When we talk about the benefits of blockchain technology in advertising, it’s a matter of perspective. What’s beneficial to one party could harm another. So let’s consider what would be best for the advertising industry as a whole, and how blockchain technology could get us there.

There are two primary goals for blockchain in advertising, and they both come from the promise of greater transparency. The first is fraud reduction. The other is about removing middlemen who don’t deliver value commensurate with their slice of the pie.

Decentralized ledgers are the tool many hope will help achieve these goals. Tracking ads, verifying users as human, and asking for consent to target consumers with advertisements are all possible through blockchain-powered ad platforms. These ecosystems could even solve the problem of ad blockers.

Software bots and other shortcuts have completely obscured the advertising industry’s concept of value. In short, blockchain proponents must prove that the technology is worth the investment. One way: boil down the platform to verified human users, track what ads they click on and interact with, and proceed accordingly. If it seems simple, that’s because it is. Simplicity is the primary benefit of blockchain for advertising.

And here are the experts:

1. Chris Richmond, CEO and Co-founder of Proper Media

“A method that can store data without the risk of losing the data or it being tampered with sounds like something that can be useful in the adtech space.”

2. Jon Gillham, CEO of AdBank

“Reducing ad fraud. It sounds like a broken record, but it's true. Aside from stopping $19B per year being funnelled into organized crime, increased privacy for users is a big win. Putting an end – or at least some constraints – on data harvesting and tracking of users will be huge.”

3. Brandon Gains, VP of Marketing at Monetize More

“Primarily, I see that blockchain can help provide a transparent and trustworthy system of record for programmatic auctions so both advertisers and media can see a full breakdown of costs.”

4. Ted Sahlstrom, CMO and Co-founder of Match2One.com

“One of the main problems in the programmatic advertising industry today is that a) There are a lot of middle-men in the value-chain, and the publisher and advertiser do not know which costs are added along the way and b) Ad fraud. These two problems both have the potential of being solved by the use of blockchain technology. Ad fraud by being able to validate placement and viewability. Costs in the value-chain by bringing transparency using the ledger system.”

5. Amy Fox, Product Director at Blis

“Over the next few years, GDPR and similar regulations will have a huge impact on advertising, as well as ownership and transparency around data source and quality. Blockchain offers an opportunity to ensure complete trust and visibility of all data to all users.”

6. Andrew Kolodyuk, Founder and Chairman of DIVAN.TV 2.0

“Blockchain would allow brands to control pricing, avoid Adblock, eliminate fraud and manipulation of data, ensure traffic quality, ensure transparency of the bidding process, target users at the right time through access to user data via blockchain smart contracts. If transaction volumes are able to catch up and blockchain-based RTB can be achieved on Connected TV from a technical standpoint, this would allow brands to optimize their costs, better targeting their clients and have the ability to choose the time and amount of advertising scrolling, at suitable prices. This would enable the brand to not only pay for the number of scrolls, but also for the displayed duration, which cannot be done today.”

7. Ian Kane, COO and Co-founder of Ternio