What exactly does Story Protocol, backed by a16z and funded with 54 million dollars, aim to do?

Original Title: 《Introducing Story Protocol》

Written by: Story Protocol

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

Summary

The internet is the most powerful creative tool in human history. Creative works connect, remix, and distribute at zero marginal cost.

Despite the vast amount of content creation on the internet, creators still struggle to develop and capture the value of their intellectual property (IP). Traditional intellectual property models are opaque and inefficient. Attribution and ownership are constrained by the speed and scale of the web.

By creating a framework for intellectual property that integrates the principles of openness and collaboration inherent in the internet, Story Protocol aims to become the native IP infrastructure of the internet. In addition to supporting frictionless licensing and modular IP remixing, the protocol will provide neutral provenance sources to track the lifecycle of IP as it evolves across media and platforms.

Just as Git revolutionized the development of open-source software by supporting the web's evolution of code, Story Protocol aims to transform the development of creative IP.

A New Era of Intellectual Property

Nearly 600 years after Gutenberg accelerated the replication and dissemination of creative works, the internet has evolved into the ultimate machine for the spread of ideas. Just as Gutenberg's printing press required the first copyright laws, the digital age needs a new intellectual property infrastructure.

The internet not only enhances the capabilities of the printing press but also introduces a new paradigm of web-based creation. Anyone can remix and distribute content at zero marginal cost. Consider the mashups on TikTok (Khaby Lame became the most followed account on TikTok by duetting with other videos), derivative stories on fanfiction.net (Fifty Shades of Grey was originally published there as Twilight fan fiction), sampling on SoundCloud (remixes fueled the popularity of Kygo, Zedd, and Diplo as DJs), and even the mod culture in gaming (Ancient Defense is a mod for Warcraft III that ultimately inspired popular games like League of Legends). Formerly passive consumers are becoming active producers, shaping a culture of networked development of creative works.

These networked intellectual properties are becoming the new norm, and artificial intelligence will accelerate this shift, driving down the production costs of the internet. In a culture where replication is instantaneous and remixing is inevitable, we need a new intellectual property regime that respects creators' rights while acknowledging that creation on the internet is "an endless, reorganizing, and essentially social process."

However, our IP system remains firmly bound to the analog age. While today's intellectual property framework still maintains its fundamental commitment to incentivizing creative work, it overlooks the openness of value creation on the internet. Our current IP infrastructure is too cumbersome to support co-creation, such as remixing, as a fundamental pillar of creativity. Most intellectual property models do not lean into the fundamental power of the internet—openness—but rather emphasize a defensive posture, adding friction to the creative process.

Before we can unleash the full creativity of the internet, we must upgrade our intellectual property infrastructure to align with the evolution of the web rather than oppose it. This requires embracing the richness and social nature of the internet while allowing creators to be rewarded for their work. This will lead to a surge in creative works, developing at an unprecedented speed and scale on the internet.

Requirements for Internet-Native IP Infrastructure

Building this IP infrastructure requires meeting two fundamental requirements.

First, the internet needs a standard to track the origins and evolution of intellectual property. Creation on the internet tends toward zero marginal cost, making the content space nearly infinite. Such abundant content is one of the superpowers of the internet, but this abundance also makes it difficult for creators to be compensated for the value they create. If the lifecycle of intellectual property cannot be tracked from the moment of creation to any subsequent remix or derivative, creators cannot ensure they are compensated for the use of their works. As artificial intelligence makes the production of high-fidelity content smoother, the demand for scalable provenance and attribution solutions will only become more urgent.

Second, the internet needs a seamless and scalable licensing system. We not only need to document the origins of intellectual property but also provide tools to extend that intellectual property, enabling creators and contributors to capture the value of their works. Current licensing systems are often opaque and complex: each license must be custom-negotiated on a one-to-one basis, hindering collaboration and remixing. This high-friction licensing model is a tough battle against the internet's reorganization nature, and we need a more open solution where intellectual property owners can set the parameters of their licensing rights, enabling scalable one-to-many licensing. If we can provide frictionless IP extension primitives that can be plugged into any software application, the next generation of IP will not only bring more value to creators but also yield the largest franchises to date.

What is Story Protocol?

Story Protocol brings IP into the internet age by providing an open IP repository and a set of modules that interact with IP in a frictionless manner.

Our open IP repository allows creative IP (text, images, audio, etc.) to document its evolution from inception to digital co-creation. Just as Git tracks code through branching and version control, Story Protocol aims to be the provenance layer for creative IP.

In addition to tracking attribution during the evolution of IP, our modules support seamless composability, allowing anyone to contribute to IP and capture the value of their contributions. Our modules add functionality on top of the IP repository, similar to how GitHub extends Git's capabilities by providing forks and pull requests.

Data Structures and Modules

To realize this vision, our protocol architecture consists of two elements: data structures and modules. Data structures are the "nouns" of the protocol, storing relevant IP metadata in "IP Legos." Modules are the "verbs," providing various functionalities for IP assets registered on the protocol. The data structures of Story Protocol capture the core components of IP, while the modules represent the actions that can be performed on the data structures.

