunch on Thursday.



Aave Companies CEO Stani Kulechov told the outlet that Lens Protocol is trying to create a version of the internet that’s “more equitable, fair and democratic” and build infrastructure that isn’t owned by large corporations like Meta to ensure decentralization.&nbsp;



The seed round was led by IDEO CoLab Ventures with other investors, including notable venture capital firms and DAOs. Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams,OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah and others contributed as angel investors.



Lens Protocol has been in the process of scaling their social graph <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-launches-alternative-to-traditional-social-media">since its founding in May 2022</a>, but it took a larger step toward that goal when it launched Momoka in April 2023.&nbsp;



Momoka is its attempt to reduce gas costs and increase data throughput by <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lens-protocol-bonsai-launch">moving transactions off the Polygon proof-of-stake chain</a>. Lens Protocol stressed at the time that those transactions would still be verifiable via off-chain storage layers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Taiko raises $12M, earns notice of Vitalik Buterin</h2>



Taiko Labs, which is building what it describes as a Type 1 zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, raised $22 million across two rounds. The more recent second round was a pre-series A, and was led by Generative Ventures, the Block <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/233727/taiko-raise-zkevm">reported</a>.&nbsp;



Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote about Type 1 zkEVMs in an August 2022 blog <a href="https://mirror.xyz/dongdo.eth/U4ZvP7Y4WviN44Z2DC4o3__VIiHdzT_TPtzdZ88RiqE">post</a>, saying “Type 1 ZK-EVM is what we eventually need to make the Ethernet L1 layer itself more scalable,” he wrote. “[They] are also ideal for rollups because they allow rollups to reuse large amounts of infrastructure.”



Taiko <a href="https://taiko.mirror.xyz/wD7yN8Y5RttbP7kzdtX22GbMg6i18a-Xwet2sshpt48">released</a> its alpha-3 testnet on Wednesday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other notable fundraises</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Informal Systems, a core developer team in the Cosmos ecosystem, <a href="https://twitter.com/informalinc/status/1666459200103251972">raised</a> $5.3 million to bolster its security auditing division.</li>



<li>HyperPlay <a href="https://twitter.com/HyperPlayGaming/status/1666792743644041220">secured</a> $12 million from investors Griffin Gaming Partners, Bitkraft, MetaMask to build a Web3 game launcher and store.</li>



<li>Argus, another firm steeped in Web3 gaming, <a href="https://twitter.com/ArgusLabs_/status/1666113991310028803">brought in</a> $10 million from lead investor Haun with participation from Alchemy and others.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Ironforge, a serverless Solana development platform, announced a $2.6 million seed raise. Its team wants to improve the developer experience on Solana as the platform continues to grow.</li>
</ul>



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Aave

Crypto funding: $56M+ week with major focus on Web3 social media

There’s an old adage: if you’re not paying for a product, you’re probably the product.



The typical selling point of social media platforms to current and prospective users is “free” access to the largest online communities. User data, not fees, is the platform’s commodity.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Personal interests, ranging from shopping habits to political leanings are typically extracted for the benefit of the platform’s bottom line. Advertisers and counterparties glean as much intel from the data as they can and then push their products and ideas right back at the users.&nbsp;



It seems that social media participants are often willing to give up control of personal data in return for a seamless experience that connects with the largest number of potential friends or followers.&nbsp;



Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-launches-alternative-to-traditional-social-media">Lens Protocol</a>, spoke to Blockworks about his aspirations for social media tech in an interview on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3l-oZPv0lg">0xResearch podcast</a>. 



Popular platforms provide usability in exchange for “more control over your social capital,” Kulechov says.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Lens Protocol’s profiles ‘secured by the blockchain’</h2>



Lens Protocol offers a “composable and decentralized social graph” for building out social network platforms, according to the company <a href="https://www.lens.xyz/">website</a>. The tool takes traditional Web2 actions like profile creation, following, sharing and content amplification and turns them into “protocol guarantees by using <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/smart-contracts">smart contracts</a> and using the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blockchain">blockchain</a>,” Kulechov says.



“When you create a profile on Lens, that profile is secured by the blockchain,” he says, adding, “if you follow other users, that follower graph is also secured by the blockchain — and these are protocol guarantees.”



