Bankless: A Quick Overview of IP Blockchain Story Protocol

Original Title: “Story Network: The IP Blockchain Explained”

Author: William M. Peaster, Bankless

Compiled by: Wu Zhu, Jinse Finance

Intellectual property (IP) includes creations such as artistic works, designs, images, inventions, names, and symbols.

This encompasses a wide range of assets, from artificial intelligence models to game assets.

Despite its immense value, estimated in the trillions of dollars, IP often remains trapped in outdated legal frameworks, making it difficult to license, monetize, and transact effectively.

This is where the new Story Network comes into play, a new blockchain designed to transform IP into liquid, programmable, and ownable digital assets.

Since this chain is brand new and NFT-centric.

What is Story Network?

Story Network is specifically created to bring IP on-chain, making it easier to manage and monetize.

On Story Network, IP is represented as on-chain assets called IP assets, which are NFTs. These NFTs carry detailed metadata about the underlying IP and serve as its digital representation. They can link to existing NFTs, such as CryptoPunk, or be issued to represent off-chain projects.

Each IP asset is linked to an IP account, which is a dedicated smart contract for managing interactions and data related to the IP.

At the core of Story Network is its Proof of Creativity (PoC) protocol, which helps create and manage IP assets, enabling use cases like permissionless licensing and automated royalty payments.

Another key pillar is the Programmable IP License (PIL), a legal framework that connects the on-chain world with traditional legal systems, ensuring that the digital representation of IP on Story Network is enforceable in the real world.

How is Story Network Designed?

Story Network is a Layer 1 blockchain optimized for efficiently handling complex IP data structures, relying on elements from the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Cosmos SDK.

Notably, Story Network is EVM-equivalent, meaning it supports the same code execution environment as Ethereum. This compatibility allows developers to port existing applications and smart contracts written in the popular Ethereum Solidity programming language to Story Network with little to no changes.

As for the Cosmos SDK, it provides the underlying framework for Story Network's consensus and networking layers, featuring high scalability and low transaction costs. This design choice also allows Story Network to interoperate with other blockchains within the Cosmos ecosystem, enhancing its flexibility.

Noun and Verb Structure

Story Network adopts a noun and verb architecture when handling IP.

IP assets are nouns, representing things. Recall that these are the NFTs representing intellectual property on Story Network. These assets contain metadata and are associated with IP accounts that manage their data and interactions.

On the other hand, Story's modules are verbs. Modules are customizable programs used to define and extend the functionality of IP accounts. Developers can create modules to meet various business logic needs.

For example, the licensing module on Story Network simplifies the licensing process. Creators can define licensing terms and attach them to their IP assets, allowing others to mint licensed tokens.

The aforementioned PIL framework then provides standardized, customizable legal contracts that define how the IP can be used, covering aspects such as commercial use, attribution, and royalty terms.

Additionally, there is a royalty module that automatically allocates royalties. When IP assets are used or generate revenue, the royalty module ensures payments are automatically distributed according to predefined royalty terms.

This module even tracks the relationships between original works and derivative works, ensuring that all contributors receive a fair share of royalties. This feature is particularly useful for projects involving multiple creators and complex IP relationships.

Why Tokenize IP on Story Network?

Tokenizing IP on Story Network offers several significant benefits:

• Liquidity ------ IP can be traded or used as collateral, creating new financial opportunities.
• Programmability ------ Automated operations like royalty payments can be embedded in IP NFTs, simplifying management.
• Transparency ------ The underlying blockchain provides a clear and immutable record of IP ownership and transactions.

For content creators, these are compelling pillars, but what would the actual use cases look like?

For instance, artists, musicians, writers, and others can register their IP as NFTs on Story Network, set licensing terms, and automatically receive royalties. This makes it easier to control and monetize their works.

For developers, they can build applications that leverage tokenized IP. Think of AI model marketplaces, content remixing platforms, and DeFi applications using IP NFTs as collateral.

The first two application examples in the Story ecosystem are Magma and Mahojin. The former is a collaborative design tool that uses Story Network to manage and monetize creative works through NFTs, while the latter is a platform for AI training data and models.

Conclusion

How will making IP programmable and liquid affect interactions between creators and consumers? Will IP tokenization and trading democratize access to creative works? How will the PIL system effectively adapt to the diverse global legal landscape, especially as AI-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent?

The answers to these questions remain to be seen, but Story Network is delving into them in unprecedented ways and hopes to revolutionize the future of digital IP through the crypto economy. As the chain evolves and develops, its potential to redefine IP management to better address the content challenges of the 21st century is noteworthy.

So, can Story succeed? We shall see, but this innovative foray into new territory remains exciting—stay tuned for the latest developments on the project!