What is Story Protocol?
Story Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK and fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It is designed to cater to the rapidly growing intellectual property (IP) market, allowing users to:
- Easily obtain licenses for their intellectual property products.
- Transform IP into digital assets on the blockchain, ensuring compliance with legal regulations.
The Story Network not only achieves full EVM compatibility but is also optimized to efficiently handle complex data structures, such as IP graphs, in a manner that is both quick and cost-effective.
Intellectual property (IP) refers to legally protected creations, such as paintings, music, novels, and various other forms of creative work.
Current Challenges
The current IP landscape presents significant challenges for creators seeking to protect, license, and monetize their intellectual property. The traditional legal system, which requires legal intervention to address IP infringement, is not only expensive but also time-consuming.
Moreover, enabling others to use and expand upon your IP often necessitates complex, one-on-one licensing agreements. This process demands even more legal involvement and financial resources, making it unscalable and resulting in many potential licensing opportunities being lost.
A further complication is the rapid proliferation of AI-generated content, which has outpaced the existing IP system originally designed for managing physical reproductions. Many large language models (LLMs) are trained on copyrighted material and generate content that may infringe upon IP rights. To keep pace with these advancements, there is an urgent need to automate and streamline the IP licensing process.
The Operational Model of Story Protocol
Story Protocol is structured into three main layers:
- Story Network: Known as the “world’s leading IP blockchain,” this is the foundational blockchain infrastructure built on the Cosmos SDK toolkit. This foundation enables the Story Protocol network to be EVM-compatible while also operating under a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism.
- Application Ecosystem: This layer provides a set of tools to support developers in building decentralized applications (dApps) on the Story Protocol network. These projects can range from decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and Lending/Borrowing platforms to AI, Real-World Assets (RWA), and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
- Proof of Creativity and Programmable IP License.
Unique Aspects of Story Protocol
Story Protocol’s infrastructure and architecture share similarities with many other Layer 1 blockchains, but it stands out due to its second layer, which supports applications related to IP within the crypto market:
Proof of Creativity
Proof of Creativity is a smart contract that allows users to bring their IP onto the Story Protocol network. This IP can consist of physical assets from the real world or NFTs that have been registered with copyrights. When an IP is uploaded onto Story Protocol, it includes:
- An on-chain NFT representing the IP.
- A smart contract wallet account linked to the IP, enabling users to easily interact with the IP as an NFT asset. This mechanism is similar to Account Abstraction and ERC-6551.
Once an IP is uploaded to Story Protocol via Proof of Creativity, it becomes an on-chain asset that can be utilized for decentralized finance (DeFi) activities such as Lending/Borrowing or setting up Royalties for others to use.
According to the project team, DeFi activities related to IP will be supported by three main modules:
- Licensing Modules: These modules ensure the legal compliance of IPs on Story Protocol while also assisting users in obtaining IP licenses for assets that do not already have one.
- Royalties Modules: These modules allow IP owners to apply “royalties” to their IP, enabling them to use the IP for commercial activities and DeFi operations. Royalties can be set freely, and the data related to these royalties will be stored on-chain, ensuring transparency for all users.
- Dispute Modules: These modules help to mitigate unauthorized copying of IP on Story Protocol.
Programmable IP License
Programmable IP License is an off-chain component within Story Protocol that provides the legal documentation necessary for IP on the network. Its purpose is to facilitate the onramp/offramp of IP on Story Protocol.
In summary, Story Protocol’s structure not only ensures the legal integrity of IP when uploaded to the blockchain but also transforms IP into a new asset class within the crypto market. This asset class is characterized by transparency and ease of on-chain tracking.
The Story Protocol Team
Story Protocol is developed by a team with extensive experience in the crypto and finance sectors, including key members:
- Seung Yoon Lee: Co-Founder and CEO of Story Protocol. He was previously the Founder of Radish Fiction, an application in South Korea, and has worked at the investment firm Hashed.
- Seung Soo Kim: Co-Founder and Chief of Staff (CoS) of Story Protocol. He was formerly CoS at Radish Fiction.
- Jason Zhao: Co-Founder of Story Protocol. He was previously an engineer at Google DeepMind, a branch of Google specializing in artificial intelligence.
- Jason Levy: Co-Founder of Story Protocol, with experience working at major corporations such as Apple and Amazon.
Investors
Partners
Conclusion
Story Protocol is not only a powerful blockchain platform with an advanced architecture but also serves as a bridge for intellectual property (IP) to enter the digital world in a legal and transparent manner. With features such as Proof of Creativity and Programmable IP License, Story Protocol offers a groundbreaking solution for managing and licensing IP in the digital age, especially in the context of the rapid development of AI.
The combination of cutting-edge technology and a highly experienced team promises to make Story Protocol a key player in the global blockchain and IP ecosystem.
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