DataDAO Rewards

The Vana DataDAO Rewards program incentivizes a healthy, liquid, and high-utility data ecosystem. Rewards are allocated to eligible DataDAOs based on their performance across key metrics.

This guide outlines how the rewards system works, the requirements for eligibility, and how to optimize your DataDAO's performance.

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Compliance is Key
To qualify for rewards, all DataDAOs must comply with VRC-14 (Rewards Model), VRC-15 (Data Access), and VRC-20 (DataDAO Token Standards). Existing DataDAOs may need to follow our Migration Guide: Updating Your DataDAO for Rewards to meet these standards.

How Rewards Are Calculated

At the end of each three-month epoch, the total rewards pool is allocated to all eligible DataDAOs based on a weighted scoring system.

50% Data Access Fees: Measures the real-world utility of your dataset through data usage and query fees.
30% Token Trading Volume: Reflects market activity and liquidity health for your VANA/DataDAO Token pair.
20% Unique Data Contributors: Measures the number of unique wallets contributing verified, quality data to your DataDAO.

The total rewards pool begins at 0.5% of the VANA supply and scales with the ecosystem's Total Data Value Locked (TDVL), increasing by 0.5% for every $500M in TDVL, up to a maximum of 5% annually.

Current Phase: Until the ecosystem reaches $1B Total Data Value Locked (TDVL), only the Data Access Fees portion (50%) of rewards is distributed. The remaining 50% is carried forward to future epochs. Once $1B TDVL is reached, the full balanced scoring system activates.

Eligibility Requirements

To qualify for rewards, your DataDAO must meet the following standards.

1. VRC-20: Compliant Token Standards

Your DataDAO token must meet the minimum standards defined in VRC-20 to ensure network security and stability.

Fixed Supply: The token's total supply must be fixed or follow a predictable schedule. Rebasing functions are not permitted.
Team Vesting: Any team-allocated tokens must be in a vesting contract with at least a 6-month cliff followed by a linear unlocking schedule.
Transfer Fee Cap: Transaction fees may not exceed 3%.
Timelock on Critical Functions: A minimum 48-hour timelock is required for any function that can change the token's economic properties (e.g., changing fees, pausing transfers).
Verified Source Code: The token contract and all related contracts must be publicly verified on the block explorer.

2. VRC-15: Data Refinement & Access

Your DataDAO must implement Vana's secure data architecture as defined in VRC-15.

Refined, Encrypted Data: Raw data must be processed through a refinement step into a structured, encrypted format.
Published Schemas: The data schema and Docker image used for refinement must be published on-chain to the DataRefinerRegistry.
Permissioned Query Access: You must enable query access to the refined data through a clear pricing model.

3. VRC-14: Liquidity on DataDex

As outlined in VRC-14, your token must have a healthy market.

VANA Trading Pair: Your DataDAO token must be paired with $VANA in a liquidity pool on DataDex.
Sufficient Liquidity: The pool must have enough liquidity to handle daily reward buy-ins with less than 2% slippage. A starting pool of $10K–$50K is a recommended foundation.

4. Onchain & Community Presence

Minimum Contributors: Your DataDAO must have at least 100 unique contributors with verified files recorded on-chain.
Public Presence: Maintain an active, public website and community channels (e.g., Twitter, Discord) with clear information about your DataDAO's mission and progress.
Contributor Interface: Provide a user-friendly interface for data submission, such as a web app or browser extension.

How Rewards Are Distributed

Rewards are not sent to a treasury. Instead, they are used to strengthen your token's market health through a daily buy-in mechanism.

Daily Buy-ins: Your DataDAO's allocated VANA rewards are spread out over the next 3-month epoch and are used to purchase your DataDAO token on DataDex each day at a random time.
Liquidity Added: The purchased tokens, along with an equivalent amount of VANA, are then added back into the liquidity pool.

This process creates consistent buying pressure and deepens your token's liquidity over time.

Distribution Safeguards

To ensure fairness and stability, the system includes several automated safeguards:

2% Slippage Limit: If a daily buy-in would cause more than 2% price slippage, the transaction is paused. Undeployed rewards may roll over, but will be forfeited if liquidity issues persist into the next epoch.
15% Price Drop Rule: If a DataDAO token’s price drops more than 15% below its reference price, buy-ins are paused, and the DataDAO is placed under review. The reference price is the weighted average price at which the protocol purchased the token during the epoch.

Optimizing for Rewards

Current Phase: Until $1B TDVL is reached, focus entirely on Data Access Fees as this is the only active reward metric.

To maximize your DataDAO's share of the rewards pool during this phase:

To boost your Data Access Fees score: Price query access competitively, partner with companies who need access to the DataDAO's dataset, and build applications that leverage your data to drive real-world usage.

After $1B TDVL is reached, the full scoring system activates and you can optimize across all three metrics:

To boost your Data Access Fees score: Price query access competitively and build applications that leverage your data to drive real-world usage.
To boost your Trading Volume score: Encourage organic market activity by building deep liquidity for your token and incentivizing trading.
To boost your Unique Contributors score: Run targeted campaigns to attract diverse, high-quality data submissions to your platform.

Confirm Your Compliance

Once your DataDAO meets all eligibility requirements, submit your information for review to be included in the next rewards epoch.

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Note on Submission Deadlines
Verification is available during normal Pacific business hours (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm). There is a blackout period 48 hours before the end of an active rewards period.

✅Submit Your DataDAO for Review