Lens V2: Pioneering a New Era of Web3 Social

The highly anticipated V2 version of Lens Protocol has recently completed its migration work. This new version is centered around the core concepts of "openness and composability, shared benefits, trust, and security," bringing exciting feature updates to users. Users can not only interact with smart contracts within social media but also perform external smart contract operations in Lens publications.

As one of the pioneers in the Web3 social network space, Lens is dedicated to overcoming the limitations of traditional Web2 platforms. The CEO of Lens Protocol stated that the goal of V1 is to launch a Web3 social network, promote innovation, and test tools that benefit the ecosystem. V2, on the other hand, pursues a more flexible modular design aimed at further increasing user autonomy in the social network experience. Lens V2 is expected to bring revolutionary changes to social capital and user experience in Web3 social networks.

Challenges and Breakthroughs: The Web3 Social Revolution of Lens Protocol

Currently, the development of Web3 social platforms is facing some dilemmas. Traditional social networks are difficult to establish in a Web3 environment because social activities are much more complex than simple financial transactions. Traditional social media platforms focus on content sharing and connections between users, but in the Web3 world, social networks need more functions and features to meet the needs of users.

One of the main challenges is that social networks built solely on specific content or business models often lack vitality. Users may flock in just to earn rewards, rather than being genuinely interested in Web3 social interactions. This leads to issues of transient user engagement and a lack of deep interaction.

In addition, traditional social media platforms control users' data and social relationships, making it difficult for users to focus on building their own Web3 social networks. They are accustomed to establishing and maintaining their social relationships on traditional social media, which creates certain barriers to transitioning to decentralized platforms to build new social networks.

Past Web3 social platforms attempted to establish social value through the issuance of social tokens, community passes, NFT artworks, and other means. However, these platforms still rely on traditional Web2 social platforms to connect users and disseminate value. This dependency creates a vulnerability; once traditional Web2 platforms sever their connection with Web3 social platforms, the social value built upon them will also disappear.

To overcome these challenges, Lens Protocol emerges as a decentralized social networking underlying protocol. Unlike traditional social media that we are familiar with, Lens Protocol itself is a social network. It enables third-party developers to easily build their own social media applications based on the protocol by sharing users and user data. The goal of Lens Protocol is not just to achieve a Web3 social network through a single application, but to create a shareable social network in the form of a foundational protocol, promoting the development of Web3 social networks by driving the growth of the entire ecosystem.

Lens: Create a Shareable Social Network in the Form of a Base Protocol

Lens is an innovative social network based on foundational protocols, standing out with its shareable features. By transforming personal profiles, followers, collectors, and content into NFTs, Lens empowers users with more rights and opportunities. Additionally, the introduction of programmable modules enhances the composability and openness of the social platform.

Profile Homepage NFT: The Profile Homepage NFT is one of the core concepts of Lens innovation. It transforms the user's profile homepage into a non-fungible token, with each token containing the user's personal information, followers, and content-related data. The tokenization mechanism of the Profile Homepage NFT empowers users to manage their personal identity autonomously and trade on the NFT market. Users can utilize the Profile Homepage NFT through selling, leasing, or licensing, thereby gaining economic returns while ensuring the security and privacy of their personal information. The introduction of the Profile Homepage NFT enables the sharing of social capital and the realization of economic value.

Follower NFT: To fairly reflect the status of followers in social networks, Lens has introduced the concept of Follower NFTs. Each Follower NFT is associated with a specific personal homepage NFT and grants followers a unique serial number that represents their order and importance within the social network. Follower NFTs are not only a form of identity proof but also represent the social rights of followers within the social network. The serial number and rights conferred by the Follower NFT ensure that the contributions and status of followers in the social network are fairly represented. The existence of Follower NFTs promotes interaction and sharing among users, establishing a more balanced and equitable social relationship.

Collector NFT: Lens introduces the concept of Collector NFTs, enabling the collection and sharing of content within social networks. Users can transform their favorite content into non-fungible Collector NFTs, which can be associated with their personal homepage NFTs. Collector NFTs grant users the rights to collect specific content and showcase their interests and tastes within the social network. Other users can acquire Collector NFTs through trading or authorization methods, thereby sharing and displaying common interests and values among users. The introduction of Collector NFTs enriches the content ecosystem of social networks, creating more opportunities for social interaction and sharing.

