Can the upcoming mainnet Vana become the infrastructure of the AI Agent data era?

Deep Tide TechFlow
2024-12-12 12:02:32
Collection
Your own influence is actually greater than you think.

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

As BTC breaks through $100,000, more funds are seeking new projects and opportunities under the expectation of a bull market.

But if you ask which track has the most potential right now? AI Agents must be named. However, with a large number of AI Agents being launched every day, the narrative of the entire track is gradually stratifying:

One category revolves around the applications of AI Agents, with corresponding tokens representing either memes or the utility of the Agent; while another category focuses on providing capabilities for AI Agents, enabling applications to perform better.

The former is easier to observe at the application layer and has started to become crowded and competitive; while the latter has relatively more room for breakthroughs.

What essential capabilities do AI Agents still need?

Perhaps we can find answers from the recently popular "AI KOL" aixbt:

Research has found that what aixbt says is not always correct; it cannot distinguish between true and false, cannot require experts to validate its assumptions, and cannot question itself.

Essentially, because aixbt is actually a large language model, it can only scrape and summarize from various publicly available data, making it more like a repeater of aggregated public information.

So, if you can provide this type of AI agent with more diversified, personalized, and private data, it might perform better.

For example, share your insights on trading low-market-cap altcoins, or investment strategies that you are only willing to discuss in paid groups for it to learn… But this data is not publicly available, and aixbt cannot access it.

Note that the world does not lack sufficient data, but high-quality data is hard to obtain.

In the current crypto craze surrounding AI agents, data infrastructure is actually lacking.

One narrative space and information gap here is that if there are projects capable of collecting more personalized and individualized data, while feeding it to AI agents or organizations in need, they might find a unique ecological niche in this wave of hype.

Two months ago, we wrote about a project called Vana, which collects various types of data that cannot be obtained from the public market using a DAO approach, while incentivizing data contribution and guiding the purchase and use of such data through tokenization.

At that time, AI Agents were not as hot, and the use cases for the project seemed less clear. However, in this wave of AI Agent trends, Vana clearly has more room for application and a more coherent environment.

Coincidentally, Vana will soon launch its mainnet and release its own token $VANA, while also updating its white paper and tokenomics, providing more detailed explanations of the current data issues and its positioning.

In the crypto market, timing is crucial. What new dynamics and changes are worth paying attention to in the current Vana? Does the token have more favorable expectations?

We read the newly released white paper to help you quickly understand the current Vana.

Data "Double Spending," Finding Blind Spots in Profit Seeking

Undoubtedly, everyone is chasing profits in the AI agent craze.

Anyone can easily create an AI agent, and the assets corresponding to AI agents can also be easily tokenized… But aside from purchasing the tokens corresponding to the AI agent, what other profits can you obtain?

This question represents new opportunities for individuals, while for projects, it signifies new narrative space.

Don't forget that AI agents may be using the data you contributed to train themselves, but you haven't earned a dime from it. For example, the previously mentioned aixbt analyzes crypto hotspots, one of the sources of which may be an article you wrote on your own Twitter.

Therefore, upon opening Vana's new white paper, a concept on the first few pages quickly caught my attention: the "double spending" dilemma of data.

Does the term double spending sound familiar yet strange?

This concept actually originates from the double spending problem that Bitcoin solves—preventing the same Bitcoin from being paid twice.

Bitcoin addresses this issue by recording the entire transaction history on a public blockchain, acting as an immutable ledger where everyone knows the historical flow of a coin, ensuring that a coin can only be spent once in its current state.

However, in the data realm, this problem is more complex.

Unlike Bitcoin, data is inherently replicable, leading to an overlooked economic dilemma in the AI craze: when data is sold directly, buyers can easily copy and redistribute it, resulting in the same data being utilized multiple times, and you cannot gain any additional profits from this utilization.

For example, if you write a tweet, once it is utilized and learned by an AI agent, it may be shared indefinitely with other AI agents, ultimately causing this data to lose its scarcity and economic value.

If you want to create a ledger similar to Bitcoin's to record data usage on-chain to avoid this double spending problem, would that work?

First, data itself sometimes has privacy concerns, making public records inappropriate, and you may not want to share it; second, even if you record data usage, you still cannot guarantee that this data will not continue to be copied and resold off-chain; third, everyone wants to take advantage of your data, so who would want to join your "self-serving but unhelpful" ledger system?

So, is there any way to solve the "double spending problem" of data?

As Vana's white paper states, "data sovereignty and collective data creation are not mutually exclusive."

We quickly skimmed through this white paper, and a concise version could be:

The Vana protocol proposes an innovative solution by cleverly combining privacy protection, programmable access rights, and economic incentives to create a brand new data economy model.

In this model, data remains encrypted at all times, and only authorized entities can access it under specific conditions; secondly, through smart contracts, data owners can precisely control who can access the data and under what conditions; more importantly, this access can be tokenized and traded, while the original data remains protected.

