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Aave Companies today announced the launch of an open source tech stack for building social networking applications. The Lens Protocol will be located on the Polygon blockchain and will allow developers to create social media apps, marketplaces, recommendation algorithms and more.
Embedded in the decentralized ecosystem that we call Web3, it will use NFT technology to allow users to fully own their data and open up new opportunities for creators to monetize their digital content and relationships with followers.
Amid all the controversy surrounding free speech and Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, it’s a poignant time to launch this new kind of social media effort and hand over the keys of censorship to the public.
To get a deeper insight, BitcoinMag interviewed Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave Companies.
BitcoinMag (BM): For what reasons would social media entrepreneurs take the decentralized path rather than the conventional approach?
Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave Companies (SK): In the past, social media apps have created trenches by making it harder for users to get their followers and content to new platforms, forcing creators to come up with something new from scratch every time. This has led to the fact that they have a monopoly-like control over the relationship between creators and their audience, as well as the distribution and visibility of content on their platforms. (This is done both by centralizing data from social networks on the Web2 – and using it for your own benefit – and by charging fees to creators who want to monetize their content. Through the decentralized path, Lens Protocol wants to expose the social hub of the Web3 in order to turn the zero-sum game into a collaborative game.
BM: Do you think the timing of this launch is particularly relevant given the controversy surrounding Twitter’s freedom of expression and Elon Musk’s takeover attempt?
SK: The introduction of Lens Protocol will certainly come at a suitable time. For example, Twitter recently decided to block my account. This is exactly the kind of action (deletion of a profile and removal of a fan base, built for years on the whim of a centralized, opaque platform) that prompted me and the Aave Companies team to develop the Lens Protocol.
Lens Protocol was built on the ethos that a user should have full ownership of their content – that means no central entity can take it away from them. If you don’t like one platform’s policies on Apps powered by Lens, you can take your profile and community to another.
Web3 Social provides ownership and freedom over content in a way that Web2 platforms like Twitter can’t. Musk has claimed that, in his opinion, Twitter should be an unregulated global town hall, and Twitter has long prided itself on being the arbiter of public discourse. But if this were really the case, then the digital city hall should also belong to the public, and not be hosted only by a centralized power that could close its doors to people of its choice.
Public goods should be public, which means that basic building blocks of these platforms should be open source. What a person creates should be his property, but it goes beyond this basic value of common property.
For this reason, decentralized software such as the Lens Protocol and community-owned platforms they operate are critical to driving the public conversation.
BM: Do you think that decentralized social media could also have disadvantages? For example, could hate speech or false information go unchecked?
SK: That’s the beauty of putting the property in the hands of the community. If we believe that people are good by nature and will work together to maintain a positive environment that they have created, then such things will not remain uncontrolled.
BM: What do you think the future holds for centralized social networks like Instagram and Twitter?
SK: For now, these networks will exist alongside the decentralized networks, but I believe that once users have seen and experienced the benefits of decentralized platforms, there will be a massive shift in the places where they gather.
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