02 · The pet reads it back When you buy something online, you rarely think about Stripe. The shop shows you what you want, you tap pay, and Stripe handles everything in between: it checks the card, moves the money and keeps a record of the payment. Most people never see it. They only notice that paying works.
Your data should work the same way. Today we are releasing the new Vana App, built on that idea. It sits behind the apps you use. When one of them asks for some of your data, the Vana App shows you exactly what it is asking for and lets you decide. If you say yes, your data moves to that app with your permission, and the move is recorded.
The quickest way to see it is OpenPet, an app built by a team in the Vana Builder League. It takes about a minute, and it shows the whole flow from start to finish.
Data is more useful when it can move Your data sits in the services where you created it. Your sleep is in your ring's app. Your listening history is in your music app. Your spending is with your bank. Locked in those places, it does very little for you. The app that could do the most with it is usually a different app, built by someone else, with no way to reach it.
That is the problem Vana was built for. A person's data should be able to move to the app they choose, under their permission, with a record of what they agreed to. Vana is the open network it moves on, and it is already in use.
100+
1.5M
20M+
The new Vana App is how that works in your hands. Its job is to carry your data to the apps you choose, ask you first every time, and keep the record. The apps get to spend their time on what they are good at.
Why the app sits behind other apps Stripe became part of the internet's plumbing because every shop needed a checkout and almost none wanted to build one. A shop that uses Stripe gets to spend its time on what it sells.
Apps that want to use personal data face a harder version of the same problem. They have to connect to the services where the data lives, ask the person for permission, store the data safely, and let the person take it back. When every app builds that alone, every app does it slightly differently, and the person ends up with a different set of settings everywhere they go.
With Vana, a builder asks for the data and the Vana App handles the rest. The person sees the same permission screen wherever they go and has one place to see what they have shared and take it back. The builder gets data they could never collect on their own, with a record of what the person agreed to.
What happens when an app asks for your data Here is the flow as it runs in OpenPet.
You tap Connect in the app.
The Vana App opens and asks you to approve the request. It names the app asking (OpenPet), the source (your Oura Ring) and exactly what it wants (sleep, readiness and activity). Nothing moves until you approve.
You approve.
Your data is saved to your own Personal Server and passed to OpenPet with your permission. The permission is recorded.
You can take it back at any time.
That is recorded too.
That is the whole thing: one request, one decision, one record.
See it work in OpenPet OpenPet was built by a team in the Vana Builder League. Connect your sleep, readiness and activity data from an Oura Ring, and OpenPet turns it into a pet that reads your data back to you: your latest sleep score, your longest run of good sleep, the night your readiness dipped.
Your Oura Ring data is downloaded and saved to your own Personal Server before it reaches OpenPet.
The pet reads it back: “Your longest run of good sleep was 15 nights, ending 26 July.” It is a playful app on purpose. It shows that the data you already create can come back to you as something you enjoy, on your terms. The same flow works for any app built on Vana.
Your XP carries on The Vana community programme now lives at community.vana.org. Log in to see your XP and earn more. Your XP comes with you, and unclaimed XP does not expire.
This week, trying OpenPet earns 50 XP, and posting about OpenPet on X earns another 50 XP.
What this means Stripe earns a small fee each time a payment goes through. Since the Vega upgrade, the Vana network works the same way: it earns every time one person's data moves. Someone moves their data to an app. The app reads it. The network earns.
For you, it means the data you create can finally do something for you, and you stay in charge of where it goes. For builders, it means you can build on real data from real people without building permission, storage and records yourself.
Vana brings your data home. This week you can watch it happen.
Singapore has already decided that AI runs on trusted access to people's data. At the Tanglin Club, hosted by the MIT Club of Singapore, the question from senior business leaders and government officials was how.
Singapore's refreshed National AI Strategy makes one of its ten priorities to unlock datasets, underpinned by strong data governance. The strategy says the challenge is no longer making more data available, but giving the right people trusted access to the right data, with safeguards, for the four national AI Missions in manufacturing, financial services, connectivity and healthcare. Parliament has already gone further. The Personal Data Protection Act carries a data portability obligation: a person can ask an organisation to send their data straight to another, in a form the receiving organisation can read. The right exists in law. The method is what the country is working out.
Vana is the open network where personal data moves with the permission of the person it belongs to, and a record of every move. Vana wrote the standard for how personal data moves, now hosted by the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust.
We sat down with the MIT Club of Singapore at the Tanglin Club, with senior business leaders and government officials around one table. The conversation kept returning to three things.
Keeping data under Singapore's jurisdiction while letting it move A country's data is most useful when it stays under its own laws and its citizens' consent, and can still go where it is needed. On Vana a person grants a specific use of their data, for a specific purpose, for a specific time. The grant is recorded and can be revoked. The data moves without leaving the protections the country has set. That is AI a country runs on its own terms rather than on whichever platform holds its people's context.
Opening the market to new players When data is trapped where it was created, only the incumbent can build on it. When people can move their data, anyone can compete to serve them better. Singapore's economy is built on being open to new players. Its data infrastructure should be too.
Fitting with the identity infrastructure Singapore already has Singapore has some of the most advanced digital identity infrastructure in the world. Identity says who you are. Vana says what you permit. Together they let a person carry their data into any service they choose, and take it back when they want.
Where Vana fits The standard Vana wrote does what Singapore's portability obligation asks for: a person's data goes from one organisation to another, with their permission, in a form the receiver can use, with a record of what was agreed. Because the standard is open and owned by no single company, a regulator can point to it and a company can build against it. Governments are already scoping national implementations. The Vana network is where that data moves today: more than 100 apps built by its community, 1.5 million users and more than 20 million transactions.
Singapore is investing more than S$1 billion in public AI research through 2030. That investment pays off fastest where AI can draw on real context from real people, moved with their permission, on infrastructure the country controls. We look forward to continuing to work with sovereign governments and with organisations like the MIT Club of Singapore to lead the way data moves in an AI world.
George Town, Cayman Islands, September 30, 2026, Chainwire – The Vana Foundation today announced that expanded staking as part of the Vega upgrade to the Vana network is complete and published the paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy”, which sets out the VANA token economics. A public dashboard at token.vana.org reports network reads, fee income, buybacks, burns and token supply, with the on-chain record behind each figure.
Vana is a network for moving personal data under the permission of the person it belongs to. Under the network’s fee model, an application that reads a person’s data with a granted permission pays one cent per scope read. Fees are allocated by protocol rule: 60 per cent to stakers through staking pools, 20 per cent to the purchase and burn of VANA, and 20 per cent to ecosystem development. Each buyback and burn is published with its transaction hash.
With expanded staking, staking runs through three staking pools, each with a 5 per cent operator commission. Staking rewards are paid from network fees, accrue to the staked position and may be claimed as they accrue. Existing staked positions may be moved into one of the three pools in a single transaction at stake.vana.org by midnight UTC on 31 October 2026. Principal can be withdrawn at any time, with no deadline. After 31 October, a position that has not moved no longer earns rewards.
“Every read of a person’s data on the network is a paid transaction, and the fees pay the node operators and stakers who make that movement possible,” said Art Abal, Managing Director of the Vana Foundation. “The split is written into the protocol, and every figure is published on chain.”
Applications on the network have produced 2,937,447 verified reads to date, as of 28 September 2026. Total VANA supply and release schedules remain unchanged.
The paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy” and the whitepaper addendum “The Vega Upgrade: Data Portability and Transformations” are available at token.vana.org.
About VanaVana is an open network for personal data portability. Its standard, the Personal Data Portability Protocol, was contributed to Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust as a Community Specification. vana.org
About the Vana FoundationThe Vana Foundation is a non-profit foundation that supports the development and adoption of the Vana network and is a member of Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust.
About OpenDataLabsOpenDataLabs builds and operates the products that governments and industry run on the Vana network. www.opendatalabs.com
This release is for information only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any token or security.
This publication is provided by the client. The text below is a paid press release that is not part of Cointelegraph independent editorial content. The text has undergone editorial review to ensure quality and relevance, it may not reflect the views and opinions of Cointelegraph. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company. Disclosure.
September 29th, 2026 – GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands
class=”ql-align-center”>Network fees from personal data reads now fund staking rewards, buybacks and ecosystem development under a fixed protocol split; public dashboard launches at token.vana.org
The Vana Foundation today announced that expanded staking as part of the Vega upgrade to the Vana network is complete and published the paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy”, which sets out the VANA token economics. A public dashboard at token.vana.org reports network reads, fee income, buybacks, burns and token supply, with the on-chain record behind each figure.
