A review of nearly 30 Web3 social protocols: Key ecological projects worth focusing on in Lens

Written by: Karen, Foresight News

The Web3 social track is gradually emerging, with social applications and tools based on the decentralized social graph protocol Lens Protocol springing up like mushrooms after rain.

Lens Protocol is built on Polygon and launched by the lending protocol Aave, serving as a composable decentralized trading graph protocol in the form of "Profile as NFT," allowing any DApp to integrate. It has achieved user control and ownership of data, and supports content publishing, sharing, commenting, and NFT sales through modular settings.

Currently, Lens Protocol is evolving into the infrastructure for social graphs, with dozens of projects built on it. This article organizes nearly 30 projects in the Lens ecosystem by categories such as social, tools, and discovery/search.

Notable applications in the Lens ecosystem include the decentralized social media application Lenster, LensFrens which recommends Profiles based on users' Web3 footprints, Share-to-Earn social application Phaver, link trend ranking Refract, and decentralized "YouTube" Lenstube. There are also relatively innovative projects like the time auction network Soclly for creators or professionals, Clipto providing celebrity video customization services, and AI technology-based NFT image generator LensAI.

Summary of Lens ecosystem projects, illustration by: Foresight News

Regarding Lens data usage, there are currently over 90,000 addresses that have applied for Lens Profiles, with a total of 390,000 posts published. However, user engagement is not very strong, with each Profile only publishing an average of 4.25 posts and receiving no more than 2 comments. Some applications may have been neglected in recent months.

Social

Lenster: Decentralized social application (Recommended by Lens official website, one of the winners of the first round of Lens grant program)

Lenster is somewhat similar to Instagram, a decentralized social media application built using the Lens Protocol, allowing users to connect their Web3 wallets and log in with Lens. On Lenster, users can post, browse their friends' feeds, and explore content trends, as well as directly search for relevant posts or user Profiles. Posts support not only images and GIFs but also audio and video uploads.

Additionally, when posting on Lenster, users can choose the audience, such as followers, followed users, friends of friends, and everyone, and can also decide whether to allow others to bookmark their posts. Users can set fees for post bookmarks and share costs with post recommenders. Lenster is also one of the 12 winners of the LFGrow hackathon.

Link: https://lenster.xyz/

LensFrens: Recommending Profiles based on users' Web3 footprints (Recommended by Lens official website)

LensFrens recommends Profiles that users may be interested in based on their wallet history, and users can also directly search for Profiles to follow. LensFrens can be seen as a decentralized graph platform. On the Lens protocol, personal Profile URLs will directly redirect to the LensFrens page.

Link: https://www.lensfrens.xyz/

ORB: Web3 professional social media application with an on-chain reputation system (Recommended by Lens official website)

ORB is built on Polygon using the Lens protocol and is a decentralized professional social media application with an end-to-end on-chain reputation system that connects companies, projects, and users. ORB has been released on the App Store and Google Play but is currently in beta testing.

Specifically, ORB can create a personal decentralized professional profile and establish on-chain credibility by linking various NFTs and POAPs with user experience, education, skills, and projects, as well as exploring job opportunities and applying for on-chain identities. Users can also share their thoughts on-chain, connect with Web3 individuals, and build communities. Additionally, ORB allows users to earn NFTs by learning Web3 knowledge during fragmented time, known as Learn-to-Earn.

Link: https://orb.ac/

Phaver: Share-to-Earn social application (Recommended by Lens official website)

Phaver is a Share-to-Earn social application available for iOS and Android, supported by the Lens Protocol. In Phaver, users can post, add images (including instant photos), links (tweets, blogs), products, applications, select content area tags, and locations. Users can browse all content on Lens, and once they connect their wallets, Lens Profile users can directly post to Lens through Phaver. Phaver is currently in beta testing (note: any Lens Profile username can serve as an invitation code).

Phaver distributes 5 tokens to users daily, which they can stake on 5 posts while browsing the Feed. The specific token rewards are related to the popularity of the posts and the staking duration, helping users discover the highest quality content.

Link: https://phaver.com/

TeaParty: Social-to-Earn protocol (Winner of the first round of Lens donation program)

TeaParty is a decentralized Web3 Social-to-Earn protocol that is building a protocol to support P2P and B2C incentive networks, allowing creators, developers, and musicians to be discovered by real fans after publishing content, and enabling businesses to reach genuine users.

For users, income can be earned through activities such as liking, sharing, reposting, and following hosts. For advertisers and creators (hosts), payment is only required when other users like, share, or repost.

To become a host, one must deposit a reward budget in MATIC in advance, and the amount deposited in the contract will be used to reward users who meet the interaction conditions set by the host, with rewards given in the form of TEA tokens.

