Introducing Story Protocol, the Programmable IP Layer.
Story Protocol transforms IPs into networks that transcend mediums and platforms, unleashing global creativity and liquidity.
Korea’s entire crypto exchange trading volume ($456B) is larger than global US dollar volume ($445B). However, the sad reality is that there is no global web3 project out of Korea unlike what you have seen with K-pop, K-drama, and etc. When will we see the rise of…
So good to welcome my two biggest supporters, friends, and mentors
@simonkim_nft
(Founder of Hashed) and
@hitmanb
(Founder of HYBE behind the global sensation BTS) at the Story Protocol Launch Dinner with
@hashed_official
🙏 Also, backers of
@StoryProtocol
from Day 1🚀
(1/n) The biggest problem in AI is the attribution, provenance, and compensation to creators. Its' the intellectual property!
Today I shared Story's Programmable IP Layer in the age of generative AI at Convergence AI Summit by
@1kxnetwork
. Wanted to share for wider public. 🧵
Super humbled that
@StoryProtocol
is getting featured on the cover of
@Forbes
after
@meta
and Mark Zuckerberg yesterday. Although we are just starting off, we’ve been fortunate that
@forbes
was interested in my story of dedicating the last decade on tackling problems at the…
Chapter One - Our CEO
@storysylee
rises to the Forbes cover.
Chapter Two calls for the creative misfits and innovators - the journey begins. It's time to transform systems, defy old rules. Are you ready?
Really enjoyed attending
@starlordyftw
’s
@0n1force
event last night. It was very encouraging to see someone so passionate about the intersection of storytelling and NFT. Cant wait to attend more events from
@0n1Force
team!
What an incredible feat for the
@StoryProtocol
team. 10% of the Eth Denver projects built on Story, and 20% of the Eth Denver General Hackathon winners came out of Story! Programmable IP is the next step for crypto after programmable money🚀
(17/n) IPs themselves have to become networks. As our lead investor
@cdixon
.eth says, “The killer app of the internet is networks. The web and email are networks. Social apps like Instagram and Twitter are networks. Marketplaces like Uber and Airbnb are networks.”
(30/n) I want to conclude by thanking our backers. Especially,
@cdixon
,
@sriramk
,
@carrawu
,
@eddylazzarin
at
@a16zcrypto
made the very first commitment when I was just by myself and helped me build an all-star co-founding team.
So great to work with Allen, who built the world’s largest social network of writers and readers. We were once competitors and exited around the same time. Its a huge pleasure working together like this. Been always been an admirer of the bottoms-up community and amazing network…
Earlier today,
@twosmallfishvc
announced our follow-on investment in
@StoryProtocol
. TLDR - Story Protocol is “Git for creative IP.” We first invested in late 2022 and doubled down in this
@a16z
led round. The company has raised over US$54M.
Thankful for the founders who've entrusted us as their partners past 4 years
Excited to continue to work with
@hashed_official
as a General Partner in building a platform that will live on for centuries.
0/
STORY IS HIRING
We're growing our world-class team across engineering, marketing, BD, and product.
Our vision is to transform the way that creativity grows and monetizes in the age of AI.
This the most fast-paced team you can join. Everyone, by virtue of both necessity and…
CEO/Co-Founder Spotlight: S.Y. (Seung Yoon) Lee
@storysylee
Prev: CEO/Co-Founder of Radish, a mobile serialized fiction app, sold to Kakao for $440M
Education: BA in Philosophy, Politics & Economics
@UniofOxford
Fun Fact: Was First East Asian President of
@OxfordUnion
and…
The biggest elephant in the room for AI is IP:
- How do you compensate all the IPs that are being inputted to create a new IP?
- Is copyright the right model for IP compensation in the age of generative AI?
- Is an AI model an IP? Is an AI chatbot an IP? Is prompt an IP?…
Crypto grants IP sovereignty and liquidity, while AI liberates individual creativity.
At MyShell, we're excited to see the Programmable IP Layer advancing the synergy between crypto and AI.
