Vana raises $25 million to empower users to reclaim their data sovereignty in the AI era
In the age of AI, data is often referred to as “oil” and like oil, it is being mined and refined by a select few companies and organisations for their own gain.
Vana is a decentralised data liquidity network that wants to reconstruct the data value chain through its innovative DataDAO mechanism, enabling users to regain sovereignty over their own data.
With a further $25 million in funding from the likes of Coinbase Ventures and Paradigm, Vana wants to address what it sees as an urgent issue in the AI era.
Co-founders Art Abal and Anna Kazlauskas say: “The world is waking up to the fact that data is being exploited at scale, leading to biased datasets that underpin AI systems. We believe it’s time for users to take back control of their data.”
Vana’s architecture is built on three layers: The Data Liquidity Layer, which enables decentralised entry of data; the Data Application Layer, which enables the transfer of data and the development of AI; and the VANA Layer 1 Blockchain, which records all transactions securely.
The DataDAO enables users to contribute their data and earn governance tokens that represent their rights in the community. There are currently 599 DataDAOs in the ecosystem, with successful projects including Asterisk DataDAO, which focuses on women’s health data, and Resume DAO, which processes data from LinkedIn.
The VANA token enables users to trade data, stake for rewards, govern the network and pay for access to data.
Vana wants all users to get involved, whether that’s by contributing data, staking tokens or building. The company hopes to build a sustainable business model by creating the world’s largest data lake.
Ultimately, Vana wants to level the playing field and create a fairer market where users truly own their data and can influence how AI is developed, paving the way for a new economy based on data.
