In this episode of Aqua Podcast, Zhang Zi is joined by Miles Anthony, Founder of Decentral Games, to unpack how the team is building on-chain casino experiences around aligned incentives, self-custody, and delegated access to yield-generating metaverse assets.

Since launching in closed beta in September 2019, Decentral Games has grown into a broader gaming ecosystem spanning poker, blackjack, roulette, backgammon, and slots. Miles opens up about the reality of building play-and-earn poker in the metaverse — from balancing fun with long-term sustainability to finding product-market fit, learning through iteration, and shaping a vision for where Web3 gaming goes from here.

Aqua Podcast episode description

In this episode of Aqua Podcast, Zhang, Jatin, and Daniel Wells sit down with Anna, CEO and Co-Founder of Vana, for a deep conversation on one of AI’s most important challenges: who owns data, who controls it, and how incentives should work in an open ecosystem.

Anna shares her journey from traditional finance into the world of decentralized AI, and talks about what it really takes to build Vana — a platform focused on giving people more agency over their data and a clearer role in how it contributes to AI systems. The discussion explores the role of token design in these networks, the risks of getting incentives wrong, and the practical realities of building a Web3 company in a fast-moving market.

The episode also dives into the growing shortage of high-quality data for AI and why decentralized data coordination may become increasingly important. Anna explains how Vana approaches this through concepts like data DAOs, and breaks down how these structures differ from trusts, unions, and other collective models. The conversation also touches on why private data can be especially valuable and what the industry has learned from early experiments in data ownership.

If you’re interested in decentralized AI, digital ownership, and the future of data-driven networks, this episode offers a thoughtful look at where the space is heading.