What is VANA? Will the Layer1 network make the wave and market come back? Let's find out with Wendy through this article
What is Vana?
Vana is the first network for user-owned data. It transforms how data is owned, shared, and monetized. The Vana L1 enables users to pool their data in DataDAOs while maintaining control and privacy.
Developers can leverage these decentralized datasets to create next-generation applications, such as AI models and data-driven dApps.
The "Why"
The problem: In today’s data economy, tech giants profit from the data you generate, while you get nothing in return. Reddit for example, earns $200M from selling user-generated content as AI training data. Worse, you have no say in how your data is used or who benefits from it.
The solution: Vana changes that by giving you ownership over your data. Through DataDAOs, you can contribute, tokenize, and share your data. You decide how it’s used, and you get rewarded for it. With Vana, data becomes an asset that empowers you — whether it’s used in AI development or other applications.
The "How"
Here’s how Vana works for you:
Contribute Data: Users contribute data to DataDAOs. Contributions range from social media data to IoT and sensor data, all securely stored encrypted off-chain.
Tokenize: Validated data is tokenized, enabling secure data usage across different decentralized applications, particularly for AI model development.
Earn and Govern: Users gain governance rights in different DataDAOs, influencing decisions about data use and getting a share of profit when data is used.
Vana leverages blockchain to ensure transparency, security, and decentralization in how data is owned and shared.
A Quick Example
Imagine you’ve been tracking your health data for years. You contribute this data to a Data Liquidity Pool on Vana. It gets tokenized, verified, and becomes a valuable asset in the hands of AI developers who use it to build life-saving medical models.
As these models grow and generate revenue, you earn a share of that — finally gaining financial returns from the data you’ve been giving away for free. Plus, you’re part of the decision-making process, helping shape how this data is used in the future of healthcare.
The Benefits
Data Ownership: Users maintain ownership of their data, with full control over how it’s used in applications.
Tokenized Data: Data is transformed into a verifiable, tradable asset for decentralized AI and data-driven applications.
Privacy & Security: Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) ensure the privacy and security of the data contribution.
Decentralized Governance: Participants influence ecosystem rules and data pool operations through on-chain voting.
Take Control of Your Data
Vana is more than just a platform — it’s a movement to help you take back control of your data and become a key player in the digital economy.
By joining Vana, you gain ownership, governance, and return from the data you generate every day.
Ecosystem
Testnet Information
The Vana Network is a fully EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, designed to power the decentralized data economy. Currently in the Moksha testnet phase, users can explore and interact with the Vana ecosystem using the resources below.
Ecosystem Resource:
Faucet
Bridge
Governance
Cross-app Embedded Wallet
RPC nodes
Audit
Vana Token Overview
An open and decentralized protocol for data sovereignty, Vana unlocks user-owned data as a new digital asset class in the global AI economy.
The Vana network is an EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain designed to restore individual control over personal data and enable user-owned AI through private and secure data transactions at individual and collective levels. In an era where artificial intelligence is driving immense value from user data, Vana ensures that data creators—individuals—capture a fair share of the value generated while enabling researchers to access unique datasets.
By combining blockchain coordination, privacy-preserving technologies, and tokenized economic incentives, Vana enables users to maintain full control over their data while contributing to collective data assets that power AI and other applications.
The VANA tokenomics are designed to align incentives across all participants in the Vana network—validators, DLP creators, stakers, and community members. By prioritizing early data liquidity, supporting robust contributions through DLPs, and fostering decentralized governance, Vana aims to unlock the full potential of user-owned data and AI technologies.
With clear incentives for participation, carefully planned emissions, and a focus on long-term sustainability, Vana is creating a vibrant, self-sustaining ecosystem where individuals and communities can realize the true value of their data. The $VANA token serves as the foundation for this transformative vision, empowering users to take control of their data while driving innovation in AI and beyond.
Token Utility
$VANA is the native token of the Vana Network, powering its ecosystem and supporting secure, decentralized data transactions. It plays a central role in the network's multi-token ecosystem through the following use cases:
Network Security
Validators stake $VANA to secure the blockchain, ensuring reliable transaction validation and operational stability. Validators receive staking rewards for their role in maintaining the network's integrity. However, during Phase 1 of the network, all Layer 1 validator rewards will be redirected to a public goods fund to support the broader ecosystem.
Transaction Fees
$VANA is used to pay for all network transactions, including data-related operations, smart contract executions, and interactions with DataDAOs. This establishes $VANA as the medium of exchange for activities within the ecosystem.
DataDAO Incentives
DAO Staking: DataDAOs stake $VANA to qualify for token emissions, encouraging their active participation in the ecosystem.
Contributor Rewards: Data contributors stake $VANA to influence reward distribution mechanisms and align incentives for top DataDAOs.