To address the challenge of speed versus convenience, Kulechov says that the Lens Protocol stack includes on-chain and off-chain elements. <a href="https://twitter.com/LensProtocol/status/1651604792098308096">Momoka</a> — an “optimistic scaling solution” launched by Aave — creates blockchain transactions, but stores them on a separate <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sovereign-rollups-blockchain-scaling">data availability</a> layer.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s basically a full hybrid stack,” he says.



This allows for much greater performance than current <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-1">layer-1</a> blockchain tech can handle. It’s capable of dealing with the potentially massive flows of traffic that social media applications experience. “With something like Momoka,” Kulechov says, “you can take that big amount of data and just dump it directly to a data availability layer.”



“Do I need a blockchain to create a post or a comment? In those cases, maybe data availability is enough as a solution.”



“It&#8217;s up to the applications and then users to choose what they actually want and need” from the stack, he says.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Shifting the dynamics</h2>



The biggest benefit for users, according to Kulechov, is a shift in dynamics, from platforms holding most of the power to a system that is more “user-centric.” The social network service provides users with direct control of their online presence, he says.&nbsp;



“You as a user have oversight of your profile and your follower graph,” he says.



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG8365676972" width="100%"></iframe>







A user could decide to move to another Web3 social platform without having to start over. “You now have the choice and portability to take your followers and go to another experience or even use an alternative algorithm.”



“And because you&#8217;re tapping into the same user base,” Kulechov says, it will be “easier to bootstrap a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-social-media-apps-to-watch">social media application</a>,” carrying followers from one place to another, “because you have that portability by default.”



“Because it&#8217;s open, it also means that anyone can compute and create algorithms for discovery, finding content, and finding peers to follow in a more open way.”



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0xResearch

Can Web3 Conquer the Corporate Goliaths of Social Media?

Twitter at peak usage, might process 25,000 transactions per second. For a Web3 social layer to compete, it must be able to handle a similar number without sacrificing the ideals of decentralization: user sovereignty and security.



Lens Protocol, a leading attempt at a decentralized social graph, launched Momoka, an attempt to address its scaling needs with what is described as “an optimistic layer-3 hyperscaling solution.”



Momoka — which is available in closed beta for developers as of Wednesday — will potentially reduce gas costs and increase data throughput for the Polygon proof-of-stake-based social protocol, by allowing builders to store transactions off chain, the developers at Aave, the company that created Lens Protocol, said in a statement.



“To be competitive with web2, decentralized social must scale. With the ability to support mass consumer adoption, we’ll see continued web3 innovation,” said Stani Kulechov, CEO of Aave Companies and founder of Lens Protocol.



Despite these transactions being moved off the Polygon proof-of-stake chain, with Momoka they will be available and verifiable via off-chain storage layers, to cut down on limitations associated with blocktime and blockspace, according to the statement. 



A Lens Protocol <a href="https://mirror.xyz/lensprotocol.eth/3Hcl0dGE8AOYmnFolzqO6hJuueDHdsaCs3ols2ruc9E">blog</a> post further explained that these “data availability layers” can hold more information for on-chain assets such as NFTs.



“Storing data on-chain is expensive, and EVM machines can only process a limited number of transactions per block based on maximum gas limits a block is configured to handle,” it said. Blockworks previously reported that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-social-media-apps-to-watch">Lens Protocol had over 100,000 users</a> as of February and were working to bring over 100 applications to market, including decentralized Twitter alternative Lenster.



Updated April 27, 2023 at 6:20 pm ET: Lens Protocol changed the name of its layer-3 scaling solution from Bonsai to Momoka on April 27, a day after the initial launch.



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Scaling Decentralized Social Is Tough — Lens Protocol Claims to Have a Solution

Shalini Nagarajan

Big Tech companies have reached high valuations and mammoth user bases, all while collecting personal data of their users. Developers and digital natives are now demanding safer platforms that protect their data and offer them total ownership and creative liberty over everything they post online.



A recent <a href="https://www.talkwalker.com/social-media-trends" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> by consumer intelligence firm Talkwalker shows decentralized social media platforms are shaping up to have the biggest impact on social media channels in 2023. This move toward decentralized networks is expected to grow as users seek greater control over their data and privacy.



“These startup decentralized networks may not take over in 2023, but they will cause big players to take notice,” the report said.



