Vana empowers users to own, protect and profit from their personal data through decentralized DataDAOs. Learn more about how it works in this article.

Imagine a world where individuals regain control over their own data, taking it back from the hands of large corporations that often profit from it without consent. Enter Vana, an innovative platform that combines 

 with privacy-driven features to create a fairer, more transparent digital economy. This article explores what Vana is all about — and its exciting future potential in the decentralized data and AI space.

 is a blockchain network that gives users full control over their personal data through an 

 architecture. It enables decentralized data-sharing and monetization using DataDAOs (

), whose users can collectively own, manage and profit from their data, all while maintaining privacy and ownership.

Vana was co-founded by Art Abal and Anna Kazlauskas, two Filipinos with strong academic backgrounds and degrees from Harvard and MIT, respectively. It started as a research initiative in 2018, and has since grown into a project driven by the desire to empower individuals with control over their personal data. 

Vana seeks to address the current imbalance whereby large corporations profit from user data without fairly compensating the individuals who generate it. The goal is to create a new data economy in which users can benefit directly from the AI models built on their data, ensuring that the financial rewards of AI development are more fairly distributed. The name "Vana," short for "Nirvana," speaks to the project’s mission of liberating and empowering user data.

The Vana project attempts to challenge the status quo of data hoarding by large centralized organizations, and to tackle several key issues as follows.

Vana is designed to transform personal data into a valuable, user-controlled asset. It operates through the following three key layers.

Vana gives users the power to monetize and use their data in several ways, such as earning revenue from AI models trained on their data, or by integrating their data into applications for personalized experiences. Most importantly, users maintain detailed control over how their data is shared and used. As data contributors, they also receive governance rights within their respective DataDAOs, allowing them to make decisions about how their data is used and how the value is distributed.

Users receive a DLP-specific token when they submit data to a DataDAO, according to the DataDAO’s unique 

 that Vana uses to validate data submitted to its network. PoC maintains the reliability and value of the data within the Vana network. 

Vana acts as a trustless intermediary, connecting data owners, communities and users. It enables individuals to pool their data collectively in a secure and traceable manner while also allowing data users to monetize that data for purposes such as training AI models.

 is a central platform where users can buy, stake, trade and explore data tokens within the Vana ecosystem. It also enables users to contribute their data to DataDAOs, and earn rewards by staking their VANA tokens.

 is an incubator designed to support the growth and development of the Vana ecosystem. It provides tools and resources for users to create and manage DataDAOs, ensuring that high-quality data is available for AI model training and other applications.

DataDAOs are decentralized organizations that pool user-contributed data on the blockchain. They allow individuals to collectively own, manage and monetize their data for AI and other applications. Each DataDAO governs its own DLPs, ensuring that data is secure, private and used judiciously. 

 system incentivizes premium-quality data contributions by rewarding the top 16 DataDAOs every 21 days, based on total Vana tokens staked. This competitive structure ensures that the best datasets and contributors are recognized and rewarded, promoting innovation and growth within the Vana ecosystem

 commits 44% of its total token supply to empower the community. It rewards active participation, contributions and innovation across the Vana network. This includes incentives for high-quality data contributions to DataDAOs, early community rewards and support for developers building on Vana. 

Since its start as an MIT research project in 2018, Vana has made impressive progress, emerging as the first decentralized data liquidity network. 

Looking ahead, Vana aims to build a thriving decentralized data ecosystem and promote mass adoption with its clear road map:

The VANA token is the native cryptocurrency of the Vana Network. VANA serves multiple purposes within the Vana ecosystem, such as securing the network through staking, paying transaction fees, staking in DataDAOs, accessing datasets, acting as part of a trading pair and participating in decentralized governance.

The tokenomics of VANA are designed to align the interests of all participants in the Vana network. With a total supply capped at 120 million tokens, distribution is as follows:

 of $32.86 by the end of 2024 and $38.58 by 2025, with the potential to climb to approximately $112.78 by the end of 2030. Similarly, Coin Edition 

 a value of $50 by the end of 2025, with further growth expected up to $68 by 2030. 

