Story is the world’s first blockchain designed to tokenize intellectual property (IP) assets, transforming them into programmable stores of value for the AI-driven economy. Just as Bitcoin emerged after the financial crisis, Story aims to address the looming “Napster moment” for AI by making IP programmable.
By bringing IP onto the blockchain, Story transforms it into programmable assets that can be integrated into software applications and transacted by both humans and AI agents. Let’s take a look at what Story does…
Story IP is a blockchain-based ecosystem designed to enhance intellectual property (IP) management by transforming IP into programmable, tokenized assets. Built on the Layer 1 blockchain called Story Protocol, the protocol empowers creators to register, license, trade, and monetize various forms of IP.
Jason Zhao, one of the co-founders of Story Protocol, was born in Shanghai, China, and moved to Texas with his parents at the age of five. After graduating from Stanford, Jason became the youngest product manager at DeepMind, working on projects like self-driving cars, Wi-Fi-providing balloons, and agricultural robots.
He recognized that AI was about to create an infinite abundance of content but saw a problem in creating incentives and business models around that content if everyone could produce hours of content with a single prompt.
This realization led Jason to co-found Story Protocol with Seung Yoon “SY” Lee (Co-Founder & CEO), who brings entrepreneurial experience from previous successful ventures. Together they seek to address the issue of creators and their communities lacking ownership over their IP outside of mainstream intermediaries like studios and centralized platforms.
They are joined by a talented founding team: Jason Levy (Co-Founder & Advisor), who brings experience from leading content teams at Pocket Gems’ Episode app and Apple, and Hao (Leo) Chen (CTO), who drives technological innovation and oversees the development of Story Protocol’s open IP infrastructure.
The executive team is further strengthened by Ben Sternberg (CFO), responsible for the financial health and sustainability of Story Protocol, and Seung Soo Kim (Chief of Staff), who supports the executive team and ensures smooth operations. Strategic guidance comes from Jon Rogers (Strategic Advisor), who contributes to the company’s long-term vision and growth strategy.
Backed by over $140 million in funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, Story has the resources and industry support to lead innovation in IP management. In a recent announcement, Story Protocol revealed that an impressive 38 projects have received grants through Story Academy, with several securing high-profile venture backing from renowned funds such as a16z, Hashed, and Orange DAO.
This review of Story IP (IP) was created for informational purposes. This article is not intended for promotion.
When people hear the term “intellectual property,” they often associate it with complex legal jargon, leading to boredom or intimidation. However, IP is much more than just a legal concept. It encompasses a wide range of creations, including:
In fact, the intellectual property asset class is estimated to be worth around $61 trillion, making it 2-3 times larger than treasury bills.
Despite the immense value of IP, everyday people, even sophisticated ones, often struggle to interact with it as an asset class. The main reason behind this is the high transaction costs and complexity involved in IP deals.
Imagine you want to use the Darth Vader IP to create a lunchbox. Here’s what you’d need to do:
This is where blockchain could come in. By bringing IP onto the blockchain, you can democratize this access and reduce the overall costs.
To begin, creators register their IP—such as artwork, videos, or written content—by minting an “IP Asset NFT” on the Story blockchain. This NFT is linked to an “IP Account,” a programmable smart wallet based on the ERC-6551 standard. The IP Account manages all rights and interactions associated with the asset, enabling creators to define licensing terms, royalty splits, remix permissions, and usage rules directly on-chain.
The platform’s Programmable IP License (PIL) integrates legally enforceable off-chain agreements with on-chain smart contracts. This hybrid framework automates licensing, royalty payments, and usage enforcement while ensuring compliance with global IP laws like the Berne Convention.
Here’s how it works:
With platforms like Story Protocol, users don’t need lawyers or personal connections to access and use IP. They can simply look at the asset on-chain, review the programmed terms, and use the IP accordingly.
In fact, Story Protocol believes that within a decade, 90-99% of all online content will be AI-generated or AI-assisted.
This presents a huge opportunity for IP holders and AI companies alike. For AI companies like OpenAI, getting sued over IP infringement is a constant concern. But imagine if they had access to 20, 30, or 40 million images that they could license with a single click, without any legal hassles.
Story allows AI models themselves to be registered as programmable IP. A model’s entire “chain of intelligence,” from training data to fine-tuning techniques, can be captured on-chain.
