Story: The World's First IP Blockchain
Despite the fact that global intangible assets' value surged to $61.9 trillion in 2023, existing blockchains aren’t suitable for efficiently handling intellectual property (IP) management. Story aims to change this with the world's first Layer 1 (L1) chain that’s been specifically built for IP. In this article, you’ll learn what Story is, who founded and invested in the project, how it works and what its ecosystem looks like. Let's get started!
Key Takeaways:
Story is a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain for IP management, enforcement and tokenization.
With its Proof-of-Creativity protocol and Programmable IP License (PIL), Story enables creators to protect their work, define the way others use it and access new opportunities to earn fair revenue.
With nearly $135 million raised so far, Story provides the necessary tools and infrastructure for efficient IP management in the AI-powered economy.
What Is Story?
Story is a Layer 1 blockchain network built purposely for intellectual property (IP). Tapping into a multitrillion-dollar industry, it tokenizes IP, such as real-world assets (RWAs), AI models, songs and image rights, and embeds attributions, royalty agreements and usage terms directly into its chain. As a decentralized and transparent solution for intellectual property management, Story offers IP holders enhanced IP protection, seamless collaboration and access to new revenue opportunities. The project's intentional blockchain comes in especially handy in today's increasingly AI-powered economy.
The Story protocol aims to provide an effective solution to the lack of rightful compensation for IP owners who share their work online. Even if their works become valuable and popular, original creators are not fairly rewarded or even credited for their ideas. Artificial intelligence (AI) models are trained on (and produce) copyrighted data, yet the current IP system can't keep up with the massive popularity of AI-generated media. To avoid discouraging creators from sharing their ideas with the world, Story has implemented built-in protections in its L1 chain to automatically credit IP owners, and to ensure they receive fair compensation for their work.
Founders of Story
Story was founded in 2022 by Jason Levy, Jason Zhao and Seung Yoon Lee to address the growing challenges between IP, creativity and AI.
Jason Levy: One of the three co-founders of Story, Levy was previously in charge of content at the mobile storytelling platform Episode. He’s also the founder of the World Between Worlds mobile entertainment platform.
Jason Zhao: Before co-founding Story, Zhao served as a product manager at DeepMind, where he worked on the implementation of Google's advanced SI models into enterprise and industrial apps.
Seung Yoon Lee: Currently serving as Story's CEO, Lee is the founder of the mobile serial fiction platform Radish Fiction, which was acquired by Kakao Entertainment for $440 million in 2021. He has been included in Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30 Asia” list.
Investors in Story
To date, Story has raised $134.3 million in funds across three rounds. Its most notable investors include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Samsung Next, Mirana, Polychain Capital and Endeavor. Among these backers, a16z has played the most significant role, with the venture capital fund leading all three of the IP blockchain's funding rounds.
How Does Story Work?
Story is built via the Cosmos software development kit (SDK) and is fully compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM). Its purpose-built blockchain leverages the unique Proof-of-Creativity Protocol to enable anyone to on-ramp their IP to Story. Once registered on-chain, IP Assets (IPAs) are represented in the form of blockchain-based ERC-721 NFTs. If intellectual property resides in the off-chain world, owners can first mint their NFTs and then register them afterward. Each IPA consists of an on-chain NFT and an associated IP account in ERC-6551 token-bound account format.
Despite being on-chain, Story enforces IPA terms and minted License Tokens via an off-chain legal contract called the Programmable IP License (PIL). Together with the Proof-of-Creativity protocol, PIL makes all registered IP programmable, enabling automated licensing and rights management via Story. It’s a real, off-chain legal contract that defines specific license terms for the legal licensing of IP Assets.
Story uses a wide range of modules for managing and enforcing IP rights, including the following.
Licensing Module: The Licensing Module helps you create a real, legal license using a License Template PIL. You can attach this template to an IP Asset, setting the License Terms that define it and restricting how others can utilize, commercialize or remix your intellectual property. Doing so also enables users to mint a License Token from your IPA. This token acts as the license to use your work, based on your terms. Burning the License token enables holders to register a derivative work, which then establishes a parent-child relationship between assets. As a result, automatic NFT royalty flow can be unlocked from the Royalty Module.
Royalty Module: The Royalty Module is what defines the flow of revenue between parent and child IPAs on Story. In most cases, a revenue flow takes place when a user tips directly, or someone mints a License Token from an IP Asset and pays a minting fee. In both cases, the income should flow up the chain — right to the original creator.
Dispute Module: The Dispute Module empowers Story’s users with the ability to raise and resolve disputes via arbitration.
Grouping Module: With the Grouping Module, users can create and manage group IP Assets. This enables the support of a royalty pool for the group.
You can find out more about how Story works by visiting the project's documentation page.
How Does Agent TCP/IP Work?
In December 2024, Story published the white paper of the Agent Transaction Control Protocol for Intellectual Property (Agent TCP/IP). It’s an experimental framework that enables agents to trade IP with each other. Examples include training data, investment strategies, creative style and more, which agents can exchange and monetize autonomously. Born as the result of a weeklong sprint at Story's skunkworks AI Agent Lab, Agent TCP/IP was developed in collaboration with organizations and individuals, such as Virtuals, Zerebro's ZerePy and ai16z's Eliza.
Here's an experimental demo showcasing Story's TCP/IP in action:
Three bachelors compete against each other to win the affection of Marilyn, the bachelorette agent.
Once a bachelor wins the competition, he then collaborates with Marilyn to create a derivative child agent.
This child agent uses both Marilyn's IP and that of the winning bachelor.
Story Ecosystem
Story's ever-growing ecosystem includes numerous partners and participants. With use cases ranging from art and AI models to storytelling and fashion, some of the most notable players in Story's network are the AI storytelling platform Sekai, the Mahojin Remix AI Layer , the Color IP marketplace and the intellectual property-focused Telegram Koni Story mini app. You can learn more about Story's ecosystem here.
Story’s Future Outlook and Road Map
Story takes a unique approach to intellectual property management, addressing key challenges in attribution, licensing and fair compensation in an AI-driven economy. With its purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain, the platform enables creators to tokenize and protect their IP while unlocking new revenue opportunities.
Backed by nearly $135 million in funding and supported by major investors like a16z crypto and Samsung Next, Story is well-positioned to take a leading role in the evolution of digital rights management. As it moves toward its mainnet launch in Q1 2025, Story’s innovative features and ever-growing ecosystem are set to redefine the way we create, license and monetize intellectual property.
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