Thrilled for the journey ahead with
@StoryProtocol
!
Thrilled that
@StoryProtocol
is partnering with
@myshell_ai
to empower their community of 1M+ users
The Cambrian explosion we're seeing from generative AI has only just begun. MyShell has been at the forefront of this and understands the need for Programmable IP
Announcing our partnership with
@myshell_ai
Story Protocol will empower over 1M AI creators on MyShell via Programmable IP
MyShell model & app creators can:
📑 Register their AI models as IP on-chain
💰 Set usage/monetization terms for model licensing
🗃️ Track model outputs
.
@StoryProtocol
is announcing our partnership with
@ritualnet
to build the Programmable IP layer for AI models
This will unlock the rails needed for provenance, monetization and attribution of IP in the age of AI
More on this 🧵
Announcing our partnership with
@ritualnet
We are bringing crypto and AI together. AI models on Ritual can be registered seamlessly as IP Assets on Story Protocol
Programmable IP 🤝 AI
Learn more below 🧵
- First-time founders: spend all their time chiselling their products
- Second-time founders: obsess with securing the right distribution
- Third-time founders: focus on meaning, purpose, and vision
Of course, if you are talented like Zuckerberg or Gates, you don’t even need…
(5/n) We supported fantastic journalists like
@peterjukes
who crowdfunded his continued expose of
@rupertmurdoch
and his lieutenants and had fun going through extensive security checks to meet, interview, and deliver lamb kebab for
@JulianAssange_
at the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Amen. Lets realize the future of frictionless peer-to-peer, composable IP ecosystem. Crypto will have as tremendous impact on the world of IP as it will on that of finance.
Open source on steroids is crypto. Story ushers in the era of open-source IPs but make sure the creators/owners of IP share the upside of open-source innovations with its programmable IP layer.
Closed source has value capture, but no open innovation
Open source has open innovation, but no value capture
Crypto is open source innovation with value capture built in
@BenEnowitz
, Ari Emmanuel, Ryan
Draizin, and the team at
@Endeavor
have been a huge help from day one and were incredible at helping us navigate the creative landscape as a web3 protocol in stealth. Forrtunate to have them on board. In fact, one of the earliest to commit to us.
Very excited about this session with
@skominers
and
@jasonjzhao
! Super thankful for
@a16zcrypto
for connecting us. He has been one of the most inspirational advisers along this channel and is the perfect person to moderate this panel of introducing
@StoryProtocol
as the…
What is Programmable IP and why does it matter?
Find out from our co-founders
@storysylee
and
@jasonjzhao
in a special X Space, hosted by the brilliant
@skominers
📅 THU Feb 22
⏰ 6pm PST
(18/n) I envisioned a model where IPs became a network of fans and creators - evangelizing and contributing to the growth of the IP with skin in the game. Your audience brings the best ideas to improve your IP. Even the distribution and capital to bootstrap your IP.
Fantastic explanation by
@profjoeyg
!
핵심은 AIGC를 생성하는 input의 compensation, attribution, and provenance입니다.
"이런 관점에서 블록체인 기술의 활용은 AI 콘텐츠 저작권 문제를 해결하는데 중요한 역할을 할 수 있습니다. 결국 원본 콘텐츠의 주인을 명확하게 하고, 그에게 합당한…
<AI 기술이 없다면, 우리는 돈을 어떻게 벌 수 있을까>
생성형 AI 기술이 급속도로 발전하면서, 단순한 텍스트부터 그림, 음악, 영상에 이르기까지 다양한 콘텐츠를 손쉽게 생성할 수 있는 시대가 도래했습니다. 몇 가지 단어를 입력하는 것만으로도 기존의 저작물을 쉽게 변형시키거나, 심지어는…
(19/n) That is why I started
@StoryProtocol
, and web3 finally gives all the tools to assign ownership to network participants like fans and contributors at scale.
