Layer 1 blockchain
DATA Network ticker DATA
Summary
Proof of stake with CometBFT voting. Since the Seneca hard fork (story v1.8.0, released in May 2026) took effect at mainnet block 18,173,000 on 2 June 2026, only the 21 validators with the most stake are active; the set was 64 at launch and 80 after the Polybius upgrade. A block is final once validators holding more than two-thirds of voting power precommit it. Stake is denominated in DATA, the gas token of the execution side: holders stake through a system contract whose events the consensus client processes, the consensus client then tracks the stake, and unbonded stake and rewards return to the execution side through per-block withdrawal queues. The staking design lists slashing of 5% plus permanent removal for double-signing, and 0.02% plus jailing for missing 95% of the last 28,800 blocks. Locked tokens can be staked with the same voting power but a reduced reward weight. 47161820242533
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainIndependent proof-of-stake layer 1 (mainnet chain ID 1514) that ran as Story from its first mainnet client releases in January 2025 until its foundation renamed it DATA Network, and the IP token DATA, on 25 June 2026; the foundation said the network kept running without interruption and the validator set was unchanged. Every node runs two clients: story-geth, a fork of Geth that runs the EVM and holds balances, and story, a consensus client built on CometBFT and a PIP Labs fork of the Cosmos SDK that drives story-geth over the Engine API. It does not settle to another chain.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Stake (proof of stake)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Economic finality
- Who makes blocks
- The active set is the top 21 validators by stake. CometBFT picks each round's proposer deterministically, in proportion to voting power. Creating a validator needs a self-stake of at least 1,024 tokens (the docs still write IP), a commission of at least 5%, and a one-time choice between accepting locked or unlocked tokens. Replies to the SIP-00011 proposal on the forum raised concentration concerns and mention Foundation delegations; the operators behind the 21 active validators and their stake shares were not verified.
- Fork choice
- No open weight-based chain selection. Each height is decided in CometBFT rounds of prevotes and precommits and commits with more than two-thirds of voting power; if a round fails, a new round starts at the same height. The execution client follows whatever the consensus client finalizes, through the Engine API fork-choice update. With more than one-third of voting power offline or refusing to sign, the chain stops. The Foundation's patch notes describe bugs, fixed in late 2025, that let a single malicious validator crash other nodes.
Qualifications
- Settlement family · Partial. Grouped with Ethereum-family chains because accounts, transactions, contracts, fees and wallets are handled by story-geth, a Geth fork running the EVM with Ethereum JSON-RPC. The consensus client is built on CometBFT and a PIP Labs fork of the Cosmos SDK, using its staking, slashing, distribution, governance and upgrade modules, but the gas token lives on the execution side and holders stake through an EVM system contract. No cross-chain light-client module appears in the documented module list.
- Slashing · Applies. The staking design lists 5% slashing and permanent removal for double-signing and 0.02% slashing plus jailing for downtime, with both locked and unlocked stake exposed, and a 14-day unbonding period during which stake can still be slashed. These figures were not read from the chain: the consensus client API is documented only for an operator's own node.
- Token rename · Applies. On 25 June 2026 the foundation renamed Story to DATA Network and the IP token to DATA, one-to-one, saying holders need take no action and integrations keep working. PIP Labs publishes a wrapped DATA contract whose repository describes it as a rebrand of the wrapped IP token with a one-call migration. Client binaries, repositories, parts of the docs (for example the 1,024 IP staking minimum) and Ledger's currency list still use the names Story and IP.
- Ip asset contracts · Partial. The Proof-of-Creativity contracts (IP Asset Registry, IP Accounts and the licensing, royalty, dispute, grouping and metadata modules) and an IP Graph precompile in story-geth, at address 0x0101, record IP assets, their parent links and royalty stacks on chain. The contracts' repository marks them deprecated as of 19 September 2026 and says the IP Portal and related services shut down on 15 October 2026; deployed contracts stay on chain without team support.