Here are some Web3 social media apps industry observers are talking about:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Lens Protocol&nbsp;</h2>



DeFi liquidity protocol Aave’s last year launched <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/new-social-media-platform-turns-to-nfts-for-digital-ownership">Lens Protocol</a>, a Web3 social graph said to give users complete creative and monetary ownership over their data and content. Built on Polygon’s <a href="http://blockworks.co/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake-whats-the-difference/">proof-of-stake</a> blockchain, the open-source tech stack allows users to monetize through community-based tools like “mirroring,” its own version of retweets, and portability — which enables users to “distribute once, distribute everywhere.” 



Lens has over 100,000 active profiles and has so far surpassed 12 million gasless transactions. The team is currently working to bring over 100 applications to market, and five of those are already consumer ready, including Web3 Twitter alternative Lenster.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Damus</h2>



Jack Dorsey-backed Nostr recently launched its own decentralized social media protocol called <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jack-dorsey-app-to-disrupt-twitter">Damus</a>, which enables end-to-end private messaging between users. The app aims to disrupt traditional social media by creating a censorship-resistant global network where users can’t be identified by their name or user handle, but rather by a public key. 



According to Nostr <a href="https://nostr.band/stats.html#daily_active_users" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">band data</a>, the network has over 524,000 profiles with bio attached and more than 30,000 daily new users as of early February.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Chingari</h2>



On-chain social network Chingari recently expanded its community by bringing on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aptos">Aptos</a> as its preferred layer-1, moving on from <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a>. Chingari’s user base has sprouted to more than 2.2 million users in 2022 and subscription revenue came to $700,000 in January this year alone, according to the company.



Chingari is a video-sharing mobile app on which users can create original videos and use augmented reality filters. It has more than 5 million daily active users and 40 million monthly active users. It is among the top 20 most downloaded apps around the world on Google Play. 



The newer version of the Chingari app, including the migration to Aptos, is expected to go live in the second quarter this year. The app is currently available in India, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkey and the US. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Taki</h2>



Built on Solana, Taki is a tokenized social network that aims to create a community by rewarding users with an active stake in itself per token. Users can earn social crypto tokens (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/taki">TAKI</a>) simply by posting content and interacting with others through posts or commenting. TAKI can then be used to purchase user coins, representing the value and influence creators bring to the platform. 



The platform has more than 820,000 users and a similar amount of unique user coins, according to <a href="https://taki.app/statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statistics</a> on its website.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">DSCVR</h2>



Launched on Internet Computer in 2021, DSCVR (pronounced “discover”) was founded by three friends. It describes itself as similar to Reddit, but if its development was governed by a few of its most dedicated users. A <a href="https://medium.com/dfinity/meet-dscvr-a-user-controlled-decentralized-social-network-running-entirely-on-chain-1ffba073950f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Medium</a> blog states that one of its goals is to become an “alternative for anyone who uses Reddit.”  



It chose the Internet Computer protocol because the blockchains give it “the web speed you need to bridge the gap between users who are used to centralized product experiences, yet on decentralized technology.”



It’s estimated to have close to 200,000 users, and all control not just the content, but the platform too.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bison Relay</h2>



Decred launched <a href="https://decred.org/ar/news/2022-12-15-decred-launches-bison-relay/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bison Relay</a> last year, a platform that offers “zero knowledge communications” with end-to-end encryption ensuring only intended recipients view the content of messages. Like Nostr, it also aims to be censorship-resistant. And the operators that run the network are unable to see what content users are sharing or which chats they are engaged in, a key effort to combat censorship. 



Currently, its user base consists of only 50 to 70 people.



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6 Web3 Social Media Apps To Keep an Eye On

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_62ea94dee70fe" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>CryptoPunks had the most trading volume on OpenSea in July</li>
 <li>Otherdeed, the Bored Ape Yacht Club land NFT collection, become the fastest NFT collection to reach $1 billion in sales volume in July</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The Web3 world this week saw a collaboration between luxury jeweler <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tiffanys-wants-cryptopunk-holders-to-buy-matching-bling-for-50k-eth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tiffany &amp; Co. and the CryptoPunks</a> collection, while Solana-focused NFT marketplace <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/solana-marketplace-magic-eden-to-offer-ethereum-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Magic Eden added support for Ethereum tokens</a> hours before a major <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/solana-based-wallet-users-drained-in-suspected-exploit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Solana hot wallet hack</a>.



