Lens Protocol

The purpose of the Lens Protocol is to empower creators to own the links between themselves and their community, forming a fully composable, decentralized social graph. This is achieved by allowing users to create profiles and interact with each other via these profiles. “Profile” (as used here) refers specifically to Lens profiles; “user” refers to standard crypto-wallets.

The protocol is built from the ground up with modularity in mind. Lens Protocol is currently overseen by a multisig, which will be expanded to a broader DAO, which can develop and vote on new modules and expanded functionality.

How does the Lens Protocol compare to existing social networks and graphs?

Lens Protocol seeks to solve major issues in existing social media networks. Namely, Web2 networks all read from their unique, centralized database. There is no portability. Your profile, friends, and content  are locked to a specific network and owned by the network operator. This  causes each network to fight a zero-sum game for your attention.

Lens Protocol corrects this by being a user-owned, open social graph that  any application can plug into. Since users own their data, they can bring it to any application built on top of Lens Protocol. As the true  owners of their content, creators no longer need to worry about losing their content, audience, and livelihood based on the whims of an individual platform’s algorithms and policies. Additionally, each application using Lens Protocol benefits the whole ecosystem, turning the zero-sum game into a collaborative one. Developers can design meaningful social experiences without needing to turn to feedback mechanisms to lock in a user’s attention.