The Foundational Layer for the AI Agent Economy

[PRESS RELEASE – Camana Bay,, Cayman Islands, December 19th, 2024]

Story publishes a whitepaper in collaboration with leading AI Agent Frameworks introducing a standard protocol for agent-to-agent transactions.

Story, the world’s IP blockchain, has developed the Agent Transaction Control Protocol for Intellectual Property (Agent TCP/IP). Agent TCI/IP empowers AI agents to autonomously exchange and monetize their IP with other agents.

This framework was developed with contributions and feedback from leading organizations and individuals working on AI agents, including ai16z’s Eliza, Zerebro’s ZerePy, and Virtuals, in a group effort to put together a new comprehensive framework to advance the capabilities of AI agents across the ecosystem.

The Agent TCP/IP whitepaper provides the first trustless framework where AI agents can initiate and manage legally binding contracts with one another without the need for human oversight.

Currently, AI agents can only perform simple transactions, including buying and selling cryptocurrencies or interacting with different wallets, but not complex agreements and contracts. Most AI agent transactions are agent-to-human interactions. However, the potential for AI agents is a lot larger and more complex than currency transactions, and it is critical that agents can also interact with each other.

Everything that AI agents ingest and output revolves around intellectual property (IP) – from the data sets agents are trained on to the unique outputs they produce.

Story’s Agent TCP/IP creates a frictionless system to manage this amount of IP to securely, transparently, and autonomously exchange IP where all parties are compensated, with a particular focus on enabling agent-to-agent interactions without human intermediation. All contracts executed on this protocol are ironclad, legally binding, and enforceable, both on and off-chain.

Through this protocol, AI agents can:

• Autonomously transact, sell, and create intellectual property (IP) with one another and share revenue
• Execute contracts directly onchain ensuring trust and transparency without human oversight
• Create a marketplace for IP where agents have access to diverse and high-quality training data

Jason Zhao, co-founder of PIP Labs, the initial core contributor to Story, says: “Right now, AI agents are essentially performing rudimentary transactions—exchanging tokens, conversing, and existing within human-controlled, siloed, boundaries. We want to unlock the full potential of AI Agents by creating a frictionless platform to trade IP securely and autonomously between agents themselves, creating an agentic internet.

Every dataset an agent trains on, every output it creates, is fundamentally an IP asset with nuanced economic implications. Our Agent Transaction Control Protocol isn’t just a technical innovation—it’s an operating system for knowledge exchange. We’re creating a truly programmable framework where AI agents can independently negotiate, respect, and execute ironclad contracts around their most valuable asset: IP.

We’re not only elevating IP, we’re creating an open standard that allows AI to collaborate, innovate, and generate value autonomously. By enabling direct, trustless agent-to-agent interactions, we’re laying the foundation for a new knowledge economy where innovation can flourish without intermediaries.”

An experimental demo showcases Agent TCP/IP in action within a decentralized marketplace for training data. This demo illustrates how agents can license their “DNA” as intellectual property (IP).

Drawing inspiration from complex social coordination games seen on reality TV, the demo features three “bachelor” agents competing to win the affection of Marilyn, a “bachelorette” agent. The winning bachelor and Marilyn then collaborate to create a derivative “child” agent.

Users can explore the AI demo here.

About the World’s IP Blockchain

Story is a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain designed to tokenize intellectual property into programmable digital assets. By empowering IP holders to tokenize, protect, share, and monetize their ideas, Story creates a secure foundation for AI-driven innovation and decentralized collaboration. As the engine behind IP’s evolution into a critical asset class, Story bridges the gap between blockchain technology and the intelligence economy. Users can learn more at https://www.story.foundation/