Blockworks recaps other notable stories that caught the eyes of the Web3 Watch.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">The &quot;metaverse&quot; is going to happen but I don&#39;t think any of the existing corporate attempts to intentionally create the metaverse are going anywhere. <a href="https://t.co/tVUfq4CWmP">https://t.co/tVUfq4CWmP</a>&mdash; vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1553526863783657472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin weighs in on Meta’s chances in the metaverse, saying “anything Facebook creates now will misfire.&#8221;</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Muse music goes on-chain</h3>



British rock band Muse’s upcoming new album will be released as a limited-edition NFT (non-fungible token) on the Polygon-powered platform Serenade, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/01/muse-release-nft-edition-album-will-of-the-people-charts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">as reported</a> by The Guardian. “Will of the People” is Muse’s ninth studio album, scheduled to be released on Aug. 26.



Serenade allows music fans to use their Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets to trade and collect NFTs tied to limited edition digital collectibles and digital pressings. Digital pressings, Serenade founder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-shand-700a3ab5/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F&amp;originalSubdomain=au" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Max Shand</a> explained, “provide full length audio and unique artwork, paired with unlockable rewards and a list of first owners that publicly tie fans to the artists and releases they love.” 



“It’s premium vinyl for the web,” <a href="https://twitter.com/max_shand/status/1554063146775625728?s=20&amp;t=x5LghcWxhZP4_6Ni4e4DEg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he tweeted</a>.



Back in 2020, Muse also worked with Dapper Lab’s CryptoKitties project to create digital collectibles.



Muse’s NFT-bundled album is the first new format to be added to the UK’s Official Charts Company (OCC) charts in the UK and Australia. And it’s the first release on the OCC where the vendor, in this case Serenade, is approved as a <a href="https://www.officialcharts.com/getting-into-the-charts/the-chart-retailers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chart return</a> digital retailer, meaning sales on the platform contribute to official numbers.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">NFT Worlds takes the ‘N,’ ‘F,’ ‘T’ out of Minecraft</h3>



Microsoft-owned Mojang, the game studio behind the massively popular Minecraft, recently <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/web3-watch-yuga-labs-takes-voyagers-to-the-otherside-while-minecraft-bans-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decided</a> to ban blockchain technology and NFTs on the title.



The move disrupted NFT and token integrations built by Web3 based game platforms such as NFT Worlds. The team’s associated token, WRLD, immediately tanked about 65%.



NFT Worlds <a href="https://routing.nftworlds.com/ipfs/QmXRLKdmEReiTWoESHFfUUrJoWkUX2obye3urL6x8zt5Bx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">responded</a> by creating its own game and platform based on many of the core mechanics of Minecraft, and they named it Miecra — having removed the letters that make up “NFT” from the name of its inspiration.



“This is not a rewrite of some open source Minecraft clone, which likely would violate the EULA [end-user license agreement] or still risk legal action, this is entirely from the ground up. This transition will additionally come with a public facing brand identity change that is more player friendly,” tweeted the company, adding, “this is a web2 vs web3 battle.”&nbsp;



The updated WRLD tokenomics white paper <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTY0b4Uq6Yva32LofnsoPfYrAeeW8P8NkKocjpv1NWd1VWLtHrDsHaJM0VkyIbAnkmz0AssPTUAJ1QY/pub?start=false&amp;loop=false&amp;delayms=3000&amp;slide=id.g13fec2083ba_1_270" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlines</a> how the startup will incentivize participants to keep playing, while increasing the utility value of their digital assets as they build up reputations as players, creators or builders in the game world.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">The Future Of NFT Worlds 🌎 Read our statement below through the attached Twitter thread, or here: <a href="https://t.co/w0nf1f2xxn">https://t.co/w0nf1f2xxn</a> A thread 🧵👇 <a href="https://t.co/Oy2T7oXQVg">pic.twitter.com/Oy2T7oXQVg</a>&mdash; NFT Worlds (@nftworldsNFT) <a href="https://twitter.com/nftworldsNFT/status/1550526127407452161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">KuCoin launches an NFT ETF&nbsp;</h3>



Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220729005007/en/KuCoin-Becomes-the-First-Centralized-Exchange-to-Launch-NFT-ETF-to-Support-Blue-Chip-NFT-Investments" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched</a> an ETF tied to blue-chip NFTs such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).



