Story Protocol confirms public mainnet to launch on Feb. 13

Web3 intellectual property protocol Story has announced its mainnet will launch on Feb. 13, along with its native token, IP, which will enable creators to monetize their content and protect their digital property.

Story announced its imminent mainnet launch in a Feb. 11 post on X. Its native token — which will be used for transactions, governance voting and paying creators — will begin with an initial staking period called “Singularity.” 

There will be a total supply of 1 billion IP tokens and rewards will start being distributed on March 2 following the staking phase. 

The mainnet launch “marks a major milestone in bringing decentralized IP ownership to the world,” according to a post on the protocol’s forum. 

Several exchanges, such as Bitget, Bithumb, Bybit, KuCoin, Coinbase and OKX, have already announced support for IP token listing. 

Story aims to make IP programmable by providing an open market for IP, enabling rights holders to register their content and then program in the terms and payment required for others to use it. The fees are paid in cryptocurrency but creators and IP rights holders can get paid out in their local currency.

Creators will be able to register their work directly on the blockchain, set up automatic licensing and revenue sharing, get paid directly without middlemen and protect their work from unauthorized use. 

Story was founded in 2022 by former Google DeepMind product manager Jason Zhao, who identified issues with AI remixing content without compensating creators.

Speaking to Cointelegraph in December, he said, “You have these amazing creative tools,” referring to AI, “but then you have no sustainable business model if you are an IP holder, or a platform, or an individual creator.”

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“In the age of AI, IP will play a critical role in tokenizing the $61 trillion IP asset class,” Story said on Feb. 7. 

There are more than 50 apps already running on the protocol, including Magma, which has 2.5 million users and allows teams to create and collaborate on digital art simultaneously. 

In December, Story tapped into the latest hot AI narrative, agentic AI, introducing an experimental framework for AI agents to interact onchain. 

At the time, Story said its ACTP/IP creates a system to manage IP securely, allowing autonomous exchange between AI agents where the bots are compensated for the exchange of data. 

Story Protocol is backed by high-profile venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Hashed and Samsung Next. It raised $29 million in a seed funding round in May 2023, $25 million in Series A in September 2023 and a further $80 million in an August 2024 Series B.  

Magazine: Story Protocol helps IP creators survive AI onslaught… and get paid in crypto