Story Protocol: The Characters Behind the Protocol

Story Protocol is a thriving ecosystem of people driven to enable creators to break through the ceiling. In an era swimming in the infinity pool of Generative AI trained on data from users of the internet. Today, we’re diving into the Story Protocols ecosystem and what makes it solid to support the large task of securing Intellectual Property. 

Meet the Founder’s

• Seung Yoon "SY" Lee, CEO and Co-founder of Story Protocol, brings a wealth of experience from the entertainment and tech industries. He previously held a strategic leadership role at Kakao Entertainment, a major Korean entertainment company, where he spearheaded content creation and intellectual property development. Lee also founded Radish, a successful mobile fiction platform that was acquired by Kakao for $440 million. His entrepreneurial journey includes being a venture partner at Hashed, further solidifying his expertise in the tech investment landscape.

• Jason Zhao, Story Protocol's Head of Protocol and Co-founder, complements Lee's expertise with a strong background in AI and technology. He was instrumental in deploying Google's AI models across various industries during his time as a Product Manager at DeepMind. Zhao is also an active angel investor and has a passion for the intersection of storytelling and technology, evident in his role as founding Editor in Chief of Stanford Rewired. His experience at IDEO and Stanford University, where he designed and taught a course on design thinking, further strengthens his credentials as a leader in innovation.

  
  

Members of the Core Team at Story

Weilei Y. - Head Of Ecosystem And Growth

Weilei combines practical experience with a strong academic foundation, holding degrees in Business, Engineering, Finance, Business Analytics, Computer Science, and Artificial Intelligence.

Alice Chen - Business Development Lead

Alice Chen is a seasoned business development leader with a diverse professional background.  Her experience also includes various roles at Nike, where she focused on partnerships, brand strategy, and community engagement. Chen's academic credentials include a business degree from Baruch College and further education at NYU Stern School of Business.

Kingter Wang - Protocol Architect

Kingter Wang, a Protocol Architect at Story Protocol, has a robust background in software engineering and cloud technology.  His career includes significant tenures at VMware and IBM, focusing on cloud-native applications and storage solutions.  Wang also holds advanced degrees in computer science from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Tsinghua University.

Ze Huang - Founding Engineer

Ze Huang, Prior to this, held a similar role at DimeFi and served as a Senior Software Engineer at Uber, where he developed anti-fraud solutions using machine learning and distributed systems.  His earlier work at Marvell Semiconductor involved creating simulation platforms for devices like Google Chromecast and Microsoft Xbox. Huang's academic qualifications include an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida.

We are only scratching the surface with Story’s all-star team. However, the above should demonstrate the breadth and depth of experience behind Story Protocol.

Who’s building on Story Protocol?

Orb Club

Orb Club is pioneering a new frontier for expression with ‘Creator Stickers’. In the world of social media, traditionally likes are the medium through which people show each other support. Orb Club is trying to do things a little differently. They’re removing likes and adding custom reaction stickers made by creators for even more ways to capture value in your avenues of expression. Best of all, holders and referrals are rewarded too. As for ownership, Orb Club announced they’d be working with Story Protocol to support IP ownership for sticker creators. This will allow creators to license the stickers they create for use both inside and outside of Orb. This collaboration will assist in providing clarity on usage rights and ensuring fair distribution of rewards for creators when their content is shared or reused.

Magma

Magma’s collaborative art platform addresses these challenges by allowing their 3M+ creators to register, share, and expand their intellectual property using Story’s programmable IP infrastructure. Story provides the IP backbone for Magma, aiming to be a leading platform for the future of digital art with baked-in capabilities for provenance, licensing, and new monetization models in the age of AI. These IP-centric applications represent a paradigm shift from what’s currently the Wild West of digital art, guiding what is becoming a digital renaissance, where creators and users benefit alike. Registering art on Magma as programmable IP transforms static art pieces into building blocks of creativity, allowing clear ownership claims, better discovery mechanisms, and active control of how AI companies can use their assets.

Mahojin 

Meanwhile, AI companies train their models on millions of individual IP pieces, scraping the Internet at will instead of dealing with proper licensing processes. Mahojin is an AI platform built natively on Story, which enables IP rights owners, whose raw data is crucial in model creation, to set clear commercial terms for the inclusion and usage of their assets. In turn, AI model builders can feel empowered to experiment with new monetization paths, including licensing their fine-tuned models for specific IP or artists, with a solid compliant foundation. Without a way to protect and incentivize the constant influx of human-made IP that powers these models, innovation would come at a stand still. Story solves these problems by enabling on-chain licensing, derivative tracking, and royalty sharing, giving Mahojin the infrastructure needed to incentivize and reward original content creators (photographers, artists, etc.) and IP owners, and invite creators to easily remix models or generated assets.

Sekai

Sekai combines the capabilities of generative AI with the imaginative nature of humans on its interactive storytelling platform. This is a gateway to a new way of telling stories, creating narrative worlds, and collaborating within communities. With this abundance of generative power at the fingertips of the world comes new problems, like how can IP rights owners protect their creations at this supercharged speed and scale? As a creator, it’s becoming even murkier to know what IP you can, and can’t, create with. Story’s purpose-built blockchain solves this by powering Sekai’s IP features like licensing, attribution, and royalties. IP rights holders of already-established works can tokenize their work on Sekai, just as brand new creations that began as purely generative on Sekai can become the next major IP.

