# Vana Foundation: full context for LLMs > Vana is open data infrastructure for human-grounded AI: the protocol layer > through which human context is served to AI systems and applications, with > consent, from the source. People own the data they create and can port it > between apps and AI systems directly, without a platform acting as > intermediary or gatekeeper. This is data portability without platform > intermediaries: the data is non-custodial, it moves with you, and no platform > like Google or Meta sits in the middle. The Vana Foundation is the neutral, > open-source steward of the Vana network. It builds rails, not products. This file is the machine-readable companion to https://vana.org. Section pages also have plain-text twins at /use.md, /build.md, /participate.md, /learn.md. ## Voice - Exacting and unapologetic. Every word earns its place. No fluff, no filler, no gimmicks. Say it once, say it right. - Everyday scientific. Intelligent but accessible. Rigorous but relatable. Complexity broken down, not watered down. - Witty and thought-provoking. Precision with an edge. Language that makes you pause, reconsider, and engage. ## Glossary Use these terms consistently. - Proof of Contribution: a mechanism that measures the value and quality of data contributions, so only meaningful, structured data is rewarded. - Data as a New Asset Class: the shift from data extracted and monetized by corporations to data staked, traded, and governed by its creators. - Data Revolution: the movement toward user-controlled data ownership, shifting power from centralized entities to individuals through decentralized networks. - User-Owned Data: data that stays in the hands of its creator, who controls, governs, and benefits from it. - Data Portability: the right and technical ability to move your data between apps, platforms, and AI systems directly, without a platform acting as intermediary or gatekeeper. On Vana, portability is native: your data is not locked inside the service that captured it. - Non-Custodial Data: data never held or stored by intermediaries; it stays controlled by its original owner and can be ported between services without a platform in the middle. - Permissioned Data: data selectively accessible based on on-chain rules and permissions, aligned with user intent. - Data Sovereignty: the principle that individuals and groups have full authority over their personal data, including how it is shared, used, and monetized. - Data Liquidity: the ability to move, trade, and use data seamlessly across networks and applications. - DLP (Data Liquidity Pool): a system that lets data providers pool datasets, making them valuable for AI and applications while compensating contributors. - DataDAO: a Data Liquidity Pool collectively owned and governed by its members. - Decentralized AI: AI models trained on decentralized, user-governed datasets rather than proprietary, centralized silos. - Data Capital: data treated not as a byproduct of online activity but as capital that can be staked, traded, and used to generate value. - Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs): hardware-based secure environments for verifiable, privacy-preserving computation on sensitive data. - Data Verification Layer: the layer that ensures data quality, authenticity, and compliance before data is used. - Dataset-Specific Tokens (Data Tokens): tokens that represent a specific dataset or category of data, enabling specialized governance and economic models. ## Section pages # Make your data work for you This is the machine-readable twin of https://vana.org/use. The Vana App lets you connect your accounts, see everything you have created, decide what it serves, and earn when it creates value. Consent is record-level and revocable at any time. Your data is portable and non-custodial: it stays yours and can move between apps and AI systems without a platform in the middle. Actions on this page: - Download the app. - Open the web app. Built on Vana: a rotating banner of applications built on the network, each with a name, a one-line description, and a link. If you are building something, the docs, Discord, and GitHub are on the Build page: https://vana.org/build Related: - People overview: https://vana.org/use - Builders: https://vana.org/build - How it works: https://vana.org/learn --- # Every app starts from zero. Yours doesn't have to. This is the machine-readable twin of https://vana.org/build. Builders start with real human context, served with consent, in a single authorization. Applications request data with one authorization; contributors grant or revoke access at the record level. The toolkit. Read, fork, ask. - Docs. Build a Vana app. The whole path, from local setup to mainnet. https://docs.vana.org/build-a-vana-app - Discord. Ask the builders. Where the people building Vana answer questions. https://discord.gg/vanaofficial - GitHub. Read the source. The protocol and the SDKs, with nothing behind a login. https://github.com/vana-com Start building: https://docs.vana.org/build-a-vana-app Related: - People: https://vana.org/use - How it works: https://vana.org/learn --- # This only works as a movement. This is the machine-readable twin of https://vana.org/participate. 