Vana is a network for moving personal data under the permission of the person it belongs to. Under the network’s fee model, an application that reads a person’s data with a granted permission pays one cent per scope read. Fees are allocated by protocol rule: 60 per cent to stakers through staking pools, 20 per cent to the purchase and burn of VANA, and 20 per cent to ecosystem development. Each buyback and burn is published with its transaction hash.
With expanded staking, staking runs through three staking pools, each with a 5 per cent operator commission. Staking rewards are paid from network fees, accrue to the staked position and may be claimed as they accrue. Existing staked positions may be moved into one of the three pools in a single transaction at stake.vana.org by midnight UTC on 31 October 2026. Principal can be withdrawn at any time, with no deadline. After 31 October, a position that has not moved no longer earns rewards.
“Every read of a person’s data on the network is a paid transaction, and the fees pay the node operators and stakers who make that movement possible,” said Art Abal, Managing Director of the Vana Foundation. “The split is written into the protocol, and every figure is published on chain.”
Applications on the network have produced 2,937,447 verified reads to date, as of 28 September 2026.
Total VANA supply and release schedules remain unchanged.
The paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy” and the whitepaper addendum “The Vega Upgrade: Data Portability and Transformations” are available at token.vana.org.
About Vana
Vana is an open network for personal data portability. Its standard, the Personal Data Portability Protocol, was contributed to Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust as a Community Specification. vana.org
About the Vana Foundation
The Vana Foundation is a non-profit foundation that supports the development and adoption of the Vana network and is a member of Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust.
About OpenDataLabs
OpenDataLabs builds and operates the products that governments and industry run on the Vana network. www.opendatalabs.com
This release is for information only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any token or security.
Contact Managing Director
Arthur Abal
Vana Foundation
[email protected]
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, 29th September 2026, ChainwireBy Chainwire
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GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, September 29th, 2026, Chainwire
Network fees from personal data reads now fund staking rewards, buybacks and ecosystem development under a fixed protocol split; public dashboard launches at token.vana.org
The Vana Foundation today announced that expanded staking as part of the Vega upgrade to the Vana network is complete and published the paper "VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy", which sets out the VANA token economics. A public dashboard at token.vana.org reports network reads, fee income, buybacks, burns and token supply, with the on-chain record behind each figure.
Vana is a network for moving personal data under the permission of the person it belongs to. Under the network's fee model, an application that reads a person's data with a granted permission pays one cent per scope read. Fees are allocated by protocol rule: 60 per cent to stakers through staking pools, 20 per cent to the purchase and burn of VANA, and 20 per cent to ecosystem development. Each buyback and burn is published with its transaction hash.
With expanded staking, staking runs through three staking pools, each with a 5 per cent operator commission. Staking rewards are paid from network fees, accrue to the staked position and may be claimed as they accrue. Existing staked positions may be moved into one of the three pools in a single transaction at stake.vana.org by midnight UTC on 31 October 2026. Principal can be withdrawn at any time, with no deadline. After 31 October, a position that has not moved no longer earns rewards.
"Every read of a person's data on the network is a paid transaction, and the fees pay the node operators and stakers who make that movement possible," said Art Abal, Managing Director of the Vana Foundation. "The split is written into the protocol, and every figure is published on chain."
Applications on the network have produced 2,937,447 verified reads to date, as of 28 September 2026.
Total VANA supply and release schedules remain unchanged.
The paper "VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy" and the whitepaper addendum "The Vega Upgrade: Data Portability and Transformations" are available at token.vana.org.
About Vana
Vana is an open network for personal data portability. Its standard, the Personal Data Portability Protocol, was contributed to Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust as a Community Specification. vana.org
About the Vana Foundation
The Vana Foundation is a non-profit foundation that supports the development and adoption of the Vana network and is a member of Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust.
About OpenDataLabs
OpenDataLabs builds and operates the products that governments and industry run on the Vana network. www.opendatalabs.com
This release is for information only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any token or security.
ContactManaging Director
Arthur Abal
Vana Foundation [email protected]
Disclaimer: Press release sponsored by our commercial partners.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
[PRESS RELEASE – GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, September 29th, 2026]
Network fees from personal data reads now fund staking rewards, buybacks and ecosystem development under a fixed protocol split; public dashboard launches at token.vana.org
The Vana Foundation today announced that expanded staking as part of the Vega upgrade to the Vana network is complete and published the paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy”, which sets out the VANA token economics. A public dashboard at token.vana.org reports network reads, fee income, buybacks, burns and token supply, with the on-chain record behind each figure.
Vana is a network for moving personal data under the permission of the person it belongs to. Under the network’s fee model, an application that reads a person’s data with a granted permission pays one cent per scope read. Fees are allocated by protocol rule: 60 per cent to stakers through staking pools, 20 per cent to the purchase and burn of VANA, and 20 per cent to ecosystem development. Each buyback and burn is published with its transaction hash.
With expanded staking, staking runs through three staking pools, each with a 5 per cent operator commission. Staking rewards are paid from network fees, accrue to the staked position and may be claimed as they accrue. Existing staked positions may be moved into one of the three pools in a single transaction at stake.vana.org by midnight UTC on 31 October 2026. Principal can be withdrawn at any time, with no deadline. After 31 October, a position that has not moved no longer earns rewards.
“Every read of a person’s data on the network is a paid transaction, and the fees pay the node operators and stakers who make that movement possible,” said Art Abal, Managing Director of the Vana Foundation. “The split is written into the protocol, and every figure is published on chain.”
Applications on the network have produced 2,937,447 verified reads to date, as of 28 September 2026.
Total VANA supply and release schedules remain unchanged.
The paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy” and the whitepaper addendum “The Vega Upgrade: Data Portability and Transformations” are available at token.vana.org.
About Vana
Vana is an open network for personal data portability. Its standard, the Personal Data Portability Protocol, was contributed to Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust as a Community Specification. vana.org
About the Vana Foundation
The Vana Foundation is a non-profit foundation that supports the development and adoption of the Vana network and is a member of Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust.
About OpenDataLabs
OpenDataLabs builds and operates the products that governments and industry run on the Vana network. www.opendatalabs.com
This release is for information only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any token or security.
Network fees from personal data reads now fund staking rewards, buybacks and ecosystem development under a fixed protocol split; public dashboard launches at token.vana.org
The Vana Foundation today announced that expanded staking as part of the Vega upgrade to the Vana network is complete and published the paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy”, which sets out the VANA token economics. A public dashboard at token.vana.org reports network reads, fee income, buybacks, burns and token supply, with the on-chain record behind each figure.
Vana is a network for moving personal data under the permission of the person it belongs to. Under the network’s fee model, an application that reads a person’s data with a granted permission pays one cent per scope read. Fees are allocated by protocol rule: 60 per cent to stakers through staking pools, 20 per cent to the purchase and burn of VANA, and 20 per cent to ecosystem development. Each buyback and burn is published with its transaction hash.
With expanded staking, staking runs through three staking pools, each with a 5 per cent operator commission. Staking rewards are paid from network fees, accrue to the staked position and may be claimed as they accrue. Existing staked positions may be moved into one of the three pools in a single transaction at stake.vana.org by midnight UTC on 31 October 2026. Principal can be withdrawn at any time, with no deadline. After 31 October, a position that has not moved no longer earns rewards.
“Every read of a person’s data on the network is a paid transaction, and the fees pay the node operators and stakers who make that movement possible,” said Art Abal, Managing Director of the Vana Foundation. “The split is written into the protocol, and every figure is published on chain.”
Applications on the network have produced 2,937,447 verified reads to date, as of 28 September 2026.
Total VANA supply and release schedules remain unchanged.
The paper “VANA: The Asset Behind an Open Data Economy” and the whitepaper addendum “The Vega Upgrade: Data Portability and Transformations” are available at token.vana.org.
About Vana
Vana is an open network for personal data portability. Its standard, the Personal Data Portability Protocol, was contributed to Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust as a Community Specification. vana.org
About the Vana Foundation
The Vana Foundation is a non-profit foundation that supports the development and adoption of the Vana network and is a member of Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust.
About OpenDataLabs
OpenDataLabs builds and operates the products that governments and industry run on the Vana network. www.opendatalabs.com
This release is for information only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any token or security.
Disclaimer
This third-party press release is published substantially as received and does not reflect BeInCrypto's editorial views. BeInCrypto has not independently verified its claims or assessed the suitability, legality or appropriateness of any referenced asset, product or service; publication is not an endorsement. The content is general information, not investment research, financial, investment, legal or tax advice, a personal recommendation, offer or solicitation. Verify all information and seek professional advice where appropriate before acting. Crypto-assets may result in total loss.