Looking to purchase Vana tokens? Bybit now offers the VANA/USDT Spot trading pair. To get started, you’ll first need to create a Bybit account, then fund it with cryptocurrency and navigate to the 

To celebrate this listing, Bybit is holding 

 where you can earn a share of the 560,000 VANA prize pool. 

VANA offers a compelling investment opportunity, thanks to its innovative approach to data ownership, expanding ecosystem and optimistic market outlook. By tackling key challenges in the data economy, VANA empowers users while paving the way for decentralized AI development. However, as with any investment, it's important for potential investors to be mindful of market risks and do their 

Vana is empowering users to take full control of their personal data and even profit from it. By combining blockchain technology with robust privacy measures, Vana challenges traditional data systems and lays the foundation for a more equitable data economy. The platform's ambitious road map could position it as a key player in the future of decentralized AI, opening up new opportunities for individuals to become active participants in this increasingly data-driven world.

Intermediate

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Vana (VANA): Unlocking Data Freedom for User-Owned AI

Sonic and Injective are launching the first cross-chain AI agent platform, the Smart Agent Hub, integrating Solana and Injective ecosystems.

Last week, the S&P 500 saw its biggest single-day price gain this month. This raises the hopes of investors for a year-end rally if prices continue to go up. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was down by 2.54%, with Bitcoin and Ether dropping by 1.24% and 1.00%, respectively in the past 24 hours.

Today's top performer is AAVE, which surged 7.7% following the integration of Aave in Balancer's Boosted Pools, simplifying yield generation.

Aave (AAVE), founded in 2017, is a decentralized lending platform on Ethereum for lending, borrowing, and earning interest on 17 cryptocurrencies. It uses smart contracts, collateral for loans, and aTokens for interest, along with features like instant loans. 

 combine markets to enhance capital efficiency and simplify yield generation for DeFi users. By providing liquidity with $USDC and $USDT, users earn fees from swaps and interest from Aave's supply rates. All earnings accrue automatically with no management required. Balancer v3's Boosted Pools streamline liquidity and enable gas-efficient, passive yield generation, making DeFi simpler and more sustainable.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

, the Smart Agent Hub, integrating Solana and Injective ecosystems. The platform enables developers to create, manage, and monetize AI agents in a decentralized environment, with features like tokenization, cross-chain asset interoperability, and a unified developer experience. By leveraging Sonic's HyperGrid and Injective's IBC, the hub facilitates seamless communication and asset transfer across chains. This innovation supports Web3 games, DeFi, and real-world assets, expanding opportunities for AI agents in various sectors. The rollout begins with a testnet in Q1 2025.

From December 16–20, 2024, GBTC had a net outflow of $248.3M, while non-GBTC products saw a net inflow of $705.5M, resulting in a total inflow of $457.2M. The current total stands at a net outflow of $21.3B for GBTC, a net inflow of $57.3B for non-GBTC, and a combined net inflow of $36.03B.

 offers free participation with potential surprise airdrops. Connect your wallet, vote for projects, and use your CHILL FACTOR (based on past Avalanche transactions) to maximize eligibility.

Beginner

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Sonic and Injective Launch First Cross-Chain AI Agent Platform with Smart Agent Hub

Zerebro (ZEREBRO) revolutionizes AI content creation with Solana and Polygon, offering autonomous content generation, NFT minting, and DeFi integration.

 (AI) continues to unlock limitless opportunities in numerous sectors, including the crypto space. Projects such as 

 and others have had a large impact on various facets in 

AI-generated content is in demand, and the latest crypto project to enter the space, Zerebro, aims to provide a way to create and generate content autonomously through AI content models.

Let’s learn more about Zerebro and its innovative approach to content creation through AI.

Zerebro is an autonomous AI system crafted to create, distribute and analyze content across decentralized and social platforms.

 It maintains content diversity through the use of

 (RAG) system that creates a dynamic memory database, based on continuously updated human interactions.

Zerebro operates independently without human oversight using a concept known as hyperstition to merge fiction with reality, resulting in self-propagated narratives encompassing diverse cultural and financial scopes, with key uses of content creation and cultural integration across the digital community. Zerebro autonomously produces high-entropy content, ensuring diversity and originality, and engages audiences on various platforms, such as X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Warpcast and Telegram.

