Blockchain technology has revolutionized finance, but its use outside of money is still limited. That’s a massive missed opportunity, according to Jason Zhao, co-founder and Chief Protocol Officer of Story Protocol , who believes intellectual property (IP) is the next frontier for on-chain adoption.

“Bitcoin is a sort of a digital version of gold. You have Ethereum and Solana competing to be digital versions of Wall Street. If you look outside of that, there's not much in the blockchain space. It's almost as if you were only going to apply AI to healthcare,” Zhao said on TheStreet Roundtable.

Fixing a $70 Trillion Industry

Story Protocol is on a mission to bring intellectual property to the blockchain, a market Zhao says is riddled with inefficiencies.

“Intellectual property is a $70 trillion asset class…but also one that's extremely inefficient,” he explained. “I want to create a lunchbox of Darth Vader, how would I do that? I'm going to hire a legal team to represent me, I have to go find the right lawyers at Disney's licensing division to go and take a meeting with me. Then I need to go through a very complex legal negotiation and if I'm successful, then I can get a deal and then I have to audit that deal over and over.”

Story Protocol’s solution? “Programmable IP”—a blockchain-powered system where creators can license their content instantly and be automatically paid when someone uses it.

“(The creator) might say, here's my character that I created, you need to pay me $1000 up front to get a license for it, and this license is a commercial license, so if you generate revenue, you need to share 50% with me,” Zhao explained. “Now any of the users on connected apps can actually know exactly what they need to do in order to use it.”

If someone violates the terms off-chain, legal action can still be taken.

Major investors and IP backing the project

Story Protocol isn’t just an idea—it’s backed by some of the biggest names in crypto and entertainment.

“We're the first blockchain company that a16z crypto has led three rounds in a row since Coinbase,” Zhao said, referring to Andreessen Horowitz’s $3.4 billion crypto fund.

Beyond investors, Story Protocol is already onboarding huge IPs, including BTS and Justin Bieber, as well as David Goyer, the screenwriter behind The Dark Knight trilogy, who is using the platform to launch a new sci-fi franchise.

To fund this vision, Story Protocol has also launched its own token, IP.