- Data provenance and confidentiality · Partial. The Foundation's current focus is Trace and Confidential Data Rails. Trace is a Foundation-run API whose records receive an on-chain anchor transaction after the Foundation broadcasts it; its guide describes onboarding on staging and a deployed production environment. Confidential Data Rails, which encrypts data to a key that a validator committee generates inside Intel SGX enclaves and releases it by threshold decryption, runs only on the Aeneid testnet.
- Upgrade governance · Partial. Upgrades are scheduled by hard forks or by upgrade events from an EVM contract, which the node docs call multisig-controlled with a planned move to voting. Client release notes carry Security Council signatures, and the Council can cancel scheduled governance actions, veto upgrades and pause contracts in emergencies. The Foundation says token voting is being explored and would likely be counted off chain.
- Tps · Unknown. No throughput figure was found in the Foundation's current documentation, so no classed claim is recorded.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Security
- Gives up
- Breadth of block production. Since June 2026 at most 21 validators, ranked by stake, propose and commit every block, down from 80, and Foundation delegations influence who is in the set. Software upgrades are scheduled by hard forks or through an upgrade contract that the node docs describe as multisig-controlled, and a Security Council that Foundation directors largely appoint in its first phase can veto upgrades and pause contracts in emergencies.The Foundation presents one-block finality and the smaller set as performance choices; SIP-00011 argues that fewer validators cut consensus messaging. Security is listed because committed blocks do not reorganize while fewer than one-third of voting power misbehaves and the documented slashing puts stake at risk, but the slashing figures come from documentation and were not checked against on-chain parameters, and several liveness bugs were patched through private binaries before disclosure.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 1011122022The mainnet node guide lists a dedicated 8-core CPU, 32 GB of RAM, a 500 GB NVMe drive and 25 Mbit/s on Ubuntu 22.04, with two clients running side by side. The consensus client supports snap sync for the execution client, and the validator guide points operators recovering from upgrades to snapshots they make themselves or get from community providers, which means trusting that snapshot. Since story-geth v1.2.0 a path-based archive node keeps 90,000 blocks of historical state by default. Current chain size was not stated. Joining the 21-validator active set is a separate, stake-ranked step.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | No hash-time-locked or other trust-minimized swap mechanism for this chain was reviewed. The EVM could host one, but none was verified. |
| Authenticated data publication | Core-team softwareLimited scope | Core metadata module (Proof-of-Creativity contracts, published by the DATA Foundation and deployed on mainnet): an IP asset's owner records a metadata URI and a 32-byte hash of that file on chain and in an event; readers fetch the file and check the hash, and changes emit new events until the owner freezes them. Limited: only the URI and hash are on chain, so retrieval depends on the file's host; the contract does not check the hash; the contracts are deprecated from 19 September 2026. Trace was not assessed: its guide shows no way for a reader to check a record against an on-chain commitment. 14262728 |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | CometBFT commits: consensus produces what a light client checks, since each block is committed with precommit signatures from validators holding more than two-thirds of voting power, and each consensus block carries the execution payload. Limited: no mainnet light client or cross-chain light-client connection for this chain was found; the whitepaper says the enclave software behind Confidential Data Rails runs a light client that checks block headers and signatures, but that software runs only on the Aeneid testnet. 6891516 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel network settling to this chain was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | story-geth runs the EVM with the Pectra features, including delegated account code for ordinary accounts (EIP-7702), enabled on mainnet in 2025, and the Fusaka changes activated on 15 January 2026; spend conditions are smart contracts and smart accounts. 51222 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | No protocol feature for cancelling, delaying or reclaiming a payment, or for account recovery, was found in the reviewed docs, and absence was not verified. The Security Council's emergency powers to pause contracts and, with governance, restore funds are interventions, not a path a user sets up. 13 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup settling to this chain was reviewed. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | No mechanism for this chain by which a maker signs one side of a trade that any taker can complete in one transaction was reviewed. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | ThinStoryHunt, PiperX | StoryHunt's app describes it as an AMM DEX native to the chain, and PiperX's site lists an AMM DEX with farming and voting, powered by Story; DeFiLlama lists both on the chain with small amounts locked. Operators, audits and liquidity depth were not reviewed, and other venues were not sampled. 313234 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | The Foundation's FAQ says the chain has no native stablecoin and points to USDC.e bridged through Stargate; neither Circle's USDC contract list nor Tether's supported-protocol list includes the chain. 23536 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | No algorithmic stablecoin with material use on this chain was reviewed. |
