What is Lens? 🌿

Important update 🚨🚨

Lens will be migrating to version 2 on October 30 2023.

If you are building a new app on Lens we strongly recommend using Lens V2 APIs, smart contracts, and SDKs.

If you have an existing app on Lens, please migrate your codebase to Lens V2 by October 30 2023.

You can view the V2 documentation here.

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.

Getting a Lens profile

Mainnet

Lens is currently in closed beta. You can request a Lens Profile here.

Testnet

Anyone can claim a testnet handle either by visiting Hey Testnet or by calling createProfile on Testnet.