A quick overview of Binance’s latest Launchpool project Vana (VANA)

Source: Golden Finance, Vana official website, white paper, Twitter Compiled by: Golden Finance

On December 13, 2024, Binance announced that Binance Launchpool launched the 62nd project - Vana (VANA), a native EVM-compatible L1 blockchain for user-held data. Users can invest BNB and FDUSD into the VANA reward pool on the Launchpool website after 08:00 on December 14, 2024(Eastern Time Zone 8) to obtain VANA. The VANA activity will last for a total of 2 days.

Reminder: Binance will be the first to list this token, and any claims of selling the token before the stated timeline are false advertising.

New Coin Listings

Binance will list Vana (VANA) at 18:00 (ET) on December 16, 2024, and open VANA/USDT, VANA/BNB, VANA/FDUSD, and VANA/TRY trading markets, with seed tag trading rules applicable.  

1. Launchpool Details

• Token Name: Vana (VANA)

• Total Genesis Token Supply: 112,641,600 VANA (93.87% of Maximum Token Supply)

• Maximum Token Supply: 120,000,000 VANA

• Initial Spot Circulation when Listed on Binance: 30,084,000 VANA (25.07% of Maximum Token Supply)

• Total Launchpool: 4,800,000 VANA (4% of Maximum Token Supply) ）

• Network Details: Vana Web Browser

II. Introduction to Vana (VANA)

1. What is Vana?

Vana is a distributed private user data network designed to enable user-owned AI. Users own, manage, and profit from the AI ​​models they contribute. Developers can access cross-platform data to power personalized applications and train cutting-edge AI models.

Vana originated as a research project at MIT in 2018, dedicated to allowing users to own their own data and the AI ​​models they create. It is fully open source and operates as a permissionless decentralized network. The Open Data Foundation is committed to promoting large-scale adoption of the Vana protocol, while other contributing organizations such as Corsali focus on research and development.

In the Web2 era, platform companies commercialize by collecting user data for free. For example, Toutiao, owned by ByteDance, can earn tens of billions of RMB in advertising revenue a year. Even if content creators get a certain share on the platform, the core interests are still firmly controlled by the company.

In the Web3 era, this phenomenon has intensified. Reddit earned $203 million in 2024 alone by signing data licensing agreements with AI companies, but users who contributed content to the platform received almost no benefits. This imbalance has driven the birth of Vana.

2. Technical Architecture

Just as Bitcoin realizes trustless value transfer and Ethereum realizes programmable state transition, Vana realizes programmable data ownership, and its core principle is personal data sovereignty.

2.1 Double-spending problem of data

The core challenge of assetizing data is that, unlike other digital assets, the economic value of data depends on controlled access - once data becomes public, its market value is lost. Traditional blockchain emphasizes public verification and is therefore not suitable for processing private data. Vana solves this problem by combining private data custody with public ownership records.

The blockchain maintains the following global state:

• Data ownership record: cryptographic proof of data possession

• Access rights: who can access which data, and under what conditions

• Proof of verification: proof of data quality and authenticity

• On-chain data collective contracts and token balances: economic rights and governance

While the data itself is kept on encrypted personal servers or trusted secure areas, the blockchain allows programmatic control over the conditions of access to the data and how benefits flow back to the data creators.

2.2 Core Components

Personal Servers Provide a secure foundation for data sovereignty. Users can choose to run these servers on local devices, trusted service providers, or lightweight clients.

Data Liquidity Pools (DLPs) As a coordination layer for collective data assets, they manage data validation rules, access rights, and token allocation.

Trusted Security Zones Provide a trusted execution environment (TEE) for private computing, completing complex operations without exposing data.

2.3 State Transitions for Data Economy

Vana solves the "double-spending" problem of data by combining privacy protection with programmable access rights. Data transactions are considered state transitions, and each transaction updates the global state, processing both data and economic transactions.

These technical foundations provide support for the subsequent creation, governance and large-scale monetization of collective data assets.

3. Vana's Vision

Vana's goal is to break the existing data economic model, allowing users to regain ownership and control of their own data, and train AI models through data to gain direct benefits and become the masters of their own data.

III. Founding Team

Vana was co-founded by two Filipino entrepreneurs, Anna Kazlauskas and Art Abal:

• Anna Kazlauskas: With a background in computer science and economics, she participated in Ethereum mining in the early days and conducted data research in international financial institutions. She also served as a policy advisor to the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste and designed a legal system for equality for all.

• Art Abal: Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, he led innovative data collection methods at Appen, an AI training data provider.

The two had worked together on the TOCA project, which provided low-income people in the Philippines with the opportunity to be paid for contributing data, laying the foundation for the development of Vana.

Fourth, Token Economics

VANA is the native token of Vana Network, powering its ecosystem and supporting secure, user-owned, decentralized data transactions. It plays a core role in the network's multi-token ecosystem.

Supply Overview

• Total Supply: 120,000,000 $VANA

• Ecosystem & Community Allocation: 66.9%

• Circulating Supply at TGE: 28.5%

VANA Token Usage

• Network Security: Support the validator mechanism by staking to protect the network.

• Governance Voting: Holders can participate in governance decisions.

• Transaction Fees: Used to pay for network operations.

• DataDAO Participation: Serves as the core participation tool for the data liquidity pool.

• Data Access Currency: Used to purchase and trade data access rights.

The total number of VANA tokens is 120 million, of which 44% will be allocated to the community (unlocked in 36 months), 22.9% will be allocated to the ecosystem (unlocked in 48 months), 18.8% will be allocated to core contributors (unlocked in part after 1 year + unlocked in 4 years), and 14.2% will be allocated to investors (unlocked in part after 1 year + unlocked in 3 years). The circulation at the time of TGE (token generation) is 28.5%.