LFGrow 2022
Decentralized social networks feel like the final frontier in the rapidly-expanding world of Web3. But, like all things in that world, the future is fast approaching. For two weeks this March, our community rallied around that idea using Lens Protocol—planting the seeds of a future where users would be treated like creators instead of commodities. LFGrow was a massive success, with 540 hackers launching 124 projects to take home over $200k+ in prizes!
🌿 LFGrow TL;DR:
- 👩🏽💻 540 Staked Hackers
- 👩🏻🦳 75 Ecosystem Mentors
- 🤝 10 Partner Teams
- 💸 $200,000+ in Prizes
- 🌍 41 Countries
- ⌛️ 13 Timezones
- 🛠 124 Projects Submitted
- 🏆 12 Finalists
🌱 Planting the Seeds: LFGrow Summit
LFGrow was a hackathon like no other, with hackers given access to the brand new Lens Protocol to let their minds run wild. We kicked off the event with a summit on Decentralized Social Media, bringing in Web3 luminaries like Li Jin, Stani Kulechov, and Balaji Srinivasan to discuss the state of Web3 social networks. David Silverman and Josh Stevens joined us from the Lens team to dive deep into the core of what makes Lens so unique, followed by Ramon Marc, Rich Cahill, and Simon Heather, who gave hackers a taste of the possibilities when building with Lens and why social graphs are so important.
Later in the afternoon, karma.wav, Cooper Turley, Olive Allen, and Dot took the stage for an in-depth conversation on the future of on-chain creation and what that would look like for the creators themselves. Between panels, Kartik Talwar led a conversation with Jonathan Dotan on the topics of Social Data and Unstoppable Thoughts—which, if you’re unfamiliar, is worth the watch. These high-level discussions gave hackers access to new pathways of understanding and created invaluable resources for the budding Web3 social community.
We rounded out the afternoon with panels on the hot topics facing the Web3 social ecosystem. Marcus Aurelius, Raphaël Haupt, and Scott Moore discussed Social Impact at Scale, highlighting the evolution of public goods and their necessity in the Web3 ecosystem, followed by a conversation on the Future of On-Chain Collaboration with Patrick Rivera, Alex Masmej, and Jess Sloss, led by Joyce Yang.
🌿 Growing the Roots: Week 2
Over the course of the next week, our hackers got to work bringing their ideas to life. Conversations in our community Discord started taking shape, as did dozens of new-to-world projects. Throughout the week, we offered hackers access to high-level workshops and brainstorming sessions featuring talented minds like Alex Lazar, Zer0dot, Rahat Chowdhury, Chris Cassano, Richard Gottleber, and Vishwa Mehta, giving hackers insight into the tools they were building with.
🪴In Full Bloom: The LFGrow Finale
After twelve days of intense hacking and insightful workshops, LFGrow closed out on a high note highlighting the hard work of our hackers and the incredible projects they built. Our 12 Finalists were chosen from a pool of 124 projects, each promising and important in their own right. These Finalists represent the future of what Web3 social networks have to offer and fill us with hope for the growth of our ecosystem. Read up on our Finalists below, and head over to the Project Showcase to see more of the projects created during the hack.
🌿The LFGrow Finalists
💰 mad.finance
A Lens Reference Module that enables real-time monetization of your content.
The Team: @imthatcarlos, @c0rv0s
What was cool: Real-time monetization will help creators leverage their value in our ecosystem with more ease and we’re here for it. We’re excited to see projects like MadFinance open the doors for creators to join Web3.
🪴 Lenster
Lenster is an open-source, composable, decentralized, and permissionless social media web app built with Lens Protocol.
The Team:@yogicodes
What we liked: We’re incredibly excited to see projects like Lenster take root, offering users a glimpse at a community-driven social media of the future. We’re excited to see how Lenster will grow from here!
🕵️ PrivateAI
This project empowers social platform dApp with powerful AI algorithms and guaranteed privacy.
The Team: @luo9137
What we liked: Allowing users to opt into algorithms is a shining ray of hope for social networks on the whole. Giving power back to the users is a surefire way to win our Judges’ admiration, and a sleek UI doesn’t hurt either.
