Lens: On-chain Social New Era

The on-chain social sector within the Ethereum ecosystem is thriving, with two major projects, Lens and Farcaster, standing out. Currently, the daily active wallet count for Farcaster is about four times that of Lens, which has approximately 640,000 accounts. However, these figures only reflect the performance of the Lens V2 system. With the upcoming launch of the Lens V3 protocol, we have reason to expect a new wave of innovation in the Lens ecosystem.

Lens V3: Reshaping on-chain social

In November 2024, Lens launched its V3 version, which is a revolutionary upgrade. The new version has undergone significant improvements based on Polygon, completely restructuring the way on-chain social interactions occur by introducing more flexible and modular infrastructure.

The core features of V3 include:

1. Exclusive Public Chain: Lens Chain built on ZKsync technology, which is a low-cost L2 network tailored for social trading.

2. Modular Social Features: A series of composable on-chain social features have been introduced, including:

   • Account: A smart contract-based identity system that replaces traditional tokenized personal profiles.
   • Username: Fully transferable NFT that supports multi-identity management across applications.
   • Relationship Graph: Redesigned attention system, developers can customize rules.
   • Content Stream: on-chain content center, with permissions for publishing, monetization, and curation.
   • Group: A community system based on membership, equipped with comprehensive governance tools.

GHO: Gas Fees Driven by Stablecoins

In February 2025, Lens announced the adoption of the decentralized stablecoin GHO as the native gas token for Lens Chain. This innovative move aims to enhance the predictability and accessibility of transaction fees. Compared to traditional blockchains that use volatile assets to pay gas fees, Lens V3's choice of the stablecoin GHO is expected to make transaction costs more stable and straightforward.

GHO will connect to Lens Chain through ZKsync's shared bridge, providing users with a primary liquidity pool.

Data Migration: Preparing for the Mainnet

In February 2025, Lens completed the V2 data migration from Polygon to the Lens Chain testnet. This migration involved over 125GB of data, including existing user profiles, 28 million follow relationships, 16 million posts, and 360 Lens applications.

This means that once the Lens Chain mainnet is launched, users can transition seamlessly without any additional operations. Popular applications like Hey and Orb will also be available for use on the first day of the mainnet.

ZIP-7 Proposal: Integration into Elastic Network

The Lens team recently submitted the ZIP-7 proposal to the ZKsync community, aiming to integrate Lens Chain into the Elastic Network (the L2 interoperability ecosystem of ZKsync). This proposal is currently undergoing on-chain voting, and the voting will end on March 10, 2025.

If the proposal is passed, it will pave the way for the official launch of Lens V3 and open a new chapter for the Lens community.

With these significant advancements, Lens is gradually building a more open, flexible, and user-friendly on-chain social ecosystem. We are looking forward to how the official launch of Lens V3 will reshape the future of Web3 social.