A more relatable analogy could be the streaming model of the modern music industry:

Instead of directly selling music files (which would lead to infinite copying), streaming services like Spotify generate revenue each time they are used.

Data owners do not sell data outright but retain control and can continuously earn from each use of the data. This ensures that data can be fully utilized (e.g., for AI training) while addressing the double spending and devaluation issues caused by "one-time sales," all while data owners maintain complete control over their data.

Using DAO as a Pool, Establishing a "Data Cooperative"

Specifically, how does Vana operate?

We can roughly divide the participants in the entire AI market into two groups—companies/AI agents that need data; and individuals and organizations that (actively or passively) contribute data.

To create a higher quality AI agent, beyond public data, their demands are clear:

  • Access to private data, such as your health data for medical diagnostic AI agents

  • Access to paywalled data, such as paid articles and insights for business analysis AI agents

  • Access to closed platform data, such as more posts made by users on X for sentiment analysis AI agents

As for the other side that intentionally or unintentionally contributes data, your demands boil down to the following points:

  • You can access it, but the data ownership still belongs to me;

  • You can access it, but the data must exist in a secure place;

  • You can access it, but I want to benefit from it, and pay as needed.

Traditional data usage models often place users in a passive position. For instance, when AI companies need training data, they either buy data directly from social platforms (where users cannot benefit) or need to negotiate with thousands of users individually (which is highly inefficient).

Vana's solution is called the Data Liquidity Pool (DLP). You can think of it as a "data cooperative":

Users can concentrate their data permissions in a "pool," forming a virtual organization similar to a cooperative; this means that the collective users have the power of collective negotiation while maintaining encrypted control over the original data.

Imagine a DLP composed of 100,000 Twitter users: when AI companies want to use this data, they can negotiate directly with the DLP, and the profits will be automatically and fairly distributed to all contributors.

From the content of Vana's recently released white paper, this data cooperative (DLP) is now being established with four key rules:

  • Data Standards: Membership Guidelines

This is akin to strict membership criteria, defining standards for metadata, such as social media data, health data, etc.; the core is to ensure that only data meeting quality requirements is included in the pool;

  • Verification Mechanism: Quality Inspectors of the Data Cooperative

Assessing the quality and value of data entering the pool, ensuring that the data added is authentic, akin to verification nodes in traditional blockchain terms.

  • Token Economy: Rewarding Member Behavior

Through a fair points system, incentivizing high-quality data contributors; more and better data can earn more token rewards.

  • Governance Rules: Cooperative Charter

Regulating how decisions are made, such as opening a new data pool, and also specifying how disputes are handled, reflecting more of the characteristics of a DAO that we are familiar with.

Overall, this data cooperative in the context of the crypto world resembles a DAO that makes decisions and incentives around data, managing the data pool and determining the rules for negotiating with data users and profit distribution.

If you find the above description too simplistic, then in the design of the Vana network, the aforementioned DAO model is actually operating in a serious technical manner:

  1. Smart Contract Deployment. The DAO creator deploys the smart contract for the pool on the blockchain, clearly defining the basic rules for data management, usage, and profit distribution.

  2. Data Preparation. Data providers prepare the data they wish to contribute, which has already been encrypted before submission.

  3. Secure Storage. Data providers must first connect their wallets and prove their identity before uploading data. The uploaded encrypted data will be stored in a dedicated storage space for the contributor.

  4. On-chain Record. The system will record the access address of this encrypted data on the blockchain, ensuring that only authorized parties can access the data.

  5. Multiple Verifications. Multiple verifiers will review the data, checking its authenticity, quality, and value. These verification results will be recorded in the smart contract to ensure the data's credibility.

  6. Regulated Usage. Verified data can be used by two types of users: machine learning researchers can pay to use the data for training models; data buyers can access the data under specific conditions. All usage requires payment and strict adherence to the usage conditions specified in the smart contract.

Regarding data privacy protection, due to space and technical knowledge limitations, I will not elaborate further here.

If you are concerned about whether this data might leak, just grasp the following main line: all personal data in Vana remains encrypted, as if it is placed in a safe where the user holds the key. Even if this data needs to be processed, it can only be done in a special secure environment (TEE), similar to a bank's special clearing room, where all operations are strictly monitored and recorded.

It is particularly worth mentioning that the system achieves flexible yet secure access control through the combination of smart contracts and encryption mechanisms. It can control who can access what data at what time, and all access records will be properly preserved for auditing.

Using DAO as a data pool, a data cooperative model can protect personal data sovereignty and profits while allowing AI agents that need more personalized data to make full use of it.

A Blooming Variety of Specialized Data DAOs

Currently, the data liquidity pools on Vana are not just in the conceptual stage but have indeed formed various data DAOs. Each DAO's data is aimed at a specific vertical scenario for different AI needs.

Taking the Volara DAO, which focuses on X (Twitter), as an example, you can connect your Twitter to this platform, and then upload all your tweets and related social data. Volara DAO will reward you with corresponding tokens in this DAO based on your contributions.

