By turning code into law, Story Protocol will drive the renaissance of literary creation on the chain.

Author: Story Protocol

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Introduction

Story Protocol has pioneered a new way to unleash creativity and liquidity by transforming intellectual property (IP) into a network that transcends media and platforms. In today's era where generative artificial intelligence is driving the unlimited expansion of creativity, the protection and development of IP face unprecedented challenges. Story Protocol has established a programmable IP layer, allowing creators to combine, restructure, and monetize their works through on-chain rules. This truly turns code into law and leads a wave of renaissance in literary creation on the chain.

Main Content

Story Protocol transforms IP into a network that transcends media and platforms, unleashing global creativity and liquidity.

Generative artificial intelligence is expanding the boundaries of creativity. Today, anyone connected to the internet can create high-quality music, art, prose, and videos. In theory, this should herald a golden age of creation, just like all previous creative technologies.

However, despite having global distribution channels and excellent AI tools, creators are still struggling to protect and develop their works.

The main culprit is: IP.

The problem with IP is significant: it is isolated, opaque, and static. Story Protocol is building a programmable IP layer that allows IP to be combined, remixed, and monetized through on-chain rules set by its creators. By turning code into law, Story Protocol will drive the renaissance of literary creation on the chain.

So, what is programmable IP?

Let's talk about programmable currency first

The first wave of cryptocurrency revolved around the programmability of currency. For the first time, new "currency Legos" could be created through self-executing rules, and services could be built on top of these rules. Anyone could add an API on top of a fungible token, allowing programs to expand the token's functionality through interaction with its interface. For the first time, an infinite variety of financial services could be created: you could borrow WBTC on Compound to generate cDAI, exchange that cDAI for stETH on Uniswap, then unstake stETH to obtain ETH, and so on, creating an open programmable economy constrained only by software. Today, billions of "programmable dollars" are traded on these protocols every day, powering parallel financial systems with unique network effects.

However, (programmable) currency cannot buy everything.

While programmable currency holds great promise, the first wave of cryptocurrency only scratched the surface of what programmable assets can achieve. DeFi is accessible only to a limited number of advanced participants, mainly large holders participating in advanced financial strategies to earn profits. Unlike finance, content has universal accessibility and intuitive appeal, yet it remains static.

The problems that programmability solved for the financial system still plague the creative industry. Just as banks once acted as cumbersome, rent-seeking intermediaries, IP licensing requires an entire team of lawyers and a significant amount of paperwork, making it difficult for individual creators to obtain licenses. Just as financial institutions obscure or manipulate data, existing IP registries are localized and opaque, lacking crucial information about ownership and rights.

Every major technological paradigm, from the internet and mobile devices to artificial intelligence, only achieves mainstream adoption when successfully integrated with creative content. Now it's blockchain's turn, and IP needs to be programmable.

From programmable currency to programmable IP

If the first wave of crypto was about programmable currency, then the next wave will be defined by programmable IP. Programmability means endowing creative assets with built-in APIs for on-chain rights enforcement, remixing, and on-chain monetization. By programming participation rules on-chain, any application or program can remix programmable IP, while allowing creators to directly control their works. With programmable IP, code becomes law.

Static JPEGs are not enough

There have been some promising early attempts to bring IP onto the chain. NFTs are a key development, providing proof of ownership for digital media files. By injecting scarcity into the digital asset world (which could originally be replicated at zero marginal cost), NFTs became the foundation of digital provenance. However, NFTs alone are not enough; the current static JPEGs have reached a bottleneck in their development.

The essential characteristic of on-chain assets is their programmability, but static JPEGs are fundamentally not programmable. Most NFTs are still static pointers to media files—rigid, isolated, and trapped metadata. Even with licenses attached, they are often completely off-chain and opaque. Apart from basic transactions, the current NFT paradigm has limited capabilities. Without reverting to the high-friction off-chain licensing process (i.e., the world of lawyers, documents, and bespoke negotiations), derivative works cannot be created.

Entering the programmable IP layer: Story Protocol

Story Protocol is building a programmable IP layer to bring programmability to the IP level. Story Protocol transforms IP into a network that transcends media and platforms, unleashing global creativity and liquidity. Unlike static JPEGs lacking interactivity and composability with other assets, programmable IP is dynamic and scalable. Creators and applications can register their IP on Story Protocol, transforming their static IP into programmable IP by declaring a set of on-chain rights that any program can read and write.

How It Works

Our programmable IP layer consists of two elements: data structures and modules. The data structure is the "noun" of the protocol, storing relevant IP metadata in "IP Legos." The modules are the "verbs," providing diverse functionalities for the IP assets registered on the protocol. Story Protocol's data structure captures the core components of IP, while its modules represent the operations that can be performed on the data structure.