Vana comes out of the MIT Media Lab, a place that has spent thirty years building strange, decentralised things before anyone else thought they were sensible. People were wearing computers there in the 1990s.
It is the same school of thought that Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, brought to MIT with the Solid project, which set out to give everyone control of their own data online. It is the school of thought that shaped the Vana protocol.
Vana carries one idea from it. The value of a person's data should go to the person who created it. Your data stays with you. An app or an AI reads it only with your permission. Every read is recorded, and you can take the permission back at any time.
Most people know Vana for the first way it put that idea to work: Data Collectives, where people pool their data into sets AI could not get any other way, and share in what the set earns. That is aggregation, and it serves the crowd.
Underneath aggregation sits the thing the network was built on at MIT: portability. A person's data moves, under their permission, with a record. Aggregation is portability done by many people at once.
Portability on its own is one person's data moving to an app or an AI that person chose, and being used for them. Your health records to your doctor's assistant. Your purchase history to the agent doing your shopping. That serves you.
On 21 September Vana completed the Vega upgrade, a rebuild of how the network handles permissions, so that data portability runs at the speed AI needs.
Aggregation built the network. The market asked for portability itself. Aggregation is how Vana was bootstrapped: 1.5 million users, more than 20 million transactions, and more than 100 apps and data pools built by the community. All of them are still running and still earning.
Then the market moved, and it moved towards portability itself. The models got good. Once every model could reason well enough, what set a useful answer apart was no longer the model but its context: what it knew about the person asking. And that lives in the services where the person created it.
AI agents arrived. An agent acting for you reads your context, the things about you that make its answer fit you, before a task and writes the result back afterwards, under a permission you gave once, thousands of times a day. Every one of those interactions is a data transfer.
People started carrying their own context. When people left ChatGPT for Claude this year, some opened the Vana app, connected their ChatGPT history, and Claude knew them on day one.
Builders and companies followed. More than 40 data portability apps shipped through the Vana Cup, the launch campaign for the data portability beta, within a month. Bush & Noble, a yacht brokerage, made its inventory readable to a buyer's AI on Vana.
Institutions needed a way to implement data portability, not just a policy that says they should. So Vana wrote one. The Personal Data Portability Protocol is the first open standard for how personal data moves, and Vana contributed it to the Linux Foundation to host. Regulators can point to it and companies can build on it, which makes Vana the gold standard for portability. Governments in several regions are already scoping national implementations of Vana.
All of them want the same thing. The Vega upgrade moves data, under users' permission, as fast and as simply as on the platforms they already use.
What the Vega upgrade does We committed to the Vega upgrade in our January roadmap, when the first signs of how much portability would matter were already showing. Portability is built on two core concepts: grants and operations.
A grant is a permission: who can use which of your data, for what, and for how long. Issuing it, using it and revoking it are each recorded, so there is always an answer to "who was allowed to read this, and when".
An operation is an answer computed from your data and shared without the raw data. An app can ask how you slept last week and get a number, with a record of where it came from, and never hold the week of sleep data.
Vana is the network behind both. It records every grant and every revocation, so the permission is always on the network and never in an app's hands. It holds the keys, so nothing, including your own personal server where the data is computed, can decrypt your data without a valid grant. And it moves the data when the grant says it can.
After the Vega upgrade, Vana does all of that in about 50 milliseconds end to end in production. That is fast enough for an agent to ask, be allowed, read and act in one motion.
An app can also pay the fees for its users. So a person can use an app built on Vana without holding tokens or paying per read, and never needs to know there is a chain underneath.
What keeps the network running Every read of a person's data under a live grant carries a fee. Reads grow with how much the network is used, not with how many people sign up, so the network's income grows with use.
VANA is the token the network runs on. Fees are paid in VANA or in stablecoins such as USDC, and people stake VANA, meaning lock it up, behind the operators, the businesses that run the machines carrying the data. Those fees fund the operators and the people who stake behind them: stakers are paid from the fees the network earns. The supply of VANA and the rate at which new tokens are issued are unchanged by the upgrade.
The next two weeks The upgrade is the start. Over the next few weeks, we will release further details on what it means for stakers, and then for the community that got Vana here. Keep an eye on our X account or join our Discord for early announcements: X, Discord.
Read it How Vana works, the original whitepaper and today's addendum are at vana.org/learn.
The addendum, The Vega Upgrade: Data Portability and Transformations, sets out the grants, operations, encryption and fees in full. The original whitepaper is at vana.org/papers/vana-whitepaper-dec-2024.pdf.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced it will support the network upgrade and hard fork on the Vana (VANA) network. According to the exchange’s statement, deposit and withdrawal operations on the VANA network will be temporarily suspended during the update process to ensure the secure management of users’ assets.
Binance will halt these transactions on September 21, 2026, at approximately 2:29 PM. The upgrade and hard fork on the Valve network is planned to take place at block height 10,229,958, at approximately 3:29 PM.
The exchange specifically stated that trading of tokens on the Valve network would not be affected during the network upgrade. Accordingly, users will be able to continue trading VANA on the Binance platform, even though deposit and withdrawal transactions conducted through the affected network will be temporarily suspended.
Binance also announced that it will handle all necessary technical operations for the upgrade and hard fork on behalf of users. Therefore, users will not need to take any additional action to support the network upgrade.
Deposit and withdrawal operations will be reopened once the Valve network is deemed to be operating stably and securely following the completion of the upgrade. Binance stated that it will not issue a separate announcement regarding the resumption of these operations.
Network upgrades and hard forks can cause changes to the technical infrastructure of blockchain networks. Binance’s recent announcement reveals that certain parts of the exchange’s services will be temporarily restricted during a planned technical change to the Valve network. It is important for users to take the specified times into account when planning their transactions.
*This is not investment advice.
Follow our Telegram and Twitter account now for exclusive news, analytics and on-chain data!
This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Fellow Binancians, Starting at approximately 2026-09-21 11:29 (UTC), Binance will suspend the deposits and withdrawals of token(s) on the Vana (VANA) network to support its network upgrade and hard fork to ensure the best user experience. The network upgrade and hard fork will take place at the block height of 10,229,958, or approximately at 2026-09-21 12:29 (UTC). Please note: The trading of token(s) on the aforementioned network will not be impacted.Binance will handle all technical requirements involved for all users.Deposits and withdrawals for token(s) on the aforementioned network will be reopened once the upgraded network is deemed to be stable. No further announcement will be posted.There may be discrepancies between this original content in English and any translated versions. Please refer to the original English version for the most accurate information, in case any discrepancies arise. For more information, please refer to the announcement from the project team. Thank you for your support! Binance Team 2026-09-16
Vana Vibes is Vana's exclusive signature event series connecting AI and data to real people solving real problems. Ep. 01 filled Sydney last month. Ep. 02 filled Brisbane in a day and ran last night. Ep. 03 lands in August, and it could be coming to you.
Vana Vibes is an evening for a handpicked group from the Vana network. Each edition, the Vana and Open Data Labs teams take a small room of interesting people to the frontier of practical AI: the tools, techniques and workflows that are actually working right now, taught hands-on, pointed at a social problem that matters. Then the series moves to the next city.
Why people want in The access is the draw. You spend the evening working directly with the teams building the network, including exclusive one-on-one time with the Vana founders, in a room small enough to ask anything. What you get is the intel that never makes it into a webinar: which tools the people building this stuff actually use, how they prompt, what they have stopped using and why.
You leave with more than notes. Every guest takes home the field kit: the prompt techniques, tool lists and resource guides from the night, written down and ready to use at work on Monday.
And you leave with people. Editions deliberately mix industries and skill levels, and the tables rotate all night, so you work with most of the room before it ends.
"I have been to plenty of events where you sit and listen for two hours. Here I spent the night actually making things with a lawyer and a marketer I had never met. I left with new skills and three new contacts I have already messaged."
— Sophia Harris, Accountant
Inside Ep. 02 Brisbane happened last night at Newstead Studios, an exclusive venue in the city's inner north. The room was nurses, lawyers, accountants, marketers and publishers, from daily AI users to people who had never opened a chatbot. The problem was the city's housing crisis, and the night ran as four escalating challenges: drafting, research, creative production, and finally app building, where teams described an idea to an AI tool until a first rough version appeared. Several got far enough to demo, all before dessert.
"I walked in convinced AI was for technical people. By the last challenge our table had a rough app on the screen and I had built half of it. Nobody was more surprised than me."
— Christal Mylvaganam, Registered Nurse
Between challenges, conversation kept circling back to Vana itself. Vana is open data infrastructure for human-grounded AI: the context these tools run on belongs to the people it came from, who decide what it serves.
