As far as we know, "blockchain technology can be integrated into multiple areas. The primary use of blockchains today is as a distributed ledger for cryptocurrencies, most notably bitcoin".

Today I want to launch a series of articles about new areas where blockchain can be used. Also, I want to highlight some startups that are trying to implement blockchain solutions in those new areas.

Currently, there are a lot of problems in the digital advertising market:

Purchase of personal data of users, without the participation of users themselves;

User data leakages;

Fraud: fake or invisible banners, cheating views, and clicks. For example, the discovery of the Methbot botnet in 2016, when hackers earned $ 5 million a day, faking 300 million video views.

The opacity and complexity of accounting.

Modern blockchain startups are trying to solve these problems. There are a lot of projects trying to apply blockchain to the field of digital advertising, so I made a list of the most significant and most interesting startups.

The Brave browser privately tracks user activity and offers them to view relevant ads for a fee. In return, publishers receive tokens for each ad viewing.

I use the Brave browser on my smartphone everyday. It’s not a recommendation, just a fact😏

AdEx - decentralized advertising exchange

AdEx is the trust-minimized solution for digital advertising that reduces ad fraud, improves ad budgets, and protects user privacy. It was built on the Ethereum blockchain, (later migrated to Neo), to connect publishers and advertisers without intermediaries on a decentralized ad exchange.

For example, the Ink company has entered into a partnership with the AdEx blockchain startup to conduct a blockchain auction of advertising space on boarding passes.

The first exchange to trade with premium advertising inventory from NASDAQ. It is a contract management platform that allows advertisers and publishers to buy, sell, and trade upfront advertising contracts.

SNOVio lead generation platform

This is a decentralized platform for lead generation and email outreach (searching and collecting contacts of potential customers) from Ukrainian developers, which guarantees high quality of leads through the use of blockchain and crowd-collecting data.

Mass Network is software for users, platforms, advertisers, and data management platforms. The software offers ad blocking technology and the ability to view relevant advertisements in exchange for paying for user data with cryptocurrency.

Incent Loyalty is a platform for loyalty programs.

MadHive is a platform for video advertising and data exchange that allows brands and publishers to establish relationships to attract an audience through various platforms.

AdShares is a decentralized market for programmatic advertising (purchasing advertising using automated systems and algorithms) for personal communication. It allows advertisers and publishers the opportunity to trade directly.

AdBank is an advertising platform with full transparency of payments between advertisers and publishers.

Amino Payments provides the transparency necessary to optimize the costs of advertisers using smart contracts.

Thus, we see that today a lot of startups are trying to solve the problems of the modern digital advertising market. At the same time, technological giants are trying to develop such blockchain solutions either independently or in partnership with other companies.

So, in the spring of 2018, IBM and the publishing company Salon Media launched a pilot project called “The Campaign Reconciliation Project”, which is based on the developments of the non-profit consortium AdLedger and works on DLT solutions for the digital advertising market.

The Campaign Reconciliation Project is designed to reduce the number of intermediaries between advertisers, publishers, and consumers.

Also, the American telecommunications company Comcast, in partnership with media corporations Disney, NBC, Mediaset Italia, Channel 4, and TF1, developed a blockchain platform for advertising campaigns called Blockchain Insights Platform.

Thus, currently, one of the priority areas for the development of blockchain technology is the digital advertising market. This trend can be easily determined both by the number of projects in this area and by their success, for example, the BAT project.

And which projects in the field of digital advertising are you following? Feel free to comment below and share if these projects weren't mentioned in the article