Data structures ("nouns") meet the first fundamental requirement of internet-native intellectual property by providing technical standards for tracking provenance and attribution. Just as the creation of protocols like HTTP, HTML, and CSS accelerated the adoption of the internet by enabling reliable and structured information sharing, IP on Story Protocol will play a similar role. This standardization allows any application to easily leverage our data structures as a global source of IP.

Our modules ("verbs") meet the second requirement for internet-native IP by enabling frictionless extension of IP. Once IP is captured by our IP Legos, it can be composed and extended through our modules. Modules unlock a range of capabilities, such as licensing and revenue streams for derivative works. Our licensing module can generate programmable licenses with the same flexibility and expressiveness as code, akin to programmable Getty Images for all forms of IP. Creators can transparently set licensing terms so that others can seamlessly extend their works without one-on-one legal negotiations.

Built on Blockchain

The entire infrastructure—data structures and modules—is built on blockchain. As content surges on the internet, blockchain provides provenance and authenticity without intermediaries. Crucially, the decentralized nature of blockchain allows developers to create applications on the protocol without worrying about certain disruptions.

A Thriving Intellectual Property Ecosystem

Without these builders, the next era of creative IP cannot be realized. Story Protocol is designed as the foundational layer for IP applications, but it is only through the work of entrepreneurs and developers building applications on the protocol that we can usher in the next creative era of the internet. We envision a suite of powerful applications that support the entire lifecycle of IP development needs. They represent a new category of services that will exist on top of the protocol to support capital formation, co-creation, remixing, and more.

If these applications, along with other yet-to-be-imagined applications, can be built on Story Protocol, the future of IP could be very promising.

New Blockbusters

Imagine the next Game of Thrones-level super franchise emerging on Story Protocol. The creators behind the series register a rich foundational text containing stories, characters, and locations, and store it using the data structures on the protocol. Utilizing the licensing module, they can quickly build a narrative universe and gain economic returns through licensing rights for translating works, extending them into new media, creating derivative works, producing merchandise, and more. Professional creators and true fans can obtain these licenses to develop the narrative. Fans love these community-driven stories, while creators can leverage the novel ideas from their emerging communities.

As the initial IP accumulates and expands, the contribution value of the IP also increases. Creators can share portions of their intellectual property or revenue using the protocol's licensing and royalty modules, providing real game skins for participants. As the IP grows, contributors (some amateurs, some professionals) will be more motivated to join the network, sharing the common mission of expanding the IP and creating network effects. Aspiring creators see opportunities to launch their careers by contributing to classic works: a girl from Nigeria contributes a character to the series and earns royalties from future revenues; a former Disney writer creates sequel chapters, earning more than writing a popular book; a top graduate from USC's creative writing program leaves a Hollywood job to write full-time on Story Protocol.

The continuous rise in the value of the series allows creators to expand their businesses into television and film. Netflix and HBO compete to sign licensing agreements. With proven interest, the power of negotiation shifts to the creators. More importantly, when the IP ultimately realizes revenue from major entertainment franchises, the earliest contributors can reap life-changing rewards.

Extracting Value from AI

Generative AI is reshaping creative IP.

Imagine a Colombian YouTube star using an advanced version of GPT to create scripts and using Runway AI to generate videos, producing a crossover film featuring two iconic characters from different series. It goes viral, reaching 200 million views within weeks. Since the IP of both characters is stored in the data structures of Story Protocol, the usage of these characters in the AI-generated work is automatically tracked. Through the licensing module, any revenue generated by the film flows back to the studios that own each character.

In this scenario, creators and studios are not fighting against the tide of AIGC but actively embracing rich community co-creation by storing their IP on Story Protocol. The design of IP is not isolated but as open as possible, serving as the foundation for hundreds of inspiring works that, in turn, increase the value of the underlying assets. Popular internet artists begin allowing anyone to generate images in their unique style, as any commercial derivative work returns a portion of the revenue to them. AI has the potential to be part of the value extraction problem, but Story Protocol makes AI part of the solution by enabling appropriate attribution and compensation, allowing creators to capture more value than ever from the explosive growth of AI content.

Liquidity of Intellectual Property

Imagine what it would be like if intellectual property became a liquid asset in the future. Previously illiquid IP now integrates into a broader DeFi ecosystem through the composability of the global IP repository of Story Protocol. Popular IP markets provide a marketplace for creators and fans. This new "intellectual property finance" ecosystem brings efficient price discovery to intellectual property, providing better financing mechanisms for creative works and their derivatives. A whole new world of applications has developed around IP, offering unprecedented growth opportunities for creators and communities.

Bridging Norms and Law

By linking the off-chain world of IP with programmable blockchain assets, Story Protocol is merging code and law: allowing IP to integrate with the openness and richness of the internet rather than oppose it.

The internet has introduced revolutionary new methods for creating and distributing works: never-ending co-creation, participatory franchising, and AI-generated content. However, our current intellectual property infrastructure resists the openness of the internet rather than embracing it. Story Protocol is building an IP infrastructure for the internet age.