A video on two of the ETHGlobal SF Hackathon prize winning teams, Hoshi and Smart Storybook.

Funding & Strategic Partnerships

AI is creating new critical problems regarding the theft of intellectual property online. To address these matters Story Protocol raised an $80 million Series B to do what it takes to solve the increasing concern. The last 3 rounds of fundraising have been led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Polychain and many others. Founded in 2022, Story has raised $140 million to date. The new round reportedly values the company at $2.25 billion. IP theft is not a new concern and finds itself further amplified by the advent of AI, in particular, generative AI models that are ingesting copyrighted material — without permission — to train and learn. Story’s blockchain network creates the fertile ground for IP owners to store and secure their IP on the blockchain, embedding terms to use it — such as  licensing fees — into smart contracts. Basically, the Story Protocol aims to ensure owners are fairly compensated anytime their IP is used. 

Story's Ecosystem Partners

From Infrastructure to Defi and beyond, Story Protocol has a multitude of Ecosystem Partners. This is the engine driving the movement toward an internet where Intellectual Property is protected and fairly compensated for. Story recently shared their updated Ecosystem Map, take a look below.

Story's Ambassador Program

Story intends to form an on-the-ground team of ambassadors to build and shape both their community and ecosystem. Participants will collaborate with fellow ambassadors and the Story team on a regular basis. 

Let’s go over some of the nuts and bolts of the program, explore the available roles and if interested, you can apply: Here. Story Protocol announced the Ambassador program on their X (Twitter) page on the 22nd of October 2024.

Story is looking for ambassadors to fill the following positions:

Community Moderators: Community Moderators play a vital role in fostering a positive and engaged community within the Discord server and other social channels. They will moderate discussions, enforce server rules, and assist with community-driven activities to maintain a welcoming environment. While moderation of platforms like Telegram or Twitter is required, it is not the primary focus of their responsibilities. Community Moderators will also collaborate with fellow ambassadors to execute cross-activations within the ecosystem and will be led by a Lead Moderator.

International Representatives & Delegates: International Representatives play a crucial role in engaging regional communities and ensuring effective localization of Story’s initiatives. They manage region-specific language channels, provide high-quality translations of Story-related content, and support local community activities. By reporting on community sentiment, Representatives help adapt the global vision of Story to local needs while maintaining consistency across regions.

For smaller-scale engagement, International Delegates may assist in similar tasks but with less involvement. They help manage language channels and relay community sentiment, serving as a bridge for regions that need representation but may not require a full-fledged International Representative. Delegates may transition to Representative roles if the need arises.

Technical Ambassadors: The Technical Ambassador is essential in guiding the community by providing technical support and educational content. This role involves creating demos and tutorials, simplifying complex updates, and sharing insights on product and ecosystem development. The Technical Ambassador ensures that all technical aspects of Story’s platform are accessible and comprehensible to both technical and non-technical users.

Creative Ambassadors: The Creative Ambassador engages with creators in or interested in Story, actively recruiting new creators and supporting creator-focused initiatives. This role involves outreach to creators, fostering relationships, and organizing creator activations and events. The Creative Ambassador helps creators connect with Story’s platform and encourages the development of on-chain creative projects.

Do Note:

• Applicants can expect a response within 2–3 weeks. 

• Applications may be submitted at any time, and incomplete or inappropriate applications may not be reviewed or responded to.

• Any closure of applications will be communicated in advance

Application form: https://tally.so/r/nPBdWb

Community News: Story’s final testnet, Odyssey, is now live! 

Odyssey's launch was announced today on X (Twitter) and Discord on the 7th of November 2024.

Odyssey is Story Protocol’s final step before moving on to their highly anticipated Mainnet launch. Not to brush past their previous testnet, Illiad amassed over 247M transactions, about 21M+ wallets, 1M+ IPAssets registered on their Proof of Creativity protocol and thousands of builders and creators who made Iliad the incredible success that it has been thus far.

Story Protocol also updated their ecosystem page where we can discover their Odyssey partners. They notified their followers that they will be rolling out badge programs for testing their applications over the coming weeks. Enthusiasts are jumping onto badge programs that are live right this second.

With Odyssey, This launch comes with: 

• nearly 100 ecosystem projects

• a badge program

• a new mint by Story

• upgrades all around!
  
  

Within the Story Protocol Discord, we also have a list of new servers. 

Including:

• #roles-hub, where you will find all the roles that are available in the Story Discord server. There are a wide range of claimable roles such as activities or international roles. There are also earnable roles such as IP and OG roles.

• #odyssey-badge-posts, being added to support the official links server

Find out more on Story Protocol’s Discord: Here

Conclusion 

Story Protocol is not merely a technological innovation; it's a movement empowering creators and shaping the future of intellectual property in the digital age. With a strong team, robust technology and a growing ecosystem, Story’s Odyssey Testnet is taking center stage to further secure Intellectual Property for the next generation of the world wide web.