What Story Foundation does

Story Foundation, now operating as The Data Foundation, builds a blockchain-based provenance and licensing network for human-contributed AI training data. The core architecture pairs the Trace protocol, a tamper-proof ledger that issues verifiable receipts for every record contributed, with the DATA Network's content-addressed storage (IPFS) to preserve metadata while maintaining contributor privacy. On top of the protocol, the foundation operates a portfolio of data marketplace apps — Kled (the largest opt-in human-data marketplace, with 1.5B+ records uploaded and 5M+ daily uploads), Oto (voice and conversational audio), Numo (text and reasoning traces), and the forthcoming Miso (multimodal/sensor data) — and infrastructure tools including Trace for verification, Poseidon for data cleaning and labeling into model-ready datasets, and Confidential Data Rails (CDR) for programmatic gated access to sensitive records.

Name

Story Foundation

Legal name

The Data Foundation

Website

https://story.foundation

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Story Foundation (The Data Foundation) operates a blockchain-based provenance network and opt-in data marketplace that supplies AI labs with verifiable, consent-anchored human training data across image, video, audio, and text.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Blockchain AI Data Infrastructure

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

Regulatory Reporting, Tax & Audit Trails (reconciliation, provenance) (FSAPAJAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Decentralized Data Availability & Storage Verification (DA layers, proofs of storage/replication, audit networks) (FSAPALAH), Blockchain Data & Indexing Infrastructure for Finance (Nodes, Indexers, Oracles) (FSAGAMAL), Compliance, Risk & RegTech for Tokenized Assets (KYC/AML, sanctions, travel rule, reporting) (FSAPAIAH)

Keywords

• Blockchain data network
• AI data provenance
• Data licensing platform
• Intellectual property tokenization
• Data marketplace infrastructure

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Protocol Token Economics: The DATA token ($DATA) serves as the native token for the network, enabling staking, payments for data licensing, and validator participation in the network economy
2. Data Marketplace Commission: Kled marketplace enables people to upload and license their own data, with the network taking a commission on data transactions through its opt-in human data marketplace
3. Validator/Staking Revenue: Network generates revenue from staking activities and validator operations supporting the tokenized IP and AI data network infrastructure

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Story Foundation (now operating as The Data Foundation) operates a blockchain-based AI data network that provides tamper-proof provenance for human-contributed data records. The platform consists of contributor apps (Kled, Oto, Numo, Miso) that capture opt-in human data, the DATA Network blockchain ledger for verifiable receipts, the Trace verification tool, and the Poseidon data processing layer, with Confidential Data Rails (CDR) enabling programmatic gated access to sensitive data. The $DATA token powers network economics including staking, licensing payments, and validator participation.

Product overview

The Data Foundation (formerly Story Foundation) operates the world's largest AI data network, providing infrastructure for human-contributed data provenance, licensing, and exchange. The platform consists of multiple integrated products: the core DATA Network (blockchain-based ledger for data provenance), Kled (opt-in human data marketplace), Oto (voice and audio data), Numo (text and reasoning contributions), Miso (multimodal/sensor data), Trace (verification and audit tool), Poseidon (data processing and labeling), and Confidential Data Rails (secure data sharing). The $DATA token powers the network's economic incentives and governance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• DATA Network Blockchain-based ledger that ensures immutability and open access for all data contributions, providing a tamper-proof provenance trail for billions of human-contributed records.
• Kled The largest opt-in human-data marketplace enabling people to upload and license their own data (photos, videos, audio) while getting paid. Supports 1.5B+ records uploaded and 5M+ new uploads daily.
• Trace Verification and audit tool that reads from and writes to the Data Network's blockchain ledger, enabling labs to verify datasets, contributors to confirm terms, and regulators to audit consent at scale.
• Poseidon Data processing platform that cleans and labels raw data into model-ready datasets, connecting supply from contributor apps to AI buyers.
• Oto Voice and conversational audio data product enabling contributors to provide audio recordings for AI training in speech recognition and generation.
• Numo Text and reasoning trace contributions platform for language learning and text-based AI training data.
• Confidential Data Rails (CDR) Programmatic gated access infrastructure for confidential information, enabling secure data sharing without exposing sensitive data. Available via SDK.
• IP Portal Web interface for exploring and managing intellectual property on the network.

Quantifiable outcome

• 3.5 million monthly active users on Verse8 platform powered by Story integration
• +5 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability9 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Song Jae-kyungcoreOthers · 26 March 2026Nexon co-founder and CEO joining Verse8 as advisor following Story Foundation's investment, bringing deep gaming industry leadership experience

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Labelbox: AI data platform for labeling, evaluation, and dataset management used by enterprise AI teams. Adjacent incumbent competing for the same data-engineering procurement budget, though without the opt-in consumer marketplace model.
• Chainlink: Decentralized oracle network providing tamper-proof data feeds for smart contracts. Comparable as established blockchain data-infrastructure incumbent — though Chainlink focuses on price/oracle feeds rather than human-contributed training data.
• Scale AI: Dominant AI data labeling and evaluation platform serving frontier labs. Broad incumbent that competes for the same enterprise AI training-data budget — though without blockchain provenance, which is Story's wedge.
• Polygon Labs: Major L2 blockchain infrastructure provider where Story-style data provenance networks could be deployed. Broad incumbent that competes for developer mindshare in the same blockchain-infrastructure category.
• Appen: Established provider of training data for AI, including image, text, speech, and video annotation across 80+ languages. Comparable as a multi-modal data services incumbent competing for the same buyer segment.

Direct peers

• Ocean Protocol: Decentralized data exchange protocol that lets individuals and organizations monetize data while preserving privacy. Closest direct competitor — both operate token-incentivized data marketplaces with provenance and licensing onchain, targeting AI/enterprise buyers.
• Streamr: Decentralized real-time data network with token-incentivized publishers and subscribers. Comparable as a blockchain-native data infrastructure peer, though Streamr focuses more on real-time IoT streams while Story targets human-contributed training data.
• Vana: User-owned data network where individuals contribute personal data (social, browsing, health) into DataDAOs that train AI models. Highly comparable because Vana and Story both compete for the same individual-contributor segment and emphasize verifiable provenance.

Emerging players

• Render Network: Decentralized GPU compute network using token incentives to source rendering/AI compute. Comparable as a tokenized marketplace for AI-adjacent resources, though focused on compute rather than training data.
• Filecoin: Decentralized storage network (IPFS-based) that Story itself relies on for content-addressed storage of contributor data. Adjacent infrastructure provider; competes for the same crypto-native data infrastructure narrative and overlapping developer mindshare.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/StoryProtocol
• GitHubgithub.com/piplabs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/story-foundation

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments3 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Story Foundation