After spending several months strolling through the streets of WEB3 in Lens Protocol City, I've gotten to know its nooks and crannies. I've also met some pretty cool people from this city. The music scene is still not strong, but the introduction of the new circulating currency $BONSAI might just kick things into gear!
This metaphorical intro leads to the essence of this article. And the city metaphor is not without reason.
In the Realm of Dreamers and Visionaries
I love to dream and share my dreams and visions. Why share ideas? Because I share knowing that I can't build anything alone, and there's enough space in WEB3 for everyone to create their own thing. I share dreams, ideas, and visions waiting for someone to respond. And maybe this time will be different. I've genuinely fallen in love with the Lens Protocol community and what we all create here. I believe Lens and all the apps and creators here are a real answer to what's happening in WEB2.
The threat of TikTok bans, Zuckerberg testifying in the Senate, Meta's near-quadrant outage last week, Spotify's battle with Apple, Universal against TikTok, Daniel Ek trying to convince us that his platform has good intentions towards artists but won't raise streaming rates—at the same time, Joe Rogan gets $250 million. No wonder then that DEAD STAR TALK, which I manage in WEB3 (I've become a WEB3 manager), decided to roll up its WEB2 business and become a permanent resident of WEB3.
The Boroughs of Lens Protocol
I like Lens Protocol City, it has several cool neighborhoods: t2 world, Hey, Orb, Kaira, Tape, and others just as wonderful. Truly great people live in these neighborhoods! I've gotten to know many of them, we've even started to exchange our currencies $BONSAI for my $VINYL - it's an extraordinary feeling!
A Home in the Digital Frontier
Maybe I'll tell you that I spent a total of 12 years in emigration outside Poland. But nowhere - except at home and in Lens Protocol City - have I felt so at home! That's important, right?
The Heart of High Street
I belong to those who want to contribute positively to their environment. It was the same when I lived in the UK, in a small town near Bristol. I had a small vinyl record shop and label there. My shop was on High Street, so I knew the whole town. I hope to get to know everyone in Lens Protocol too - although I know it may be hard, I'm not planning on giving up!
Dreams for a Digital Haven
Since I want to contribute here, I'll write down some of my dreams to share with you. My dreams for this City:
In as much as I wish to impart something of myself here, I shall henceforth inscribe a handful of my dreams, those which I yearn to share with you. Dreams of what this township might become:
The Endless Thoroughfare
The first thing that struck me is that the main street never ends. You can't just walk it, reminding me of a very bad practice from another town in WEB2 and it makes me unhealthily agitated, easily irritated, and I feel like I'm always missing out.
In Praise of the Labyrinth
I'm not an urban planner, but I love games. I love to search and discover, to have chances, to win and to lose. I love the unpredictable life that no algorithm can describe. That's why I'm thinking about something like a labyrinth. The Feed (our main street) is not only short, but it has numerous branches, and those branches have branches of their own. Plus, everything moves like the staircases at Hogwarts, you never know if you'll find your way back.
See some cool graffiti on a wall? Take a picture (collect it) and take it with you, you may not get another chance to see it. I imagine all creators and the community forming a common, intuitive narrative. We don't know how this city will end up looking. But we're not the cartographers of WEB2 who try to describe our lives with algorithms, just to predict and sell us products before we even know we need them.
The Oracle in the Matrix knew Neo would knock over the vase? Prediction algorithms - we don't want that kind of world. The authorities of this city shouldn't know us better than we and our closest know ourselves. That's why the labyrinth is so wonderful. You can get lost in it and lose a spy (followers). We don't want to be spied on, we want to create groups for expanding known territory, connecting into tribes, shared exchanges of value, and building our own safe enclaves.
The Architects of Enclaves
To build such enclaves, we need to know who we need to connect with, so we need to know who is the builder, who delivers the bricks, and who provides the metal production technology. Who will supply the tools and who can use them expertly. Everyone in this city has their name (handle) and everyone has roles they fulfill. That's why I petition the Council to let everyone with a handle enter their #roles into the identity document. With such documents, we know who is who, what abilities they have. In the old world, I was a scout, in scouting I earned badges for various skills I acquired.
To my handle, I could add roles like: writer, podcaster, content creator, innovator, pioneer, vinyl collector, music lover, etc. For each of these roles, I could also assign skills - for example: writer: prose, long-form, text editing, styling, and my level of proficiency in each of them.
Of course, I could lie, for example, to get a job on a project as a writer. But after the work is done, I'm left with a rating that reflects what I declared and what I actually delivered.
The Exchange
If there are different enclaves, each probably has its own currency, so it would be great to have a market in Lens Protocol City where one could exchange tokens, allowing purchases of goods, tools, and services in other enclaves. That would be a wonderful solution. A city with its own marketplace, regulating the financial flows throughout the whole agglomeration, is truly something exceptional.
Cultivating Ideas: The Seeds of Smaller Solutions
And then there are the smaller solutions. For example, the creation of shared gardens, the creation of post farms where everyone can add their creations to a tree. In this way, a cultivation of topics is created.
I've shared with you a few of my dreams, a bit metaphorically, but I hope it reaches your imagination and heart. And when it does, I hope you'll respond and tell me how you see the Lens Protocol City of your dreams.
I shall continue to explore the vastness of this city's spaces!