Story is Turning IP into AI Currency

Story is a specialized Layer-1 blockchain, with the mission of transforming intellectual property (IP) into a programmable asset class that is critical to artificial intelligence (AI). Intangible assets, especially IP, have become one of the key elements of the AI era, from data and programming code to images and text. Story is opening up a new way to manage and leverage IP, helping to streamline licensing processes, automate royalties, and ensure verifiable ownership.

IP: The World’s Largest Asset Class

Intellectual property (IP) is currently valued at $61.9 trillion, making it the largest intangible asset class in the world. While IP is critical for AI, the process of trading and managing IP remains extremely complex. Fragmented legal frameworks and high costs prevent many IP assets from being fully exploited, preventing them from being developed and monetized.

Story’s Solution: Putting IP on the Blockchain

Story addresses these challenges by putting IP on the blockchain, making it programmable. With an automated licensing and royalty system, Story enables IP to be tokenized and integrated directly into AI systems, creating a more modern and efficient IP infrastructure.

Story provides a robust IP asset management environment with Programmable IP Licenses (PILs), allowing users to easily manage ownership and share revenue. In particular, Story provides a common platform for large and small corporations, helping them manage and monetize IP assets without facing traditional legal barriers.

Major Investor Backing

Having raised over $140 million at a $2.25 billion valuation, Story has attracted the confidence of investors, notably Andreessen Horowitz (a16z Crypto), who led Story’s funding rounds. This strong backing reflects the growing awareness of the importance of IP in the AI economy.

Collaboration with Stability AI

Story has established key partnerships such as with Stability AI, enabling AI-generated outputs from Stable Diffusion to be instantly registered on the blockchain. This ensures verifiable ownership and traceability, while also encouraging a fairer ecosystem where IP creators are fairly compensated.

Story Technical Overview

Story blockchain Layer-1 uses the CometBFT consensus protocol with EVM compatibility, combined with pre-compilation and indexing logic to handle complex queries on IP derivative chains. Additionally, Story's **Proof-of-Creativity (PoC)** protocol sets IP tokenization, licensing, and automated dispute resolution rules.

Each IP asset on Story is represented as an ERC-721 token, allowing it to interact flexibly with external events. This means that when an AI tool uses a set of images, text, or research data from Story, the IP owner can be immediately compensated.

Story's Programmable IP License (PIL)** ensures legal enforcement, supporting IP owners when automated transactions are not enough to protect their rights.

Use Cases and Potential of Story

Story provides a single registry for AI developers, allowing them to easily license and use IP assets in a transparent and legal manner. Businesses can turn their entire IP portfolio into programmable assets, collecting royalties from anywhere in the world.

Story is also expanding into the “IPFi” space, allowing IP to be used as collateral for financial operations such as borrowing and staking. This opens up the DeFi market for IP and attracts more participants to the crypto market.

A diverse ecosystem is growing around Story. Platforms like Aria are tokenizing cultural IP and allowing fans to participate in revenue streams. AI frameworks like Virtuals’ G.A.M.E. are also integrating the Story protocol so that AI agents can automatically license IP.

Conclusion

Story is pioneering the integration of IP into the AI economy, enabling IP owners to monetize their assets in the new era of technology. As AI continues to expand, Story ensures that the ecosystem is operated transparently, fairly, and benefits both creators and AI developers.