Where does Ep. 03 land Two exclusives down, and the series is picking up steam. Vana Vibes Ep. 03 arrives in August. We know the format, we know the problem, and we know the city. Your city, maybe.
Brisbane filled in a day, claimed by the people watching the right channel at the right hour. Everyone else is reading about it now.
If you want in, be following before the announcement, because that is where the seats go first: vana.org/participate, the Vana Discord, and Instagram at @vanahq.
Vana Vibes Brisbane was hosted by Vana in collaboration with Open Data Labs.
Every major AI added memory in the first half of 2026. OpenAI's Dreaming. Claude Chat Memory. Gemini Personal Intelligence. Grok Skills. Microsoft's M365 Copilot Memory rollout. Five launches, five more walled gardens.
Each one is a retention feature. Your context lives on their servers, serves their product, and stops at their wall. If you move to a different AI tomorrow, or use two at once, you start from zero.
Until now. Vana was built to give you an exit from walled gardens so that your data belongs to you. Today, the Vana App Upgrade is live in Beta. And the memory layer inside it is now something you own.
What is the Vana App upgrade? The Vana App upgrade gives you a personal data server, on your device, that you control.
Connect your data sources once. Your Spotify listening history, your Oura sleep and recovery data, your calendar, your conversations across platforms. That data lives locally, not on any platform's servers. It's yours.
From there, you decide what it serves and to whom. Grant a permission, revoke it anytime. No platform intermediary, no asking anyone for access to your own context. Your data becomes self-sovereign.
You can permission your data to any app built on Vana's Data Portability API, or port your memory using MCP.
Portable Memory MCP Vana has acquired the team behind Memory Protocol to lead these important upgrades. Jack Spallone has joined the Vana team and brought his deep know-how and expertise on portable memory into the Vana stack.
The Vana App upgrade ships an MCP endpoint for your personal server. That means Claude can read from it. ChatGPT can read from it. Any MCP-compliant tool can read from it. Your memory and context are now portable, from one source you own, across every AI or app you use.
This is what we mean by open data infrastructure for human-grounded AI. Portability as a protocol.
For builders Vana's Data Portability API now makes it possible to ship apps that read from a user's Vana personal server with their permission.
Your users bring their own context to your app. You don't need to build memory infrastructure from scratch. You don't need to ask a third-party platform for access to user data. You can ask the user directly.
Start building, or add personal data portability to your app today. The docs are at docs.vana.org. We will be holding Builder Workshops and Office Hours in Vana's Discord throughout the week, so be sure to tune in.
How to try it Try the Beta version of the Vana App Upgrade at app.vana.org.
Those who try it out and offer feedback will be given priority slots for the Full Release.
Interested in building on it? Visit docs.vana.org. For workshops and questions, join our Discord.
Every major AI added memory in the first half of 2026. OpenAI's Dreaming. Claude Chat Memory. Gemini Personal Intelligence. Grok Skills. Microsoft's M365 Copilot Memory rollout. Five launches, five more walled gardens.
Each one is a retention feature. Your context lives on their servers, serves their product, and stops at their wall. If you move to a different AI tomorrow, or use two at once, you start from zero.
Until now. Vana was built to give you an exit from walled gardens so that your data belongs to you. Today, the Vana App Upgrade is live in Beta. And the memory layer inside it is now something you own.
What is the Vana App upgrade? The Vana App upgrade gives you a personal data server, on your device, that you control.
Connect your data sources once. Your Spotify listening history, your Oura sleep and recovery data, your calendar, your conversations across platforms. That data lives locally, not on any platform's servers. It's yours.
From there, you decide what it serves and to whom. Grant a permission, revoke it anytime. No platform intermediary, no asking anyone for access to your own context. Your data becomes self-sovereign.
You can permission your data to any app built on Vana's Data Portability API, or port your memory using MCP.
Portable Memory MCP Vana has acquired the team behind Memory Protocol to lead these important upgrades. Jack Spallone has joined the Vana team and brought his deep know-how and expertise on portable memory into the Vana stack.
The Vana App upgrade ships an MCP endpoint for your personal server. That means Claude can read from it. ChatGPT can read from it. Any MCP-compliant tool can read from it. Your memory and context are now portable, from one source you own, across every AI or app you use.
This is what we mean by open data infrastructure for human-grounded AI. Portability as a protocol.
For builders Vana's Data Portability API now makes it possible to ship apps that read from a user's Vana personal server with their permission.
Your users bring their own context to your app. You don't need to build memory infrastructure from scratch. You don't need to ask a third-party platform for access to user data. You can ask the user directly.
Start building, or add personal data portability to your app today. The docs are at docs.vana.org. We will be holding Builder Workshops and Office Hours in Vana's Discord throughout the week, so be sure to tune in.
How to try it Try the Beta version of the Vana App Upgrade at app.vana.org.
Those who try it out and offer feedback will be given priority slots for the Full Release.
Interested in building on it? Visit docs.vana.org. For workshops and questions, join our Discord.
Changpeng Zhao, better known in the crypto industry as CZ, is joining artificial intelligence startup Vana as an advisor.
YZi Labs, the venture capital firm recently rebranded from Binance Labs, announced the strategic investment and CZ advisor on Feb. 24.
“We’re thrilled to announce YZi Labs’ strategic investment in Vana and to welcome CZ as an advisor as we advance the Data Layer for AI alongside our expanding DataDAO ecosystem,” Vana posted on X.
The move is part of YZi Labs’ investment in Vana, the first the CZ-led firm is taking in an AI protocol since the rebranding early this year. According to the announcement on Feb. 24, YZi Labs’ backing and CZ’s role as advisor will help Vana expand its reach as a layer 1 blockchain for AI data and interoperability.
YZi Labs and CZ’s bet on AI, blockchain and biotech CZ, the founder and former chief executive of Binance, is making a huge comeback in the crypto industry following his release from U.S. custody.
Before doing his four-month prison time, Zhao had agreed to step down as Binance CEO. This came as he pleaded guilty to money laundering violations in November 2023, with Binace agreeing a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities.
While he returned to the crypto scene following his release, his plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice meant he could not return as CEO of the crypto exchange. Zhao confirmed this during the Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai in November.
However, he reiterated his plans of focusing on other things in crypto. Apart from the crypto education initiative with Giggle Academy, he said he looked forward to participating more in the investment space. The three major areas he sought to dive into were blockchain, AI and biotech.
Taking the helm of Binance Labs, now YZi Labs, aligns with this ambition. After a recent $16 million investment in token airdrop platform Sign, YZi Labs is eyeing AI growth with Vana.
Vana, an open protocol for data sovereignty, looks to bring the benefits of blockchain technology and staking to data creators amid growth in the AI economy. Businesses, researchers and developers can leverage the L1 for high quality datasets while remaining in control of their data.
Commenting on the development, YZi Labs director of investment Andy Chang noted:
“Data sovereignty is becoming a critical issue as AI advances, and Vana is pioneering a model where individuals retain control over their data while enabling groundbreaking AI research. We’re excited to support their mission to redefine how data is accessed, shared, and leveraged in the AI economy.”
YZi Labs, previously known as Binance Labs, has made an investment in the crypto-AI startup Vana, which specializes in data ownership
YZi Labs, previously known as Binance Labs, has made an investment in the crypto-AI startup Vana, which specializes in data ownership. As part of this investment, Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder of Binance, has joined Vana as an advisor. This development highlights the growing intersection of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, as noted by various sources.
This is an AI-generated article powered by DeepNewz, curated by The Defiant. For more information, including article sources, visit DeepNewz.
Key NotesThe investment will help Vana develop its DataDAO ecosystem, incentivize data contributors, and accelerate adoption across its existing 16 DataDAOs.This strategic move represents YZi Labs' expansion beyond Web3 into AI and biotech, focusing on data sovereignty issues in artificial intelligence.VANA token surged 20% following the announcement, trading at $7.5 with increased trading volume, despite being down 77% over the past two months. YZi Labs, a top-tier venture capital firm formerly known as Binance Labs, has announced the first strategic investment into artificial Intelligence through the Vana (VANA) blockchain. Changpeng Zhao (CZ), co-founder of Binance Holdings, will join the Vana layer one (L1) chain as an advisor to aid the team in navigating through the global AI and blockchain industry.
Furthermore, Vana blockchain intends to develop and expand its DataDAO ecosystem with the newly acquired funds. Additionally, the newly raised funds will help the network accelerate the adoption of its 16 DataDAOs, incentivize new data contributors, and onboard more DataDAOs, among other developments.