The data structure provides on-chain, scalable, and composable standards for programmable IP. Just as the creation of protocols like HTTP, HTML, and CSS accelerated the adoption of the internet, IP through Story Protocol is designed to be similarly simplified and networked. We have leveraged the implementation of ERC-6551, enabling any existing or new NFT to access our protocol by binding accounts. This standardization allows any application to easily read and write on the basis of programmable IP.

The modules constitute the functional layer of programmable IP. Once an IP is captured in our IP Legos, it can be seamlessly combined and extended through our modules without friction. Modules are functions that unlock a range of capabilities, such as authorization, revenue streams for derivative works, and access to global capital. For example, our licensing module enables programmable licensing NFTs to be as flexible and expressive as code, like a programmable Getty Images for all forms of IP. Creators can transparently set conditions for remixing their creative works for others, seamlessly expanding their works without relying on one-on-one legal negotiations, paperwork, and specialized negotiations.

By making IP programmable, Story Protocol turns code into law, adding readability and liquidity to IP.

Enhancing Readability

The general programmable IP ledger, where the rights and ownership status of static IP (whether on-chain or elsewhere) are scattered and opaque. The current copyright.gov website has a Craigslist-style user interface with minimal information clues. In contrast, Story Protocol is setting a simple, composable, and fully on-chain standard for IP information and rights. We are aggregating global IP on-chain. As more IP is registered on Story Protocol, we will become a universal IP ledger, where developers and creators can explore, remix creative works, and profit from them through simple API calls, eliminating unnecessary intermediaries.

Accessing Liquidity: Frictionless Remixing

Creating a universal programmable IP ledger is just the first step. Beyond aggregating global IP into a single composable standard, Story Protocol allows creators to attach on-chain, legally binding, and automatically enforceable rights to their IP. This means that anyone in the world can access and authorize the use of global IP. We have created Programmable IP Licenses (PIL), which have the simplicity of Creative Commons but with built-in value capture and commercialization options. Creators can choose from a set of parameters (or they can choose one of our preset "simple styles"), which are reflected in legal text and enforced through on-chain terms. By eliminating all remixing friction, Story Protocol harnesses global creativity and generates IP liquidity.

Incubating the Next Marvel

The process of developing intellectual property is currently opaque and costly. For example, Marvel and Sony had to engage in expensive and complex negotiations for the rights to "Spider-Man." If another major company wants to use Spider-Man, they would have to start new negotiations from scratch. For individuals, even the latter path would be closed off, as they would not have access to the rights available to them. Due to the expensive and unscalable nature of the current static IP growth model, only large companies can participate in licensing, leaving the creativity of most artists and fans untapped.

Enter Story Protocol: Any creator from anywhere in the world can register their IP on-chain and declare pricing and permissions for their creations. On the other hand, anyone can discover and match these terms to automatically use the IP. The creator of Spider-Man can register it as an IP asset, enabling access to Story Protocol's permissionless module. The creator can set on-chain terms for the IP asset, defining upfront payments, royalty structures, and other details of the Spider-Man IP asset. Anyone interested in Spider-Man can discover the IP, accept the terms, and obtain the license with a single click—all handled by Story Protocol, without the need for intermediaries.

The next generation of programmable IP will allow creators to collaborate rather than operate in isolation.

Igniting the Programmable IP Ecosystem

Just like programmable currency, programmable IP allows creativity to flow between protocols, applications, and platforms. Story Protocol's programmable IP layer is the foundation powering a vibrant decentralized application ecosystem.

In our ecosystem, applications can immediately access a rich repository of programmable IP. Imagine a comic app built on our programmable IP layer. The app allows users to create and register unique narrative elements—characters, scenes, and plots—directly on our protocol. Once registered, these narrative elements can transcend the boundaries of their original app and become portable and composable assets in our ecosystem. For example, characters in the comic app can be remixed and extended frictionlessly into autonomous chatbots on a platform like Character.AI.

This level of liquidity and interoperability not only enriches the user experience but also fosters a virtuous cycle, amplifying the value of all IP in our ecosystem. If DeFi promotes financial liquidity, Story Protocol nurtures IP liquidity. New applications no longer face the cold start problem: they can always access all registered programmable IP on the protocol, which is easy to port and extend.

Welcome to the On-Chain Renaissance

We find ourselves at a turning point in the history of IP.

Everyone on the internet has a built-in global distribution network and the most powerful creative tools in history. Creators are still struggling to protect, distribute, and monetize their intellectual property. Paper legal documents and armies of lawyers cannot operate at the speed and scale of the internet, but programmable IP with on-chain rights can.

New media technologies always require new IP layers. During the last renaissance, the Gutenberg printing press enabled mass replication and led to the first IP laws to incentivize creators. The combination of new technology and new IP laws led to an explosion of culture, art, and literature. Now, generative artificial intelligence enables mass creation, necessitating a programmable IP paradigm.

We are in the midst of a new wave of cryptocurrency and creativity. Only time will tell what new cultural creations are waiting to be invented.

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