A new dark horse in the AI ​​field, competing with Google and Facebook?

The "AI craze" has not faded yet, and the Nobel Prize has also entered the "AI era". This year's Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry are both related to artificial intelligence.

A few days ago, a16z partner @venturetwins released a list of AI projects worth paying attention to, among which @withvana was mentioned. It is the only Web3 project mentioned and deserves our special attention.

AI is constantly popular, what is Vana? What is the innovation? Let's take a look today.

01 What does Vana want to do?

The answer is a platform that tokenizes and trades user data. Users can use the data generated on platforms such as Google and Reddit to build a user-managed data market, thereby providing high-quality data for AI training and bringing benefits.

This narrative has also been mentioned in other AI projects. In short, it is to return data to users and oppose the monopoly of large Internet companies.

But if you look at it carefully, Vana still has quite different highlights:

1. Data trading: Users can put their data into the data liquidity pool (DLP), and each submission can get token rewards, similar to data mining.

2. Data DAO: Vana has established a data DAO, where users can not only upload and manage their own data, but also participate in decision-making and governance through this organization. This structure gives users greater voice and control on the platform, rather than just being data providers.

That is, the core of Vana is its "Data Liquidity Network", which allows users' data to be tokenized and traded like financial assets.

02 Vana's Core Technology Concepts

"Building the best AI model" is Vana's foothold, which is why the Data Liquidity Pool (DLP) was created to collect the highest quality data, which is crucial to the project.

Vana implements the "Data Liquidity Network" through two mechanisms: Proof-of-contribution, which verifies the value of private data in a privacy-preserving manner. As well as non-custodial data, ensuring that data is only used for approved operations.

Like a modern "data market", participating in the data liquidity pool on Vana is like an early Ethereum miner. Its core technical concepts are mainly three:

1. Data Liquidity Layer (DLP)

This layer is responsible for centralizing the data submitted by users into the Data Liquidity Pool (DLP). DLP is a smart contract that allows users to contribute, verify and record data. It's like a "data pool" where users put their own data in to form a big pool. The water (data) here is more valuable than individual drops of water (personal data) because it can be used to train artificial intelligence. Each data pool has its own rules, such as how to verify and use the data. After contributing data, users can get rewards and management rights.

2. Data Portability Layer

This layer is a collaborative space that enables data contributors and developers to build applications using data in the DLP. It provides infrastructure for training user-owned models and developing AI applications. Through this layer, online communities and developers can create economic value from data, and data contributors can benefit from AI generated by their data.

3. Connectivity Group

The connectivity group is a decentralized ledger that records data transactions in the Vana ecosystem in real time. It ensures that each transaction is secure and valid, and allows outsiders to see these transactions. This ledger is compatible with other blockchain networks, allowing data to flow freely between different platforms.

Vana provides users with a secure and decentralized data management platform based on these two levels and connection groups.

03 How to achieve data mining?

As mentioned earlier, the data liquidity network can generate income for users' personal data. The specific implementation path is as follows:

First, it involves data assetization. Vana converts users' data into tradable assets through data liquidity pools (DLP). Each DLP is a smart contract that specializes in aggregating specific types of data, and users can receive corresponding token rewards after submitting data. This approach makes the user's data not just static information, but a digital asset that can circulate in the market.

Secondly, in order to ensure the quality of the submitted data, a set of standards is needed to verify the authenticity and quality of the data, which involves the Proof of Contribution mechanism. Only high-quality data can be rewarded. This process will be jointly evaluated by multiple validators to ensure fair scoring and avoid bias.

In addition, the data of non-custodial data storage users will not be directly uploaded to the chain, but will be saved in a location selected by the user, such as Google Drive. Only the creator and his authorized account can access this data. This is very important, and users always have control over their own data.

Finally, to string all the links together, an incentive mechanism is indispensable. Therefore, Vana allows each DLP to issue its own tokens to encourage users to actively participate in data contribution. The top 16 DLPs will receive additional Vana token rewards, which further stimulates the formation and competition of high-quality data pools.

04 How to interact now?

Telegram applet, simple clicks to simulate mining

Vana has launched an interactive applet on Telegram (https://t.me/VanaDataHeroBot), and points are earned by completing tasks. The specific operations are as follows:

1. Within the specified time, click on the sphere in the middle. The more times you click, the more points you will get

2. Social tasks, test network tasks, inviting friends

From the perspective of the project's layout, "Telegram mining" as a tool for breaking out of the circle is only a small part of the interaction. Ecological project interaction, test network node interaction, etc. are the future focus. At present, the official website shows that the ecological partners include Reddit Data Dao, Flirtual, Kleo, etc. There are also some AI-related projects, and the gameplay is still worth looking forward to.

Join DLP to contribute data

The current DLP ranking is as shown below. As an ordinary user, you can choose to contribute data to DLP to earn points. Take the first-ranked DAO - Reddit Data Dao as an example.

After registering a Reddit account, go to https://www.rdatadao.org/home and fill in your username. After verification, leaving messages or posts on Reddit will earn you points, which are linked to future token airdrops. There is no cost, so you can try it if you have time.

05 Summary

Anyway, AI is still a key track that cannot be ignored in this cycle.

By combining AI with blockchain to enhance the intelligence of decentralized applications, data privacy and security requirements can be met, while providing users with returns. Sexy narratives are not short of capital or audiences.

Hot money swarmed in the first half of the game, and the second half will depend on which project can be landed first.