“Data is a competitive advantage when it comes to training next-generation AI. As the space becomes increasingly dynamic, new entrants like DeepSeek are rapidly shaking up the status quo. Competing at this pace requires continuous access to high-quality private data, and that’s exactly where Vana comes in: we connect researchers and developers to the datasets that fuel AI innovation across industries,” Anna Kazlauskas, Creator of Vana, noted.
Binance Expands Beyond Web3 into AI Via Vana The strategic investment into the Vana network will help YZi labs and the entire Binance ecosystem expand into the fast-growing intersection of AI and blockchain technology. In August 2024, Binance announced a strategic investment in Sahara AI and MyShell (SHELL) to enhance the adoption of AI by web3 users.
“YZi Labs has expanded its focus beyond Web3 to include investments in AI and biotech, reflecting our commitment to pushing the boundaries of transformative innovation. Data sovereignty is becoming a critical issue as AI advances, and Vana is pioneering a model where individuals retain control over their data while enabling groundbreaking AI research.,” Andy Chang, Investment Director at YZi Labs, noted.
The strategic investment will strengthen both entities’ business outlooks amid the mainstream adoption of web3 protocols, digital assets, and AI technology. Following the announcement, VANA price rallied over 20 percent to trade about $7.5 on Monday, February 24, during the mid-New York session.
The small-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $933 million, recorded a 250 percent surge in its 24-hour average traded volume to about $174 million at the time of this writing. The recent rally is, however, far from obliterating the losses made in the past two months of about 77 percent drop.
Vana network is well positioned to grow exponentially with the support from YZi Labs and insights from CZ. According to Vanascan, the network has amassed nearly 1.3 million addresses, which have transacted over 35.4 million times.
Disclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to deliver accurate and timely information but should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify information on your own and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.
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With over four years of experience in covering and tracking the financial markets, Sneha Agrawal is a dedicated Crypto Journalist and Editor with passion for researching and writing the crypto pieces. She is currently leading the Block of Fame, here at CoinGape. She likes to keep track of political, legal and financial happenings all around the world - without which she deems her day incomplete. Apart from her Journalistic endeavours, she is a solo traveler, museum goer, and a keen reader of books.
On Feb. 26, Zuvu AI and Vana announced a partnership to enhance decentralized artificial intelligence in Bittensor. The goals are to create a more open, financially sustainable AI ecosystem.
Zuvu AI (formerly SocialTensor) brings its experience scaling four Bittensor (TAO) subnets, while Vana, recently advised by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, contributes its pioneering user-owned data network.
This collaboration aims to test a new artificial intelligence development model, one that’s open, collaborative, and financially sustainable, by integrating key layers of the decentralized artificial intelligence stack.
Creating real-world value Art Abal, Managing Director at Vana Foundation, commented the partnership integrates Vana’s data layer, Bittensor’s subnet network, and Zuvu’s economy layer to improve Vana’s DataDAO ecosystem and address key challenges in AI development.
Zuvu powers the AI economy layer, allowing models, agents, and data to be invested in, staked, traded, and monetized, creating new opportunities in a rapidly growing market. This collaboration comes as the AI market is projected to reach trillions by 2032, according to the press release.
DeFi’s growing disruption The partnership’s integration into Bittensor is strategic, leveraging its incentive-driven network to scale AI development. By combining user-owned data with permissionless compute and economic incentives, the collaboration mirrors Decentralized finance’s disruption of traditional finance.
The partnership is expected to enhance Bittensor’s subnet diversity, support Vana’s DataDAO expansion, and position Zuvu as a leader in AI financialization, potentially influencing industry practices, according to Abal and Daniel Raissar, COO at Zuvu AI.
The partnership aligns with trends toward open-source artificial intelligence, as seen in Bittensor’s growth to 45 active subnets, and responds to calls for alternatives to centralized artificial intelligence giants.
An under-the-radar altcoin defied the wider crypto market slump and surged in price this week amid a new strategic investment.
Vana (VANA) is a layer-1 network for user-owned data.
[adinserter block="1"]
The project aims to allow users to contribute, tokenize, and share their data to create next-generation artificial intelligence (AI)-focused applications.
The project’s native asset, VANA, launched in December and is trading at $8.88 at time of writing. The 228th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is up nearly 3% in the past day and more than 37% in the past week.
VANA’s gains largely materialized after YZi Labs, formerly known as Binance Labs, announced a new investment in the layer-1 project. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) also joined Vana as an advisor.
Explains YZi Labs,
“This marks YZi Labs’ first AI investment since its rebranding, reinforcing its expanded focus on transformative innovations beyond Web3, including AI and biotechnology. With CZ joining Vana as an advisor, the team is well-positioned to accelerate its vision of powering the next generation of AI breakthroughs.
The personal data economy is estimated to be worth $1 trillion, with 329 million terabytes of data expected to be generated daily by 2025. However, the vast majority of this value is captured by a handful of corporations rather than the individuals who create the data. Vana is changing this paradigm by introducing a programmable data sovereignty layer that enables individuals to decide who uses their data and how it is monetized.”
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Today, a handful of tech giants dominate the landscape, holding vast amounts of user data in their control. For years, this centralized control seemed inescapable—users had little choice but to surrender their information or lose access to essential services. Privacy, security, and fairness took a backseat. But now, a shift is underway.
Decentralized AI is emerging as a bold challenge to this status quo, aiming to put power back into the hands of people. Vana and Pundi AI are two projects that challenge this control. Both these projects shift power back to users, but tackle it differently.
Why Decentralized AI Matters: The Bigger Picture To understand Vana and Pundi AI, lets understand why today’s AI systems face serious hurdles:
Data Silos: Tech giants hoard data, limiting access for smaller innovators and slowing progress. Privacy Risks: Users rarely know how their data is exploited, fueling distrust. Biased Models: Without diverse, high-quality data, AI often mirrors societal biases, leading to flawed outcomes. So basically, you grant tech giants access to your personal data, which may be at risk of exploitation and the AI itself may not be as accurate when it comes to the end result—this is a recipe for disaster. Let’s explore how Vana and Pundi are turning things around.
Vana uses Data Liquidity Pools (DLPs)—big, open systems where data from millions gets collected, verified, and used to train AI models. Their core idea is simple: data should be free-flowing, and users should own the AI it powers, not corporations. Binance, with major funding, boosted Vana’s treasury to $1 billion in fully diluted value.
In 2025, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao joined as an advisor, bringing his financial and strategic know-how to push them further. Vana’s aim is to onboard 100 million users by 2027, and with steady investments, they’re gaining traction as a decentralized data player.
But Pundi AI takes a broader approach, building a complete AI economy. They don’t just pool data—they validate it, trade it, deploy it, and use it with precision. They’ve gathered 90,000 datasets from sources like Hugging Face and Kaggle, creating the largest AI data layer in Web3, supported by 3.5 billion AI tokens.
Unlike Vana, Pundi AI isn’t tied to centralized investors; its wealth is fully unlocked and community-owned. They operate across Base, EVM, and Cosmos chains for seamless cross-chain functionality, and their system includes data tagging, marketplaces, AI deployment tools, and a liquidity council to keep everything running smoothly.
Let’s compare the two projects and understand their key differences:
Feature Comparison: Vana vs. Pundi AI Feature Vana Pundi AI Data Platform ❌ No tagging platform ✅ “Tag-to-Earn” data validation Data Marketplace ✅ Yes ✅ Yes AI Agent Deployment ❌ No ✅ Pundi Fun AI Agent Market-Making Agent ❌ No ✅ AI-driven MM agent Cross-Chain Support ✅ Partial ✅ Full EVM + Cosmos Exchange Presence ❌ Limited ✅ Coinbase, Bitmart, Huobi Token Unlock Status ❌ Likely vested ✅ Fully unlocked FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation) $1B $250M Tag-to-Earn: Pundi AI’s validation process creates better data, critical for accurate AI—something Vana lacks. Cross-Chain Support: Pundi AI’s broader compatibility makes it easier to use across ecosystems. Deployment Tools: Pundi AI empowers users to build AI, while Vana stops at data contribution. The Two Approaches: Data Liquidity vs. Holistic AI Infrastructure
Vana has gained traction due to its model being centered around Data Liquidity Pools. A data liquidity pool is a decentralized system where individuals voluntarily contribute their personal data, which is verified and used to train AI models, enabling users to retain control and earn rewards.
This approach gives individuals ownership of their data, allowing them to contribute to and be rewarded for AI development. While this concept is valuable in liberating data from walled gardens, it primarily functions as a passive mechanism, aggregating, verifying, and storing information for AI model training.
Pundi AI, in contrast, takes a different route to the same problem, designing a fully integrated AI data ecosystem. Pundi provides a complete infrastructure that actively supports AI tagging, dataset trading, model deployment, and liquidity solutions. This multi-layered architecture not only ensures a seamless flow of high-quality AI training data but also positions Pundi AI as an indispensable hub for decentralized AI development.
