Kim Seo-joon highlights worldview density over linear narratives, proposes Total World Value metric and blockchain solutions for IP management
Kim Seo-joon, CEO of global Web3 venture capital Hashed, predicted that in the future AI era, the competitiveness of intellectual property (IP) will depend not on a single completed content but on how to expand the worldview of that content.
Hashed announced on the 27th that it has published an article addressing the changes in IP competitiveness and the challenges of the secondary creation ecosystem following the spread of AI. Kim diagnosed that in an environment where generative AI has reduced creation costs to nearly ‘zero (0)’, the IP moat is shifting from ‘linear narratives’ to the ‘density of worldviews’ that fans want to expand. The IP moat refers to a strategy where companies secure a competitive advantage through IP to raise market entry barriers.
Kim explained, “In an era where a single prompt can create videos indistinguishable from the original, the essence of IP is being redefined.” He added, “In the past, the power of a single completed story (content) with a beginning and end was the core asset of IP. Going forward, the worldview itself, condensed with characters, aesthetics, rules, and collective memory, will determine competitiveness.”
To explain AI’s changes, the concept of Total Value Locked (TVL) from decentralized finance (DeFi) was expanded to propose ‘Total World Value (TVW)’ as a metric applicable to IP. According to Hashed, while TVL estimates the total assets locked in a protocol, TVW measures how much imagination and participation have accumulated in a single world. For example, the ‘worldview density’ of Marvel and Pokémon, which cannot be explained solely by the success of individual works, is envisioned as the foundation for long-term value.
However, Kim pointed out that as worldviews are expanded by fans, copyright infringement also structurally increases. This is because methods to fundamentally block secondary creation, such as the spread of open-source generative image/video engines, locally operated models, anonymous servers, and cross-border prompts, are practically difficult to implement.
He proposed, “The music industry couldn’t completely stop illegal downloads, and eventually, the industry regrew with the emergence of legal distribution structures.” He suggested, “The question should shift from ‘how to block’ to ‘how to wisely open up.'”
As a solution, he emphasized that it shouldn’t be limited to simple profit sharing. It requires solving complex tasks simultaneously, such as the status of secondary IP created by fans, community-based quality and direction management, and protecting the original creator’s intent and worldview consistency. To achieve this, he argued that a transparent ledger infrastructure is needed to track contributions, prove rights, and automatically distribute rewards. He judged that blockchain could serve as a suitable alternative.
Kim predicted, “If AI reduces creation costs to near zero, blockchain will become the layer that settles the value of creation.” He added, “The next chapter of the IP industry is likely to be written at the intersection of these two technologies.”
