For years, decentralized social networks have promised a future in which users own their identities, creators capture more value, and platforms are no longer controlled by a single company. However, few projects have been able to realize this vision at scale. Lens has achieved this.
Lens started as an ambitious experiment and has now accomplished many tasks that Web3 practitioners once thought impossible: proving that a user-owned decentralized social network can be built on open, composable, permissionless infrastructure—and that it can truly work effectively.
With the completion of this core mission, Lens is entering a new chapter and will be passed on to Mask Network. Mask, the team that has transformed the ideals of decentralization into true consumer-grade products, is the best successor.
Mask's Long-Term Bet on Decentralized Social Media
The team was founded by Suji Yan in 2017 with a mission to build an easy-to-use bridge connecting decentralized applications in the Web3 era to the Web2 world. As early as late 2019, the Mask browser extension enabled users to access secure decentralized social messaging, payment networks, and file storage directly on major social media platforms.
Mask has been deeply rooted in the decentralized social ecosystem from the very beginning. The team has long supported Mastodon, a major decentralized social network with approximately 1.9 million monthly active users. Mask operates two of the most active Mastodon instances—mstdn.jp and mastodon.cloud—and acquired the largest Mastodon instance in 2022.One example is Pawoo.net..
Mask is rapidly expanding. Its ecosystem has already extended to include shared infrastructure and consumer applications. In 2022, Mask launched its own venture capital firm, Bonfire Union, managing two funds totaling $100 million, and has invested in more than 120 projects in the fields of decentralized social networks, foundational infrastructure, and creator economy.
Mask's current positioning is "the Tencent of Web3": it is not a single platform, but a network of interoperable social products governed by the MaskDAO.
Suji Yan, founder of Mask, said, "Mask is committed to making decentralized social networking more accessible, intuitive, and suitable for everyday users, which aligns perfectly with the mission of the next chapter of Lens."
From Infrastructure to Consumer Adoption: Joining Forces with Lens and Orb
Lens founder Stani Kulechov stated that from the protocol to the ecosystem, and even its dedicated blockchain, Lens lays the foundation for a new generation of SocialFi applications.
Lens began as a community experiment and later evolved into open social infrastructure. Through multiple iterations of its protocol, it transitioned from early developer adoption to a production-ready social platform, ultimately becoming a permissionless, high-performance network capable of supporting consumer-grade applications. In the process, Lens has proven its core thesis: user-owned, decentralized social can operate at real-world scale while delivering the experience people expect.
The remaining challenge is how to transition from infrastructure to large-scale adoption, and from protocols to products.
Mask Network is the ideal successor for the next phase of Lens. This transition is based on Mask's previous...Acquire Orb As an example, Orb is a Web3-native social application built on Lens.
By early 2025, Orb had surpassed 50,000 monthly active users, creating a "you had to be there" experience through viral mechanisms such as sticker packs, collectibles, and competitions, all centered around a creator-first monetization model. Orb is now part of MaskDAO, joining a growing suite of decentralized social products including Web3.bio and Firefly.social. Among them, Firefly.social has partnered with leading ecosystem projects such as Fileverse, Snapshot, Polymarket, Mirror, Paragraph, and eth.limo, and has received public praise from Vitalik Buterin for its exceptional user experience.
Suji Yan, founder of Mask Network, said, "Lens has proven the feasibility of the infrastructure. Orb demonstrates the possibility of building applications on top of it. The existence of MaskDAO is to bring decentralized social networking from the lab into everyday life, creating products that can scale to millions of users while preserving user ownership."
Orb founder Kimmo Sirén said, "Lens Chain enables us to rethink the form of social interactions. Through MaskDAO, we are bringing culture and ownership truly onchain."
Why Mask is the Best Successor for Lens
Lens has completed its initial mission: proving that a decentralized, user-owned social network can be built and scaled. The infrastructure is now open, high-performance, and ready.
What the ecosystem needs next is not more protocols, but excellent consumer-grade products.
Mask shares the same strong belief in user-owned social concepts as Lens, while also bringing years of experience in operating large-scale consumer platforms. From Mastodon to Firefly and then Orb, the Mask team has repeatedly demonstrated their ability to transform open infrastructure into polished, mainstream-oriented applications.
Stan Kulechov, founder of Lens Chain and Avara, said, "Lens was built to give people ownership over their digital lives, and we've already proven that this model can scale. The infrastructure is now open, resilient, and ready to support true consumer-grade products. What comes next is mainstream adoption, and this is exactly where Mask's product leadership becomes crucial in bringing decentralized social into everyday use."
Next, Stani and Avara Will continue to serve as an advisor to Suji Yan and the Mask team. Both parties believe that in the coming years, social and DeFi will increasingly integrate into the economic layer of the internet.
Lens laid the foundation. Mask is building the community, bringing decentralized social networking from the lab into everyday life.
About Mask
Mask Network, a leader in the decentralized social ecosystem, connects Web2 and Web3 by enabling users to access decentralized applications, messaging, and payment tools directly on mainstream social platforms. Its ecosystem is governed by MaskDAO and includes decentralized social apps such as Web3.bio, Firefly.social, and Orb.club. Through its venture capital arm, Bonfire Union, Mask strategically invests in decentralized social networks, infrastructure, and creative content, aiming to make Web3 more accessible to everyone. For more information, please visit mask.io. Contact us.
About Lens
Lens is a Layer 2 blockchain optimized for SocialFi, providing scalability and cost-efficiency for decentralized SocialFi applications. With its modular social protocol, on-chain content storage, and stable gas fees enabled by GHO, Lens is committed to driving the adoption of Web3. https://x.com/LC