Content NFT: Lens allows users to convert their creative works into NFTs and associate them with their personal homepage NFTs. Content NFTs represent users' creative works, which can take the form of articles, photos, videos, and more. The introduction of content NFTs enables creators to widely share and circulate their works on social networks and trade them in the NFT market. This provides creators with a broader platform for display and trading, facilitating the appreciation and protection of creative achievements. At the same time, users can also obtain other users' content NFTs through trading or authorization, enriching the content choices and experiences on social networks.

Programmable Modules: As a foundational protocol, Lens provides programmable modules that allow developers to customize various social interaction features according to their needs. These modules include social behaviors such as following, favoriting, commenting, and sharing, enabling developers to extend their functionalities by writing smart contracts. The introduction of these modules offers users flexibility and a personalized experience, opening up innovative application scenarios such as paid subscriptions and ad incentives, further enriching the functionality and value of social networks.

Through the design and features mentioned above, Lens has created a shareable social network in the form of a foundational protocol. Personal profile NFTs, follower NFTs, collector NFTs, and content NFTs collectively build the user's social capital, enabling them to self-manage and share. The programmable modules provide developers with innovative application scenarios, expanding the functionalities and possibilities of the social network.

This design based on tokenized social relationships makes Lens an open, scalable, and customizable social network ecosystem that meets the diverse needs of users and promotes the sharing and appreciation of social capital.

Lens V2 New Features: Open Operations and Shared Value Sharing

Lens V2 is the latest version of Lens Protocol, released during the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris in July 2023. At the launch event, Lens V2 showcased a series of exciting new features, including "open operations, shared value, personal profile updates, and personal profile management." The release of Lens V2 marks a further improvement in modular design, providing users with greater autonomy and flexibility.

Open Operations - Composable Social Network

Lens V2 introduces open operation features, further enhancing the composability of social networks, providing users and developers with more freedom and creativity. Open operations provide an open framework that allows developers to directly integrate external smart contract operations into Lens, thereby creating innovative experiences within the social network.

Through the composability of open operations, users and developers can choose different features on Lens according to their interests and needs, and combine them to create a unique social experience. This provides users with greater freedom, allowing them to engage in areas they are interested in and share these experiences with other users.

The composability of open operations also provides the possibility for cross-chain operations. This means that users on Lens can interact with other blockchain networks and participate in different ecosystems. For example, users can purchase land on other platforms, join DAOs, or make donations through Lens. This cross-chain operation expands users' social networks into the broader blockchain world, bringing them more opportunities and experiences.

Shared Value

In Web2 social media, there has long been a problem of content duplication and plagiarism. Although various platforms have taken some measures to encourage originality, the conflicts of interest between the platforms have prevented the establishment of effective measures to protect the rights of content creators, resulting in the persistent issues of duplication and plagiarism in Web2 social media.

However, with the release of Lens V2, this problem that has plagued Web2 for many years may be well addressed in Web3. Lens V2 provides an innovative solution by constructing a value chain of contributions. It allows everyone involved in content publishing to share in the profits generated by that content.

In this process, content creators, content promoters (curators), and platforms can all participate in content revenue. Original users can enjoy revenues from multiple platforms without having to promote themselves or repost on other platforms. The role of curators becomes very important, as they are responsible for promoting user-generated content to more people or publishing it on other platforms, while also sharing in the revenue. This creates a layered revenue mechanism.

In addition, Lens V2 also provides support for intelligent algorithms, helping users and curators to promote content more efficiently, allowing more people to see and share the benefits within it. This approach ensures that every participant in the chain can benefit, incentivizing the continuous creation of original content and attracting more attention from people, while also promoting the prosperity and development of the community.

Personal Profile Update

Lens V2 further expands the functionality of personal profiles by introducing the ERC-6551 standard. Each Lens personal profile can create a smart contract wallet account, possessing all the capabilities of an Ethereum account. This includes holding NFT and token assets, as well as interacting with Dapps. This enhancement in functionality grants personal profiles greater programmability and interoperability, allowing users to manage and utilize digital assets more flexibly.

In Lens V2, the attention architecture has also been improved. Attention relationships have shifted from wallet addresses to personal profiles, with all social interactions occurring between personal profiles. This improvement enhances the developer experience with Lens operations. Additionally, personal profiles can now opt for NFT tokenization, with all attention relationships associated with the personal profile rather than the follower. When a personal profile moves, its social network moves along with it, providing users with greater flexibility and convenience.

In addition, Lens V2 has changed the paradigm of the social asset system. Personal profiles are no longer just a static entity associated with a wallet address, but have become an independent individual with their own social graph and following system. The value of social graph relationships is directly attached to the personal profile, making the profile itself a valuable social asset.