Gm and welcome back to Touch Grass! While we took a month-long break from newslettering to focus on the Lens Holiday Hackathon, we absolutely did not stop observing the good, the bad and the ugly of things happening onchain.
It seems that the AI agent meta is finally settling down a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe this new vertical is here to stay, but we’ve been inundated with too much, too fast and it’s good to settle down, observe, learn and pick some winners. Bonsai, for example, has been making strides with their agents and their launchpad with a tight integration with Orb, and soon they’ll be present on the upcoming Lens network.
To understand the launchpad better - please listen to their Spaces. Carlos also gave a great interview to Blake Finucane, so if you haven’t listened to it, or you’d like to get into AI coins without putting up with painful takes on X, then Carlos is your source of truth, and this interview is the perfect starting point.
We’re delighted to already have Bonsai ready to deploy their powerful tools on the Lens chain, but we’re also extremely excited about the builders that will integrate with them, that will leverage agents for public good and to allow users to earn, connect and explore. On that note, the Lens Holiday Hackathon ended this week. 50+ projects were submitted and judged thoughtfully by Lens super users and the team. This was a one-of-a-kind experience for everyone: a hackathon where builders got early validation on their ideas by the people that will use them, through their onchain votes (facilitated by Jokerace). Why did we take this approach? Because Lens is different. Yes, it's a chain + protocol + decentralized storage, but it’s also a movement formed by many people that have withstood the test of trends and metas and contribute by investing their time and effort into an internet that’s new and belongs to everyone. We take the Lens community seriously, so we invited them to have a stake in the future of Lens by contributing to the hackathon as judges. While the experiment wasn’t perfect, it was really productive and successful.
The projects that won were ambitious, solved problems that these Judges/ Power Users experience, and introduced them to interesting mechanisms, audience-building opportunities, engaging economic models, and important tools to fight challenges in decentralized ecosystems like Lens. Here’s the thread with all the winning projects - they’d love your support!
This week as well, Makers Place, the legendary NFT marketplace announced it’s ceasing its operations. MakersPlace helped kickstart the careers of many Lens creators and it will be missed. In the startup world, it’s relatively normal to see start-ups sunset, but this does not make these sad events easier. This was also the case with Buttrfly a much-loved Lens client, this past December. Phaver, another Lens-Farcaster client, did not shut down, but it’s transitioning into a DAO. Shutting down a product that empowers creators and that makes people feel seen and joined in the community is really hard both for the builders and their communities. The best one can do in situations like this, is support the builders while they go through difficult times, and most importantly, keep creating, connecting, exploring and not be discouraged.
And now, to the onchain digest.
Community:
Ruthless’ Ruthlessino always makes my day. Follow it and explore what it’s saying.
Kaiotei launched the Covenant on Orb - go join it.
An image of the Cuban sky view with Starship fragments by Thoy Brown
Reads:
(lots of Benoit to catch up on) - I loved his tale of living in Shibuya
That's it for now. Have a nice weekend. More next week!
Gm! In the latest blog post by @mariapaula, the Lens community enjoys innovation while navigating recent challenges and changes within the decentralized landscape. With intriguing projects submitted during the holiday hackathon and notable adaptations like dissolved marketplaces, the future looks dynamic.