Zerebro also integrates unique cultural themes through a feature known as “infinite backrooms” designed to elicit thought-provoking conversations among digital communities. Its data sets follow a nonlinear thought pattern, resulting in unpredictable and inherently viral outputs. This unique feature can be used to generate chaotic and surreal artworks that can be autonomously minted as 

 (POL) blockchain. Zerebro also features autonomous trading of artwork through the integration of memetic dynamics and market interaction analysis, thereby demonstrating the potential of AI to merge cultural creativity with 

ZEREBRO, the native token for the Zerebro ecosystem, is hosted on the 

 (SOL) blockchain. The maximum supply is 1 billion ZEREBRO tokens, with 999,972,148 tokens currently in circulation.

An autonomous AI system such as Zerebro has transformative potential in the crypto industry, especially in cultural content generation and financial markets. Its “hyperstition” approach to generating content can help influence markets by shaping investor behavior through an interplay between culture and technology.

Furthermore, the project intends to launch a unified memory across social media platforms that could significantly enhance information retention, leading to further engagement. The Zerebro team also intends to integrate the ZEREBRO token with DeFi protocols, opening holders to various income-generating opportunities, such as 

Zerebro has experienced some volatility since its launch, which isn’t unusual for a new project trying to establish a stable price floor. As of Dec 23, 2024, Zerebro is trading at $0.30, with a market cap of over $377 million. This price was over 6,350% higher than its all-time low of $0.0058 on Nov 3, 2024, and just 39% lower than its all-time high of $0.6153 on Nov 23, 2024.

That said, Zerebro is still a new project that’s subject to high volatility. We highly recommend you practice sound 

 crypto on Bybit’s Spot trading platform. To celebrate the listing, Bybit is holding a 

 up for grabs. The first event is exclusively for new users to deposit and earn from a prize pool of 150,000 ZEREBRO tokens.

To participate, simply register on Bybit and complete verification. Then, proceed to accumulate a deposit volume of at least 400 ZEREBRO, or deposit 100 USDT and trade 100 USDT worth of ZEREBRO via your first trade using your Bybit account. This event runs through Dec 24, 2024, 8:59AM UTC.

, is offering a prize pool of 60,000 ZEREBRO tokens. To earn a share of the prize pool, simply register for the event and trade at least 500 USDT worth of ZEREBRO on Spot through Dec 24, 2024, 8:59AM UTC. 

Rewards will be capped at 3,000 ZEREBRO per user.

In addition to these two events, you can also participate in a 

 with a 30,000 ZEREBRO prize pool. Earn 20 ZEREBRO for every successful referral (up to 10 referrals) Rewards are on a first-come, first-served basis through Dec 24, 2024, 8:59AM UTC. 

Zerebro’s unique autonomous AI system approach to the crypto market sets it apart in the space. Crypto subcultures will be able to tap into its ability to independently generate and analyze content across different networks. Its RAG technology could enhance content diversity among the crypto community, while its “infinite backrooms” are spaces in which these digital communities can engage in diverse cultural and financial narratives.

As AI continues to transform the web3 space, Zerebro is poised to add value through its autonomous system that eliminates human oversight.

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Zerebro (ZEREBRO): Unlimited Possibilities in AI Content Creation

Gearbox Protocol is a composable leveraged lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency within DeFi. Learn how Gearbox Protocol works.

 (DeFi) with its composable leverage system. It enables investors to use 

 on assets across multiple protocols, transforming how DeFi participants can trade with margin, 

 and execute complex strategies — all without leaving their ecosystem.

 is making leverage accessible and secure. Whether you’re a lender seeking passive yield or a leverage user exploring advanced strategies, Gearbox’s unique architecture opens up new possibilities. Let’s explore how this on-chain credit layer is improving DeFi.

Since the emergence of DeFi in 2020, it hasstrived to reimagine financial services by removing intermediaries, such as banks and brokers. Through

 systems, DeFi offers transparent and direct access to lending, trading and investments. Despite market fluctuations, the DeFi sector remains resilient, with a current 

 (TVL) of $123 billion — a 128% increase since the start of 2024.