KuCoin’s new ETF is a tether-dominated product that buys into derivatives of certain digital assets. Its portfolio will first cover fractionalized tokens representing partial ownership of BAYC, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/cryptopunks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CryptoPunks</a>, Koda NFTs, The Sandbox deeds and Ethereum Name Service domains.



The fractionalized tokens are issued by Fracton Protocol’s meta-swap NFT fraction exchange aggregator. KuCoin’s ETF won’t trade on traditional stock exchanges, however — the exchange has instead launched a specialized “Trading Zone” on which its users can trade the fund.



The NFT ETF Trading Zone, according to a statement, aims to “improve the liquidity of NFT assets and lower the investment threshold of blue-chip NFTs for over 20 million users.” It also intends to eliminate concerns associated with crypto wallets, smart contracts and NFT marketplaces.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">5,750,000 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hiPUNKS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#hiPUNKS</a> SOLD OUT IN 3⃣ SECONDS!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CryptoPunks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CryptoPunks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueChipNFT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlueChipNFT</a> <a href="https://t.co/cKYHIQWu4H">pic.twitter.com/cKYHIQWu4H</a>&mdash; KUCOIN (@kucoincom) <a href="https://twitter.com/kucoincom/status/1554413041705398277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Q&amp;A with Web3 social networking platform Lens Protocol</h3>



Lens Protocol is an open-source tech stack on Polygon for building <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/aave-launches-alternative-to-traditional-social-media/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decentralized social networking applications</a>. 



Unlike Web2 social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, developers can build crypto-powered social media apps, marketplaces, recommendation algorithms and more on top of the Lens Protocol. And it’s powered by NFTs.



One contributor, for example: <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/pussy-riot-founders-unicorndao-to-make-space-for-women-lgbtq-nft-artists/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pussy Riot</a>, the Russian feminist protest and performance art collective, created the “Proof of Protest” NFT collection to raise funds for seven US-based organizations that support women’s reproductive rights.



The collection, powered by UnicornDAO and the public charity foundation Endaoment, raised more than $110,000 in less than 72 hours after its July 7 release. Within that time, the collection minted 13,201 NFTs sent to more than 9,700 unique wallet addresses.



Blockworks reached out to Lens Protocol, operated by Aave, to learn more from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-beltramini/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Christina Beltramini</a>, head of growth and partnerships at Aave Companies.



Blockworks: How are <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=lens+protocol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lens Protocol</a> users interacting with its applications?



Beltramini: Currently, Lenster, a new decentralized and censorship resistant microblogging and social networking service is one of over 100 applications built on the Lens Protocol leveraging NFT technology, allowing users to fully own their data and unlocking new ways for creators to monetize their digital content and own their relationships with their communities&nbsp;&nbsp;



With Lens, each user’s followers, community, and content are linked to their NFT profile and can be ported into any new app powered by the protocol, giving creators the ability to be truly multi-platform and go direct-to-community.&nbsp;



The protocol also provides a user and creator-first foundation for any application to plug into, and gives people full ownership over their profile, content and relationships with their community with no overhead power with regard to how they control their content or their data.



Blockworks: How did Pussy Riot’s “Proof of Protest” NFT collection play out?



Beltramini: The NFTs were available to be collected directly on Lenster, which utilizes Lens’ collect module. As soon as they were collected, the posts became NFTs by being minted as publications on Lens. Specifically for this drop, Lenster ensured that creators, like Pussy Riot, were able to express their views safely without the risk of being suspended or shadow banned.&nbsp;



Creators are currently experimenting with creator monetization tools on Lens using the “collect module.” The most recent example of this tool being used to generate a profit (or in this case a donation) is Pussy Riot.&nbsp;



They raised more than 150,000 MATIC ($138,000) across three days through three different drops. Additionally, engagement for the open and limited editions has rivaled blue-chip NFT projects. They were also in the top 20 most active NFT contracts on Polygon — even compared to high-usage NFTs for gaming such as Aavegotchi and Cometh.



