Lens Protocol founder: Social networks should be built with resilience as the focus
Aave and Lens Protocol founder Stani Kulechov wrote, "In light of the recent arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, I have been reflecting on how to build a "resilient approach" that can safeguard various rights, even if these rights (such as freedom of speech and content review) may produce conflicting situations. First of all, when discussing resilient software, it is important to get rid of the concept of "decentralization." "Decentralization" is a misleading term, and there is rarely a consensus on its meaning. Instead, social networks should be built with resilience as the focus. In fact, resilience means minimizing any single point of failure that could damage or affect the functionality and integrity of the network. This concept is easier to understand and measure. For example, today's most successful DeFi projects are built this way. They do not necessarily aim to achieve a certain level of decentralization, but to ensure that like Aave Such a protocol is resilient to potential threats from a variety of actors and single points of failure. A truly resilient social network is one that is extremely difficult to infiltrate or disrupt by any single entity or coalition of entities. Content should be resistant to deletion by operators and fully controlled by its authors. Currently, blockchain technology provides a way to achieve resiliency. At its core, blockchain ensures access control (who can write) and secure storage of value (assets). It can decide who can post in the information flow, join the community, review content, serve as a legitimate fact-checker, and how funds are distributed in the network. In addition, it enables a community-driven framework to select managers or fact-checkers through voting mechanisms. In order for resiliency to work, accountability and transparency are key. Transparent networks are more likely to guarantee resiliency, and if privacy is required, guarantees like zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) can provide verifiability while ensuring transparency. Public blockchains already have these features built in. I believe that truly resilient social networks will open up new and interesting use cases because developers will no longer need to worry about being shut down. These foundational principles will guide the development of Lens V3.”