Written by: Jesse, core contributor of Biteye
Over the past two decades, personal data has gradually evolved into the core currency of the Internet economy. While enjoying free services, users often inadvertently transfer control of their data to platforms. These platforms have gained huge economic benefits through targeted advertising and data transactions.
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, private data has become a key resource to promote an AI-driven world. However, there are two significant contradictions in this ecosystem: individuals, the producers of data, often cannot obtain financial returns from it; and AI researchers face difficulties in obtaining high-quality data sets.
The early internet vision was to build an open ecosystem where users could fully control their own data. However, with the proliferation of cloud infrastructure and the convenience of free services, platforms gradually monopolized the management of digital identities, constructing a centralized data economy system.
This current situation clearly deviates from the original design intent of the internet.
1. Data Ownership and Its Importance
Today, two transformative forces are challenging the existing data monopoly: on one hand, the rapid development of AI is causing the value of personal data to grow exponentially; on the other hand, the rise of decentralized technology provides individuals with new tools to regain control over their data. Vana is committed to leading this shift, as the first open protocol designed for data sovereignty, opening a new era for the data economy.
Vana is an EVM-compatible AI public chain focused on the management and governance of user sovereign data. Its core goal is to establish a distributed network where users not only own and govern the data they contribute but can also profit directly through data assetization.
Vana not only empowers users with control over their data but also provides developers with compliant and high-quality data resources, creating a win-win ecosystem.
Vana utilizes private key permission management to ensure the portability and control of data, challenging the monopoly of centralized platforms in the Web2 era, building a decentralized data market, eliminating intermediaries, and creating fair value for all participants.
User-oriented
Data monetization: Vana supports users in extracting data from centralized platforms and aggregating it into decentralized data collectives. By participating in decentralized data DAOs, users can earn economic returns from data sharing.
Sovereignty and portability: Users not only control data but can also unlock diverse values, such as personalized AI services or data insights.
For developers and researchers
High-quality data access: Vana provides datasets that users own and govern transparently, significantly enhancing the efficiency of the data market.
AI model optimization: Developers can leverage compliant, portable datasets to drive AI innovation.
For the overall ecosystem
Efficient Data Market: Build a fair and efficient data ecosystem through aligned interests and disintermediation.
Promote responsible innovation: Ensure fair returns for data contributors and promote ethical and responsible data use in the AI economy.
Through Vana's technology and ecological design, the realization of the value of personal data shifts from passive to active. Vana not only challenges the centralized monopoly of the Web2 era, continuing the network effects of centralized platforms but also brings a fairer, more transparent, and efficient future to the data economy.
2. How DataDAOs Better Empower AI Agents
Unlike traditional digital assets, the economic value of data depends on controlled access. Once data is made public, its market value rapidly depreciates. Traditional blockchains, which emphasize public verification, are not suitable for handling private data. However, Vana has successfully addressed this issue by combining private data hosting with public ownership frameworks.
Vana maintains a global state network to ensure transparency in data ownership, quality verification, and revenue distribution. Its core functions include:
Data ownership records: Encrypted proof of user ownership of data.
Access Control Management: Define the conditions for data access and the scope of authorization.
Verification Certificate: Ensure the quality, authenticity, and integrity of metadata of the data.
On-chain DataDAO contracts and token balances: Implement governance and distribution of economic rights.
Data is always encrypted and stored in a secure environment or the user's personal server, with the platform programmatically controlling access rights and ensuring that benefits are returned to data creators. Users can export their own data, protect it with encryption, and join a data collective called DataDAO. Through these collectives, users negotiate the commercial use of data with researchers or developers, ensuring contributors receive fair compensation.
Each DataDAO customizes Proof of Contribution based on its data type, measuring data value through the following metrics (including but not limited to):
Financial data: Transaction accuracy, record integrity, and consistency.
Social media data: User interaction levels, account activity duration, and content engagement.
Health data: Data freshness, measurement frequency, and device accuracy.
Data verification is completed by the Satya network, which consists of trusted execution environments (TEEs) that provide data quality verification while protecting privacy. Additionally, some DataDAOs use zero-knowledge proofs (zk-proofs) to further enhance privacy and security.
When developers purchase data access, contributors receive proportionally distributed compensation through governance tokens. This mechanism ensures that data contributors can receive continuous economic returns from data usage. Contributors have decision-making power and participate in the governance of data usage. The data market achieves fair pricing and improved efficiency by incentivizing high-quality data contributions.
