I'll let this caption start the description-------
As we all know by now, like most landscapes in life, every industry has mainstream products and underground products. Crypto is no different- there are small projects that never grow past a certain threshold, and then there are the industry backed products whose potentially could moon, depending on the exposure they get.
As far as web3 social media platforms go, Lens Protocol is the industry backed standard. It's not the first crypto social media platform, and it may not be the best either, depending on your requirements, but for me, it's choice. I typically choose the smaller underground project, but for crypto investments I stay blue-chip, and for social media, I want a platform that's reputable and that attracts people who are comfortable with mainstream attention. I make these decisions for the safety and utility of my personal life.
From the team who created AAVE, one of the first and still running blue chip d'apps on Ethereum, we present to you, Lens Protocol.
Essentially, Lens is a decentralized social network protocol- designed to have more specific social media d'apps built around it which run in conjunction with it.
First Stop: https://lens.xyz/
There's plenty of information about the protocol, it's devs and developments, and how to build on Lens. Most importantly, this is where you claim your handle, which is essentially an NFT that goes in your ETH (Polygon) wallet and allows you to interact with the Lens Protocol D'apps.
As it stands right now, early access only for community members- go to the site and connect your wallet to see if you're eligible! As far as I know, if you didn't whitelist early this year, you will not be eligible. To be honest, I was not eligible, but I got wise and bought a handle on OpenSea. (Click link to see listings.) Luckily, I found one that was partially my last name and partially my daughter's spirit animal; I was satisfied for .005 ETH to get the handle @vancat.lens
Check me out! Lensfrens.xyz
Click the link above and it will take you to a directory sort of page- or a Lens Explorer- it queries all Lens NFT handles and gives the address associated with them- as well as giving the owner the ability to add a profile picture, their web 2 social media handles, their name, and bio. If you have an ENS name primarily associated with your address, that also pops up, giving a very comprehensive web 3 profile. Click the link to see mine- I think it's safe to say I'm pretty doxxed in this space now.
The Main Stop: https://lenster.xyz/
Click the link to go to Lenster's home page, and here is a picture of my profile. This protocol is the Twitter of Lens. Using your Polygon wallet to sign in, users can post, comment, mirror (retweet), or even collect, which is basically saving a post as an NFT. This can come in handy when the post is cool art on an exclusive social media page. Artists can even charge a fee denominated in several different currencies for users to collect their posts- there is a few different parameters available for setting up collections.
All content is uploaded to the permaweb via an Arweave transactions.
Initially, people were thinking the Lens is like web3 Twitter- do you see now how that's just one small part of it? If you go to the Lens homepage in the link posted, you can find a list of all the d'apps which are currently supported by Lens. This includes the two aforementioned, as well as LensTube, which is, of course, a web 3 streaming platform, operating much like Lenster.
To be honest I haven't visited any of the other d'apps yet, I'm having too much fun on Lenster getting privy access to creator content and interacting with people serious about web3, without having to worry about scams/grifts. I am excited to dive into the quickly growing list....
Thanks for reading. Comment if you've heard of Lens, and what you think of it.
Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Lenster, and Mirror. \/\/\/