| Bridges | Established in the ecosystemStargate (USDC.e route), deBridge, Orbiter Finance | The Foundation's docs point users to three independent bridges and name Stargate as the route for bridged USDC.e; DeFiLlama also lists LayerZero on the chain. No bridge run by the Foundation or verified by this chain's own validators was found. Risk: Each bridge is run by a separate company with its own trust model (verifiers, relayers or liquidity providers), which this review did not audit. USDC.e is a bridged token, not USDC issued by Circle on this chain, so it is only as sound as the bridge that minted it. 1234 |
| Block explorers | ThinDATA Network Blockscout explorer (datanetscan.io) | The Foundation's mainnet page lists one official explorer, the Blockscout instance at datanetscan.io, without naming who runs it; the older storyscan.io address redirected there on 2026-09-29. The page also lists five community explorers (Stakeme, Nodes.Guru, CroutonDigital, DeSpread and Noders); in a spot check on 2026-09-29 only the Nodes.Guru page loaded, its data was not checked, and the other four returned errors or did not answer, so one explorer is counted. Explorer data is indexed and can lag the chain. 330 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (listed as Story, ticker IP, behind a feature switch), Trezor (through MetaMask or Rabby) | See custody rows: Ledger's currency list includes the network as Story with ticker IP, signed with the Ethereum app, but Ledger Wallet's code keeps it behind a feature switch that is off by default. Trezor's Data Network page lists the network only beside MetaMask and Rabby, not Trezor Suite. The chain's docs recommend software EVM wallets without naming a hardware wallet. 137383940 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | PartialSame as native: Unknown | Can: Use the Story account type in Ledger Wallet where Ledger has switched it on; the currency entry for chain ID 1514 signs with the Ledger Ethereum app Cannot: Count on Ledger Wallet showing the network by default: its code declares the Story currency switch with a default of off, and whether Ledger turns it on remotely was not verified Cannot: Find the network under its current name: Ledger's currency list (@ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0) still calls it Story with ticker IPLedger's currency entry names the network Story, ticker IP, 18-decimal units, chain ID 1514 and an explorer at storyscan.io, so it predates the June 2026 rename. 373839 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby (third-party wallet apps)Same as native: Unknown | Can: Use a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 with the network through MetaMask or Rabby, which Trezor's Data Network page lists Cannot: Count on Trezor Suite for the network: Trezor's page names only MetaMask and Rabby as the wallet apps for itTrezor's page uses the new name, Data Network, and lists the supported network as Story; Trezor Suite's own code was not checked. Signing staking-contract calls with a Trezor was not tested. 40 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for DATA Network yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Reviewed Sep 29, 2026 Next review due Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Proof-of-Creativity IP contracts deprecated; IP Portal to shut down on 15 October 2026
The repository for the Proof-of-Creativity contracts, which register IP assets and handle licensing, royalties and disputes on the chain, now says the contracts are deprecated as of 19 September 2026 and will get no new features, bug fixes or security patches. It says the IP Portal and related services shut down on 15 October 2026, that deployed contracts stay on chain without team support, and that users should plan a migration.
- Implementation:repository marked deprecated
- Release:deprecation notice published
- Activation:deprecated from 19 September 2026; IP Portal shutdown scheduled for 15 October 2026
Sources: The Data Foundation (GitHub) — protocol-core-v1: Story Proof-of-Creativity Core (external site) · PIP Labs (GitHub) — Story-Geth v1.2.3 release notes (external site)
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Story became the DATA Network and the IP ticker became DATA
The foundation announced that Story is becoming the DATA Foundation, the Story Network the DATA Network and the IP token DATA, one-to-one with no holder action required. It said the rename does not break integrations, the network runs without interruption and the validator set is unchanged, and it moved its stated focus from IP licensing to provenance, processing and licensing of AI training data through Trace, Poseidon and partner apps such as Kled.
