According to the folks at MADnetwork, a distributed ad technology ecosystem designed to minimize the role of intermediaries and return lost value to advertisers and publishers, blockchain technology can revolutionize the advertising business. They’re looking to get a slice of that pie. “Programmatic advertising, or the use of software to purchase digital advertising, is growing at a rapid pace,” they said in a new whitepaper. Programmatic display spending is expected to reach $33 billion by the end of this year, and $45 billion by 2019.
Programmatic advertising was a huge breakthrough, but its underlying infrastructure also brought new problems. “Because the ad tech industry grew organically from the Internet’s network growth, it has always needed a decentralized model,” the whitepaper explained. “The ecosystem consists of many remote actors who all try to service the same supply chain.”
The evolution of this ecosystem required that trust be enabled by third parties, resulting in a slew of costly middlemen. Blockchain technology “effectively removes the need for trust from the business equation and provides the decentralized tools to build a better ad tech ecosystem,” said the whitepaper.
Decentralized networks eliminate third-party bundlers and link advertisers directly with publishers. And, unlike the current market of data secrecy and walled gardens, distributed systems can reflect value, effectiveness and campaign reach more accurately.
The MAD Network consists of three distinct blockchain layers: MADnet Books, MADnet Core and MADnet Data. MADnet Books is a private chain designed to monitor high-frequency network transactions, reveal price manipulation, and foster accurate reconciliation. MADnet Core is a decentralized ad server and exchange powered by a proof-of-real-work algorithm. MADnet Data is a data storage layer that enables pseudonymous, one-time-use sharing of consumer data to boost the value of publisher inventory while improving targeting. madnetMadnetwork plans to launch a token sale on December 15th.