Vana provides decentralized and liquid Data Liquidity Pools (DLPs). Users maintain encrypted control over their data while collectively sharing it. Through a smart contract-driven mechanism, DataDAO's non-fungible data is mapped to tradable tokens, realizing the market liquidity of data, marking an innovation in Vana's crypto development history. Whenever a new tokenized asset emerges in the market, market attention and funds follow. From a long historical perspective, NFTs introduced tokenization to art, with bored apes, Art Blocks, and other artworks fetching millions of dollars per piece, driving investors crazy. Looking at the innovation of this cycle, Pendle's tokenization of yield has spurred activity in the DeFi market, becoming the most outstanding DeFi protocol of 2024. Pioneers of every asset class can enjoy the highest premiums. This time, the new tokenization innovation comes from Vana's exploration of the potential of unstructured data. This might also be a consideration for major exchanges to list Vana at the first opportunity.
2025 will undoubtedly be the year of AI Agents. AI Agents will be the next external form of dApps. The significance of this transformation is similar to our leap from desktops to mobile devices over the past decade. But this will happen faster and on a larger scale. Data is the new oil of the AI era. This makes Vana's story intriguing. Because the performance of AI models directly depends on the quality of their training data, rather than just computational power or innovations in model architecture. This reality is redefining the priorities of AI development: data quality has become the core bottleneck for AI advancement.
AI Agents are facing a common challenge: useless inputs lead to useless outputs. Without high-quality training data, even the most sophisticated AI agents cannot truly function. This highlights the importance of building a credible data foundation.
This is precisely what is important about Vana. Vana is not just an ordinary AI project; it seeks to pave the way for user data ownership and high-quality AI data. Through DataDAO, users can stake $VANA tokens to support the creation of high-quality datasets. This model incentivizes users to participate in shaping the training data for AI.
For AI Agents, the importance of this mechanism is self-evident: higher quality training data directly translates into more powerful AI performance. The community-driven curation mechanism also ensures the diversity and reliability of data sources, providing a guarantee for the sustainability of the model.
Today, ai16z stands in the spotlight thanks to the resource support from a16z, while Virtual has become a hot AI Agent Launchpool backed by Base's liquidity. Vana has secured a total of $25 million in funding from top venture capital firms including Coinbase Venture, Paradigm, and Polychain, its resources rivaling those of ai16z and Virtual. DataDAOs built on Vana require the VANA token for participation, which is essentially similar to a Launchpool focused on the data track. Investors stake Vana into promising DataDAOs, supporting their development while also earning staking rewards. In the future, these DataDAOs may airdrop tokens to Vana stakers supporting their development (the dFusion AI Protocol has already announced a 1:1 token airdrop to Vana stakers). Each DataDAO needs a minimum staking amount of 10,000 $VANA to receive rewards, further promoting Vana's deflationary nature. AI Agents are undoubtedly the hottest topic right now, and the key input data influencing AI Agent performance will also be discovered by investors as the market educates itself, at which point the value discovery of Vana will just be beginning.
Through the innovative design of DataDAO and DLPs, Vana reshapes the infrastructure of the data economy while promoting the fair circulation of high-quality data, creating a more responsible ecosystem for AI innovation.
3. Value Analysis of Vana
In addition to the above discussions about Vana's pioneering tokenized data in Web3, providing high-quality data for AI Agents, and the value of the DataDAO Launchpool, one can step outside the framework of Web3 to see Vana's positioning in the entire internet technology ecosystem. a16z partner Justine Moore has released a noteworthy list of AI projects, and Vana is the only Web3 AI project on it (even though a16z has not invested in Vana).
AI = Data + Model + Computing Power. Currently, the model track is a duopoly competition between Open AI and Anthropic, the computing power track is monopolized by Nvidia, and Hyperbolic is challenging with distributed computing power. The data track is the core and foundation of AI, the new oil of the AI era. Without data, the AI express cannot start. Currently, no company is in an absolutely leading position in the data track.
In the internet era, the information revealed by digital footprints is often more than self-awareness: algorithms analyze subtle clues, such as Facebook likes or GPS records, to predict personality traits, income levels, and even mental health status more accurately than friends and family. Seemingly trivial behaviors, such as the timing of shopping or the tone of social media posts, inadvertently reveal our emotions, preferences, and even deeper truths. Personalized information push based on digital data can more effectively target personality traits, such as significantly helping low-income groups improve their saving capabilities. Therefore, mining data potential is crucial.
