Lens (@LC), the Web3 social network, is set to launch on @monad ($MON) as a fully onchain network, with every account and follow recorded on the blockchain. Monad described it as a social graph rebuilt from the ground up to be fully onchain. In this design, users own their accounts and connections, and platforms cannot lock them out.
How the Lens Network on Monad Is Designed
The network is open, allowing anyone to build an application on top of Lens, while each user can choose what appears in their own feed. According to Monad, people with an existing Lens or Farcaster account can sign in using it.
This approach extends the way Lens has operated since its inception. Blockworks noted that Lens is a protocol for building apps, rather than a social media platform itself. The same report said Lens stores all its social data onchain, unlike Farcaster, where only user profiles are onchain.
Background: Lens and Its Earlier Moves
The team behind Aave created Lens Protocol. Yahoo Finance reported in May 2022 that Lens launched on the Polygon network as a decentralized social graph, enabling users to mint a profile, follow others and create posts onchain.
Lens later moved to its own infrastructure. The Block reported that Lens launched Lens Chain, an EVM-compatible Layer 2 network that uses Avail for data availability and ZKsync's developer stack, with Aave's GHO stablecoin serving as the native gas token. Blockworks reported that, at the time of that launch, Lens had about 650,000 user profiles and 28 million social connections.
Lens stewardship has since changed. Cryptonews, via Yahoo Finance, reported that Aave handed responsibility for the protocol to Mask Network, which now leads product and application development, while Aave provides technical advice. Both parties said the change was not an acquisition, sale or exit, and that the protocol's core components remain open source and permissionless.
The Monad deployment would put Lens on a network separate from Lens Chain. The sources reviewed for this article did not confirm the timing, how existing Lens accounts might carry over, or what role $MON might have.
Onchain social networks have struggled to reach the scale of conventional platforms. Blockworks described Lens's user base at the time of its mainnet launch as still far from posing a serious challenge to traditional social media, while noting the progress made by the idea of social media on the blockchain.
Sources
Yahoo Finance (Cryptonews): Aave Hands Lens to Mask Network, Doubles Down on DeFi Ambitions
Blockworks: Lens launches mainnet, bringing a potential new era to SocialFi
The Block: Lens releases Lens Chain mainnet with Avail DA and ZKsync tech
Yahoo Finance: Decentralized Social Graph Lens Protocol Goes Live
Source: bsc.news. Adapted by NBTC.
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