Avara, the company behind Aave, Lens, and Family, has announced a $31 million funding round led by Lightspeed Faction. This investment comes on the heels of Lens unveiling a completely overhauled version of its protocol, Lens v3, which is designed to serve as the infrastructure for social and consumer apps.

Lens v3, originally built on the Polygon blockchain, has already seen adoption by several consumer apps, including NFT creation and sharing app Zora, Twitter-like platforms Hey and Kaira, and subcommunity-focused app Orb. The decentralized protocol allows users to own their identity and content, giving them the freedom to migrate to new social platforms if they're unhappy with changes to the existing ones.

The driving force behind Avara's efforts is the desire to decentralize social networks and put users in control. According to Avara founder Stani Kulechov, traditional social networks are financially driven, with most of the value going to advertisers and the platform itself, leaving users with little power and rewards. Decentralized social apps, on the other hand, could lead to more transparent revenue-sharing contracts and better rewards for creators.

Lens v3 tackles one of the major hurdles in web3 social experiments – the cost of transactions. By using zkSync as the base technology, along with validiums, an off-chain transaction technique, the protocol makes transactions much cheaper. This allows developers to absorb the costs for their users, making blockchains virtually free to use, much like the internet.

The Lens network defines a set of "social primitives" as the core characteristics of the protocol, including accounts, usernames, graphs, feeds, and groups. These features enable developers to create a wide range of social applications, from event-based communities to token-gated content. The protocol also allows for flexible content moderation, with the application level managing moderation rather than the protocol itself.

Avara plans to launch the mainnet of Lens v3 in the first quarter of 2025. The success of this protocol upgrade will be closely watched, as decentralized social networks remain niche for now. The funding round, which includes participants such as Alchemy, Avail, Circle, Consensys, DFG, Fabric Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Stellarcore, Superscript, Re7, and Wintermute Ventures, as well as several angel investors, will be crucial in supporting Avara's mission to revolutionize the social media landscape.

The implications of Avara's efforts extend beyond the realm of social media, as decentralized protocols have the potential to reshape the way we interact with online platforms and services. As the web3 ecosystem continues to evolve, Avara's Lens protocol is poised to play a significant role in shaping the future of decentralized social networks.