Welcome to the Garden

Lens Protocol, this much-hyped new kid in the SocialFi block, which insiders affectionately call "the garden", doesn't need an introduction at this point. Some have already posted about it here before. But to the few uninformed, in a nutshell it's like Hive and its vast ecosystem of dApps, but built on Polygon. And in this post I share with you my experiences in the two months I have been on it.

A Glimpse of the Ecosystem

There are other Hivers on Lens but none of them have bothered to share much about their experiences, so this post will show you what it looks like from the inside. These apps are just the ones I can use as I am limited to accessing Lens on the desktop since my Android phone is too old for it. If you want to see more, just check out this link which shows a list of all the apps in the Lens ecosystem.

Lenster, the default front-end, like what Hive.blog is to us. This is where most of the newly-onboarded post their first GM, intro, or whatever they choose to be their genesis post. This is a desktop only front-end.

Buttrfly, a cool front-end with a Spaces feature that anyone can join and, even if they don't have a Lens handle. This front-end began life as a mobile app, but now has a desktop version in beta.

Lenstube, and as its name suggests it is their version of YouTube just like our 3Speak.

Memester, a site where you can make memes and sell them as NFTs.

Lenspeer is another cool front-end and the one that has the most Twitter-like appearance. But this is the one to watch out for as it has its own video-hosting feature, as well as an upcoming Spaces feature too. It is also the first app on the Lens ecosystem to implement the ERC-6551 standard and Token Bound Accounts (TBAs).

Chromadin I don't know what to make of this app, but it sure has strong HEN vibes. HEN (Hic et nunc) was a popular but now defunct Tezos NFT marketplace.

Collectz is an NFT marketplace on Lens created by Bas and Martijn Van Halen, two Dutchmen brothers who created NFTz, a similar marketplace on DeSo a year ago. This marketplace is where one can see, organize, and display all the Lens post NFTs that a member has collected from others, as well as mint NFTs for Lens, and also on Polygon someday.

Last but not the least is, Soclly, another micro-blogger, and the most recent one to join the ecosystem.

My First Impressions

When I first logged in to my Lens account and checked out all the apps that I could use on the desktop, I was blown away by how pretty some of them were.

While some of the desktop apps are still in beta, they worked well and I only experienced a crash or error a few times. I initially felt that they are something Hive should be worried about, but my first posts with Lenster made me realize how different Lens is compared to Hive, regarding monetization of posts, and one's ability to earn from them.

In Hive, as we all know, monetization of posts and comments is turned on by default and one can start earning from the get-go. On Lens all posts are NFTs, but if you want to earn from it you will have to set it before you hit the publish button.

Most of the time people just use it like ordinary social media, chatting with friends and peers, without intention of earning anything from it. But when one decides to monetize their post by setting it to be a "collectable" NFT and putting a price on it, there is no guarantee that people will buy it. In fact, it's a lot easier for one to earn here on Hive.

So my impression of it is that it is like an on-chain NFT Twitter with minting capabilities. And, those who are earning the most from it are artists, musicians, and thought leaders.

I could be wrong, though, so to be fair I have to bring Hive members in and set them on a mission to get their eyes on things, and experience it first hand in order to form their own opinions and assessments, and then blog their findings to help us improve Hive.

Hive has great tech under the hood, but we all know how much we are lagging in our UI/UX game. It's about time we started looking at what others are doing, and also take ideas from them too!

As for me, my use case for it would be as a replacement for NFT Twitter with added capability to mint NFTs directly on my posting app. And with V2 upgrade of Lens rolling out soon comes the ability to mint on external NFT marketplaces like Zora, Foundation, Rarible, etc., right from Lenster or the other posting apps.

And now, a little treat before I close

I have two invites to give away. But I had a hard time looking for who to onboard. I started with a list of about a dozen people, and started crossing out those who didn't seem to fit the role and the mission I had in mind for them.

They also had to show that they genuinely wanted to know what it's really like, and will write about it objectively, and not just want to get in because of the rumored Lens airdrop. After days of looking and sifting through posts and comments, I narrowed down my list to just three.

Now before I announce who the lucky two are, here are the things I want them to help me do there. I want them to be Hive ambassadors and preach about the good things Hive has to offer, and try to entice people to join us here. Maybe even encourage cross-pollination of ideas between the two large social ecosystems.

The second is to observe, study everything meticulously, then report back their findings to help us improve Hive. I'd do this myself but I am about to get very busy at work, and have to concentrate also on some things I am studying. I need to go back to art blogging too.

Alright, it's time to kick this piece out of the door and send it on its way to the blockchain. I will share more about new experiences and discoveries on Lens someday, but until then I'm going to hand you over to the two Hivers I am onboarding. Watch out for their blogs about it.

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