Before the beginning of the 21st century, social media existed only as an idea but it became a reality shortly after the century.
Social media changed the world in many ways, particularly the social interaction of people all over the world. A core part of the infamous social media was the online social graph.
The concept of an online social graph is a data structure that shows the relationship between users of social networks, people, places and things get to interact.
However, most social media platforms are plagued with the problem of centralization which disallows people to take complete ownership of the connections between themselves and their communities.
With Web3 technology already lurking around the corner, some social graphs like Lens Protocol will change the future of social media concepts.
In this article, we will discuss the meaning of Lens Protocol and how it works.
What is Lens Protocol?
Lens Protocol is a blockchain-based open-source social graph for redesigning the concept of social media in the Web3 era and decentralized manner.
Some Web2 social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter connect all users of the platforms in a centralized way using social graphs but utilising the Lens Protocol in Web3 will give users and content creators permission to control their data. It is designed to be permissionless and give people the power to take charge of the social connections between them and the communities.
Lens Protocol gained a lot of traction in the whole crypto community and blockchain since it was developed in early 2022. The quick widespread of Lens Protocol can be attributed to the revolutionary nature of the social networking product and the famous Aave team which also aids in developing it.
The result was an emergence of an ingenious protocol which paved way for the birth of the decentralized social graph that users can possess and control, providing options for content monetization and offering them absolute control of their links and data.
The current social media space is flawed especially as regards centralization. Lens Protocol intends to address these shortfalls in the social media space and it has already started as it is gradually gaining enormous devoted users of the Web3 community.
How Lens Protocol Works
Lens Protocol is a social graph which was established through a graph database which uses graph structures that contain private nodes, and other available properties for data storage.
The Lens Protocol was built on the Polygon MATIC proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and it shows the relationship between network members.
Unlike Lens Protocol, centralized social media graphs make data accessible to centralized services only. Therefore, users, projects or third parties that may want to incorporate into the service cannot access it.
The centralized network operators keep and lock up all the profiles, content and connections.
Additionally, when the single server becomes inaccessible, the centralized service is vulnerable to weak access for failure.
However, by steering towards developing social media decentralized applications (DApps), any social media platform built on the blockchain can plug into the Lens Protocol’s open social graph architecture.
Furthermore, Lens Protocol is a more flexible design based on the modularity concept, unlike the centralized services which can not be customized.
The modularity of Lens Protocol allows for the implementation of the latest features, and security of user-owned content and social relationships.
Lens Protocol aligns with crypto wallets such as MetaMask and creates interoperability across platforms.
The Advantages Of Lens Protocol
The Web3 principles are the foundation of the benefits offered by Lens Protocol.
Firstly, given the Lens Protocol does not need permission from any centralized operator, it creates an environment void of censorship and interruption.
Third parties which include centralized authorities will not be able to remove, censor content or ban any profile.
This gives Lens Protocol users power over their content and data. They can further use them on any social media platform existing on the protocol.
Again, it is possible to build a complete Web3 social platform with Lens Protocol when its application gain from the protocol’s modularity and customized features.
Finally, the PoS consensus mechanism of the Lens Protocol is energy efficient and very affordable, unlike the large energy consumption experienced by the PoW algorithm.
The Disadvantages Of Lens Protocol
Even though Lens Protocol has its benefits, there are some challenges involved in this protocol which should not be overlooked.
Lens Protocols have a storage problem which can be connected to security issues. The amount of on-chain storage capacity in a blockchain is limited, hence, not all content and NFTs are stored at this level causing the need for another storage solution.
All publications in Lens Protocols have a special ContentURl which indicates the content the publications contain. The content can be text, an image, a video etc.
Some distributed file storage systems like IPFS or Arweave store the original files, which makes any user’s content very vulnerable.
Additionally, NFT maintenance and smart contracts are risky as hackers have attacked decentralized finance (DeFi) networks severally.
Lens Protocol And Its Usage
Lens Protocol was designed to mirror social media functionality but in a Web3 setting using blockchain technology, NFTs and smart contracts.
Just like many social media platforms in Web2, the Lens Protocol’s users can post, share comments, update profiles, follow profiles of friends etc.
The first step of a Lens Protocol user is to create the Profile NFT. Possessing this NFT is a key to adding content, linking, communicating and gaining control over your data.
The Profile NFT permits users to track other profiles through the personal Follow feature. This is not exactly the same option in Web2 social media.
When a user of Lens Protocol follows a profile, they get a Follow NFT which can be encoded with additional value.
The Collects feature of Lens Protocol allows users to monetize their accounts by setting a Collect option when uploading a publication to their Profile NFT. By being totally in possession of their content, creators can sell it to their followers under certain determined conditions.
Conclusion
Social media platforms have become very common among people in this 21st century, even though the networks are largely flawed in their centralized version. Users have suffered the lack of rights to manage their data because content generated by users does not belong to them and they are quite censored as well.
This gives the centralized platforms the right to take down profiles that defaults in their stipulated policies.
Web3, through Lens Protocol, has shown the possibility of offering users a decentralized pattern of data ownership and customization on social media.