- Implementation:names changed on the foundation's site, docs, explorer and RPC addresses; PIP Labs published a wrapped DATA contract described as a rebrand of wrapped IP
- Release:announced 25 June 2026
- Activation:effective at announcement per the foundation; no chain upgrade was announced for it
Sources: The Data Foundation blog — We're becoming The DATA Foundation (external site) · DATA Foundation Docs — Mainnet: network resources (external site) · PIP Labs (GitHub) — WDATA: Wrapped DATA token (external site)
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Seneca hard fork cut the active validator set from 80 to 21
PIP Labs released story v1.8.0 (Seneca), a mandatory consensus-client hard fork scheduled for mainnet block 18,173,000 that reduces the number of active validators from 80 to 21 under SIP-00011. The proposal, posted on 30 April 2026, argued that fewer validators cut consensus messaging; validators replying on the forum objected that 21 would concentrate control. Validators outside the top 21 stop earning rewards, and their delegators must redelegate or unbond.
- Proposal:SIP-00011 posted on the forum on 30 April 2026; the thread shows objections from validators and describes no token vote
- Implementation:shipped in story v1.8.0
- Release:mandatory hard-fork release
- Activation:took effect at block 18,173,000, which the official explorer dates to 2 June 2026; the live active-set size was not read
Sources: PIP Labs (GitHub) — Seneca (Story v1.8.0) release notes (external site) · DATA Foundation forum — [Proposal] SIP-00011: Reducing the Active Validator Set from 80 to 21 (external site) · Datanetscan — Block 18,173,000 (Seneca upgrade height) in the Datanetscan API (external site) · PIP Labs (GitHub) — Polybius (Story v1.3.2) release notes (external site)
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Distributed key generation and Confidential Data Rails reached the Aeneid testnet
PIP Labs released story v1.6.1, a mandatory binary swap for the Aeneid testnet at block 16,332,000, adding distributed key generation, in which a validator committee creates a shared encryption key inside secure enclaves, and Confidential Data Rails, which lets users keep encrypted data in on-chain vaults and have committee members return partial decryptions only to authorized requesters. A consensus bug for DKG-enabled nodes was fixed in v1.6.2, and the Foundation's blog announced the testnet on 10 April 2026.
- Implementation:shipped in story v1.6.1 for Aeneid
- Release:testnet release
- Activation:active on the Aeneid testnet; the docs still described the public release as testnet only on 29 September 2026
Sources: PIP Labs (GitHub) — Story v1.6.1 (Aeneid Testnet only) release notes (external site) · The Data Foundation blog — CDR on Testnet: A New Way to Use Sensitive Data Without Exposing It (external site) · DATA Foundation Docs — CDR Overview (external site) · The Data Foundation blog — We're becoming The DATA Foundation (external site)
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Horace hard fork lowered issuance and cut the locked-stake reward weight
PIP Labs released story v1.5.2 (Horace), a mandatory hard fork at mainnet block 13,780,500 that implements SIP-00009: yearly issuance moves from about 25.3 million tokens, the result of the original per-block rate and a faster block rate, to 15,315,000, and the reward weight of locked-token delegations drops from 0.5 to 0.025. Locked and unlocked stake keep equal voting power.
- Proposal:SIP-00009 posted on the forum on 18 January 2026
- Implementation:shipped in story v1.5.2
- Release:mandatory hard-fork release
- Activation:took effect at mainnet block 13,780,500, which the official explorer dates to 5 February 2026; the live parameters were not read in this review
Sources: PIP Labs (GitHub) — Horace (Story v1.5.2) release notes (external site) · DATA Foundation forum — [Proposal] SIP-00009: Emissions Recalibration & Locked Staking Multiplier Adjustment (external site) · DATA Foundation Docs — Staking Design (external site) · Datanetscan — Block 13,780,500 (Horace upgrade height) in the Datanetscan API (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for DATA Network through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- The number of active validators after the Seneca fork was not read directly, because the consensus client API is documented only for an operator's own node; who runs the active validators and how stake is split among them were not verified.
- Slashing rates, the 14-day unbonding period and the 1,024-token staking minimum come from documentation, not from on-chain parameters; a community request to lower the delegation minimum was mentioned in the patch notes, and whether it changed was not checked.
