Darren Kleine

There’s an old adage: if you’re not paying for a product, you’re probably the product.



The typical selling point of social media platforms to current and prospective users is “free” access to the largest online communities. User data, not fees, is the platform’s commodity.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Personal interests, ranging from shopping habits to political leanings are typically extracted for the benefit of the platform’s bottom line. Advertisers and counterparties glean as much intel from the data as they can and then push their products and ideas right back at the users.&nbsp;



It seems that social media participants are often willing to give up control of personal data in return for a seamless experience that connects with the largest number of potential friends or followers.&nbsp;



Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-launches-alternative-to-traditional-social-media">Lens Protocol</a>, spoke to Blockworks about his aspirations for social media tech in an interview on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3l-oZPv0lg">0xResearch podcast</a>. 



Popular platforms provide usability in exchange for “more control over your social capital,” Kulechov says.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Lens Protocol’s profiles ‘secured by the blockchain’</h2>



Lens Protocol offers a “composable and decentralized social graph” for building out social network platforms, according to the company <a href="https://www.lens.xyz/">website</a>. The tool takes traditional Web2 actions like profile creation, following, sharing and content amplification and turns them into “protocol guarantees by using <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/smart-contracts">smart contracts</a> and using the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blockchain">blockchain</a>,” Kulechov says.



“When you create a profile on Lens, that profile is secured by the blockchain,” he says, adding, “if you follow other users, that follower graph is also secured by the blockchain — and these are protocol guarantees.”



To address the challenge of speed versus convenience, Kulechov says that the Lens Protocol stack includes on-chain and off-chain elements. <a href="https://twitter.com/LensProtocol/status/1651604792098308096">Momoka</a> — an “optimistic scaling solution” launched by Aave — creates blockchain transactions, but stores them on a separate <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sovereign-rollups-blockchain-scaling">data availability</a> layer.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s basically a full hybrid stack,” he says.



This allows for much greater performance than current <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-1">layer-1</a> blockchain tech can handle. It’s capable of dealing with the potentially massive flows of traffic that social media applications experience. “With something like Momoka,” Kulechov says, “you can take that big amount of data and just dump it directly to a data availability layer.”



“Do I need a blockchain to create a post or a comment? In those cases, maybe data availability is enough as a solution.”



“It&#8217;s up to the applications and then users to choose what they actually want and need” from the stack, he says.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Shifting the dynamics</h2>



The biggest benefit for users, according to Kulechov, is a shift in dynamics, from platforms holding most of the power to a system that is more “user-centric.” The social network service provides users with direct control of their online presence, he says.&nbsp;



“You as a user have oversight of your profile and your follower graph,” he says.



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG8365676972" width="100%"></iframe>







A user could decide to move to another Web3 social platform without having to start over. “You now have the choice and portability to take your followers and go to another experience or even use an alternative algorithm.”



“And because you&#8217;re tapping into the same user base,” Kulechov says, it will be “easier to bootstrap a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-social-media-apps-to-watch">social media application</a>,” carrying followers from one place to another, “because you have that portability by default.”



“Because it&#8217;s open, it also means that anyone can compute and create algorithms for discovery, finding content, and finding peers to follow in a more open way.”



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Can Web3 Conquer the Corporate Goliaths of Social Media?

Bessie Liu

Community governance at open source liquidity protocol Aave is voting to determine whether it should activate its V3 Ethereum pool. Still running on Aave V2, today, the Ethereum pool is by far the largest, with $5.6 billion in total value locked.



Aave V3 was deployed in March 2022 onto various networks including Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Fantom and Harmony. But the Aave community wrestled with how best to handle the massive Ethereum pool.



There were two main options: one was to upgrade existing V2 contracts to the new V3 code, and the other was to deploy new V3 contracts and leave existing V2 deployment unchanged.



Upgrading would have allowed the protocol to keep the addresses of key contracts (such as Pool, Addresses Provider, aTokens, debt tokens, etc.) but would be technically difficult to implement. The second option — deploying V3 contracts and leaving V2 contracts unchanged — was safer, but it places the burden of moving deposits to V3 on Aave users.



“Upgrading the Aave Protocol Ethereum V2 to V3 market directly would have indeed created some seamless experiences for the users, at the same time creates an event that would require lot of security procedures and places substantial assets at risk,” Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, <a href="https://governance.aave.com/t/bgd-aave-v3-ethereum-new-deployment-vs-aave-v2-upgrade/9990/4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>. 



Kulechov leaned toward creating a completely new market, as he believed it was more resource efficient and gave the Aave community more time to review assets within the protocol.&nbsp;



“Most importantly, [a] new market would be [a] safer solution and adds less risk,” Kulechov wrote.



The community ultimately agreed with Kulechov and <a href="https://snapshot.org/#/aave.eth/proposal/0x584eb4e0f79e1d9dcdd99b3a0c831bfc3c654af3f8f619d5f68eae23cd9cb149" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">voted in favor</a> of this option — deploying a new V3 pool instead — with 99.9% of voters in agreement.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">The highly anticipated V3 launch on the Ethereum mainnet AIP has been created by the community and is now live. V3 is the most significant upgrade to the Aave Protocol, and ETH is Aave’s first and largest market.👻 Read📚, vote🗳️, and discuss here 💬: <a href="https://t.co/9lVZseiAHM">https://t.co/9lVZseiAHM</a>&mdash; Aave (@AaveAave) <a href="https://twitter.com/AaveAave/status/1617481101852696578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



If <a href="https://app.aave.com/governance/proposal/?proposalId=147" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the latest proposal</a> is approved, it will activate the Aave V3 Ethereum pool which includes the listing of WBTC, WETH, wstETH, USDC, DAI, LINK, and AAVE tokens.



At the time of writing, 100% of votes cast so far are in favor of activating the V3 ETH pool, but the vote has not yet reached quorum. Voting on the proposal will end in two days.



A spokesperson for Aave was not immediately available for comment.



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Aave’s Hotly Debated V3 ETH Pool Up for On-chain Vote

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_6284fef873148" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Permissionless speakers today are focused on building, not market conditions</li>
 <li>Regulators are on high alert and bad actors should be put on notice, industry executives said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



As the aftermath from this month’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/terra-halted-again-exchanges-delist-spot-trading/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TerraUSD meltdown</a> continues to unfold and cryptocurrency markets extend their sell-off, industry executives are urging their communities to stay strong.



“One of the benefits of a bear market is other sources of validation go away,” Mary-Catherine Lader, chief operating officer of Uniswap Labs, said during a panel discussion at the Permissionless conference in Palm Beach. “All you really have is whether what you&#8217;re building is going to work and whether people are going to use it.”



Other conference speakers agreed, choosing the opportunity to focus on what developers are building and excited about right now as opposed to negative narratives surrounding the industry.&nbsp;



Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, said he was shocked at how quickly the industry has grown. Having billions of dollars of value locked into smart contracts is no small feat, and it’s happened in only a few years.&nbsp;



Decentralized finance (DeFi) industry leaders are looking beyond today’s market conditions, and rightfully so, the speakers said. Uniswap Labs’ key focus right now is simplifying the user experience, Lader added.&nbsp;



“To get out of a bear market, we need excited people, and we need capital,” Robert Leshner, CEO and founder of Compound Labs, said.&nbsp;



The source of capital he’s betting on? Institutional investors.&nbsp;



“Historically, DeFi has been individual-led…but our focus right now is how do we get an entire class of users in the system,” Leshner said.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We’re focused on enabling institutions with billions of dollars to safely deploy capital into DeFi”</blockquote>



Even amid the panelists’ optimism, the question of how the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/what-comes-next-for-terra-ecosystem/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">collapse of Terra’s stablecoin</a> might impact the rest of the industry remains. Regulators are on high alert, they agreed.&nbsp;



“Terra and Luna and UST are their own ecosystem, but it has a big impact on everything,” Leshner said. “I worry the nuance is going to get lost, the positives are going to be overshadowed by the risks, and the next few years are going to be about trying to differentiate the good actors from the bad.”



