By MullCrypto
This post is taking part in the t2 x Kiwi Writing Contest. Heads up: this article will contain characterful informal language as tongue-in-cheek, against-the-grain, ‘Rise Against The AI’ attempt. But everything documented is personally experienced with many hours upon months of research and surfing on the web (the 3rd one).
My first experience in decentralized social media started with an invite to Lens by one of the backers back in 2023. He knew of my music alias and I decided to dive in and explore there, sharing my music since gas was covered by the Lens treasury and it was a closed Beta. I set up primarily on Hey.xyz (known as Lenster at the time), the experience was smooth and the protocol was well built. I distinctly remember being blown away seeing my posts reflect throughout the apps as I post on Lenster, it would appear simultaneously on Orb, Phaver, even media sharing protocols like Beatsapp.xyz and Lenstube (now called Tape.xyz). In my mind, this was the equivalent of posting on YouTube, and have it automatically appear on Twitter, with all the metadata translating across, whilst sharing the same audience! The first time being astounded by the possibility of decentralized social media being ahead of its Web2 counterparts: composability.
Not to mention the algorithm at that time was absolutely amazing, my posts were being discussed, shared and collected (for $WMatic), a full-time creator could sustain themselves on this, I thought. With less commissions compared to its Web2 equivalents, you can be as niche as you’d like without having to worry too much about pleasing the general public, as the threshold of audience required to earn a decent support was much less vs Twitter/ YouTube. And so, in the depths of the bear market of 2023, the Lens ecosystem was brimming with activity; insightful discussions, meme contests, thought-provoking creators..the more I explored, the more optimistic I was of what social media could be.
Oh, and I haven’t even touched on the backend. My eyes widened as I saw that your media posted on Lens protocol can have the option to be stored on IPFS (which was standard at the time) as well as Arweave. For those who don’t know, Arweave is a decentralized permanent storage solution I’ve been a fan of since entering the crypto space in 2021. I find that if you stick to your code of ethics in this space instead of focusing on profiting, you tend to find pockets of genuine technology, talented builders and authentic communities; the rewards for getting involved usually balances out too. For me, the appeal was decentralization, having code as law instead of flawed human leaders with economics ruled by corruption and greed - I was a Cypherpunk, before I knew of the phrase. So seeing the backend, an unannounced collaboration between Lens and Arweave was a huge deal. And it seems the most solid projects seem to utilize this storage infrastructure - t2 including.
Fast-forward to the present time, social media seems as turbulent as ever, with attention still being the chief currency, donning the next tiktok personality, celebrity crypto token, overhyped Ethereum Layer 2, as such. And with short attention span and rate of development compounded in the crypto space, you'll find projects deprecate as fast as they pop up - you'll find this is the case with the aforementioned projects; Links rot. Funding runs out. Devs move on to build the next thing. But in the undergrowth of all that noise, there are incredible improvements and reiterations of technology, building silently by genuine Cypherpunks. An example is the rise of $TON with the mass adoption of Telegram, amidst the Ukraine-Russia war and rising world tension, people are finding ways to exchange information and value without trusting a single point of failure, be it a server holding all your information prone to word-block censoring, or bricks and mortar holding all your cash, freezing your assets if you speak out. That being said, Telegram is still centralized, prone to any human influence to corrupt, buy out, or killed off if it poses too big a threat to the ruling class. We still need the XMR of social media. No censoring.
After a few months' hiatus, I decided to sign my wallet to re-explore Hey again, and seems within a year since Lens was opened up from closed Beta, new projects have sprung up. Lenscan.io have replaced Lenskit.xyz. Teaparty.life, Beatsapp, Amnisiac are all defunct. The glory days of meme contests on Memester.xyz are no more. But aptly, as the Lens logo displays, many incredible products have grown from its roots as a result. Taking composability to the next level, Firefly.social connects all your social into one decentralized identity. If attention span is your Achilles' heel, perhaps the outrageousness of Dumpling.lol may satiate you. Starving for reading knowledge? The ecosystem of T2.world and Kiwi will fill your brain with insightful thoughts. And the magic of it all? The people and the builders behind them of course. As I was inspired to take on this article, Mac from Kiwi couldn't have shown a better welcome, giving up his own time 1-1 to personally onboard me. If you've built the product from scratch with your own hands, you will passionately speak about it with anyone showing interest.
With the feeling of newfound optimism upon discovering fantastic new protocols, akin to discovering Lens for the first time, with products like T2 and Kiwi sparking curiosity again, the future of decentralized social seems bright.
Author: MullCrypto
Twitter: @mull_crypto
