Views on Decentralized Social: Takeaways from a Fireside Chat between
Mask Network’s Suji Yan & Lens’ Stani Kulechov

During the Web3 Social Day hosted during ETHCC in Brussels on July 9, Mask Network Founder Suji Yan was joined by Lens Protocol’s Founder Stani Kulechov for a Fireside Chat on the topic, “Views on Decentralized Social.” What followed was a thought-provoking conversation about the current state of decentralized social networks and their future.

Suji opened the discussion by asking Stani to rate the maturity of decentralized social networks on a scale of 1 to 10. Stani responded by humorously replying, “1,” which was received with a chuckle from the crowd. He emphasized that the sector is still in its infancy and continued that, despite significant progress over the past few years, the protocols and infrastructure are just beginning to take shape.

Stani drew parallels between the early days of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the current state of Web3 social networks. He reflected on the initial limitations of DeFi, when stablecoins weren’t around and financial transactions had very limited functionality. However, persistent innovation by builders eventually pushed the space forward, and it gained significant traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the DeFi and NFT summers of a few years ago. He believes Web3 social is at an even earlier stage, with infrastructure still evolving and consumer applications on the horizon. He mentions that rollups, although cost-effective for DeFi, remain expensive for mainstream adoption, but advancements in account abstraction and wallet technology are paving the way for a more consumer-friendly experience.

Suji noted that the first stablecoin wasn’t on Ethereum, highlighting the value of various ecosystems competing in the early crypto landscape. Stani agreed, adding that he closely watches development in the Bitcoin ecosystem, which often operates independently of the rest of the Web3 landscapes developments. The Bitcoin community, he noted, tackles centralization challenges from both pragmatic and philosophical perspectives, aiming to solve foundational issues.

Stani expressed satisfaction with the progress of the DeFi sector, but acknowledged that Web3 social poses more complex problems. Unlike financial transactions, which primarily rely on liquidity,

Web3 social revolves around social capital — how it’s preserved, expanded, and integrated into networks.

He finds the expansion of Layer-2 solutions in the Bitcoin ecosystem particularly interesting, and mentioned Cluster* as an interesting project to follow.

*Cluster will soon be an integration partner for Mask’s NextID Web3.bio identity graph project.

When it comes to Web3 social, Stani believes infrastructure is just a small part of the puzzle.

He says the application layer is crucial for onboarding users, and both federated and on-chain models for decentralized social networks have their merits. Suji recalled an article Stani wrote about federated social networks and asked for his thoughts on the decentralized social landscape, including projects like Lens which is on-chain and Farcaster which is federated.

Stani highlighted the benefits of a federated model, such as better incentives and more cost-effective consensus over data, which is crucial for ensuring accuracy and security at scale. He argued that social transactions require the same level of security as financial transactions. Blockchain technology excels in ownership verification, making it suitable for certain types of data. The key challenge, he said, is determining which data benefits most from being on-chain while allowing centralized entities to manage the rest. This balance could enable application service providers to build for users, giving them more choice as well as the ability to monetize their data.

Scalability and transaction costs remain significant hurdles. Stani pointed out that service providers often absorb transaction costs to offer seamless services to users, factoring these expenses into their business models.

During the Q&A session, a participant comically asked, “When are we going to get mass adoption?” Stani answered that mass adoption must be driven by the user experience, but thankfully in shared social networks, everyone builds together. He anticipates many “hit-or-miss” attempts, but believes successful ones will attract new users. Thankfully, the infrastructure is now in place, reducing concerns about transaction costs, account abstraction, embedded wallets, and gas issues. He summarizes by saying the application layer remains crucial for progress.

Suji wrapped up the talk by discussing the promise of Web3 for monetizing social capital, using his Twitter account as an example. He envisioned a future where social capital in the “cyberverse” could allow individuals to purchase tangible assets such as houses. Stani agreed, concluding that the financial side of Web3 and the social attention economy will converge as the space continues to develop.

This conversation between Suji Yan and Stani Kulechov explored the reality of “being early” to the decentralized social space. They spoke on the relationship between infrastructure and applications, and the crucial need for better applications and features to generate a network effect. Their insights highlight the ongoing effort to create secure, scalable, and user-friendly platforms that will drive the future of Web3 social forward.