Aave’s Lens Protocol, a Web3 social graph that can be used to build decentralized social media, has raised $15 million to expand decentralized social media.

The funding round was led by IDEO CoLab Ventures and saw participation from some major VCs including General Catalyst, Variant, and Blockchain Capital, as well as a few decentralized autonomous organizations, like Flamingo DAO, DAOJones, and Punk DAO, according to an announcement by the protocol.

The round also included a raft of well-known angel investors, such as Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Sandbox co-founder Sébastien Borget, NFT artist Emily Yang (pplpleasr), founder Denis Nazarov, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.

“The new funding will provide resources for the continued development of the Lens ecosystem that benefits web3 users, creators and builders,” Lens Protocol said.

Lens Protocol is built atop Polygon, a popular Ethereum scaling solution.

Social media platforms built on Lens can use smart contracts and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to tokenize social data, making a user’s posts, preferences, and network both proprietary to that user, and transferable to any other social network built on Lens.

Lens Aims to Make the Internet More Fair and Democratic

Lens protocol aims to integrate the best part of the web as we know it with a focus on the new innovations of web3 to make the internet “more equitable, fair and democratic for social media networks,” Aave Companies CEO Stani Kulechov told TechCrunch in a recent interview.

Kulechov explained that when large entities like Meta own the infrastructure for the Internet and social media networks, it creates less say for users and less choice, not just in Web3 or on the Internet but in any industry.

Lens Protocol is trying to allow individual users to have more control over their data, and how it is shared.

“We want to build a social media network that doesn’t only benefit the users but everyone who contributes to it like developers as well,” Kulechov said.

Lens Protocol has been in beta since May 2022 and has granted access to only a handful of users thus far.

The team hopes to be a “neutral and flexible” protocol that allows developers to build a variety of use cases ranging from gaming to social media.

Developers Continue to Build Applications on Lens

Kulechov said that a number of developers, including Orb, Riff, and Enso Collective, are building Web3-native mobile applications.

The goal is to create a future where all applications and algorithms share monetization that comes from different use cases and features.

“We’re filling the ecosystem with applications that are familiar to traditional social media, [and] we envision a future where all these applications and algorithms share monetization that comes from different use cases and features,” he said.

While Aave’s Lens Protocol is not the first web3 product or even protocol of its type, it aims to create accessible options that can appeal to a larger, more diverse, and less crypto-insider group.

#lensprotocol #lens

What is Bitcoin Pizza Day?

Bitcoin Pizza Day is an annual celebration within the crypto community held on May 22. It commemorates the first documented commercial transaction involving Bitcoin. Back in 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer and early Bitcoin miner, made history by purchasing two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins.

Before the first bitcoin halving in 2012, miners were rewarded with 50 BTC for each new block they discovered. This meant that obtaining 10,000 BTC only required mining 200 blocks, which was relatively easy at the time due to less competition.

Over the years, this transaction has gained iconic status as Bitcoin has gained popularity and value. Here are five interesting facts about Bitcoin Pizza Day and its significance in the world of cryptocurrencies.

1. The First Physical Bitcoin Transaction On May 18, Hanyecz announced on the Bitcointalk.org forum that he wanted to buy two large pizzas using Bitcoin. He offered 10,000 BTC to anyone willing to order the pizzas and deliver them to him. Four days later, someone accepted the offer, and Hanyecz reported, "I successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza." The pizzas were made by Papa John's but were purchased from a 19-year-old named Jeremy Sturdivant, known as "jercos" online. This transaction is widely recognized as the first-ever commercial Bitcoin transaction involving physical goods.

2. The Cost of the Pizzas Hanyecz spent a total of $25 for the two pizzas he purchased with his 10,000 Bitcoins.

3. The Value of the 10,000 BTC At the time of the transaction, the 10,000 Bitcoins used to buy the pizzas were worth around $41. If Hanyecz had sold his entire 10,000 BTC at Bitcoin's all-time high of $68,990, he could have made approximately $690 million. This amount could have bought 46 million large Papa John's pizzas at $15 each. The transaction serves as a reminder of how significantly the value of Bitcoin has appreciated over the years.

4. The Impact on Cryptocurrency Adoption Although some may consider Hanyecz's decision foolish, the Bitcoin pizza story laid the foundation for using cryptocurrency to purchase physical products. Bitcoin Pizza Day reminds us of Bitcoin's early days and showcases the real-world applications of cryptocurrencies. It demonstrates Bitcoin's potential to revolutionize the traditional financial system by enabling everyday transactions.

5. The Growing Value of Bitcoin Since the first Bitcoin Pizza Day, the value of Bitcoin has experienced tremendous growth. Bitcoin's price has skyrocketed, making it one of the most valuable and widely recognized cryptocurrencies in the world. Although it has decreased from its all-time high of $68,990, it is currently trading at $27,000 (at the time of writing). Bitcoin Pizza Day continues to inspire the cryptocurrency community and serves as a milestone in the history of digital currencies, encouraging exploration of their possibilities and potential.

Feel free to share your fascination with Bitcoin Pizza Day in the comment section. If you found this article insightful, show your appreciation and share your thoughts.

#binancepizza #feedfeverchallenge #googleai #dyor #BRC20