Background: Lens and Its Earlier Moves
Lens Protocol was created by the team behind Aave. Yahoo Finance reported in May 2022 that it launched as a decentralized social graph on the Polygon network, letting users mint a profile, follow others and create posts onchain.
It later moved to its own infrastructure. The Block reported that Lens released Lens Chain, an EVM-compatible Layer 2 network, using Avail for data availability and ZKsync’s developer stack, with Aave’s GHO stablecoin as the native gas token. Blockworks put Lens at about 650,000 user profiles and 28 million social connections at that launch.
Stewardship of Lens has since changed hands. Cryptonews reported via Yahoo Finance that Aave handed stewardship of the protocol to Mask Network, which now leads product and application development, while Aave focuses on technical advisory work. Both sides said the move was not an acquisition, sale or exit, and the protocol’s core components remain open source and permissionless.
The Monad deployment would place Lens on a separate network from Lens Chain. Details on timing, how existing Lens accounts will carry over, and what role $MON will play have not been confirmed in the sources reviewed for this article.
Onchain social networks have struggled to match the scale of conventional platforms. Blockworks described Lens’s user base at the time of its mainnet launch as still far from a serious challenge to traditional social media, while noting how far the idea of social media on the blockchain had progressed.
Sources
Yahoo Finance (Cryptonews): Aave Hands Lens to Mask Network, Doubles Down on DeFi Ambitions
Blockworks: Lens launches mainnet, bringing a potential new era to SocialFi
The Block: Lens releases Lens Chain mainnet with Avail DA and ZKsync tech
Yahoo Finance: Decentralized Social Graph Lens Protocol Goes Live