The DeFi sector is poised for resurgence as secure and scalable innovations fuel its growth. With proven use cases and real-world adoption, DeFi continues to solidify its role as one of crypto’s most valuable use cases.

 (WLFI), backed by the Trump family, underscores a shifting acceptance of DeFi in the United States. The project’s multisig wallet has publicly 

 various DeFi tokens, such as AAVE, LINK, ENA and more. WLFI aims to make DeFi accessible to everyday users, but it remains to be seen if the project will achieve its goals.

Gearbox Protocol is a composable leveraged lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency within DeFi. By offering a flexible credit layer, Gearbox empowers users to leverage their positions across multiple DeFi platforms, seamlessly integrating with protocols they already trust.

Gearbox’s fundamental design minimizes costs while maintaining flexibility. Its modular architecture reduces gas costs and improves scalability..

Unlike traditional leveraged lending protocols that silo funds within their ecosystems, Gearbox allows users to execute trades and strategies across integrated platforms, such as 

 correlated assets, Gearbox offers a new way to utilize leverage without restrictions.

With Gearbox Protocol, leverage becomes a DeFi primitive — an infrastructure layer that lets users go beyond basic 

 containing both user funds and borrowed margin funds. They serve as automated leveraged DeFi wallets, allowing users to manage positions and execute strategies independently.

: Gearbox enables users to integrate leverage with DeFi protocols like Uniswap for margin trading, Curve for leverage farming, and more. This flexibility empowers diverse strategies across different platforms.

: Gearbox combines lending and prime brokerage functionalities within the same protocol, simplifying the user experience and expanding possibilities for leveraged trading and farming.

, Gearbox maximizes capital efficiency. It minimizes gas costs and ensures that funds remain noncustodial, unlocking the full potential of leverage without compromising user security.

, ensuring that all integrations, policies and upgrades are managed transparently and collectively by the community and stakeholders.

Gearbox Protocol operates through two main user types:

The Credit Accounts enable operations while maintaining safety through 

Gearbox’s modular architecture supports seamless integrations with third-party protocols, ensuring assets remain decentralized and noncustodial. Liquidations are determined by 

 (based on calculated risks), and protect lenders while offering dynamic leverage possibilities.

 utility token with a capped supply of 10 billion, is the governance token of Gearbox Protocol. It empowers DAO governance and supports initiatives, such as liquidity mining and staking rewards, with an annual emission of just 3% from the DAO's holdings. 

Token distribution percentages are as follows:

Nearly full circulation has been achieved, minimizing supply overhang as a majority of token 

 concluded in 2023. The DAO treasury retains around 40% of the supply, ensuring the community’s strong influence on protocol development.

Marketwise, GEAR has recently experienced notable price movements. Over the past seven days, the token has surged by 11.9%, and its 30-day performance skyrocketed by 166.3%. Year-to-date, GEAR's price has risen approximately 57.7%, reflecting increased investor confidence. Daily trading volume hit $11.8 million over the past 24 hours, marking a 600.3% spike that indicates growing market interest. 

Gearbox Protocol's innovative approach to DeFi simplifies user experience through its wallet-centric design and the integration of the 

. With a capped supply of 10 billion GEAR tokens, robust DAO governance and nearly full circulation, Gearbox prioritizes community-driven growth. 

Recent market performance reflects growing investor confidence, with significant price increases and a surge in trading activity.

Looking ahead, Gearbox Protocol’s road map focuses on enhancing usability and interoperability within the Ethereum ecosystem. The integration of Credit Accounts into account abstraction (AA) wallets such as EIP-4337 revolutionizes the way users can access and manage funds, eliminating the need for complex lending interfaces.

Future developments may include pool-based models and optimizers to tackle liquidity fragmentation, further strengthening 

 Ethereum solutions. As Gearbox Protocol evolves, its focus remains on delivering efficient, user-friendly financial tools that empower users and redefine DeFi as we know it.

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Gearbox: Powering On-Chain Credit for DeFi

Altcoins

web3

Filecoin is a decentralized protocol cloud storage with competitors such as Google drive. But does it is a reliable protocol and cryptocurrency? Learn more.

