Paradigm-backed startup Vana launches DAO letting Reddit users control their personal data

Vana, a San Francisco-based startup allowing users to control their personal data, launched a data decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for the social media platform Reddit.

Called the Reddit Data DAO, or r/datadao, the platform rewards users for contributing their Reddit data and lets them vote on what to do with the collective data, such as renting it out to AI companies for model training. It's also the first data DAO launched on Vana, the firm's CEO Anna Kazlauskas told The Block.

The DAO offers an alternative to Reddit negotiating a deal with AI firms to sell user data, which could net Reddit $60 million annually. In the coming years, Reddit could make over $200 million in revenue from selling user data to third parties to train AI models, Wired reports.

"Why is that $200 million going straight to Reddit rather than the users who actually created the data?" writes Reddit Data DAO on its website. "r/datadao can vote to use the data to start our own version of Reddit, directly sell our data to AI companies or use our collective power to get Reddit to pay us directly."

Users incorporate their Reddit account and personal data onto the DAO. The DAO then gives the user rewards for uploading their personal data and Reddit Karma, or a community point system reflecting someone's reputation on Reddit. Users can claim their points in a crypto wallet. "The more you contribute, the greater your share of the karma points," the DAO added.