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Uniswap COO: Now Is the Time for Community Members To Drive Growth

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_6284f31da3a64" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The Web3 social platform built on the Polygon blockchain is powered by NFTs</li>
 <li>Lens Protocol designed to allow users to fully own their data</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Software development company Aave has launched its Web3 social platform powered by NFTs that aims to be an alternative to traditional social media platforms.&nbsp;



Called Lens Protocol, the open-source tech stack allows developers to build Web3-powered social media apps, marketplaces and recommendation algorithms.



Social media has remained relatively unchanged over the last decade due in part to user content being owned by a company, Aave CEO Stani Kulechov said in a statement. Elon Musk’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/elon-musk-secures-44b-deal-for-social-media-platform-twitter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bid to purchase Twitter</a> shows people are ready for a better experience, he added.



“Lens will be the infrastructure that will give rise to the golden age of Web3 apps,” Kulechov told Blockworks. “For the first time since the internet has been born, people can finally own their accounts and all of their content without an intermediary.”



The protocol enables each user’s followers, community and content to be linked to their NFT (non-fungible token) profile — and can be ported into any app powered by Lens.



Signers of the <a href="https://lens.xyz/letter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lens open letter</a> will be able to mint their profile to begin interacting with the first protocol-powered apps on Polygon, Aave announced Wednesday. Roughly 50 applications have been built on Lens so far, including social apps and creator monetization tools.



Lens Protocol created its Twitter account in January, and Aave <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/new-social-media-platform-turns-to-nfts-for-digital-ownership/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">detailed the protocol’s features</a> the following month. Kulechov had over the past year hinted at an offering that decentralizes social media.



In a Feb. 5 tweet, the CEO predicted that Web3-native social media will “kill” Twitter.



Dan Keeler contributed reporting.



This story was updated on May 18, 2022, at 10:00 am ET.



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Aave Launches Alternative to Traditional Social Media

<div id="highlights-block_6201a195ab00d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Aave introduced a new protocol as an alternative to traditional social media platforms</li>
 <li>The Lens Protocol, built on the Polygon blockchain, is powered by NFTs</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The team behind DeFi liquidity protocol <a href="https://aave.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aave</a> is unveiling a new way for social media users to own and control their content.



The Lens Protocol is “a permissionless, composable, and decentralized social graph that makes building a Web3 social platform easy,” according to a tweet Monday by Lens Protocol.



The protocol features traditional social media functions, including profiles, comments and sharing posts. Here’s the twist: it is powered by NFTs that allow users to own their content, according to <a href="https://mirror.xyz/lensprotocol.eth/YG9iFIs2emVFRtj3JqY95Dk6opNqM0aC9YoM-Ppp5as" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an Aave blog post</a> Monday. The Lens Protocol will be built on the Polygon blockchain.



Baked into the NFTs are a user’s social media history, including posts and comments. Following someone triggers a corresponding NFT to be minted.



A user can also create photos and music through a publication feature, as well as collect publications from accounts they follow.



Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, has over the past year hinted at an offering that decentralizes social media.



In a Feb. 5 tweet, he predicted that Web3-native social media will “kill” Twitter.



<a href="https://lens.dev/letter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">An open letter</a> drumming up support for Web3-driven social media came out before that, when people were encouraged to cryptographically sign the letter with their wallet.



“We spend time building unique selfhood across these Web2 media platforms, even though we know they are antiquated, centralized systems,” the letter stated. “Web3 brings forth a renewed hope for what social media can be. It offers the ability for us to control how our content is used.”



The Lens Protocol <a href="https://twitter.com/LensProtocol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter account</a> went live last month, and Kulechov teased the protocol at the time.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">I should own this tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/LensProtocol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lensprotocol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/digitalroots?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#digitalroots</a> sig:0x4b6b816adea1f2af77fd385331cca4af0e143a3afbebe61f5edfa643a72926ba194481fdc514b6e22202194068eeedf0a5b633c6b388b864b56ef33fd4f839d500 <a href="https://t.co/Mepx5tf5Bb">https://t.co/Mepx5tf5Bb</a> 🌿&mdash; stani.eth (👻,🌿) (@StaniKulechov) <a href="https://twitter.com/StaniKulechov/status/1487123644656537600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The Aave team also revealed in the Monday blog post a $250,000 grant program to accelerate the growth of Lens Protocol.&nbsp;



The post did not specify a mainnet launch date. An Aave spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.



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