In Web3 projects, owning your data is no longer an attractive topic. What users care about is how to bring real benefits by mining the value of data. The profits of Web2 tech companies actually come from controlling data, such as Google's precise advertising placement and Ant Financial's big data finance. Reddit earned over $200 million by selling user-generated content data for AI training. Many Web2 tech companies are essentially big data companies. Google's parent company Alphabet is valued at $2.39 trillion, Facebook at $1.15 trillion, Twitter at $55.68 billion, and Reddit at $29.6 billion. On Vana's platform, researchers can not only access data from Twitter or Reddit but also obtain high-value sensitive data in health, finance, etc., without infringing on privacy. With the gradual spread of network effects under token incentives, it is foreseeable that Vana will become a hub for high-quality data sources, with more and more researchers accessing data from here, and AI will no longer be controlled by a few elites. Vana, which promotes the democratization of AI, has a transformative significance for AI that is no less than Bitcoin's impact on traditional finance.
On the other hand, Vana views unstructured data as tradable financial assets, building secondary spot markets, lending markets, options, and futures contracts around DLP. This opens up a new asset class in both traditional finance and DeFi. This is something that cannot be achieved on Nasdaq and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange because no large Web2 tech company would self-revolutionize and relinquish core data profits. Once data is made public, its value plummets or privacy issues arise. Not to mention the complex KYC processes of centralized exchanges. However, Vana can effectively address these pain points, and currently, only Vana can do this. Any new asset usually brings speculative bubbles, just as the recent new narratives of DeSci and AI Agents have sparked FOMO among people. The rising total market value of DLP will attract new crowds to pay attention to and participate in these DataDAOs. New users will bring fresh ideas on how to improve user experience, enhancing the operational mechanisms of DataDAOs and making the entire ecosystem stronger.
The reason Silicon Valley has been able to create so many high-value companies that change the world lies in its bets on a vision of a better life. Compared to internet tech companies, Vana is still small but has a large mission. Cryptocurrency has given investors worldwide the opportunity to participate in early potential projects. Currently, Vana has a circulating market value of only $500 million.
4. Vana Ecosystem Flywheel
The VANA token is the cornerstone of this economic system, serving functions such as network security, transaction fees, DLP staking, data access currency, and protocol governance.
When AI companies access data, they use VANA tokens to purchase and destroy DLP-specific tokens. This destruction mechanism establishes a direct economic link between network usage and token value, ensuring value flows back to data contributors and the broader network ecosystem.
Moreover, the incentive structure further drives the adoption of the protocol, for example, by rewarding outstanding DataDAOs to promote ecosystem activity. To date, the Vana Foundation has supported 12 active DataDAOs and received over 300 accelerator applications. These DAOs cover a diverse range of application scenarios from Twitter data, synthetic data to genomic data and browsing data, showcasing the broad potential of the Vana protocol.
Vana values community strength, allocating 44% of tokens to the community, of which 20.3% has been released during the TGE, making it one of the few projects in 2024 to allow participants to benefit significantly in the short term. Tokens allocated to investors have a one-year lock-up, followed by a three-year unlocking period, further highlighting investors' confidence in its technology and model. The team received 18.81% of the tokens, with the first year locked, followed by a four-year unlocking period. This distribution method ensures the team is motivated to continue building Vana, providing assurance for the long-term development of the ecosystem.
Figure 1: Token Distribution Structure
Figure 2: Token Unlocking Process
5. Current Participation Methods
Vana is implementing a DataDAO reward system aimed at ensuring fair value distribution and incentivizing high-quality data contributions. This reward system operates on a 21-day cycle, rewarding the top 16 performing DataDAOs. The distribution of rewards is proportional to each DataDAO participant's share and multiplier, ensuring that only the most valuable and trusted datasets can receive rewards, thereby driving the continuous optimization and innovation of the ecosystem.
Vana allocates 15% of the total supply of $VANA tokens for the DataDAO reward program, which will be gradually released over three years. The specific allocation structure is as follows:
50% is used to support the top 16 DataDAO stakers of $VANA.
50% goes to the DataDAO treasury to fund operations, incentivize data contributions, and increase staking rewards.
This reward structure ensures that the most valuable and contributive DataDAOs can receive ongoing support and rewards, while also promoting the healthy development of the entire ecosystem.
