With the advent of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, “data” has become the engine of growth. Nowadays, each person generates an average of 146 GB of data through 30 apps every day, and in the past two years, nearly 90% of global data has been generated by individual users. While platform AI conducts data analysis to provide individuals with personalized experiences, the convenience comes with the risk of individuals’ data being held in the hands of a few internet platforms for an extended period. Centralized platforms profit immensely from massive amounts of data, while the true creators of data have no control or privacy rights, let alone the fundamental right to profit from their data.

Despite major platforms intending to reduce cookie tracking amid people’s doubts, initiatives that truly return data sovereignty to individuals are scarce. As the internet frenzy gradually subsides, the emergence of blockchain seems to offer a competitive solution to privacy and data sovereignty issues. However, challenges and hopes always coexist—blockchain technology still has a way to go before widespread adoption, with its complex user experience and high costs of digital asset management enough to deter newcomers.

Therefore, the urgent problem to solve is how to build user-friendly DApps based on blockchain technology, restore personal data sovereignty, and simultaneously establish a complete economic model and ecosystem around it. CARV, with its discovery of the critical point, has swiftly taken action. Evolving from a platform focused on gaming and player credentials to a modular data layer for gaming and AI, CARV has formed an “infrastructure + application,” “C-end + B-end” dual flywheel.

What is CARV

In order to return data sovereignty to individuals and allow users to enjoy the corresponding benefits generated by value sharing in games and AI systems, CARV has built its own ecosystem, including CARV Protocol and two flagship products, CARV Play and CARV AI Agent.

CARV Protocol

The CARV Protocol is a modular data layer designed to facilitate data exchange and value distribution in the gaming and AI domains. It employs end-to-end data flow processes and modular design, incorporating five modules including identity layer, storage layer, computation and training layer, execution layer, and verification layer. These modules facilitate processes such as data validation, identity authentication, storage, processing, model training, and value distribution. Through the CARV protocol, ownership, control, and validation rights of data are returned to the users, who can tokenize their data to generate income. The CARV Protocol ensures that these rights are held by individuals, thereby changing the traditional methods of data usage and sharing.

In addition, for enterprises, CARV provides high-quality, privacy-preserving, and regulatory-compliant user data access, which can be effectively utilized to enhance project operational efficiency. In terms of infrastructure, the CARV protocol supports the entire data lifecycle, ensuring data monetization and value distribution in a decentralized, integrated, privacy-focused, and regulatory-compliant manner.

Currently, the CARV Protocol has provided “data as assets” services to over 780 companies in the Web2 and Web3 gaming and AI domains (such as Electronic Arts, Netmarble, AliCloud, etc.). Additionally, CARV has proposed a new paradigm of aggregation ID NFT based on ERC-7231, which has been approved by the Ethereum Foundation. Currently, 900K ID NFTs (ERC-7231) have been minted on opbnb.

CARV Play

CARV Play is the first cross-platform authentication system based on the CARV protocol, and it is currently the largest web3 gaming distribution and social platform. Players can explore a rich variety of games and exclusive activities with the community through CARV Play. Developers can also understand player needs and efficiently showcase games and distribute information through the tools provided by CARV Play, thereby building a gaming community.

To date, CARV Play has provided data sharing, certification mobile phones, and substantial game rewards to 2.5 million registered players on Web2 and Web3 networks. In the past quarter, CARV Play’s daily average unique active users (UAW) exceeded 500,000, making it one of the top three most active ecosystems on gaming chains such as Linea, opBNB, zkSync, and Ronin. Additionally, CARV Play’s monthly recurring revenue (MRR) has surpassed $1 million, integrating and supporting over 780 Web2 & Web3 games and ecosystems such as Illuvium, Off the Grid, Aperion, Pixelmon, etc., for targeted understanding of player preferences and optimization of user retention.

CARV AI Agent

Cara is a generative AI assistant built on the CARV Protocol, capable of providing personalized AI interaction experiences based on user data, tailored to meet users’ individual needs. In terms of infrastructure, CARV has entered into strategic partnerships with Google Cloud and Aethir to provide strong computing power and infrastructure for Web3 AI projects in the future. Through Cara, this AI application, the CARV Protocol bridges upper-layer applications with underlying infrastructure, aiming to become the core middleware for AI projects in the Web3 world.

Financing situation

1. In November 2022, CARV completed a $4 million financing round, with Vertex Ventures, a venture capital firm under Temasek Holdings, leading the investment.

2. In December 2023, CARV transitioned into data sharing and gaming applications, securing strategic financing from HashKey Capital and a global technology company with a market capitalization of hundreds of billions of dollars. The specific amount was not disclosed.

3. In April 2024, CARV completed a $10 million Series A financing round, led by Tribe Capital and IOSG. Consensys, OKX Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, No Limit Holdings, Draper Dragon, Arweave, LiquidX, MARBLEX, and others participated in the round. This financing round will be used to build a cross-chain modular data layer and drive innovation in the data economy.

CARV Token Economics Model

Use and purpose

CARV is the native token of the CARV ecosystem. It is used as a medium of exchange within the platform, giving players data ownership and allowing holders to participate in ecological development management.

1. Individual users can use CARV for multi-chain gas fee payments and game asset purchases within the ecosystem. CARV serves as an incentive mechanism to encourage data owners, providers, and consumers to participate in ecosystem activities. Users can convert CARV into veCARV at a 1:1 ratio through staking, and participate in community decision-making and ecosystem activities using veCARV.

Token Allocation and Scheduling

The total supply of CARV is 1 billion, which will be unlocked within four years from the start of TGE. The initial allocation is as follows:

Operate nodes to obtain additional income

In order to allow global users to obtain more benefits through the CARV network, CARV has decided to allow users to run open lightweight nodes, participants can obtain the right to operate verification nodes through node sales, participate in the operation of distributed data networks, and obtain CARV native tokens. The whitelist node sale will begin at 10:00 noon (UTC) on June 3, and the public node sale will officially launch at 10:00 (UTC) on June 5. It is reported that 25% of the token supply will be gradually distributed to validators, of which 50% will be released in the first year. In addition, for the CARV network, distributed node operations will independently verify the certificates generated by the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) to ensure the credibility of data processing and further enhance the degree of network decentralization. Operators need to obtain rewards by running the program every day, or they can choose to host the node for the operator’s agent to run with one click.

In addition to this, after community proposals and discussions, CARV decided to provide 100% of the treasury for 6 months to the first batch of node sale buyers buyback program, that is, eligible active validators can choose to apply for 80% ETH or 100% CARV token buyback within the week ending in the sixth month. To ensure a smooth ETH repurchase process, CARV will deploy smart contracts for margin management.

In addition, following proposals and discussions within the community, CARV has decided to implement a 100% buyback plan from the vault for the initial node sale purchasers, valid for a period of 6 months. This means that eligible active validators can choose to apply for an 80% ETH or 100% CARV token buyback during the week following the end of the sixth month. To ensure a smooth ETH buyback process, CARV will manage collateral through the deployment of smart contracts.

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