On Monday 6th August, James Tabor, CEO of MEDIA Protocol, and Ivo Georgiev, CEO of AdEx, sat down for an AMA session conducted over Telegram.

MEDIA Protocol recently established a partnership with AdEx, sharing all their news and announcements via CryptoCatnip (MEDIA Protocol’s proof of concept dApp). For this AMA session, members of each project’s respective communities were invited to join James and Ivo on the MEDIA Protocol Telegram Channel, to discuss digital advertising as we know it and how it’s changing, as well as all things blockchain.

An Introduction To AdEx

AdEx is a protocol for decentralised and transparent advertising, designed to improve digital advertising, by removing middle parties and reducing fraud. The birth of AdEx was very organic — created by the same team that developed and maintain Stremio, a video entertainment aggregator. Realising the only way to monetise Stremio was through digital advertising, they quickly experienced the lack of transparency, inefficiency, and lack of fairness in traditional ad networks. With their vast experience in P2P systems, creating a protocol like AdEx was the natural way to go.

What do you see as the most pressing problems in digital advertising?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

The biggest issues are lack of transparency, inefficiency, and lack of fairness — lack of transparency is the biggest. If the system is centralised and opaque by design, you can never know if the reporting dashboard you see is a correct representation, which gives the power to the ad network, to basically fabricate whatever data they want.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

There is a diverse range of “metrics” that no one is willing to properly back. It seems to be a race to keep advertising spend up, as opposed to engagement. It is in this area that I believe the industry faces it’s largest challenge. The industry struggles to even agree or enforce what entails fraud. It’s worrying at this stage.

However, I think it is incorrect to lay all blame at purveyors of advertising. There is sometimes flawed thinking from the side of advertisers, some of whom have become addicted to metrics that have little substance.

Could you delve a little more into how AdEx works? Which middle parties are you disintermediating?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

There are two specific kinds of fraud that we help prevent:

The fraud that an ad network might commit — i.e. lying in reporting.

This is something that we eliminate directly by having a transparent but anonymous reporting system.

The fraud that publishers might commit (click fraud)

This one is more difficult but we generally tackle it similarly to everyone else.

We are essentially eliminating the entire DSP — exchange — SSP flow, and replacing it with a direct publisher to advertiser market, verification, and reporting system.

How does this change how an advertiser purchases space? Is there a point in the “longtail” where DSPs / SSPs could exist?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

I think there definitely is. That’s how SSPs and DSPs originated in the first place. However, the protocol makes the entire process tidy, standard, and universally transparent. Even if your flow goes through a third party that helps you in some way. But in many initial cases I think you won’t need anything more than direct publisher to advertiser relations.

What is your view on ad-blocking, or letting the audience choose the adverts they want to see?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

It could be very beneficial for all parties. Maybe that’s an idealistic view, but I believe cases where advertising isn’t converting much usually happen because the ads themselves are really poorly targeted. If we let users govern what they see themselves, it can work very well for all sides. In fact, this is more than an idealistic view because Facebook and Google proves that it works amazingly.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

Is that the audience saying what they want to see, or is that decision being made for them?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

I mean that Google and Facebook allow users to say what they want to see, and that works great.

Do you think the industry is over-reliant on targeting and data? Is the quality of advertising an issue itself?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

I think it’s a mix of both. Facebook and Google have amazing targeting. This is because they are single, integrated entities and know a lot about you. Everyone else, small/small-ish networks, and any other non-tech-giant solutions are incredibly poor at targeting, and potentially, as a result of that, in the quality of their ads as well.

As we enter a more digital world, can AdEx be applied to TV or Radio ads?

Ivo Georgiev AdEx

Yes, any advertising can work, as long as we can have a reliable way of determining the result and the delivery. Which in the case of TV and radio can be external arbiters. It’s not as nice as having digital evidence, e.g. signatures from users, as with the digital advertising, but it’s still an improvement to the opaque systems in place now.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

Indeed! We believe that there are too many middlemen that distort the flow of data between publishers/brands and consumers. This is because the current business model incentivises the hoarding and monetising of consumer data. We see that YouTube are firm believers, or at least looking to be included, in Nielsen TV ratings. As we become more and more digital, there will be better playout metrics, e.g. Sky AdSmart has made some big moves in targeting and proof of play.

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

Even if Nielsen TV ratings are used, we still need to put it on-chain in some reliable way, i.e. oracles. Only, oracles are still not a universally solved problem.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

The challenge is getting parties to agree to share data through or with said oracles.

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

It’s sufficient to actually only have some proof of the data on-chain, but committing it to the chain in a decentralised way is the challenging part.

To what extent do you think the industry can be decentralised?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

Not completely, obviously. The easiest thing to begin with is marketplaces. Then the next challenge is tracking/reporting/verification of digital/display.