Note that the direct rewards are not from Vana but from the DAO's own tokens, such as $VOL.

This is very similar to the currently popular Virtuals, where a parent token has different projects creating corresponding tokens. Holding VOL qualifies you for $VANA airdrops, and the asset nesting model creates more space for various plays.

We have compiled a list of 16 popular data DAOs currently on Vana and categorized them in detail.

For ordinary players, this resembles a concept of "data mining"—if you are optimistic about a certain DAO, you can contribute data according to its rules, and then you will receive corresponding rewards and airdrops.

However, you may not own all the data, so you also need to look at the following categories to see what data you can contribute and find the best way to obtain profits:

Platform Data DAOs

Device and Data Generation DAOs

Human Insights and Finance DAOs

Health DAOs

Overall, since the developer testnet launched in June 2024, the Vana network has attracted 1.3 million users, over 300 data DAOs, and 1.7 million daily transactions.

With the mainnet launch and the introduction of tokens, we may see more data DAOs emerge under the impetus of economic incentives.

Dual Token Economy, More Suitable Gameplay

You may have noticed that the aforementioned DAOs all have their own sub-tokens, which are correspondingly linked to the parent token VANA (such as through airdrops).

This involves a carefully designed dual-token economic model.

Imagine a traditional data market: medical data, financial data, social data, each with different value standards and usage scenarios. Using a single token to measure and incentivize such diverse data contributions is like using one ruler to measure everything—from planets to atoms. This is clearly not precise enough and lacks flexibility.

VANA adopts a more elegant solution: establishing a unified base token (VANA) at the protocol level while allowing each data DAO to issue its own exclusive tokens.

Both the parent and sub-tokens have different roles and functions:

  • VANA:

A supply of 120 million tokens. First, it secures the network by requiring validators to stake VANA;

Secondly, it serves as the base payment currency for all transactions; for example, if an AI company needs data from this DAO, it must pay with VANA;

Most importantly, it requires each data DAO to stake at least 10,000 VANA to operate, acting as a "good faith deposit" to ensure the DAO operator's long-term commitment to the ecosystem.

  • Tokens of Data DAOs:

Each data DAO can design a token economic model that fits its field's characteristics. For instance, a medical data DAO may focus more on data integrity and accuracy, thus designing special reward mechanisms to encourage high-quality medical record contributions; while a social data DAO may pay more attention to user interaction activity and influence.

These exclusive tokens are not just simple points but build a complete value capture system: when data is used, both VANA and the corresponding DAO tokens must be paid. This is like paying a "venue fee" (VANA) and a "special service fee" (DAO token) when using data.

Does this gameplay remind you of Virtuals?

Similarly, the brilliance of the dual-token system lies in its creation of a self-sustaining economic cycle: using data requires consuming tokens, some of which will be burned, creating deflationary pressure; meanwhile, high-quality data contributions will earn new token rewards, providing moderate inflationary impetus. This balance ensures the stability of token value and incentivizes continuous data contributions.

As the parent token, VANA has gas and staking functions, with each sub-DAO issuing its own token and pairing it with the parent token VANA for trading, allowing the parent token to capture the benefits of ecological prosperity.

From the perspective of asset creation and increasing asset efficiency, the VANA gameplay clearly aligns with the current AI agent craze.

For individuals, this system turns data into a truly sustainable asset. Data providers no longer sell data outright but continuously share the profits from data usage by holding tokens. This is akin to shifting from a "one-time sale" model to a "royalty-sharing" model, greatly improving the interests of data creators.

At the same time, as Vana's mainnet is set to launch soon (with tokenomics announced and mainnet preheating), after understanding this dual-token gameplay, there are at least two things you can participate in:

First, as mentioned above, contribute data to different data DAOs to potentially earn sub-DAO tokens and corresponding VANA airdrops; the summary link is here.

Second, with the mainnet launch, we also found that Vana's official website has changed, currently adding a datahub page to manage your participation in different data DAOs and their corresponding tokens.

Currently, this page has a pre-registration activity to associate your identity in advance and prepare for rewards, suggesting that interested players can lay out their plans early.

After completing this registration, you will be prompted to become an "Early Explorer."

Summary

In the current AI Agent hotspot, the influence of AI Agents is growing, until it fills your information feed and investment list.

But the narrative of Vana actually states that your own influence is greater than you might think.

By contributing various types of data, you become a part of the AI craze; and through the tokenization of data assets, you also gain a new way to create around assets.

It cannot be denied that in the crypto world, creating assets is a clear line. Those closer to assets can gain more narrative space and profits.

And when your data can be tokenized, I believe this is a hidden line that aligns with the clear line, and is a key piece in embracing, utilizing, and participating in the trend of AI agents.

The narrative layer of data has not yet been fully developed, and whether Vana will be discovered for its value remains to be seen by the market.

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