To encourage long-term commitment, Vana has introduced a staking multiplier mechanism. The longer participants stake, the higher the multiplier they receive, ultimately reaching the maximum multiplier after continuous staking for 63 days. This mechanism increases the weight of stakes in reward calculations, aligning the incentives of stakers with those of the DataDAO, further promoting the sustainable development of the system.
How to participate in the DataDAO ecosystem?
Step 1: Explore the Data Hub
Access the URL: datahub.vana.com to view all registered DataDAOs eligible for rewards. The Data Hub is the portal for entering, understanding, and interacting with the Vana ecosystem. Here, you can view available datasets, learn about contributors and their verification mechanisms, and compare the performance and rankings of different DataDAOs.
Step 2: Stake $VANA tokens
After selecting a DataDAO, staking $VANA tokens indicates support. If that DataDAO ranks in the top 16, stakers will receive rewards. Each DataDAO needs to reach a minimum staking threshold of 10,000 $VANA to qualify for rewards.
Step 3: Track and Optimize
Monitor staked amounts, multiplier growth, and the performance of supported DataDAOs using the dashboard.
Step 4: Earn and Reinvest
As DataDAOs receive rewards, users will gain shares based on their staked amounts and multipliers. Users will reinvest their income to enhance their influence and returns in future cycles or moderately cash out based on financial needs.
Currently, the annualized yield (APY) for staking VANA is as high as 273.58%. For users with a low-risk preference, they can earn contract yields while hedging contracts to earn additional funding rates. In the future, Vana stakers may receive token airdrops from Data DAO sub-projects.
Vana's DataDAO ecosystem already has several interesting innovative projects. Users can earn Vana token incentives by participating in these DataDAOs.
Featured Project Introduction
1. @VanaTensor
Supported by Vana, @VanaTensor provides users with high-quality synthetic data, rewarding contributors for sharing verified and valuable datasets.
2. @datapiggy
DataPig is an AI platform focused on transforming transaction data into meaningful insights. Through its DataDAO ecosystem, users can turn their transaction data into valuable assets and participate in a growing on-chain economy.
3. @Volaraxyz
Volara is dedicated to transforming users' Twitter data into valuable assets, providing more opportunities for data owners to utilize their data.
4. @sixgpt
SixGPT supports synthetic data generation to train AI models and is enhancing its data generation capabilities by utilizing real human chat data provided by @flur_protocol, further improving the intelligence of its platform.
5. @vChars_AI
vChars AI can transform Telegram data into personalized AI characters, allowing users to create customized virtual characters that interact with them.
6. @OpenyourMindDAO
MindDAO is the first decentralized autonomous organization exploring how Web3 impacts emotions, aiming to create the world's largest user-owned mental health data collection.
7. Auto DLP
Auto DLP is a DataDAO launched by @DLPLabs, allowing drivers to connect their @DIMO_Network accounts and earn rewards through secure data sharing and driving AI innovation related to cars.
8. @dFusionAI
How dFusion's knowledge base allows users to profit safely from chat data while maintaining full ownership and control.
9. @primedatadao
Methods to help users contribute and earn $VANA from Amazon shopping data
10. @NakaMining
The first genetic data collection on Vana is revolutionizing health sciences through community-driven breakthroughs. Users can contribute genetic data.
11. @Finquarium
Traders can contribute exchange trading data to earn rewards.
In addition to DataDAOs, Vana has also launched a Uniswap V3 fork for data trading—Data DEX, enabling users to buy and sell VANA tokens and DLP tokens. Traders and liquidity providers can utilize powerful analytics tools to help them make informed decisions and optimize strategies.
As an AI public chain focused on the data economy, Vana will have more ecological protocols built around DLP in the future.
6. Looking Ahead
The launch of the Vana mainnet marks an important turning point. Users have the opportunity to challenge the data monopoly of tech giants, regain control of their data, and reshape the AI economy. By decentralizing collective data sharing, individuals can provide datasets that are comparable in scale and quality, or even surpass those of centralized platforms.
Vana's vision is not only economic compensation but also to redefine the ownership, sharing, and monetization of data. In this new paradigm, data flows freely, sovereignty always belongs to individuals, and AI models are trained based on data owned by users—contributors directly benefit from it.
Vana lays the foundation for a self-sovereign internet, building an open and fair data economy. New targets in new tracks often receive market premiums. After the new year, funds are expected to return to the market, and as AI gains momentum again, Vana may take off once more.