Also with the rapid development of AI, we’re starting to see glimmers of what the future of gaming could look like. Imagine games populated by infinitely diverse NPCs, each with their own unique storylines and quests, all generated on the fly by AI.
Or picture a game world that can essentially create itself, with AI generating new landscapes, challenges, and narratives in real-time, providing a truly infinite and ever-evolving gameplay experience.
When it comes to fractionalizing IP ownership, Story Protocol is open to both fungible and non-fungible approaches. While IP assets themselves are inherently non-fungible (Cristiano Ronaldo’s likeness is not interchangeable with Lionel Messi’s), the ownership of these assets can be represented in various ways.
However, Story Protocol also supports apps that are essentially creating “IP memecoins.” These fungible tokens align the incentives of creators and token holders.
For example, every time someone uses a creator’s IP, the creator could receive a portion of the token supply. To claim this supply, the creator would need to tweet positively about the token, supporting the community.
With over 4 million users, Magma is one of the largest cloud-based artist collaboration platforms. By integrating with Story, Magma aims to empower both professional and aspiring creators with the tools to register and monetize their IP on-chain.
Jutsu is pioneering the first fully on-chain tactical card game. Players can collect, battle, trade, and “reroll” NFT cards to build the ultimate deck. By leveraging Story’s IP layer, Jutsu ensures true ownership and programmability for in-game assets, paving the way for a new generation of player-driven gaming economies.
Infinite Seas is building a massive maritime metaverse entirely on-chain. In this dynamic virtual landscape, player actions shape the world through trading, combat, and forging alliances.
With over 1 million users, Koni’s Telegram-based mini app is designed to help people interact with IP in fun, bite-sized ways. By integrating with Story, Koni opens up novel possibilities for users to collect and play with tokenized IP, all within the familiar context of their messaging app.
Punkgame is creating the first fully on-chain manga multiverse powered by user-generated content (UGC). By leveraging Story’s IP layer, Punkgame enables artists and writers to create, share, and monetize original manga IPs.
The IP token is the native asset of the Story network, designed to power its ecosystem in several ways. It plays a central role in paying for registration and transaction fees, ensuring seamless operations within the network.
Additionally, the IP token is used as staking collateral by validators to secure and maintain the network’s integrity. This staking mechanism helps safeguard the system against malicious activity while rewarding validators for their contributions.
The token also serves as a medium of exchange for intellectual property (IP) licensing and monetization, enabling creators and users to transact efficiently. Finally, it facilitates value transfer between AI agents, supporting automated interactions and transactions across the network.
In total, there are 633,046,075.5 IP tokens staked across 37 validators on the Story network. This represents approximately 6.01% of the total IP supply.
Over the past 30 days, the amount of staked IP has grown steadily from around 444.2M to the current level, indicating increasing participation in securing the network.
The top 10 validators by amount of IP staked are:
Commission rates among the top 10 validators range from 5% to 10%, with 7% being the most common. This is the portion of staking rewards that validators keep as compensation for their services, with the remainder being distributed to delegators.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to staking IP tokens on the Story web app:
Staking your IP tokens not only helps you earn rewards but also supports the security and decentralization of the Story network. As the network grows and more validators join, the overall strength and resilience of the Story blockchain enhance.
So why would people bet on Story Protocol? The most important reason is that it solves a problem for them that couldn’t be solved otherwise. It’s not about the support Story Protocol provides, though that’s significant.
Story’s goal isn’t to replace the legal system, but rather to make navigating IP significantly easier and more efficient. By standardizing licensing terms and utilizing smart contracts, Story generates a digital representation of legal IP agreements on the blockchain.
But no singular tool can completely eliminate the age-old problem of IP fraud and forgery, especially with the rise of AI-generated content. We must consider that Story can’t directly enforce off-chain payments, as that would require deep integration with accounting systems and legal authority. However, it still offers major indirect benefits to make these transactions more reliable and transparent:
So while Story may not revolutionize the off-chain payment flow immediately, it could lay crucial groundwork to simplify and automate the process over time. A single, transparent licensing system goes a long way. Also take note that IP activities are recorded on a public blockchain, but users must be mindful of privacy and avoid exposing sensitive information when registering their IP.
Story IP uses the Proof-of-Creativity Protocol to validate originality and ownership of creative works. To avoid disputes, users must ensure their content is distinct and does not infringe on others’ copyrights.
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