Link: https://app.teaparty.life/

Lenstube: Decentralized "YouTube"

Lenstube is an open-source video-sharing social media platform built on the Lens Protocol, supported by Livepeer and Vercel. When creators upload videos, they can choose the audience for video collection, limit the number of collectors, set video categories, and establish collection and recommendation fees, and can also directly share published videos to Lens.

Link: https://lenstube.xyz/

SOUNDIT: Web3 audio social media platform (One of the winners of the second round of Lens grant program)

SOUNDIT is an audio-based Web3 social media platform where users can own, share, collaborate, interact, and profit from their creations. In SOUNDIT's creator economy, social graphs are generated using the Lens protocol, with each SOUNDIT creator having a related creator index, and each fan having a fan index associated with each creator.

Link: https://soundit.com/

Gummys: Web3 video and streaming platform

Gummys is a Web3 video and streaming platform that distributes ADS revenue to users through a watch-and-earn system. Gummys is currently still in beta testing.

According to the official website, Gummys is supported by CV VC, Icetea Labs, Encode, Filecoin, Protocol Labs, Polygon Studios, Aave, Chainlink, and Livepeer. Readers interested in Gummys' token economics can look it up themselves.

Link: https://www.gummys.io/

Share: Web3 social writing platform (One of the winners of the second round of Lens grant program)

Share is a Web3 social writing platform where authors can publish books, web comics, and articles in the form of NFTs, allowing readers to interact with their favorite authors. Share officially released its beta version in mid-October.

Link: https://theshr.xyz/

Iris: Social media platform (One of the 12 winning projects of the LFGrow hackathon)

Iris is a social platform for Web 3 creators that integrates multiple social platforms on Lens, allowing users to share exclusive content, develop communities, and maintain their identities while controlling the audience for their posts.

Link: https://www.iris.social/

Tools

Embed: Allows embedding Lens posts

Embed is built by Miguel Piedrafita, a core member of ConstitutionDAO. Users can generate code by entering the URL of a Lens post, which can then be embedded on a website with one click.

Link: https://embed.withlens.app/

LensAI: AI NFT generator

LensAI is an NFT generator that allows users to create images using AI, then generate NFTs and publish them on Mirror. Creators can also sell them as NFTs on the Lens protocol.

Link: https://thegallerydao.vercel.app/landing

CultivatorLens: Visual social graph (One of the winners of the second round of Lens donation program)

CultivatorLens is a visual social graph browser and tool that allows users to view the social graph of related Profiles after entering a Lens Profile handle, discovering mutual followers, and understanding the degree of connection.

Link: https://cultivator.cc/

Hashchat: Encrypted communication tool (One of the 12 winners of the LFGrow hackathon, winner of the second round of Lens donation program)

Hashchat is an end-to-end encrypted communication tool that ensures the security of users' messages and allows users to control their data. It is currently in the testing phase. On Hashchat, Safe signers, and those who own a certain series of NFTs or POAPs can communicate within their respective communities.

Link: https://betav2.hashchat.xyz/

CultivatorDAO: Optional content moderation tool designed for Lens

CultivatorDAO is a Web3 social DAO designed for open, decentralized content moderation on the Lens protocol, providing a solution to address spam, bots, and other risks that may harm the social graph. CultivatorDAO is built by Lens and community developers, and Lens Protocol has introduced CultivatorDAO multiple times on Twitter.

CultivatorDAO operates at the middleware layer, but users can always directly access any content on the decentralized protocol. Those appointed as initial Cultivators will be responsible for maintaining two lists: a "spam" list and a "verified" list. Cultivators will receive proposals from data providers containing accounts or methods to be added to either list. The DAO will vote to decide whether to accept the proposal. According to previously passed proposals, the initial Cultivators include Aave Companies data scientist pealco.lens, Lenster chief maintainer yoginth.lens, and three other members.

This means that ordinary users will have more control over the content they see, as they can flag or report any content they believe violates community guidelines. Additionally, CultivatorDAO is also forkable, meaning the Lens community can fork the DAO and create their own version to meet their specific content moderation needs.

DAOscourse: DAO governance platform (One of the winners of the first round of Lens grant program)

DAOscourse has built a DAO governance platform using the Lens protocol, allowing contributors to participate in on-chain governance and own their contributions. As a DAO, users can create their own pages, expand their audience, allow contributors to propose suggestions, discuss, and vote. As contributors, they can create Profiles (using Lens), own their contributions, and monitor the governance of their favorite DAOs. DAOscourse was awarded the Best DAO Tool award at the LFGrow hackathon.

Link: https://daoscourse.com/

Zilly (One of the 12 winning projects of the LFGrow hackathon)

Zilly was also built during the LFGrow hackathon, aiming to ensure that all its members feel a sense of belonging. Project teams can create tasks, votes, competitions, or bounties, and community members can receive rewards for completing each task.

