Aave refocuses on DeFi, hands Lens stewardship to Mask Network

Decentralized concern (DeFi) protocol Aave transferred stewardship of the societal infrastructure protocol Lens to Mask Network, shifting work for advancing consumer-facing societal applications portion retaining Lens arsenic open-source infrastructure.

Statements from some Lens and Aave laminitis Stani Kulechov confirmed the transition. On Tuesday, Kulechov said successful an X station that Aave’s relation volition constrictive down to method advisory enactment arsenic it refocuses connected DeFi. 

He added that Mask Network, a Web3 institution focused connected integrating blockchain features into societal and messaging platforms, volition beryllium starring the adjacent signifier of improvement for Lens, peculiarly astatine the exertion and merchandise layer.

While the announcement framed the determination arsenic a alteration successful “stewardship,” neither Lens nor Aave characterized it arsenic an acquisition oregon exit from societal infrastructure. 

Cointelegraph reached retired to Lens for much information, but had not received a effect by publication. 

Source: Stani Kulechov

How responsibilities displacement nether the Lens transition

Under the caller setup, Mask Network assumes work for consumer-facing execution, including merchandise roadmap decisions, idiosyncratic acquisition plan and day-to-day operational enactment for societal applications built connected Lens. 

This includes advancing apps specified arsenic Orb and shaping however Lens-based products are positioned and distributed to extremity users. 

Lens and Aave said the protocol’s underlying components, including its onchain societal graph, profiles, follows and astute contracts, volition stay open-source and permissionless. 

There was nary denotation of a transportation successful protocol ownership, intelligence property, treasuries oregon governance power arsenic portion of the transition. 

Aave said it volition proceed to enactment arsenic a method adviser, offering input connected protocol-level decisions without starring merchandise development. The determination narrows Aave's relation from gathering and operating societal products to maintaining its societal infrastructure. 

Lens’ infrastructure-first imaginativeness predates the handover

From its earliest days, Lens Protocol was framed arsenic infrastructure. In 2022, Aave launched Lens arsenic a Web3-native societal protocol designed to springiness users ownership implicit their societal identities and contented done onchain profiles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

That positioning was reinforced successful aboriginal updates. In 2023, Kulechov said Lens Protocol was not intended to relation arsenic a front-end level but arsenic a shared societal furniture that allows applications, some Web3 and Web2, to connect to a communal societal graph and idiosyncratic base.

At the time, Kulechov told Cointelegraph that Lens' shared assemblage could assistance developers flooded the "cold start" occupation faced by caller societal platforms, portion allowing aggregate apps to coexist without competing for locked-in users. 

Related: After bitter vote, Aave laminitis pitches bigger aboriginal for DeFi lending giant

Vitalik Buterin backs decentralized societal amid Lens transition

Following the Lens stewardship transition, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin praised Lens’ evolution, saying the Aave squad “has done a large occupation stewarding Lens up to this point” and that helium is “excited astir what volition hap to Lens implicit the adjacent year.”

Buterin besides commented connected decentralized societal platforms, arguing that contention enabled by shared information layers is captious to improving online discourse.

In a station published connected Wednesday, Buterin said that “if we privation a amended society, we request amended wide connection tools.” He added that decentralization enables this by allowing “a shared information layer, with anyone being capable to physique their ain lawsuit connected top.”

Buterin said helium has already returned to decentralized societal platforms successful 2026, noting that each station helium has made oregon work this twelvemonth has been done Firefly, a multi-client that supports Lens, Farcaster, X and Bluesky.

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