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ETFs

Web3 Watch: Muse To Release NFT Album, Lens Protocol Talks NFTs

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_6284f31da3a64" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The Web3 social platform built on the Polygon blockchain is powered by NFTs</li>
 <li>Lens Protocol designed to allow users to fully own their data</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Software development company Aave has launched its Web3 social platform powered by NFTs that aims to be an alternative to traditional social media platforms.&nbsp;



Called Lens Protocol, the open-source tech stack allows developers to build Web3-powered social media apps, marketplaces and recommendation algorithms.



Social media has remained relatively unchanged over the last decade due in part to user content being owned by a company, Aave CEO Stani Kulechov said in a statement. Elon Musk’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/elon-musk-secures-44b-deal-for-social-media-platform-twitter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bid to purchase Twitter</a> shows people are ready for a better experience, he added.



“Lens will be the infrastructure that will give rise to the golden age of Web3 apps,” Kulechov told Blockworks. “For the first time since the internet has been born, people can finally own their accounts and all of their content without an intermediary.”



The protocol enables each user’s followers, community and content to be linked to their NFT (non-fungible token) profile — and can be ported into any app powered by Lens.



Signers of the <a href="https://lens.xyz/letter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lens open letter</a> will be able to mint their profile to begin interacting with the first protocol-powered apps on Polygon, Aave announced Wednesday. Roughly 50 applications have been built on Lens so far, including social apps and creator monetization tools.



Lens Protocol created its Twitter account in January, and Aave <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/new-social-media-platform-turns-to-nfts-for-digital-ownership/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">detailed the protocol’s features</a> the following month. Kulechov had over the past year hinted at an offering that decentralizes social media.



In a Feb. 5 tweet, the CEO predicted that Web3-native social media will “kill” Twitter.



Dan Keeler contributed reporting.



This story was updated on May 18, 2022, at 10:00 am ET.



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Aave Launches Alternative to Traditional Social Media

<div id="highlights-block_6201a195ab00d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Aave introduced a new protocol as an alternative to traditional social media platforms</li>
 <li>The Lens Protocol, built on the Polygon blockchain, is powered by NFTs</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The team behind DeFi liquidity protocol <a href="https://aave.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aave</a> is unveiling a new way for social media users to own and control their content.



The Lens Protocol is “a permissionless, composable, and decentralized social graph that makes building a Web3 social platform easy,” according to a tweet Monday by Lens Protocol.



The protocol features traditional social media functions, including profiles, comments and sharing posts. Here’s the twist: it is powered by NFTs that allow users to own their content, according to <a href="https://mirror.xyz/lensprotocol.eth/YG9iFIs2emVFRtj3JqY95Dk6opNqM0aC9YoM-Ppp5as" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an Aave blog post</a> Monday. The Lens Protocol will be built on the Polygon blockchain.



Baked into the NFTs are a user’s social media history, including posts and comments. Following someone triggers a corresponding NFT to be minted.



A user can also create photos and music through a publication feature, as well as collect publications from accounts they follow.



Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, has over the past year hinted at an offering that decentralizes social media.



In a Feb. 5 tweet, he predicted that Web3-native social media will “kill” Twitter.



<a href="https://lens.dev/letter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">An open letter</a> drumming up support for Web3-driven social media came out before that, when people were encouraged to cryptographically sign the letter with their wallet.



“We spend time building unique selfhood across these Web2 media platforms, even though we know they are antiquated, centralized systems,” the letter stated. “Web3 brings forth a renewed hope for what social media can be. It offers the ability for us to control how our content is used.”



The Lens Protocol <a href="https://twitter.com/LensProtocol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter account</a> went live last month, and Kulechov teased the protocol at the time.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">I should own this tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/LensProtocol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lensprotocol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/digitalroots?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#digitalroots</a> sig:0x4b6b816adea1f2af77fd385331cca4af0e143a3afbebe61f5edfa643a72926ba194481fdc514b6e22202194068eeedf0a5b633c6b388b864b56ef33fd4f839d500 <a href="https://t.co/Mepx5tf5Bb">https://t.co/Mepx5tf5Bb</a> 🌿&mdash; stani.eth (👻,🌿) (@StaniKulechov) <a href="https://twitter.com/StaniKulechov/status/1487123644656537600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The Aave team also revealed in the Monday blog post a $250,000 grant program to accelerate the growth of Lens Protocol.&nbsp;



The post did not specify a mainnet launch date. An Aave spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.



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