Why This Matters: Broader Implications Pundi AI’s approach addresses key challenges in AI development, such as the need for high-quality, structured data and the ability to deploy models without centralized intermediaries. In contrast, Vana’s focus on data liquidity is valuable for breaking down silos, but it may not meet the needs of users seeking active engagement in AI creation. This unexpected detail—that Pundi AI caters to a more hands-on audience—could help it advance decentralized AI, especially given its lower FDV, suggesting room for growth.
With a valuation of $250M FDV, full cross-chain compatibility, a fully unlocked token economy, and established exchange listings, Pundi AI represents a significantly undervalued opportunity. As demand for high-quality, decentralized AI data continues to grow, Pundi AI’s full-stack approach positions it as the definitive AI data powerhouse, ready to meet the rising needs of the industry.
Conclusion and Future Considerations Pundi AI’s fully integrated AI data ecosystem means it offers an end-to-end platform for decentralized AI data management, covering collection, validation, trading, and deployment, unlike Vana’s narrower focus on data pooling and governance.
This approach positions Pundi AI as a potential leader in the space, but its success hinges on overcoming scalability and adoption challenges, which it aims to cover in due time.
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June will see three major token unlocks—ZKsync (ZK), Vana (VANA), and LayerZero (ZRO). These tokens will unlock nearly $133 million in newly circulating assets.
Overall, $2.4 billion worth of assets will be unlocked this month. These unlocks represent sizable portions of each project’s market cap and could influence short-term price dynamics. Here’s what to know.
1. ZKsync (ZK) Unlock Date: June 17 Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 770 million ZK (3.67% of Max Supply) Current Circulating Supply: 3.675 billion ZK ZKsync is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. It leverages zk-rollups to increase transaction throughput while preserving Ethereum’s base-layer security.
Also, ZK is the native token used for governance, staking, and transaction fees.
On June 17, 770 million ZK tokens—worth approximately $41.61 million—will be unlocked. Of that, 397.20 million tokens (11%) are allocated to investors, and 372.80 million tokens (11%) to team members.
ZK Token Unlock in June. Source: CryptorankThis unlock represents nearly 21% of the token’s market cap. ZKsync is currently trading at $0.05394, down 11% in the last week of May.
2. Vana (VANA) Unlock Date: June 16 Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 5.19 million VANA (4.33% of Total Supply) Current Circulating Supply: 30.8 million VANA Vana is a decentralized data marketplace that lets users control and monetize their personal data. Its native token, VANA, powers platform access, rewards contributors, and governs network decisions.
On June 16, Vana will release 5.19 million tokens—valued at $35.25 million. The distribution includes 4.74 million tokens (8.98%) for community initiatives and 452.60K tokens (1.65%) for ecosystem expansion.
Meanwhile, the token is up 18% in the last week of May. So, this unlock could test bullish sentiment.
VANA Token Unlock in June. Source: Cryptorank3. LayerZero (ZRO) Unlock Date: June 20 Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 24.68 million ZRO (2.47% of Total Supply) Current Circulating Supply: 111.15 million ZRO LayerZero is an omnichain interoperability protocol designed to connect disparate blockchain networks. Its ZRO token plays a key role in governance and may support future messaging or fee functionalities.
On June 20, LayerZero will unlock 24.68 million ZRO tokens. The unlocked assets will be worth roughly $56.72 million.
Overall, the allocation includes 12.88 million tokens (4%) for strategic partners, 10.20 million tokens (4%) for core contributors, and 1.60 million tokens (4%) for tokens repurchased by the team.
Meanwhile, ZRO is currently trading at $2.30, down 10% in the final week of May.
LayerZero Unlock in June. Source: CryptorankThese three unlocks represent a combined $133 million in token value entering the market. With substantial portions going to insiders and ecosystems, market participants should monitor distribution activity closely.
Short-term volatility may follow, especially in lower-liquidity trading environments.
Mind Network, a decentralized network designed to transform how data privacy and security run in the Web3 landscape, has announced a strategic collaboration with Vana, a decentralized platform that aims to put data ownership into users’ control.
Mind Network is a protocol that serves digital sectors that need strong data privacy and security standards, protecting all users’ data, AI, and smart contracts on Web3. It utilizes Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to protect AI and Web3 applications.
On the other hand, Vana is a decentralized AI-powered protocol that aims to provide users with complete control over their personal data.
The partnership between these two firms is to develop a Global AI health DataDAO, a decentralized tech system for health.
Mind Network × @vana
🤝 Mind Network is partnering with @vana to build the World AI Health DataDAO, a decentralized infrastructure built to support the future of Health.
The World AI Health DataDAO serves as a key component of the World AI Health Hub.
🧬 World AI Health Hub’s… pic.twitter.com/bu9j5tWUUs
— Mind Network (@mindnetwork_xyz) June 23, 2025 Vana Integrates Mind Network’s FHE The core of this collaboration involves the integration of Mind Network’s FHE with Vana’s distributed AI data network.
Mind Network’s FHE infrastructure will play an essential role for the Global AI health DataDAO, providing computing power on protected health data without revealing it. This ensures complete encryption for confidential data. Vana, on the other hand, will offer a foundational tech architecture for collecting and governing the protected data.
While Vana’s DataDAO network enables people to connect their health data safely, Mind Network’s FHE empowers encrypted artificial intelligence training on such a compiled, safeguarded confidential personal data repository. This establishes a data segment inside the Global AI Health system where health data remains protected in their entire lifetime while integrated with a trained AI model.
Putting Health Data Power into Users’ Hands The alliance between the two networks is essential for the Web3 landscape, particularly in the health sector. It resolves the major problem associated with user data control and confidentiality in the era of AI integration and usage.
By merging Mind Network’s FHE infrastructure with Vana’s DataDAO, this integration creates a system where people can individually manage their protected health data while still leveraging the advantages of AI use cases. This promotes user confidence and rewards them for sharing their data within the Global AI Health DataDAO.
The establishment of the Global AI Health DataDAO highlights a change in which digital users and market players embrace a more inclusive, fair, and confidential-focused data economy. Such a decentralized digital economy unleashes advancements and opportunities within health AI by establishing an open, safeguarded system for world health data sharing.
AUTHOR
Nicholas Otieno is a fintech writer specializing in cryptocurrency markets. Since 2019, he has written articles to educate readers about cryptocurrency and its substantial positive impact on global prosperity. Nicholas is a Bitcoin holder, believing firmly in its fundamentals. His work has been featured in publications such as Finance Magnates, Blockchain.News, Bitcoin Magazine, Coincub, and among others. When he's not writing, Nicholas enjoys performing domestic tasks, spending time with friends, listening to music, and watching football.
Vana Playground will help AI developers train their models with 12.7 million community-owned data points.
Summary
Vana Playground launches to make AI development more accessible The platform has 12.7 million community-owned data points available for developers The future of AI development should be open to everyone, Vana Foundation stated AI development has long faced the issue of big players controlling all the data, but this could change. On Wednesday, September 10, Vana Foundation announced the launch of Vana Playground, a platform for AI developers and researchers.
So far, 1 million Vana Playground users have contributed over 12.7 million unique data points. The platform enables AI developers to explore this data and leverage it to build applications and train their own AI models.
“Playground is about opening the door for everyone- users and innovators alike,” said Art Abal, Managing Director of The Vana Foundation. “When everyday people can own and participate in the value of their data, and developers can see and test that data’s depth- we move from talking about a new data economy to actually building it.”
According to the Vana Foundation, the platform hopes to address deficiencies in open datasets. At the same time, the platform wants to challenge the proprietary model, where data is controlled by tech giants.
Data remains the big bottleneck in AI Almost every big tech firm has designed some type of large language AI model. In practice, there is little difference when it comes to their performance. Moreover, the speed of their improvement is slowing down, and it is increasingly costly in terms of computing resources.
This has led experts to believe that the real bottleneck when it comes to AI will be the quality of its training data. This also means that data will likely accrue most of the economic value that AI usage generates.
PANews reported on September 22 that the decentralized AI data liquidity network Vana announced the official launch of native iOS and Android applications, and simultaneously launched the VanaXP community rewards and reputation system.
Author: PA一线
This content is for market information only and is not investment advice.
The Vana App, released on September 22, 2025, is a mobile application focused on data management within a blockchain framework. Available for download on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, this app enables users to aggregate personal data from multiple sources, convert it into tokenized assets, and participate in collective data pools known as DataDAOs.
