What is the Lens Protocol, and How Does it Work?

The innovation and, as an outcome, the booming popularity of social media began at the start of the century with the concept of the online social graph. This detailed data system marks a line between social network users and the individuals, places, and things with which they interact. However, the term has shown that the main social media outlets have several drawbacks related to centralization. The flagships of the transition are likely to be projections of current Web3 projects.

What is the Lens Protocol?

The Lens Protocol is an open-source, blockchain-based social graph designed to reshape the end of social media images in the age of Web3 and decentralization. Unlike contemporary Web2 social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, which use social graphs to make interconnections between social network users only centrally, the Lens Protocol is innovative to be permissionless and composable to allow creators of content to "own their digital roots" and enables people to take ownership of the connections between themselves and communities without compromise.

As a consequence, the result of the Lens Protocol has led to the emergence of a decentralized social graph that users completely own, offering them back the power of their data and links and even offering ways to monetize their range.

The Lens Protocol was presented in early 2022 and has garnered a lot of engagement in the blockchain and crypto gatherings due to the extreme nature of the social networking product and the well-known Aave (AAVE) team creating it. As a component of one of the top lending platforms in the Ethereum ecosystem, Lens Protocol seeks to manage the huge flaws in the current social media atmosphere, which it does successfully, gradually acquiring a base of loyal users from a Web3-ready community.

How does the Lens Protocol work?

Lens Protocol’s social chart is established through a graph database (GDB). These databases use graph systems that contain individual nodes, and advantages such as connection issues between them, places, objects, and other effects to store data. These charts show the components of the network and the connections between them.

However, Lens Protocol’s smart contract-based social graph varies from centralized social media graphs since, in the last case, data entry is only available through centralized assistance. In particular, users, third parties, and even tasks that might want to be combined with the service do not have access to it. Profiles, content, and links are locked and supported by the centralized network operator.

Additionally, it is known that any centralized service can barely become a single point of collapse when the single server becomes unreachable. Concentrating on creating decentralized social media applications (DApps), Lens Protocol’s available social graph architecture permits any blockchain-based social media outlet or DApp to connect to it.

Moreover, unlike the format of centralized services, which cannot be customized, the flexible design of Lens Protocol is based on concepts of modularity, allowing users to execute the latest elements and fixes and, at the same time, secure social relationships and user-owned content. The Lens Protocol is built on top of the green Polygon (MATIC) proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. It is also compatible with cryptocurrency wallets like MetaMask, Gnosis Safe, and Argent, increasing interoperability between platforms.

What makes Lens Protocol unique?

Two fundamental ideas that create the Lens Protocol world are: non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and modularity. Profiling users as NFTs is at the core of the protocol. Through it, Dece Lens Protocol’s social network decentralized components are authorized to make, maintain, and own their range and profiles defined by NFTs, while Polygon’s low-cost Layer 2 scaling key stores all data.

Such an architecture makes it possible to transfer all the rights and complete ownership of the content into the hands of the users. Any content published, be it text, an idea, or even a difference in avatars, is open on the track. Modularity as a prop system property guides creation, availability, and connectivity, which suggests that the social graph of the Lens Protocol is available to all developers and prepared to offer and execute new elements.

At the same time, community members can decide whether to support these users by agreeing on which features to combine in the most decentralized and open manner. Due to these tools and the lack of a central actor holding the data, new social media networks can emerge, maintaining freedom of expression.

The advantages of the Lens Protocol

The benefits of the protocol lie in its very origin and the regulations of Web3. Above all, Lens Protocol’s independent, permissionless network creates censorship-resistant conditions that cannot be interrupted. No third group, including centralized management, can draw or censor any range or ban any profile.

With it, Lens Protocol users own their range and data and can use it on any social media platform or DApp created on top of the protocol. Moreover, developing a full-fledged Web3 social platform with Lens Protocol is possible with locations found on the Lens Protocol to help the successful ecosystem and take advantage of the protocol’s modularity and efficiently customizable elements.

Finally, Lens Protocol’s PoS algorithm creates its blockchain energy-efficient and affordable, particularly compared to the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm, which consumes large amounts of computing power.

The future of Web-based social media

In the twenty-first century, individuals use social media all the time and about, even though social networks are full of scams in their centralized performance. The main problem with the current social media ecosystem is the lack of rights to users' data as content that users make does not belong to them, and censorship implies the platforms have the right to censor any information or ban any profile that does not comply with their policies.

The advantages of Web3 and blockchain for social media are that they are transparent and can have a powerful effect by delivering new patterns of requests and customization. They accelerate the process now led by Lens Protocol’s community-owned social graph and similar tasks in the social media space. They assign their users and give them power and the ability to choose how they like their social graph to be created and monetized, exerting considerable influence on the communication paradigm.