- The staking design page still shows 20 million tokens of yearly emissions and a 0.5 locked-stake multiplier, which SIP-00009 and the Horace fork (story v1.5.2, active from block 13,780,500) changed; the live values were not read.
- Parts of the docs lag the chain: the node guide lists story v1.4.2 while v1.8.0 is the latest release, and staking pages still use the IP ticker.
- Trace's own site says it batches receipts into a Merkle root that is registered on chain, but which contract receives it, whether readers can obtain inclusion proofs, and whether production records carry transaction hashes were not verified.
- Confidential Data Rails runs only on the Aeneid testnet; its enclave and threshold trust assumptions were not reviewed in depth.
- What happens to the IP Graph precompile, license tokens and royalty vaults after the IP Portal shutdown on 15 October 2026 was not stated in the reviewed sources.
- The previous documentation site, docs.story.foundation, served an expired certificate during review, so older IP-asset documentation was not read.
- No atomic-swap mechanism, reversible-transfer or recovery feature, mainnet light client product or signed-offer mechanism was found; absence was not exhaustively verified.
- Whether Ledger turns on the Story currency switch remotely was not verified; Ledger's enterprise network list shows Story (IP) with direct access for institutional accounts, which is not Ledger Wallet. Trezor Suite's own network code was not checked.
- The trust configuration of Stargate, deBridge and Orbiter for this chain, and the backing of USDC.e, were not reviewed.
- Operators, audits and liquidity depth of StoryHunt and PiperX were not reviewed.
- Who holds the multisig behind the upgrade contract, and its signing threshold, were not verified; token voting is described as under exploration.
- Current chain size and archive storage needs were not stated in the docs.
- Who operates the official Blockscout explorer is not stated, and four of the five community explorers listed in the docs did not load on 2026-09-29.
- An older RPC address, mainnet.storyrpc.io, still answered with chain ID 1514 on 2026-09-29, but it is not listed on the current connection page.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 29, 2026 Next check due Oct 29, 2026.
- Introduction (external site)
- FAQ (external site)
- Mainnet: network resources, RPC and block explorers (external site)
- Staking Design (external site)
- Execution Layer (EL) (external site)
- Consensus Layer (CL) (external site)
- Engine API (external site)
- Cosmos modules overview (external site)
- EVM engine module (external site)
- Full Node (mainnet setup guide) (external site)
- Become a Validator: overview (external site)
- Release Notes (external site)
- Security Council (external site)
- Trace Integration Guide (external site)
- CDR Overview (external site)
- The DATA Network, Version 0.2 (June 2026) (external site)
- We're becoming The DATA Foundation (external site)
- Recent Network Patches (external site)
- How Story Secures its Governance Processes (external site)
- Seneca (Story v1.8.0) release notes (external site)
- piplabs/story go.mod (main branch): CometBFT and Cosmos SDK fork dependencies (external site)
- Yasunari (Story-Geth v1.2.0) release notes: Fusaka upgrade (external site)
- core/vm/ipgraph.go: IP Graph precompile (main branch) (external site)
- [Proposal] SIP-00011: Reducing the Active Validator Set from 80 to 21 (external site)
- CometBFT specification: Proposer Selection Procedure (external site)
- protocol-core-v1: Story Proof-of-Creativity Core (README with deprecation notice) (external site)
- contracts/modules/metadata/CoreMetadataModule.sol (external site)
- deploy-out/deployment-1514.json: mainnet contract addresses (external site)
- WDATA: Wrapped DATA token repository (external site)
- DATA Network blockchain explorer (Blockscout) (external site)
- StoryHunt app (external site)
- PiperX: DEX and liquidity layer (external site)
- Block 18,173,000 (Seneca upgrade height) in the official explorer's API (external site)
- DeFiLlama protocols API (entries listing the Story chain) (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- @ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0 currency list (Story entry) (external site)
- ledger-live: currencyStory feature flag definition (external site)
- ledger-live: feature flag defaults (flag() defaults to disabled) (external site)
- Data Network wallet (supported network: Story) (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding