What is the utility of IP tokens?
Compiled by: KarenZ, Foresight News
After successfully launching the developer mainnet in late January, the on-chain IP protocol Story Protocol reached another important milestone on the evening of February 4th - the official release of its whitepaper. The whitepaper analyzes Story's architectural system, potential application scenarios, and the specific use cases of IP tokens, while also outlining Story's vision for the future development of the peer-to-peer IP network.
How is the Story architecture structured?
First, the whitepaper describes the architecture of the Story Protocol. In short, Story runs on a set of decentralized nodes (or validators) connected through a peer-to-peer network layer, working together to maintain consensus, process transactions, and protect the integrity of the chain. Specifically, the Story Protocol's protocol layer is divided into three layers: the execution layer, the storage layer, and the consensus layer.
In terms of the execution layer, Story adopts an innovative multi-Core execution environment, driven by a leading global main execution Core and multiple dedicated cooperating Cores. The main execution Core is responsible for processing all transactions and activating the other specialized Cores.
These specialized Cores include:
1. IP Core: Tracks the rights, licenses, and monetization of original assets and derivative assets. The Proof of Creativity (PoC) protocol is deployed on the IP Core, providing an open IP repository and a series of modules to facilitate interaction with these IPs. PoC tracks the use, extension, and monetization of IPs. IP owners can register their IPs and use the PoC modules to define usage terms and royalty structures.
2. Off-chain Sync Core (Oracle Core): Connects the on-chain and off-chain worlds, verifies the authenticity of IP assets and licenses, and generates legally binding contracts. Story's Orchestration Service (SOS) framework is deployed on this Core, extending the PoC protocol by proving the authenticity of registered IP assets and licenses, verifying the social identity of creators, receiving off-chain payments, and generating legal contracts for off-chain use.
3. Cross-chain Communication Core: Enables cross-chain message passing, allowing IP assets to be used across different blockchains.
In addition, Story also plans to add an AI Core and a ZK Core in the future, aiming to optimize and simplify on-chain operations related to AI, while efficiently verifying zero-knowledge proofs (allowing IP owners to prove the ownership or authenticity of their IP assets without revealing sensitive information).
In terms of the storage layer, Story adopts a storage layer similar to the NAND Flash Translation Layer (FTL), optimizing data placement, balancing performance, scalability, cost, and redundancy, and also integrating on-chain and off-chain storage solutions such as IPFS and Arweave.
As for the consensus layer, the initial version of Story uses the high-performance implementation of Tendermint, CometBFT, as the consensus engine, ensuring the security, stability, and immediate finality of the network. Story's consensus layer uses a PoS mechanism, with validators playing a crucial role in maintaining the security and integrity of the blockchain. This creates direct economic incentives for honest and efficient operation, as malicious behavior will result in penalties, including the loss of staked tokens. This layer manages all aspects related to staking, locking requirements, and reward distribution.
What are the potential use cases of Story?
According to the Story whitepaper, the existence of a universal IP repository and a programmable smart marketplace may signal the beginning of a new Renaissance.
For example, applications can integrate the existing IP catalogs of pharmaceutical companies or media organizations as IP RWAs into Story. Native programmable IPs can be combined with emerging DeFi applications in the IPFi field, where IP assets can be fractionalized, used as collateral, staked, or otherwise utilized in an economically efficient manner.
Furthermore, the interaction between agents and humans can also be realized through Story's programmable execution environment, where agents can autonomously license IP assets from Story and upgrade their creative styles or knowledge bases through fine-tuning. If revenue is generated, the agents can share a portion of the revenue with the original IP holders through Story's royalty module. Pure agent-to-agent IP transactions are also feasible.
Story can also provide a fundamental settlement layer for AI transactions, used for training AI models and monetizing AI outputs. Story's Agent TCP/IP (IP Agent Transaction Control Protocol) supports autonomous interactions between AI agents, facilitating the trading and licensing of IP assets.
Story states that as IP expands with the acceleration of AI, Story's network will become the cornerstone of the new intelligent economy. AI runs on IP, and Story makes IP programmable.
What is the utility of IP tokens?
In the Story ecosystem, IP tokens play a crucial role, coordinating all value flows within the peer-to-peer IP system.
1. IP tokens serve as Story's gas, staking, and utility tokens, as well as the underlying transaction medium of the network. Whenever users engage in usage, trading, or revenue generation, IP tokens are efficiently processed and fairly distributed through a transparent fee mechanism.
2. Since Story uses a PoS consensus, validators stake IP tokens to maintain network security. Validators process transactions and maintain the integrity of the blockchain, earning IP rewards based on their performance.
3. The PoC protocol and other specialized protocols deployed on the IP Core all rely on IP tokens as their operational foundation. IP tokens facilitate all value transfers within the IP Core, including royalty distribution, licensing fees, and usage-based compensation.
4. The Agent TCP/IP protocol utilizes IP tokens to provide a security layer for communication between agents, and a native mechanism for efficient value transactions between agents.