Finally, the toughest thing would be tracking & reporting non-digital. But some parts are better left centralised; e.g. the longtail DSP example you gave.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

We see there are areas that will prove harder to decentralise immediately. However, with previous experience of how technology is adopted, we are confident we can start in certain areas, and expand alongside adoption.

How do you combat potential fraudulent behaviour by publishers using AdEx?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

The way that they can manipulate results is by classic click fraud. The difference is that in our case they have a cryptographic identity, which makes (anonymised) identification easier. So it can be easily tied to other external factors that prove or disprove legitimacy.

For example, if a certain cryptographic ID generates more than N clicks, we should not count anymore until they provide a proof of solved captcha (that can be displayed via the AdEx SDK). If they, however, generate many cryptographic IDs (a Sybil attack), then we can also use similar circumstantial evidence.

It’s a complicated topic, covered in our whitepaper and various places, too long for an AMA, but the tl;dr is:

We solve it with relatively traditional methods, but the transparency and cryptography used make it easier.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

We take a similar approach. A good blending of established techniques and applying them to the new paradigm.

What are the next big developments for AdEx over the coming months?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

In the last year we’ve mostly focused on our dApp. Now we’re going to focus on our protocol, defining various aspects of it: the on-chain part, the off-chain part, the reporting systems. This will begin with a rewritten whitepaper soon. We’re also going to actively participate in development-related events to gather feedback and raise awareness of what we’re doing at the moment.

What about interoperability / communication with other tokens / blockchains?

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

This is something we’ve discussed before. Do you see a marketeer’s / advertiser’s blockchain “stack” coming together? Do you think this could lead to simplicity or further complications?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

This is also part of our future plans, exploring interoperability. I think that at a very early stage, if you just want to go to production, the only reasonable call at the moment is Ethereum, and sticking with it and within its ecosystem.

For the future, I’m very excited about correctly designed byzantine fault tolerant and proof of stake systems, such as Tendermint/Cosmos and Substrate/Polkadot. Once you explore how they actually work, you realize that they essentially make interoperability much, much easier.

I think those systems are definitely part of the blockchain’s future. Hopefully they will replace slow, wasteful PoW/Satoshi consensus- based systems, and of course by extension, allow easy interoperability.

You’re involved with the IAB, Digital Future Council and several others. What sort of appetite do you see for adoption by the industry?

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

Ivo Georgiev and I met at Digital Future Council in June. Here’s a video from the two and a half days in Cannes. You’ll hear from me, Ivo, as well as David Wachsman, the team from TLDR, and many more from the advertising and blockchain worlds.

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

I think the demand for a solution is definitely there; it’s being discussed all the time. As for blockchain being a part of it, it used to be discussed a lot at the height of the hype but not so much now. Blockchain is only a part of what we need, to build a transparent solution; the other fundamentals, P2P network communication, cryptography, and open-source philosophy in general, have been there all along.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

Blockchain is part of A solution, and is not THE solution. Many enterprises search for the silver-bullet, which doesn’t exist. Adopting a genuine open-source approach is by far the most beneficial thing they can do. In my experience there are many advertising businesses that have previously mistaken themselves for tech companies.

Do you think that the industry has become too data reliant?

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

It can never be too data reliant; I guess what you mean is too exploitative of user’s data, in which case — yes, definitely.

How can MEDIA Protocol and AdEx work together?

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

One way would be to use each-other’s tokens as identifiers. For example, an advertiser would only want to promote content to impressions that are people. We would suggest that an advertiser send non-verified traffic to a non-MPT promoted URL, while an AdEx impression would be sent to incentivised content.

Ivo Georgiev, AdEx

In 2018 we have many, many ways to help utilise information about the user without revealing who the user is, or even without revealing what the information is.

James Tabor, MEDIA Protocol

In fact, I would argue that advertisers and content creators are not interested in identifying individuals, but rather getting a better picture of how we are likely to act in the aggregate.

Follow AdEx On CryptoCatnip And Earn Real MPT

You can now catch up on all the latest AdEx news and announcements, as well as keep up to date with crypto news, on MEDIA Protocol’s CryptoCatnip app. Earn real MEDIA Tokens for interacting with the content you love with the CryptoCatnip reward bounty. Click on the link and follow the steps for the opportunity to earn real MPT up until the end of MEDIA Protocol’s TGE.

Other crypto project announcements are now available on CryptoCatnip too.

For more information regarding MEDIA Protocol find us on our social channels below:

Website: www.mediaprotocol.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MEDIAProtocol

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MEDIA_Protocol

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/media-protocol/

Telegram: https://t.me/Media_Protocol_Community and https://t.me/MP_Announcements

Medium: https://medium.com/@mediaprotocolsm

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MEDIAProtocol

For more information about AdEx, check out their social channels below:

Website: www.adex.network

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdExNetwork/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdEx_Network

Medium: https://medium.com/the-adex-blog

GitHub: https://github.com/AdExNetwork

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AdEx/

Telegram: https://t.me/AdExNetwork