1.5 million people are taking their data back. Programs and resources: cohorts, grants, and guides for the committed. This section appears only when programs are active. Events: where the movement meets. Events come from an external calendar (Luma). This section appears only when there are upcoming events. Find us: - Instagram - Discord - X Related: - People: https://vana.org/use - How it works: https://vana.org/learn --- # How Vana works. This is the machine-readable twin of https://vana.org/learn. Vana gives people data portability without platform intermediaries. You can move the data you create between apps and AI systems directly, on your terms, without going through a platform like Google or Meta. Your data is non-custodial: it stays yours and moves with you. The flow: 1. You connect. Your accounts, your call. 2. You consent. Record-level permissions, revocable any time. 3. Your data serves. Any app, any AI system you choose. 4. Value flows back. To you, the source. Token and security details live in the docs: https://docs.vana.org The whitepaper is the full thesis, where this is going and why: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/662488d48afbf9b21e25c7d2/674f6289079193fb53f7caa1_Vana_whitepaper_Dec24_updated.pdf The Vana Foundation is the neutral steward of the network. Open source, long horizon, no product to sell you. Governance, press kit (https://vana.org/press-kit), and contact (support@vanafoundation.org). Related: - People: https://vana.org/use - Builders: https://vana.org/build ## Writing Every post, newest first. Index: https://vana.org/blog - 28 July 2026 · The Vana Cup Is On: Three weeks, a live leaderboard, and a prize pool that climbs while you play. (https://vana.org/blog/the-vana-cup-is-on) - 17 July 2026 · Two Cities Down: Vana Vibes Is Picking Up Steam: Brisbane filled in a day. Ep. 03 lands in August, and it could be your city. (https://vana.org/blog/two-cities-down-vana-vibes-is-picking-up-steam) - 8 July 2026 · Vana acquires Memory Protocol team as it launches groundbreaking Personal Server and Memory Upgrades to the Vana App: Five AIs added memory this year. Every one is a walled garden. Yours doesn't have to be. (https://vana.org/blog/own-your-ai-memory) - 29 June 2026 · Anna Kazlauskas at ZEG: data as a digital representation of self: Your data isn't just something you own. It might be who you are. Anna Kazlauskas took the case to the ZEG stage. (https://vana.org/blog/anna-kazlauskas-at-zeg-data-as-a-digital-representation-of-self) - 22 June 2026 · What AI literacy looks like for women in public life: AI is quietly rewriting public life. Here's why data sovereignty is a women's issue. (https://vana.org/blog/what-ai-literacy-looks-like-for-women-in-public-life) - 26 February 2026 · DataConnect: Open-Source Data Portability: See everything ChatGPT, Spotify, and Instagram know about you. Export it all in one click. (https://vana.org/blog/dataconnect-open-source-data-portability) - 17 December 2025 · How the Vana App Lets You Reclaim and Monetize Your Data (https://vana.org/blog/how-the-vana-app-lets-you-reclaim-and-monetize-your-data) - 15 December 2025 · Vana Sponsors Season 3 of The People’s AI: The Decentralized AI Podcast: Vana sponsors Season 3 of The People’s AI Podcast, exploring AI, data ownership, and decentralization in the age of data-hungry models. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-sponsors-season-3-of-the-peoples-ai-the-decentralized-ai-podcast) - 9 December 2025 · What Is Data Collection? Methods Companies Use (and How You Can Take Control) (https://vana.org/blog/what-is-data-collection) - 5 November 2025 · What is Data Sovereignty? Personal Data Ownership in the Digital Age (https://vana.org/blog/what-is-data-sovereignty) - 21 October 2025 · Introducing Vana Vibe Apps: Explore Vana Vibe Apps, AI-powered tools that turn your data into games, memes, and insights while helping you own your data and protect digital privacy. (https://vana.org/blog/introducing-vana-vibe-apps) - 15 October 2025 · What Is Personal Data Ownership? Why It Matters for Your Digital Rights (https://vana.org/blog/what-is-personal-data-ownership) - 7 October 2025 · Vana at Korea Blockchain Week: Turning Spotify Data Into Discovery, One Flavor at a Time: Vana’s “What Flavor Is Your Data?” brought data ownership to life at Korea Blockchain Week through the Vana App and vibe app experiences. (https://vana.org/blog/posts-vana-at-korea-blockchain-week-2025) - 22 September 2025 · Introducing the Vana App: Own Your Digital Self and Start Earning with VanaXP: Discover the Vana app, the gateway to owning your data, creating your VIBE, and earning rewards with VanaXP in the new data economy. (https://vana.org/blog/introducing-vana-app) - 9 September 2025 · Introducing Vana Playground: Unlocking the Age of Data Capital: Vana Playground unlocks deep, user-owned datasets for AI builders, complete with schemas, samples, and governance. Discover the future of data capital. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-playground-launch) - 2 July 2025 · Everyone’s Talking About Data Collectives. Here’s How to Get Involved.: Learn what Data Collectives are and how to join them on Vana. This blog breaks down how to earn tokens from your sleep, chat, and browsing data by contributing to projects like $REM, GPT Data DAO, and more. (https://vana.org/blog/everyones-talking-about-data-collectives-heres-how-to-get-involved) - 22 May 2025 · Vana Brings Data Tokens to Solana’s Onchain Capital Markets: Vana announces VRC-20 Data Asset Tokens are now tradeable on Solana, unlocking liquidity for user-owned data. This expands decentralized data ownership and opens new capital markets for AI’s most critical input. (https://vana.org/blog/trading-vrc20-data-tokens-on-solana) - 13 May 2025 · MIT Decentralized AI: Internet of Agents Summit: Highlights from the MIT Decentralized AI Summit, where Vana shared its vision for user-owned data, protocol upgrades, and the future of decentralized AI. Sessions explored data sovereignty, innovation, and building with private data. (https://vana.org/blog/mit-decentralized-ai-summit) - 8 May 2025 · Introducing Vana Academy: Calling the New Data Economy Innovators: Data is the most valuable asset of the digital age—and it’s trapped. Locked up by platforms, siloed by corporations, and inaccessible to the people who generate it.At Vana, we believe it’s time for a new model—one where entrepreneurs, developers, and communities take control of the value they create. That’s why we’re launching Vana Academy, a 9-week intensive for builders ready to pioneer the next frontier of data entrepreneurship. (https://vana.org/blog/introducing-vana-academy) - 31 March 2025 · VRC-20: Establishing the Financial System for User-Owned Data: Vana introduces VRC-20, a new standard for data-backed tokens that brings liquidity, structure, and real utility to user-owned data. With validator staking, standardized infrastructure, and grants for builders, Vana is building the financial layer of the data economy (https://vana.org/blog/vrc-20-future-of-data-finance) - 31 March 2025 · Introducing Data Validator Staking: Powering Data Markets for the Future: Vana introduces Data Validator Staking to replace emissions-based incentives with a system focused on uptime, security, and liquidity. Powered by TEEs, this upgrade ensures secure data access, protects privacy, and supports a sustainable AI data economy. (https://vana.org/blog/introducing-data-validator-staking) - 26 March 2025 · Vana and Flower Labs Partner to Build the World’s First User-Owned AI Model: Vana and Flower Labs launch COLLECTIVE-1, the first decentralized, user-owned foundation model trained on private data. This partnership merges secure data contribution with federated AI to create more powerful, open, and user-controlled AI systems. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-flower-labs-partnership) - 5 March 2025 · Vana AI Data Summit Recap: Pioneering the Future of User-Owned AI at EthDenver: Vana hosted the first AI Data Summit at EthDenver, highlighting data as a new asset class and exploring decentralized AI, data sovereignty, and monetization through panels, workshops, and community collaboration. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-ai-data-summit-recap) - 8 January 2025 · Breaking Down Data Walls: How Vana is Building the Future of User-Owned AI: Anna Kazlauskas, Creator of Vana Protocol, speaks with The Defiant about solving AI’s data wall through user-owned data and DataDAOs. The conversation explores data sovereignty, decentralized model training, and Vana’s vision for a more equitable AI economy. (https://vana.org/blog/breaking-down-data-walls) - 3 December 2024 · Vana: The First Open Protocol for AI Data Sovereignty: The Vana Whitepaper outlines how the network turns personal data into a user-owned asset class. It introduces DataDAOs, DLP tokens, and the VANA token to enable secure, privacy-preserving data contribution, governance, and monetization in the AI economy. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-whitepaper) - 20 November 2024 · Vana’s Next Phase: Accelerating the AI Data Revolution: Vana announces its mainnet and VANA token launch, enabling a decentralized network for user-owned data. With 300+ DataDAOs and 1.3 million users, Vana turns data into an asset class, empowering individuals to pool, govern, and monetize their private data securely. (https://vana.org/blog/accelerating-ai-data-revolution) - 10 November 2024 · Vana Brings the AI Data Revolution to Devcon Week 2024: Vana is live in Bangkok for Devcon Week 2024, hosting panels, workshops, and demos on decentralized AI and user-owned data. Highlights include keynotes by Anna Kazlauskas, Creator of Vana Protocol, a Gaia House hackathon bounty, and meetups with the growing DataDAO ecosystem. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-brings-the-revolution-to-devcon) - 6 November 2024 · NEW Partnership Announcement: Vana x Reclaim: Vana partners with Reclaim Protocol to integrate zkTLS technology, enhancing data verification for DataDAOs. This collaboration strengthens Vana’s Proof of Contribution system by enabling secure, privacy-preserving validation of user data in the decentralized AI economy. (https://vana.org/blog/reclaim) - 18 September 2024 · Vana Raises Funding to Build User-Owned AI and Overcome the Data Wall: Vana has raised $25M to advance user-owned AI, including a $5M strategic round with Coinbase Ventures, $18M Series A with Paradigm, and $2M Seed with Polychain. This funding will fuel the growth of DataDAOs and help solve the AI data shortage through privacy-preserving, user-contributed datasets. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-raises-funding-to-build-user-owned-ai-and-overcome-the-data-wall) - 10 September 2024 · New Partnership Announcement: Vana and Autonomys Network Partner to Realize a Vision of a Decentralized AI Stack: Vana partners with Autonomys Network to advance a fully decentralized AI stack, integrating secure distributed storage with Vana’s user-owned data ecosystem. The collaboration empowers users and DataDAOs to build AI models in a transparent, privacy-preserving environment rooted in user sovereignty. (https://vana.org/blog/new-partnership-announcement-vana-and-autonomys-network-partner-to-realize-a-vision-of-a-decentralized-ai-stack) - 26 August 2024 · New Partnership Announcement: Vana and Reppo Partner to Revolutionize Data-Driven Risk and Reputation Models: Vana and Reppo Network announce a partnership to accelerate data onboarding for risk and reputation models. By connecting Vana’s DataDAOs with Reppo’s modeling platform, the collaboration unlocks new datasets, expands monetization for contributors, and reinforces user data ownership and privacy. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-protocol-and-reppo-network-announce-strategic-partnership-to-revolutionize-data-driven-risk-and-reputation-models) - 1 August 2024 · Model Influence Functions: Measuring Data Quality: Model influence functions help quantify the value of user-contributed data in AI training. This post explains how they support fair compensation, proof of contribution, and governance in user-owned AI systems. (https://vana.org/blog/model-influence-functions-measuring-data-quality) - 31 July 2024 · Open Source AI Summit: Empowering the Future of User-Owned AI: Anna Kazlauskas, Creator of Vana Protocol, outlines the shift toward user-owned AI, highlighting data scarcity, proof of contribution, and collective models for training frontier AI. Vana empowers users to contribute, control, and benefit from their data in this new ecosystem. (https://vana.org/blog/open-source-ai-summit) - 11 June 2024 · Introducing the Satori Testnet for User-Owned Data: The Satori Testnet by Vana launches a decentralized network for user-owned data, enabling people to contribute private data to train AI and earn from its value. It introduces data liquidity pools, proof-of-contribution, and a new model for collective AI ownership. (https://vana.org/blog/introducing-the-satori-testnet) - 7 June 2024 · Vana partners with the largest AI Hackathon in the APAC to date.: Vana joined over 400 participants at the Build Together Hackathon, highlighting user-owned data, tokenized AI pipelines, and collective ownership. The event showcased strong interest in decentralized AI and set the stage for the Satori Testnet and Vana Mainnet launch. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-partners-with-the-largest-ai-hackathon-in-the-apac-to-date) - 30 May 2024 · DeAI Day in Austin: A Dynamic Panel Discussion on the Future of Decentralized AI: At DeAI Day in Austin, Vana joined leaders from Exabits, Jeannie AI, Render Network, and NounSpace to explore decentralized compute, user-owned AI, and tokenized data. The panel highlighted the collaborative momentum behind building end-to-end decentralized AI systems. (https://vana.org/blog/deai-day-in-austin-a-dynamic-panel-discussion-on-the-future-of-decentralized-ai) - 25 May 2024 · Participation Summary at the DeAI Society Event: Building the New Internet: At the DeAI Society event, Vana’s Matthias Knauth introduced the Satori Testnet, the first L1 for user-owned data. The event explored the convergence of AI and Web3, emphasizing decentralized systems that align with human values and data ownership. (https://vana.org/blog/participation-summary-at-the-deai-society-event-building-the-new-internet) - 15 March 2024 · Anna Kazlauskas, Creator of Vana Protocol, on AI and Autonomous Agents at ETH Denver: At ETH Denver, Anna Kazlauskas, Creator of Vana Protocol, and other leaders discussed decentralized AI, user-owned foundation models, and onchain agents. The panel emphasized data privacy, autonomy, and the potential of AI-powered economies built on blockchain. (https://vana.org/blog/vana-ceo-anna-kazlausks-on-ai-and-autonomous-agents-at-eth-denver) - 12 March 2024 · Data Privacy is a Lie: This post explains why data privacy is a distraction and argues for data ownership as the real solution. It introduces Vana as a tool to reclaim, control, and use your data for personal or collective benefit in AI applications. (https://vana.org/blog/data-privacy-is-a-lie)