(3/n) Below is my journey from journalism platform
@Byline_Media
and serialized fiction app
@radish_fiction
to
@StoryProtocol
+ why
@StoryProtocol
’s infrastructure that turns IP into a “network” can offer solutions to the structural challenges facing the content and IP industry.
(2/n) Media industry is always the most visibly impacted by technology. I’ve dedicated the last decade of my life to fixing business models of journalism and media.
1. Printing press = first-ever content abundance = copyright law as an IP layer
2. Generative AI = content abundance on steroids = smart-contract-driven + blockchain-powered Programmable IP layer as a new IP infrastructure to inject scarcity, provenance, attribution, and value…
AI boosts content creation speed,
Crypto shapes the on-chain economy,
Programmable IP unites both realms.
Enter the new era of the creator economy with
@StoryProtocol
!
(8/n) It took several years to get learnings around producing hit IPs. Like many startups, it was an overnight success on the 2,000th night. Fortunately, we achieved significant growth and got acquired by Kakao.
You've been a huge inspiration for our project. Your true pioneering work at
@dapperlabs
gave me the confidence that web3 has so much to offer for the world of IPs and mainstream audience. Thank you again for your backing and precious advice so far
@roham
!
Love to see a new wave of builders using crypto for real-world applications that make the web better for everyone
Congrats
@storysylee
and team on an awesome launch! Proud to support you at every step
(7/n) Later, I pivoted to Radish, focusing on mobile serial fiction, helping storytellers produce lean IPs, gain insights on every chapter, and monetize through micropayments. We became a serialized content platform on steroids with some top IPs updating multiple times daily.
Memes are the most internet-native form of IPs, constantly being remixed and recombined. We will soon power memes with our programmable IP layer. Imagine having that programmable IP graph for the viral meme you started or participated in🔥🔥🔥🔥
Generative AI -> Programmable IP layer
- 150 years: time it took for photography to reach 15 billion images
- 1.5 years: time it took for AI-created images to reach 15 billion images
- Exponential speed of content creation demands a programmable IP layer where each atoms of…
This exponentially increases the discovery problem for content creators. They will soon be competing with hundreds of millions of content every day. You either need an insane $$$ of marketing budget or algorithmic miracle to get your content discovered.
(6/n) Declaring a solution for journalism industry right out of college I admit was a little ambitious and too early. But it was still very rewarding to get some shoutouts for
@Byline_Media
from my heroes like
@sirharryevans
,
@hughlaurie
, and
@HackedOffHugh
.
Couldn't make it to our Fireside Chat with
@storysylee
&
@roham
? We've got you covered!
⛓️ Programmable IP and our first design partners
🌊
@flow_blockchain
's ecosystem growth (& more!)
❓ Attendee Q&As
👇 Full session below 👇
Cant imagine embarking on this journey without
@sriramk
who made the commitment when I was all by myself with just a vision.
@sriramk
and the team at a16z have been indispensable in building this superstar team and gave strategic advice and hands-on help on every single aspect of…
🚨 Investing in
@StoryProtocol
: I'm thrilled to announce that
@a16zcrypto
is leading an investment in
@StoryProtocol
. More below 👇
I grew up obsessed with movies, TV, and comics. Batman, Star Trek, and Harry Potter formed a major part of my childhood. Today, we're seeing a…
(21/n) To realize this future, rather than building an NFT project as previously been done many times,
@StoryProtocol
is starting from building underlying rails to harness networked creativity.
(10/n) Content businesses lack network effects and have to depend on a huge content and marketing budget to sustain themselves. Last year alone, Netflix spent $16.7B in content budget and $2.5B in marketing budget while their annual revenue is $31.6B.
(16/n) This led to a realization. We need a structural solution to a top-down studio business model that requires a constant vicious cycle of throwing astronomical content budgets and marketing dollars into the same old franchises.
(4/n) In 2014, I started Byline, a pre-Substack journalism platform. It aimed to utilize Patreon and Kickstarter-style crowdfunding to support journalism - an industry whose ad-driven business model was devoured by giants like Google and Facebook.
