Decentralized finance leader Aave has recently secured $15 million in funding to develop Lens, a cutting-edge non-fungible token (NFT) powered protocol for decentralized social media platforms. The new protocol, built on top of Ethereum scaling solution Polygon, will enable users to tokenize their social data, gaining ownership of their content preferences and network, and transfer it with ease between supported platforms.
Aave co-founder and CEO, Stani Kulechov, envisions users of traditional social media platforms embracing the concept of profiting from and owning their creative work. This is an aspect not offered by mainstream Web2 social media sites. As Lens comes out of its year-long beta testing phase, the goal is to attract users beyond the existing Web3 privacy and decentralization advocates, as well as to provide a seamless experience for individual users and influencers migrating from platform to platform.
This unique approach aims to consolidate a user’s online presence across social media networks and make digital identity management more efficient. Kulechov’s ultimate goal is for the Lens protocol to serve as a unifying network that allows content and followers to move freely between platforms, working together to promote growth.
Lens stands apart from other decentralized social media initiatives due to its focus on user ownership. Recent challenges faced by platforms like Twitter, along with the emergence of decentralized alternatives like Bluesky and Nostr, have brought about attention towards decentralized social media. However, neither Bluesky nor Nostr operate on a blockchain like Lens does.
The promising fundraising round was led by IDEO CoLab Ventures, joined by other notable participants such as General Catalyst, Variant, Blockchain Capital, and Palm Tree, as well as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) like Flamingo DAO, Punk DAO, and DAOJones. Among the angel investors who participated were Web3 entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, and The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget.
While excitement around the potential of decentralized social media continues to grow, skepticism persists regarding its mainstream adoption. Perhaps the key to unlocking the future of Internet identity and ownership lies in the successful implementation of blockchain-based solutions like the ones proposed by Aave. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether such platforms can overcome existing technical and social barriers and pave the way for a Web3-native online experience.
Source: Decrypt