Built on the Vana network, an EVM-compatible blockchain, the app addresses data ownership by allowing users to control and potentially monetize their information through encrypted processes and community governance. This article examines the key features of the unique application that allows users to convert their data into capital.
What Is the Vana App?Vana operates as a network designed for data sovereignty, where individuals can manage their personal data outside traditional platform silos. The app serves as the primary interface for this network, launched to coincide with the Vana mainnet activation.
The Vana App is here on iOS and Android.
The first blockchain app that lets you reclaim your data, take it anywhere, and turn it into capital.
Your VIBE is unique, irreplaceable, valuable. For the first time, it’s truly yours.
Exclusive to the community. Get invited by a… pic.twitter.com/5HUm9bRO0U
— vana (@vana) September 22, 2025 On iOS, it appears under the name "Vana Data," with version 1.7.0 as the latest update. In contrast, the Android version is listed as "Vana," having recorded over 10,000 downloads by September 30, 2025. Ratings on the App Store stand at 3.7 out of 5, based on initial user feedback, often noting the invite-only access model as a point of discussion.
The app's core function involves importing data from various services, including social media platforms, streaming apps, and health trackers. This data is then processed into what Vana terms VIBEs (digital representations that function as unique, programmable assets on the blockchain).
Users must obtain an invitation from an existing member or join a waitlist to access the app, which underscores its community-oriented approach. Once inside, the interface features tools for monitoring data usage, tracking rewards, and interacting with DataDAOs, which are decentralized autonomous organizations focused on specific types of data.
Vana's development stems from efforts to create a user-owned AI data layer. The network has onboarded over 12 million data points since its mainnet launch, indicating scale in data aggregation. The app integrates with the $VANA token, the native asset used for transactions, governance, and accessing data within the ecosystem.
Key Features of the Vana AppThe Vana App includes several components for data handling and interaction:
Data Reclamation Feature: A primary feature is data reclamation, which enables users to connect accounts from platforms such as Spotify, Instagram, or Netflix to import information securely. This process utilizes encryption to safeguard data during transmission and storage. The app displays imported data through visual elements, such as progress bars for XP accumulation and card-like representations for VIBEs.
VIBEs as Tokenized Assets: VIBEs represent transformed data points, created as tokenized assets that users can manage with granular permissions. For instance, permissions can be set using SQL queries to specify which data fields are accessible. This allows for controlled sharing without exposing the raw data.
Earnings Tracker and Data Insights: Another feature is the earnings tracker, which monitors XP earned from tasks like connecting data sources or participating in DataDAOs. XP serves as a metric for unlocking rewards, including portions of $VANA tokens or DataDAO-specific incentives. The app also generates insights from user data, such as patterns in listening habits or health metrics, presented in formats like games or visual summaries.
Community Integration via DataDAOs: Community integration occurs through DataDAOs, where users pool VIBEs into shared liquidity pools for uses like AI model training. Examples include CredMont for credit card transaction data, $BOPS for music preferences, and sleep.fun for sleep tracking information. Each DataDAO operates under VRC-20 standards, a token specification compatible with ERC-20 but tailored for data-bound assets.
Interface and Interoperability Support: The app's interface supports wallet connections for blockchain transactions, compatible with Ethereum-based tools. Bridges like Stargate facilitate asset transfers from other chains, enhancing interoperability.
How the Vana App Works: Step-by-Step Workflow1. Onboarding: The Vana App workflow begins with onboarding. After downloading and receiving an invite, users sign up using an email address and connect data sources via dropdown menus in the app. Data import occurs in an encrypted manner, with the app not collecting information itself but facilitating user-controlled aggregation.
2. Data Transformation: Next, data transformation converts imported information into VIBEs. This step involves on-chain tokenization, where VIBEs become programmable assets with defined permissions. Users can then decide to contribute these to DataDAOs, pooling them into Data Liquidity Pools (DLPs) for collective applications.
3. Participation in DataDAOs: Participation in DataDAOs requires VRC-20 tokens, which are minted based on contributions and validated through cryptographic validation. AI developers or other entities access these pools by burning $VANA and VRC-20 tokens, with proceeds distributed back to contributors via the app's dashboard.
4. Activity Tracking and Compute Tasks: The app tracks all activities on-chain, using the Vana blockchain for transparency. Compute tasks, such as AI training on pooled data, occur in Trusted Execution Environments to maintain privacy. Users manage permissions and withdraw data at any point, ensuring control remains with the individual.
5. Dataset Limits and Governance: There are no specified limits on dataset sizes, with governance handled at the DataDAO level through voting mechanisms tied to VRC-20 holdings.
Technical Aspects of the Vana AppVana utilizes VRC-20 tokens, which are tied to data contributions and facilitate trading on platforms like Solana, thereby increasing liquidity. These tokens integrate with DeFi protocols, allowing users to stake or lend data-linked assets.
The secure runtime environment enforces permissions during data processing, using verifiable computations to confirm operations without revealing underlying data. Data flows from user devices to encrypted storage, then to on-chain validation, minimizing exposure.
Validator nodes stake $VANA to secure the network, ensuring data availability and integrity. Incentives include 15% of the token supply distributed every 21 days to top-performing DataDAOs based on staking metrics.
Tokenomics in Vana center on the $VANA token for staking, governance votes, and data access fees. The model has shifted toward liquidity-focused incentives, requiring DataDAOs to adhere to VRC-20 for emission eligibility. Earnings can include specific tokens, such as $REM, for contributions related to sleep data.
Privacy and Security in the Vana AppPrivacy measures include end-to-end encryption for all data handled by the app. Users set permissions to control access, and Vana does not collect any data itself. The privacy policy, accessible at vana.org/privacy, outlines these practices.
Security relies on blockchain validation and Trusted Execution Environments for sensitive computations. This setup ensures that AI models trained on pooled data do not compromise individual privacy.
ConclusionThe Vana App provides tools for data tokenization, secure pooling in DataDAOs, and reward tracking via XP and $VANA mechanisms. It operates on an EVM-compatible blockchain with VRC-20 standards for data assets. Users can manage personal information from various sources, set permissions, and participate in governance. This setup supports data sovereignty through encrypted processes and community-driven collectives.
For those interested in blockchain-based data management, downloading the app via official stores and securing an invite offer a direct way to engage with these features. The app's emphasis on user control highlights its role in decentralized data ecosystems.
Sources:
Vana Official Website - https://www.vana.org Vana Documentation - https://docs.vana.orgVana Launches Application: https://www.blocmates.com/news-posts/vana-launches-mobile-app-with-vanaxp-rewards-for-data-ownership App Store Listing - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vana-data/id6751347372PlayStore Listing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.vana.vanavibes&pli=1
Vana Vibe Apps: Turning Your Data into Games, Memes, and InsightsIntroduction: Vana & the Vana AppYour data has always told a story, you just haven’t been able to read it.
Every click, song, post, and message you send makes up your digital fingerprint. But until now that data has flowed invisibly, fueling algorithms, training AI models, and driving decisions made without your consent.
Vana is changing that narrative.
Vana’s mission is to build the infrastructure for a new internet, one where your data is owned by you, governed by you, and used on your terms. Instead of typical data markets and silent app surveillance, Vana replaces opacity with transparency, and extraction with empowerment.
The result? Personal data ownership that’s not just about protection, but about participation. Vana’s approach transforms your personal information into something meaningful, playful, and valuable, all through the Vana App and the suite of Vibe Apps.
What Are Vana Vibe Apps?If the Vana App is central connector of all your different data sources, & your own Google Drive is the secure hub where your information lives, then Vana Vibe Apps are the experiences that make your data come alive.
As explained in our previous blog post, “Introducing the Vana App”, these Vibe Apps are AI-powered mini-apps that use your connected data sources, like Spotify, Instagram, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, or Netflix, to generate personalized insights and stories.
They’re part of a new category of AI apps that don’t just process your data; they let you interact with it. Through data-powered insights, Vibe Apps show you how your digital self behaves, thinks, and expresses, turning what was once just passive data collection, into self-discovery.
And unlike traditional platforms, Vana keeps data ownership front and center. You connect your data sources through the app, store that information securely in your own secure server (IE: Google Drive), and decide how it’s used.
Play with Your DataThe magic of the Vana Vibe Apps lies in how they turn cold data points into colorful, playful, and entertaining experiences.
Think of it as gamifying your data. Each Vibe App transforms a specific dataset, from your social media behavior to your watching history, into something interactive and expressive. Here are a few of the Vibe App experiences so far:
CoinologyWhich meme coin are you? Using your Twitter (X) data, Coinology analyzes your posts, topics, and tone to match you with a memecoin that matches your posting style and personality. It’s part AI horoscope, part data experiment, part memecoin come to life.