Manifestos can be fun :)
Super cool to see
@StoryProtocol
's vision come to life
We may have copies to share at future events, but until then, check out our vision here
(1/5) 2.5M creators can collaborate, create, protect and monetize their art like never before. Programmable IP on
@Magma_com
opens the next chapter of creativity 🚀
Studios using Magma have worked with Disney, Lucasfilm & major Hollywood publishers. Their platform is incredible
We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with
@StoryProtocol
, the Programmable Intellectual Property (IP) Layer.
This means artists using Magma will be able to:
⛓️ Register their art on-chain
🌐 Protect, monetize & grow their IP
📑 Set transparent usage & royalty terms
In "Read Write Own",
@cdixon
points out the true magical power of tokens is programmability.
“Tokens are programmable, so the developers can extend and adapt them for myriad applications, such as social networks, financial systems, media properties, and virtual economies.”…
(14/n) This is why you see Hollywood regurgitating the same sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and reboots of existing franchises. Studios just throw all their budget behind what has worked. No one wants to take risks.
For those we missed in Denver, I put together a showcase of all our Programmable IP demos.
Excited to announce some of these partnerships in more detail in the coming weeks!
(20/n) My Co-Founders and I deeply believe in the vision of turning IPs into networks of fans who don't just consume but actively remix, extend, propagate, and even financially support because they feel a sense of ownership in the project.
(22/n) Just as Git revolutionized the development of open-source software by underpinning the networked evolution of code, Story Protocol is transforming the development of creative IP.
We are building the Git for IP w/ ownership and incentives.
(23/n) It achieves this with a protocol architecture that consists of two elements: data structures and modules.
Data structures -> “nouns”, storing IP on-chain as legos
Modules -> “verbs,” enabling functionalities like licensing, royalty sharing, remixing, and co-creation
Artcast is a fun experiment our team is building in public to showcase the power of programable IP.
This collaborative AI remixing and storytelling platform is enabled by alpha version of the protocol and built on Farcaster Frames.
Introducing Artcast: Collaborative AI Remixing & Storytelling
• Built on Frames & powered by Story Protocol
• AI-supported collaborative remixing
• built-in tracking, branching and attribution
Artcast is a fun social experiment that we’re building in public, sharing our…
🛠️ Announcing the Story Protocol Builder Program
Thinking about building on Story Protocol? We're providing our technical expertise, marketing know-how, potential grants and networking
Programmable IP won't build itself 💪
Learn more and apply today:
(11/n) Radish was faced with everrising CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) like all other mobile apps when Apple banned payer targeting for ads. I showed a similar dramatic CAC spike for Radish at my first pitch to
@a16zcrypto
.
(12/n) Below is
@MolocoHQ
’s CPI (Cost Per Install) spike illustration after Apple’s ban of targeting mobile payers for ads. This wiped out tons mobile apps.
@cdixon
@sriramk
@carrawu
@eddylazzarin
@a16zcrypto
(31/n) Our team can’t imagine starting this journey without all the support they’ve given us from recruiting and legal to token design, strategic advice, and many more. We are very humbled by their recent follow-on fundraise to help us execute our ecosystem strategy.
(13/n) Content businesses face an endless vicious cycle of throwing content and marketing budgets to sustain their business model and compete with other content platforms. Look at the current streaming wars.
(25/n) Imagine the next Game of Thrones emerging from Story Protocol. The creative behind this franchise registers a foundational world bible of stories, characters, and locations — stored using the data structures on the protocol.
< Increase the surface area of good serendipity >
* Graduation Speech at GIST (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology)
Dear GIST Graduates,
I am truly honored to be here to celebrate your graduation from one of the most prestigious science and technology universities in…
Some say crypto cares about AI, and AI doesn't give a shit about crypto.
Got inspirations on this from two crypto skeptics.
@benthompson
of
@stratechery
believes this global IP verification ledger should be on blockchain and decentralized. Check out Sharptech.
@pwang
of…
(1/n) The biggest problem in AI is the attribution, provenance, and compensation to creators. Its' the intellectual property!
Today I shared Story's Programmable IP Layer in the age of generative AI at Convergence AI Summit by
@1kxnetwork
. Wanted to share for wider public. 🧵
@simonkim_nft
has always been one of my biggest inspirations. The phrase “IP layer” would not have had the visual intuitiveness like below without his assistance. He has been pioneering this investment thesis of “web3 meets IPs” before anyone else🙏
1/ The narrative of
@StoryProtocol
's "Programmable IP Layer" significantly underscores the potential of technological advancements to enhance the welfare of human culture.
(9/n) This all sounds like a happy victory, but despite being satisfying, it was also an admission of giving up the dream for the world’s largest bottoms-up original IP creation platform.
Proud of the team for shipping rapidly - many late nights went into this
The Beta Release of Story Protocol is live!
Beta is the FINAL major release of the Programmable IP Layer before mainnet. Build now to be a launch partner and access ecosystem grants!
How to get started 👇
(28/n) As the IP grows, there is more incentive for contributors — some amateur, some professional — to join the network with the shared mission of expanding the IP, creating a network effect.
(24/n) With this infrastructure that enables IP legos, each IP can easily tap into global creativity and capital to bootstrap networks around their IPs. Web3 can finally realize its promise of composable IPs where IP atoms can be frictionlessly turned into IP molecules.
(27/n) As the initial IP accumulates and expands, so does the value of contributing to the IP. Creatives can offer real skin-in-the-game for participants by sharing a portion of their IP rights or revenues using the protocol’s licensing and royalty modules.
Feel so fortunate to work again this way with one of my earliest investors and critical advisers of my last company Radish and dream big🙏
@simonkim_nft
was there from day one!
This exponentially increases the discovery problem for content creators. They will soon be competing with hundreds of millions of content every day. You either need an insane $$$ of marketing budget or algorithmic miracle to get your content discovered.
(26/n) Leveraging the licensing module, they bootstrap their project by selling licenses to the thousand earliest fans as well as professional creatives seeking to expand their reach.
@Vitalik
points out, "whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery.. blockchains automate away from the center. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly."
@roham
You've been a huge inspiration to start this company. Your true pioneering legendary work at
@dapperlabs
gave me the confidence that web3 has so much to offer for the world of IPs and mainstream audience. Thank you again for your backing and precious advice so far
@roham
(29/n) With Story Protocol, on top of these IP franchises, we hope to see an ecosystem of developers providing crowdfunding tools, IP discovery, licensing modules, asset authentication, and community growth.
Instead, Story Protocol is building the Programmable IP layer to bring programmability to IP. They are dynamic and extensible, with on-chain remixing rights enshrined into each NFT. Like seeds imbued with the potential to grow into diverse forms
Vitalik’s vision of “automating away the center” by programming immutable self-enforcing rules on-chain has only come true to the realm of finance by building the programmable money layer of the internet.
Anyone could integrate an API on top of a fungible token, permitting software applications to extend the functionality of the token by interacting with its interface.
For the first time, with blockchain’s primitives, it became possible to construct new "money legos" with self-forcing regulations, enabling the development of services based on these rules.
Story Protocol's programmable IP layer transforms IPs into networks that transcend mediums and platforms, unleashing global creativity and liquidity. JPEG NFTs can morph into various media forms on different applications with attribution, provenance, and value capture mechanism.
With the invention of the printing press, writers and artists could suddenly duplicate work. But there wasn’t a way to prove who could sell those copies.
Instead, we need an infrastructure for these isolated IPs and content creators to form a network with one another to collaborate on content development and distribution together. They need a seamless way to ally rather than compete.
However, static JPEGs are not programmable at all. Most NFTs are mere pointers to a media file — metadata that's rigid, isolated, and trapped. They are like paintings trapped within the confines of their frames — bound to a singular form and unable to interact with the world.