Guides

What is Lens? ๐ŸŒฟ

Introduction

The Lens Protocol is a Web3 social graph on the Polygon Proof-of-Stake blockchain. It is designed to empower creators to own the links between themselves and their community, forming a fully composable, user-owned social graph. The protocol is built from the ground up with modularity in mind, allowing new features and fixes to be added while ensuring immutable user-owned content and social relationships.

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.


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