Link: https://zilly.social/

Discovery / Search

Refract: Link Board (Recommended by the official website)

Refract claims to be a link trend ranking board built on Lens, where users can share links, discover new projects, popular articles, and the latest trends. However, currently, Refract has been reporting errors when publishing links, and the trends page has no content, with the latest link in the timeline being from two months ago.

https://refract.withlens.app/

Greenhouse: Search and discover friends on Lens

Greenhouse helps users search and discover friends on Lens. By entering a domain name in the search box, users can check if that address has a Lens Profile set up. Greenhouse was built during the ETHGlobal ETHOnline hackathon.

Link: https://greenhouse.social/

Sepana: Decentralized search protocol (Recommended by Lens official website)

Sepana aims to build decentralized network search and has developed three products. Among them, Lens Search allows exploration of content, Profiles, and viewing social graphs and latest posts on Lens; AskMirror uses machine learning to tag and categorize content on Mirror, allowing users to search for articles, content, and creators, and discover interesting content. Cloutavista is a premium search product for decentralized networks DeSo, integrated with BitClout, diamonddapp, and others.

Link: https://sepana.io/

Others

RE:MEME: On-chain meme remixer (Recommended by Lens official website)

RE:MEME is built by Aave's R&D department Newt, an on-chain meme remixer based on the Lens protocol, allowing users to upload meme templates and choose whether to charge fees. Others can then use an image editor to add text, drawings, and supplementary images. RE:MEME can also extend to other media formats such as music, video, and academic papers.

Link: https://www.rememe.lol/

Clipto: Provides celebrity video customization services (One of the winners of the first round of Lens grant program)

Clipto is similar to the video site Cameo, offering users celebrity video customization services and providing creators with a new revenue model. Ordinary users can also receive participation rewards when purchasing video customization services. The specific workflow is that users explore and search for their favorite creators or crypto stars on Clipto, then pay creators to request personalized videos, which will be minted as NFTs.

Link: https://www.clipto.io/

Soclly: Time auction network for creators or professionals (One of the winners of the second round of Lens grant program)

Soclly claims to be a creator-centric, community-focused decentralized social network supported by the Lens protocol. After registering on the platform, creators or professionals can add their skills and experiences, set available time slots and fees, and help others solve problems. Requesters can book the selected creator's time (half an hour) for a fee, and once the booking is successful, the funds will be transferred to the creator's wallet, allowing them to meet with the creator at the agreed time. Communication on Soclly is supported by the open-source privacy web conferencing application Jitsi.

Considering the features of the Soclly application, it resembles a time-selling and knowledge-sharing project for creators or professionals, providing ordinary users with an opportunity for in-depth communication with creators while allowing creators to earn income. The current version of Soclly does not support connecting to Lens, but future versions will support Lens Profiles.

Link: https://www.soclly.com/

LensPort: Social NFT marketplace for Lens protocol

LensPort was launched in early October and is a marketplace built on the Lens protocol that combines social platforms and NFT marketplaces, allowing users to publish and sell posts, while others can support creators and discover popular Profiles and posts.

Link: https://lensport.io/

Lensta: Image feed for Lens protocol

Lensta is an Image Feed for the Lens protocol, allowing users to browse the latest, most popular posts with images, as well as those with the highest collection fees on Lenster, Lensport, and others.

https://www.lensta.xyz/

Phi: Visual on-chain identity (One of the winners of the second round of Lens grant program)

Phi initially visualizes on-chain identities and builds a metaverse digital identity system based on universal web3 facilities such as ENS domain names or wallet activities. Phi currently supports acquiring land using ENS domain names on the Polygon testnet and obtaining items based on on-chain activities to create on-chain identities. Phi was one of the winners of the second round of Lens grant program.

Link: https://philand.xyz/

Lensdrop: Rewarding fans

Lensdrop allows creators to airdrop tokens or rewards to their fans on the Lens Protocol.

Link: https://lensdrop.netlify.app/

Mad Finance: Web3 advertising protocol (One of the winners of the second round of Lens grant program)

Mad Finance connects sponsors with Web3 publishers and influencers through real-time cash flow (using Superfluid), giving content creators the opportunity to directly collect the fees they deserve. Mad Finance is also one of the winning projects of the LFGrow hackathon. Currently, Mad Finance has not yet launched.

Link: https://madfinance.xyz/

Troop: Collaborative investment platform (One of the winners of the second round of Lens grant program)

Troop is a collaborative investment platform based on Lens, allowing users to create and manage investment portfolios with friends, while other users can invest in these portfolios to earn returns.

Link: https://www.troop.finance/

References:

https://aave.notion.site/Lensverse-a5926eab1d8148eda10053af9f4e28a0

https://twitter.com/LensProtocol/status/1537838785874083847

https://twitter.com/LensProtocol/status/1517161476833742854

https://twitter.com/LensProtocol/status/1509221287369261057