How Lens Network Is Leveraging Avail To Scale Decentralized Social Networks

• Lens Network is exploring Avail technology to scale decentralized social media networks.
• The collaboration promises to create more resilient and future-proof decentralized networks.
• The decentralized social media network continues to struggle.

Blockchain technology has long been tipped to disrupt the social media industry due to its potential to resist censorship and revolutionize ownership. But this dream has so far remained just that, a dream, as existing solutions have failed to garner the required traction while still facing scaling and user experience challenges. Despite these challenges, Aave -backed decentralized social media platform Lens Network , one of the industry leaders in the decentralized social media sector, is not giving up.

To address scaling concerns,  in May 2024, Lens unveiled plans to migrate to an Ethereum Layer 2 chain powered by zkSync’s ZK Stack. In line with this scaling vision, it has now also entered a partnership with Avail to leverage its data availability (DA) in its new modular stack.

Lens X Avail DA

Lens Network is exploring Avail technology to scale decentralized social media networks. On Tuesday, September 17, Lens unveiled that it had entered a partnership with Avail to leverage its DA to further scale its planned decentralized social media network-focused blockchain.

DA refers to the guarantee that a network’s transaction information is available for every network participant to verify and, by so doing, maintain the network’s integrity. Typically, Ethereum Layer 2 chains like Len’s planned ZK-Stack powered Layer 2 ensure DA by posting transaction data to Layer 1. Storage on Ethereum, however, can be expensive for certain use cases, like data-intensive social media networks.

This cost has led to the emergence of DA solutions like Avail, which promise to offer storage at a cheaper and faster rate, albeit at the cost of lower security guarantees than Ethereum.

With Avail, Lens argues that it will be able to offer users unprecedented scalability. One reason for this is Avail’s optimization for ZK technology, which allows the use of ZK proofs for DA. Beyond better scalability, Lens argues that Avail’s ZK focus also helps further future-proof the network, as ZK is often touted as the endgame of scaling.

Meanwhile, Avail has hinted that Lens may join its blockchain interoperability protocol Nexus, asserting that doing so aligns with the decentralized social media network-focused blockchain’s long-term goals.

Lens’ recent Avail partnership comes as the decentralized social media platform appears to be stagnating.

Lens Stuck?

Save for a few brief spikes, activity on Lens has remained within a fixed range in 2024. Specifically, per Dune Analytics data , daily posts on the platform have remained between the 10,000 to 20,000 range for most of the year, save a few brief spikes above 30,000.

Chart of Lens daily post count against Farcaster’s
Source: Dune Analytics Dashboard

At the same time, daily active users, which appeared to be in an uptrend in the first half of the year, have since peaked, dropping from highs of around 42,000 users on July 8 to an average of about 20,000 in the past few months.

Chart of Lens daily active users against Farcaster’s
Source: Dune Analytics Dashboard

Lens will hope to reverse the recent downturn with the planned launch of its Layer 2 blockchain in Q4 2024. 

On the Flipside

• Lens’ planned Layer 2 network has yet to go live.
• The recent downturn in decentralized social media activity is not isolated to Lens. Activity on other popular platforms like Farcaster and Friend.tech has also plummeted in recent months.

Why This Matters

Lens Network intends to create fair and open social spaces for millions of users. Avail’s DA promises to make the network’s vision of scaling decentralized social media networks more feasible.

Read this for more on Lens:
Aave Launches Decentralized Web3 Social Media Platform, Lens

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