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Introducing $IP
Story
07 February 2025
The Age of AI Demands a New Asset Class
Intellectual property (IP) is the bedrock of artificial intelligence (AI). As AI transforms industries at an unprecedented pace, IP is emerging as the most critical asset class of the 21st century.
IP is a $61 trillion asset class that includes training data, scientific discoveries, brands, creative works, and more.
However, AI is undermining IP as we know it. The traditional IP system can no longer keep pace with the speed and scale of generative AI. Centralized intermediaries make exchanging, licensing, and monetizing IP opaque, expensive, and inefficient. IP owners see their works used in models without attribution or compensation, and AI companies can’t possibly make millions of individual licensing agreements. AI and IP are locked in a zero-sum struggle, making the marketplace of ideas illegible and illiquid.
Story proposes an entirely new framework for intellectual property, one that creates an open and programmable market for IP. Story is a peer-to-peer intellectual property network purpose-built to transform IP into a programmable asset class, enabling permissionless exchange, ownership, and monetization across AI and the broader internet.
Sitting at the heart of the IP ecosystem, $IP fuels Story’s L1 blockchain.
What is $IP?
$IP is the native token of Story’s Layer 1 blockchain. It serves multiple critical functions across the network.
Core Utilities of $IP
- Stake $IP to secure the network – Validators stake $IP to maintain blockchain security and integrity in Story’s Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
- Transact on Story with $IP as gas – All transactions on Story require $IP as the gas token, ensuring sustained network operations.
- Govern the $IP ecosystem – Token holders participate in governance decisions, steering the future of Story’s onchain intellectual property market.
$IP Distribution
58.4% of $IP is devoted to Ecosystem and Community, Foundation, and Initial Incentives.
Initial Token Distribution:
- 38.4% – Ecosystem + Community: The Ecosystem + Community category is dedicated to promoting ecosystem growth and community development by supporting developers, community members, and real users of Story across marketing, events, grants, and other activities.
- 10% – Initial Incentives: The Initial Incentives category includes early rewards programs utilized to incentivize the growth of Story.
- 10% – Foundation: The Foundation category includes support for Foundation employees and services that grow the Story blockchain and the essential services and education that allow it to thrive for a long term future.
- 21.6% – Early Backers: The Early Backers category includes stakes for early investors and advisors.
- 20% – Core Contributors: The Core Contributors category includes compensation for hiring and retaining team members who have contributed to the development of the Story blockchain.
Initial Supply: 1 billion $IP
Initial Unlocked Supply: 25%
$IP Supply Schedule
The $IP unlock and estimated emissions schedule is presented as follows.
The Community will be unlocked on Day 1 of Public Mainnet via our Initial Incentives claim. Early Backers and Core Contributors remain locked, with unlocks occurring over 48 months. This diagram does not include a) staking rewards or b) the effects of the burn mechanic. More on both in our documentation.
Staking Fair Launch
Unlike previous launches that unfairly benefited insiders with regard to staking rewards, $IP staking follows a fair launch principle:
There are no early staking rewards for the foundation or early contributors–the community earns rewards simultaneously with everyone else.
During the Singularity Period, which lasts approximately 42 days after our January 19, 2025 genesis block 0, everyone is welcome to stake or delegate—but no staking rewards will be earned. This procedure offers everyone a chance to decide to stake.
After the Big Bang event, which concludes the Singularity Period, everyone will fairly earn staking rewards at the same time.
What’s Next?
The era of programmable IP is here. And $IP is at its center.
Stay tuned for updates and follow @storyprotocol on X for the latest news.