Global file sharing and storage are areas marked by constant innovations. One such innovation is the introduction of Filecoin. You might be asking yourself what Filecoin is. The best way to describe it is as a global decentralized storage system that brings benefits for all participating computer operators. 

With Filecoin, all the data is stored on a peer-to-peer blockchain. Simply put, the Filecoin network is maintained by:

As the Filecoin network continues to expand (with more miners supplying storage space, and more users placing their trust in it with their data), the value of the underlying cryptocurrency, FIL, is likely to increase. This is because the number of transactions requiring that digital currency will grow. In case enough people adopt Filecoin, it may turn into the fastest and least expensive way to store data on the web. 

As if that’s not enough, the total amount of FIL that will ever be generated is limited to 2 billion tokens, another reason for its value to increase.

The cryptocurrency FIL is the underlying token that powers the Filecoin network. It is used to pay for data storage, data retrieval and any other transactions that may occur within the network.

Since that network does not depend on a centralized server, the data stored on the blockchain cannot be subject to hacker attacks (unlike centralized storage providers). In addition, no government or other body will have the authority to censor file exchange. 

Since all files are broken down into smaller parts by the Filecoin blockchain before being sent to the miners for storage, the security of contents is guaranteed.

The Filecoin network is established on top of the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), 

 a protocol ensuring file storage and sharing in a distributed network (with the process being very similar to file-sharing networks such as RuTracker.org or BitTorrent). While the IPFS is free to use and does not generate revenue for miners, the Filecoin network is paid-for-use and generates revenue. 

In order to ensure data storage and data retrieval on the network, Filecoin miners rent out unused storage space to clients and get paid in FIL.

The two types of miners operate within the network are:

Other participants in the network include the so-called “clients.” They use the network to look for a storage miner or a retrieval miner who best suits their needs (price, storage capacity and duration). Once a miner is selected and a final agreement is reached, the “deal” is then added to the blockchain.

We should note that, along with Filecoin, other protocols offer cryptocurrency-powered, decentralized storage and file-sharing systems. These include Siacoin, which already has a 2-petabyte network capacity, and Storj, which already has a more-than100 petabyte network capacity.

Being open-source software, Filecoin was developed by Protocol Labs, a company established by computer scientist Juan Benet. Protocol Labs is also the company behind technologies such as IPFS and libp2p, which aim to replace existing Internet protocols. 

Juan Benet also was the co-founder of the game development firm Loki Studios, while he was studying computer science at Stanford. In 2013, Yahoo acquired Loki Studios. Juan Benet then took part in the Y Combinator start-up accelerator to establish Protocol Labs. 

Filecoin’s initial coin offering (ICO), which took place in August and September 2017, raised $257 million, the largest ICO on record at that time. Protocol Labs was backed by investors such as Digital Currency Group, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Stanford University’s startup accelerator StartX, and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant. 

After the ICO, in October 2020, the Filecoin 

 was launched, while as of November 2020 the Filecoin network already had a storage capacity of more than 1 

, since more than 70 organizations working in collaboration with Filecoin.

Users or clients within the Filecoin network, who are willing to store data on that network, have to locate and pay miners who will do it for them. An open market will usually determine the price miners will compete to ask the lowest price for the storage service, which means Filecoin is likely to be much cheaper than centralized data storage providers such as 

Meanwhile, there is an incentive for miners to provide storage capacity. The Filecoin network will reward them with Filecoin tokens. In other words, the more storage miners make available for the network, the higher the chances are for them to be rewarded. 

Yet, miners are required to execute a few computationally intensive processes, or proofs, to show the network that they are storing the data and are doing so reliably over time. If that is the case, miners will add new blocks to the Filecoin blockchain and receive the reward.

As we’ve already noted, miners are participants who provide storage. Every computer user is able to plug in his/her hard disk drive (HDD), run the Filecoin software and begin providing HDD space in the Storage Market. These miners are the so-called Storage Miners. There are also Retrieval Miners, who are paid by clients to retrieve data and to perform services that aim to accelerate data transmission (for example, caching).

The Filecoin network has a market for HDD storage, where users/clients looking to store data are able to bid for available storage that is provided by miners. The latter will be assessed based on their reliability and the prices they ask for HDD storage. It is a market, since participants are able to place bids and ask prices.

