Story Protocol: "The world's IP blockchain"
Story Protocol: "The world's IP blockchain"
Intellectual property (IP) is one of the world’s largest and most dynamic asset classes, uniquely positioned to thrive in the Internet age. The internet’s ability to instantly and freely distribute content globally makes it an ideal platform for IP to flourish, fostering endless opportunities for reuse and innovation.
However, while the internet has accelerated the growth of global IP, many creators struggle to capture the value of their work. This challenge stems from a continued reliance on traditional legal systems to define and enforce revenue-sharing agreements, often falling short in a digital-first world.
Amid growing concerns over the rapid proliferation of AI models, creators are increasingly seeking tools to track, monetize, and provide better access to their content.
Story Protocol is a Web3 initiative designed to address modern concerns around intellectual property (IP) using blockchain technology and programmability. Its goal - to simplify IP management and monetization for creators while enabling developers to build innovative applications that leverage IP in transformative ways.
With the Mainnet launch anticipated soon, in Q1 2025, let's review Story Protocol and Kiln's role in supporting its final push to go live.
Story’s blockchain network allows IP owners to store their IP on the platform, embedding terms to use it — such as licensing fees — into smart contracts. Basically, the blockchain aims to ensure owners are compensated when their IP is used by tracking their evolution and enabling collaborative contributions with shared value.
Building blocks - How Story tackles IP onchain
First, let's look at the building blocks of this new network. Story uses a unique ‘Proof of Creativity’ protocol made up of smart contracts, which are natively deployed on Story Network and allow anyone to onramp IP to Story. The protocol itself is made up of a number of different modules (Licensing, Royalty, and Dispute), but first, we must understand how IP is referenced as an asset onchain.
IP can be created by anyone and tracked onchain as an IP Asset. Each IP Asset is tokenized as an ERC-721 NFT and recorded in a Global IP Asset Registry (this could be an existing NFT that itself is the IP, or a new NFT specifically minted to represent some offchain IP like a real-world asset). Alongside each asset is an associated IP Account, a smart contract linked to the IP Asset, that stores essential data for engaging with Modules in the Proof-of-Creativity protocol.
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The IP account (a modified ERC-6551 token bound account), is what allows the asset to take actions in the form of modules. Modules are powerful app-legos that enable complex business logic, like permissionless licensing or automatic royalty payments. Beyond the pre-configured licensing, royalty and dispute module, developers can create their own modules for advanced use cases.
While the asset is recorded onchain, an IP's usage terms and minted licenses are enforced by an offchain legal contract called the Programmable IP License. This IP License will determine the ownership and value of IP ownership and protect all content creators.
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Default modules and their functions
Modules are smart contracts that enable IP Accounts to interact with the protocol and manage their content. Developers can create and register new modules with the Story Protocol, subject to foundation review, to address custom IP challenges.
Native modules include Licensing, Royalty, and Dispute modules:
- Licensing - Through the creation of a licensing template, users can create a legally binding license which can be attached to an IP asset. The license provides all the information needed, through defined terms, on how the asset can be used by third parties. IP owners can then allow, if they wish, the ability to mint a license token (ERC721) that grants usage rights based on defined terms.
- Royalty - This module establishes the revenue distribution between the original IP owner and the holders of License Tokens. Specifically, if the IP owner permits minting, they can define the percentage of proceeds that flow to the originator and the distribution method. This can be structured through a minting fee or direct tipping.
- Dispute - The Dispute module allows users to raise and resolve disputes through arbitration. Currently, this is managed by dispute policy (UMA) and subsequent Arbitration Penalty. The UMA policy allows any protocol user to raise a dispute and, through arbitration, resolve IP challenges online-these dispute could be for improper registration, payment, usage, or content.
How to stake $IP through Kiln
Staking is a crucial component of Story Protocol, helping to maintain the integrity and security of the IP ecosystem. Kiln has been actively collaborating with the foundation in its testnet environment (Odyssey), applying our expertise from deploying over 40+ protocols to build a secure and high-performance architecture.
You can stake IP on the Story Dashboard by following these few steps:
- Head to the Story Foundation Validator Dashboard: https://staking.story.foundation/
- Search and select Kiln’s validator
- Select the option to stake and select the required amount (Minimum 1,024 IP)
- Choose the staking option (Kiln will offer Flexible Staking)
- Stake directly to our node
Check our docs or contact your account executive at Kiln or support@kiln.fi for more information on how to stake IP with Kiln.
Please note that when unstaking the unbonding process is currently 14 days, during this period, delegators and validators do not earn block rewards, but they are still subject to slashing risks
Why should you stake your IP with Kiln?
Kiln is the leading enterprise-grade staking platform, enabling institutional customers to stake IP, and to whitelabel IP staking functionality into their offering. Our platform is API-first and enables fully automated validators, rewards, data, and commission management.
Our clients can stake their assets from our dashboard, a hardware wallet, a browser wallet, a B2B custodian, a crypto exchange, or just their favorite investment app. Kiln makes staking IP easy, secure, and accessible to everyone.
Kiln has been closely working with Story Protocol in its Odyssey testnet to make sure we provide the best staking experience as possible.
We are serving thousands of businesses worldwide so that everyone can securely and seamlessly:
- Excellent track record in staking on 40+ protocols, managing more than $13b in stakes.
- Trusted by industry leaders such as Ledger, Lido, Coinbase Cloud, Bitpanda, Crypto.com and many more!
- Non-custodial, work with your existing custodians solutions e.g.Ledger, Fireblocks
- SOC 2 Type II certified and Industry leading SLAs (0 penalties recorded and 99.95% effective uptime)