Dumb Bitch IndexEver ask yourself, “Am I a dumb bitch”? This Vibe App uses your Instagram data, captions, emojis, hashtags, and engagement patterns, to tell you exactly that. It’s witty, unfiltered, and painfully accurate, using AI-powered content insights to mirror how you present yourself online.
Hobby HeroGot professional burnout but no creative outlet? Hobby Hero reads your LinkedIn profile and generates personalized hobby recommendations. It’s like a career coach crossed with a life coach, using your own background data to help you bring some joy, curiosity, and balance into your life.
The Binge ReportA Netflix-style recap of your streaming life, The Binge Report summarizes your watching history into a “year-in-review” for your entertainment habits. Expect charts, genres, and watch-time data that feel as personal as your Spotify Wrapped.
Digital OracleWhat if your LinkedIn data could predict your future? Digital Oracle gives you a tarot-style reading based on your professional journey. It’s where mystical meets analytical, with a sense of humor and a sense of self.
Together, these apps demonstrate how data-driven insights can be fun, meaningful, and creative, giving users a chance to see themselves through the lens of data, but without the corporate surveillance.
Data-Driven Self-ReflectionNot every Vibe App needs to be about laughs. Some are designed to offer AI-powered data insights that reveal patterns in your daily life, habits, or emotions.
These AI-powered data insights platforms turn everyday digital behavior, your playlists, messages, posts, or work habits, into structured insights that can help you understand yourself better. From AI-powered content insights to data visualizations, Vana’s vibe apps take what’s often hidden deep in platform analytics and return it to you in a transparent format tailored to your needs.
In a world where most data collection methods are invisible, Vana’s approach brings awareness and context back to the user. It’s about learning something new from your own data, maybe a reminder that your favorite music mood spikes in winter, or that your posts get more positive when you’re working less.
Vibe Apps show that your data can be more than a profile for advertisers, it can be a mirror for self-awareness and creativity.
Privacy and Control: Owning Your DataAll this fun comes with a serious foundation: personal data ownership and digital privacy.
Traditional platforms collect and trade your information behind the scenes, using it to target ads or train models. Vana flips that model completely. Outlined in the Vana Whitepaper, Vana network is built for user-owned data, meaning that your information lives in a secure, private data wallet, not on someone else’s servers.
You choose what to connect, how it’s used, and which AI apps or partners can access it. That means your Spotify history, Netflix watch list, or Instagram feed are no longer tools for platforms to exploit, they’re assets you control.
Citing research from Pew Research Center, nearly 79% of Americans are concerned about how companies use their personal data. Vana’s system addresses this directly, letting users shift from passive data subjects to active data owners.
In short: you own your data, you decide what it powers, and you earn from its use. Whether that’s earning XP in the app or contributions to a larger data ecosystem.
Getting StartedReady to see what your data says about you?
Getting started with the Vana App is simple:
Download the Vana App (available via invite or early access).Create your Account using a wallet, email, or phone number & your join code. Connect your Google Drive so that all of your connected data can live within something you own. Connect your accounts: Spotify, LinkedIn, Instagram, or others.Try a Vibe App and see what insights, memes, or games your data unlocks.As you engage, you’ll earn VanaXP, an in-app reward system that recognizes your participation in the ecosystem. Beyond XP, you’re contributing to a movement, one that values transparency, consent, and creativity.
By turning your personal data into something usable and rewarding, Vana is redefining what digital privacy can mean. It’s not about locking your data away, it’s about making it work for you.
Join the Vibe and Own Your DataYour data already fuels the internet, now it can fuel you. With Vana Vibe Apps, your digital footprint becomes a playground for creativity, reflection, and expression.
From AI memes to insight-driven dashboards, every app turns ordinary data into something extraordinary, and every interaction reinforces your personal data ownership.
Vana isn’t just about data control; it’s about reclaiming relevance in the systems you already power. So dive in, explore your digital self, and see what your data has to say — because this time, the story belongs to you.
Vana is excited to announce its sponsorship of Season 3 of The People’s AI Podcast, a show that breaks down the wild, weird, and sometimes shocking world of modern AI. As AI systems grow more powerful and become more deeply woven into our lives, understanding where they get their intelligence, and who truly benefits from it, has never been more important.
Season 3 dives directly into those questions, making it the perfect companion to Vana’s mission of building a world where people own their data and participate directly in the AI economy.
If you want a single hub with all listening links, head to the podcast’s official Linktree.
Why Vana Is Supporting the New Season of The People’s AI PodcastSeason 3 of The People’s AI: The Decentralized AI Podcast opens with a simple but powerful idea: You are a factory. Every day, every click, every photo, every post, you quietly generate the most valuable resource on earth: data.
AI companies are hungry for it. Most of the time, they capture it quietly. And in many cases, they use it without permission.
This is where the podcast comes in. Season 3 explores the rise of AI, the ethics behind AI training data, and the real-world consequences of today’s data-hungry systems. It blends gripping stories, surprising tech deep dives, and timely AI news to help listeners understand what’s happening behind the curtain.
Episodes also address how decentralized technologies, like blockchain and user-owned datasets, may offer a better path forward. It’s one of the few shows sitting at the intersection of AI, digital rights, and emerging decentralized systems, making it not just an AI podcast, but a genuinely important resource for anyone thinking about the future of technology.
Subscribe to follow every episode:
Apple PodcastsYouTubeBuzzsprout
Inside Season 3: AI, Data, and the Human Stories Behind ThemSeason 3 doesn’t hold back. The topics dig deep into the reality of where AI training data comes from and what happens when personal information is misused or scraped without consent.
Some of the stories include:
A robot vacuum cleaner that photographed a woman unclothed in her bathroom, then leaked the photos onto Facebook.
(Covered widely in publications like MIT Technology Review.)How most of the internet’s books, articles, and creative work were used to train AI systems, often without the author’s knowledge or approval.
(The Atlantic and The New York Times have both investigated these issues.)These stories aren’t exaggerations, they highlight a genuine problem in the AI ecosystem: our data is being used, taken, and monetized at scale, yet the people who generate it rarely benefit.
The show presents these moments with clarity, humor, and a level of honesty that makes complex issues surprisingly easy to understand. Whether you’re someone who follows the latest AI news religiously or someone who just wants to stay informed without drowning in jargon, Season 3 is built to be accessible.
Connecting With Vana’s VisionVana is building a system where individuals, not platforms, control their own data. You decide how it’s used, who can access it, and how you benefit from it.
That’s why Season 3 of The People’s AI aligns so naturally with what Vana stands for. When the show exposes how AI models scrape data without consent, when it highlights the imbalance between centralized systems and individual rights, when it asks who actually profits from your information, it’s addressing the same issues Vana is working to fix.
With Vana, your data becomes part of your digital identity, something you control, instead of something quietly collected and locked away by centralized systems. To see how Vana is approaching a more decentralized, user-driven AI future, explore the Vana Vision page.
This partnership with The People’s AI Podcast isn’t just a sponsorship, it’s a shared effort to bring these topics into the open and give people more agency over their digital lives.
What Listeners Can Expect This SeasonSeason 3 is packed with topics that touch every part of our digital lives:
How AI models learn and what they learn from youThe ethics of web scraping, data harvesting, and training setsReal-world stories of AI gone wrongHow decentralized technology may reshape the future of AIWhat “life after death” means when your data lives foreverThe emerging role of blockchain systems in securing personal dataThe philosophy of digital identity in an AI-driven futureReclaiming ownership of your digital footprint
Unlike many overly technical AI podcasts or dry blockchain news shows, this one balances storytelling, humor, and insight. Each episode feels like a conversation with someone who knows the stakes but also knows how to make it enjoyable to learn about them.
Where to Listen to The People’s AI PodcastSeason 3 is available everywhere you listen. Use any of the links below to join the conversation:
Listen on Apple PodcastsWatch episodes on YouTubeFollow on BuzzsproutExplore all platforms via LinktreeSubscribing ensures you never miss new episodes, story breakdowns, or major updates in the worlds of decentralized AI, digital identity, and data governance.
Building a Human-CentricFuture for TechnologyVana’s sponsorship of Season 3 marks a shared commitment to something bigger: reshaping the relationship between people, their data, and the AI systems shaping the world.
The show exposes the flaws in how AI companies gather intelligence today.
Vana offers a path toward a more ethical, decentralized future.
Together, they help people understand not just what’s happening, but what’s possible.
If you’re ready to explore the future of AI through a human lens, start listening to Season 3 today, and learn how your data can become a source of empowerment rather than exploitation.
Subscribe now and be part of the movement toward a more transparent, decentralized AI world.