The Filecoin blockchain relies on two mechanisms, or proofs, which help the network verify that miners store the data they claim to hold. 

These two proofs allow other participants to assess whether miners are trustworthy or not.

The Proof-of-Replication indicates that miners have stored the number of copies of data they claim to hold.

The second mechanism, Proof-of-Spacetime, indicates that miners have stored the data over an agreed time period.

Participants within the Filecoin ecosystem communicate through secure channels, which they use to gossip (distribute information to the network), transfer information among themselves, and locate other peers.

Filecoin clients (also known as Filecoin Nodes) synchronize the Filecoin blockchain and verify each block’s messages. Clients can manage Filecoin wallets to store FIL and make payments in that cryptocurrency. They can also propose storage and retrieval deals to miners within the network and pay for the service as the deals are executed. 

Filecoin clients are also able to publish and broadcast different messages across the network. One such message, for instance, could be an instruction to send FIL from one address to another.

Although Filecoin shares some similar properties with other file storage and distribution systems such as Google Cloud Storage, there are also distinct differences between the two technologies. Let us point out some of them. 

First, Filecoin pricing is determined by a hypercompetitive open market, while Google Cloud pricing is determined by specialized corporate departments. 

Second, the Filecoin network features a multitude of small, independent storage providers, while Google Cloud comprises several large corporate entities.

 Third, there is a low barrier to becoming a storage provider with Filecoin (one needs a PC, an HDD and a reliable Internet connection). In the case of Google Cloud, the barrier for storage providers is quite high (it includes legal agreements, marketing and support staff).

Additionally, Filecoin miners are located anywhere on the globe, while in the case of Google Cloud, the physical location is limited to where the provider’s data centers are positioned.

When it comes to reliability statistics, Filecoin performance is independently checked by the network and publicly verifiable. With Google Cloud, corporate entities self-report their own stats.

Another difference of note is that the Filecoin network has a competitive market for file retrieval. With Google Cloud, retrieval is usually more expensive than file storage.

Last but not least, in case a file is lost, the user will be refunded automatically by the Filecoin network. With Google Cloud, users will be offered credit by companies in the event of a fire loss or unavailability.

Filecoin is dependent on two mechanisms: proof of replication and spacetime. This assures that its network consists of miners providing a fundamentally useful service, namely HDD storage. 

Additionally, Filecoin creators assure that its storage market will allow users to take advantage of more competitive prices than those offered by centralized storage (cloud) providers such as AWS, HPE and so on. 

If the Filecoin network achieves its objective of providing a decentralized storage service, which will not be easily influenced by governments or corporate entities, its user base will surely grow. This growth may accelerate further if centralized services start losing their clients’ trust. As a result, the value of the FIL token could rise.

And, as we noted earlier in the article since the total amount of FIL that will ever be available is limited, the token’s value is very likely to increase.

As with other financial assets, there must be a good reason which warrants an investment in FIL. If you believe that customers’ trust in centralized storage providers could be undermined, then you may consider investing in cryptocurrency. 

Large centralized providers such as Google or Amazon may face pressure from governments or business entities to change, remove, or simply disallow services to particular users. If they indeed do so, this could jeopardize their trustworthiness, which would then benefit decentralized storage services such as Filecoin. 

Another reason to consider an investment in FIL: its marketplace is meant to offer much more competitive prices than those of existing storage providers. The creators of Filecoin state that a huge proportion of global HDD space is currently unused. If the Filecoin network is able to unlock that unused space via cryptography and financial incentives, this could result in even lower storage prices.

In conclusion, Filecoin may be the answer to a number of inefficiencies surrounding global data storage and retrieval. But even more, it allows clients the freedom of choice, making them less dependent on contracts with huge storage providers such as Amazon Web Services, Dell or HPE. In this way, Filecoin may contribute to a more competitive cloud storage market.

The success of the Filecoin network will likely depend on its popularity and usage within the cryptocurrency community, as well as whether it will be able to lure new users to the Web 3.0 field.

What Is Filecoin (FIL): A Decentralized Storage Solution for All?

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

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