👁 Iris
Iris — messenger of the gods. Twitter x Patreon x Twitch x TikTok, built on Lens
The Team: @ianmmah, @victoriakimse, @isaackcchung, @noviachao, @LinStanford
What we loved: Iris was one of the coolest (and best visually-designed) projects to come out of LFGrow, and we think you’ll agree. Cross platform functionality makes everyone’s lives easier, and a user-friendly UI makes it a breeze for new users.
🚢 0xRig
A free virtual crypto phone. Download 0xrig and spin up a new Crypto Phone to talk with your Peers on LENS.
The Team: @0xrig
What was cool: We were impressed by this project’s take on communication within Lens. Creative concept and killer execution, we’re excited to see where 0xRig goes from here!
💸 Lens Collect Auctions
Run Dutch (decreasing) & English (increasing bids) auctions for collecting Lens posts.
The Team: @thijser
What we liked: Auction-based systems have become highly prized in the Web3 space for their ability to transfer value with efficiency while maintaining fairness and equity for users. Lens Collect Auctions takes this to new heights, offering the ability to apply these mechanisms provably for Lens Collect posts.
✨ Aura Reputation
A new reference module that only allows commenting on a post if the owner of the profile NFT has enough on-chain reputation.
The Team: @jamalavedra, @joalavedra
What was cool: We’re excited to see the growth of social reputation projects take root at our events. Aura Reputation offers a look into a future where creators and collaborators are rewarded with strong communities of real followers instead of bots.
🎟 LensRaffle
Giveaway module for the lens protocol. Easily give some Matic to a truly random follower of a profile. Use it for any dApp built on Lens.
The Team: @Koalabs_eth, @KorbinianAbstr
What we liked: We’re excited to see a number of projects create features that are easily used on dApps built with Lens. Projects like LensRaffle immediately help grow the Lens ecosystem by including new functionality and value for users.
🔧 Sepana Lens Search
Search and discovery engine for the Lens protocol (including an open API to embed search within other Lens dApps).
The Team: @danieljkeyes, @sumedh42611, @prashantfb65
What we loved: Sepana brings new functionality to Lens by way of creating new ways to search and explore content. On top of that, their clean, intuitive user interface allows new users to benefit from these features without skipping a beat.
#️⃣ Hashchat
Hashchat — wallet-to-wallet / wallet-to-ProfileNFT encrypted messaging
The Team: @sjdthree1, @maxmandia, @codynhat
What we liked: Sometimes the best projects are the ones that offer the simplest answer to the most complex problems. Hashchat does just that, offering a seamless way to communicate between wallets.
💬 Zilly
A web3 profile explorer to connect people and communities. Build your network. Show your value. Leverage your connections.
The Team: @0xMikado, @zilly_social, @tomymanguel, @0xKipit, @0xnoormohammedb, @yanis_mezn
What we liked: A killer concept and clean UI helps this project stand apart from the rest. Zilly makes true on the potential for Web3 to connect users across the multitude of apps and networks in existence, and we can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
✍️ Write Together
Write the next part of other people’s stories or start your own story and see how others continue it.
The Team: @_bitbirdy
What we liked: This project offers a creative take on what it means to collaborate in Web3, offering users the ability to share each others’ stories and offer your own. We’re excited to see how Write Together will grow after this event.
🌿 LFGrow Partners
When Lens Protocol approached us to create an event focused on the seeds of decentralized social networks, we knew it would be an incredible opportunity for our community to make its mark on the budding space. This hackathon was unlike any we’ve built before, but it would not have been possible without the dedicated support of our Partner Teams.
Their generous support has been invaluable and has allowed us to further our mission to onboard the next generation of developers to the Ethereum ecosystem. Take a look at some of the key Partners for this year’s LFGRow below.
Up next… DAOHacks & ETHAmsterdam!
Our next event is right around the corner! Join us April 8th — 10th for DAOHacks—a weekend hackathon devoted to the future of DAOs, infrastructure, and all-things Web3. As always, come prepared to meet new friends, build cool DAO-focused projects, and hack the status quo.
On top of that, applications are now open for ETHAmsterdam — our first in-person event in over two years! Follow us on Twitter to stay in the know about future events and tag us in your project updates. We’re excited to see all of you again after so long!