For more information on DataDAO Rewards please see here
Default Data Access Currency
Accessing datasets managed by DataDAOs uses $VANA by default, which can be swapped for other tokens as desired by the buyer, seller, or agent. These tokens unlock datasets for use in applications by researchers, developers, and businesses.
Trading Pair
$VANA serves as the primary trading pair for all tokens issued by DataDAOs, facilitating seamless exchange and interoperability across the ecosystem.
Governance
$VANA holders actively participate in the decentralized governance of the Vana Network, voting on proposals and influencing key decisions. This supports decentralized decision-making and broad community involvement.
At genesis, the Vana Foundation is responsible for the stewardship of the VANA token and treasury. Governance of the treasury will expand to other network stakeholders and contributors through the Vana DAO. Governance will progressively transition to community control, ensuring a fair and inclusive approach to managing the ecosystem.This will expand the scope of decision-making, allowing participants to help shape the network’s direction and manage key parameters, such as reward structures and emissions.
Data Token Ecosystem
The Vana Network supports a dynamic ecosystem where DataDAOs can issue their own tokens tied to specific datasets or rights. $VANA serves as the foundational token that interconnects these activities, fostering collaboration and enabling a robust data economy.
Vana Supply and Distribution
The total supply of VANA is capped at 120 million tokens, distributed as follows:
Community
The Community allocation focuses on fostering participation and rewarding contributors in the Vana Network. This includes rewards for high-quality data contributions to DataDAOs, airdrops to early adopters, and support to developers building on Vana. Future incentives will ensure sustained engagement and community alignment with Vana’s vision.
Ecosystem
The Ecosystem allocation will ensure sustainability of the Vana protocol through grants and rewards that drive long-term growth of the Vana network. Grants will be allocated to activities including DataDAO bootstrapping, support for new DataDAO tokens, network partnerships and block rewards to incentivize network decentralization, innovation and adoption.
Investors
Early supporters with a 4 year vest (1-year cliff plus 3 year unlock).
Core Contributors
The team that has worked tirelessly to help bring Vana from concept to reality, and will continue to provide support for the development of protocol. All tokens distributed as part of the Core Contributors allocation are subject to a 5 year vest (1-year cliff and 4 year unlock).
Phases
VANA emissions are structured to align with the network’s growth trajectory, distributed across four 6-month phases:
Phase 1: Build Data Liquidity (0-6 months)
Focus: Bringing data contributors and Data DAOs ; Incentivize DataDAOs and onboard users.
Emissions: Majority directed to DataDAO creators and rewards to early data contributors to bootstrap adoption.
Phase 2: Accelerate AI Innovation and Applications (6-12 months)
Focus: Encourage creation of AI agents with collectively owned models.
Emissions: Begin incorporating fee revenue to fund emissions; rewards for high-value data contributors and developers creating new AI applications.
Phase 3: Decentralization and Governance (12-18 months)
Focus: Transition to community governance and increase user rewards.
Emissions: Begin tapering emissions, relying more on transaction fees.
Enable community-driven control over rewards and key parameters.
Phase 4: Network Expansion (18-24 months)
Focus: Drive ecosystem sustainability and improve cross-DLP integrations.
Emissions: Shift to demand-driven rewards with steady-state deflation.
Introducing Vana (VANA) on Binance Launchpool
Users will be able to lock their BNB and FDUSD to receive VANA Airdrops over two days, with farming starting from 2024-12-14 00:00 (UTC).
Listing
Binance will then list VANA at 2024-12-16 10:00 (UTC) and open trading with VANA/USDT, VANA/BNB, VANA/FDUSD and VANA/TRY trading pairs. The Seed Tag will be applied to VANA.
Token Name: Vana (VANA)
Max Token Supply: 120,000,000 VANA
Total Genesis Token Supply: 112,641,600 VANA (93.87% of max token supply)
Launchpool Token Rewards: 4,800,000 VANA (4% of max token supply)
Initial Circulating Supply When Listed on Binance Spot: 30,084,000 VANA (25.07% of max token supply)
Research Report: Vana (VANA) (will be available within 12 hours of publishing this announcement)
Layer 1 Network Details: Vana explorer
Launchpool Terms will apply and KYC completed to Binance’s satisfaction is required
Hourly Hard Cap per User:
8,500 VANA in BNB pool
1,500 VANA in FDUSD pool
Supported Pools:
Lock BNB (webpage will be available in around 12 hours): 4,080,000 VANA in rewards (85%)
Lock FDUSD (webpage will be available in around 12 hours): 720,000 VANA in rewards (15%)
Farming Period: 2024-12-14 00:00 (UTC) to 2024-12-15 23:59 (UTC).
Instructions for participating in Staking BNB, FDUSD to receive $VANA
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