It has been a year since we first communicated the improved vision for digital advertising that is adbank.

A lot has been accomplished since then and we have the amazing community and team to thank for that.

We are excited today to, for the first time, reveal our plans to introduce BLADE… more on that below…

If you are new to adbank I recommend watching this video for both some entertainment and an understanding of the problems we are focusing on solving.

If you have any questions I recommend jumping into our Telegram community where the chat is the highest quality of any blockchain/crypto community I have seen (again thanks to the community!) — Join Our Community Here.

What has been accomplished by Tech…

We have been heavily focused on ensuring we haven’t missed a milestone and doing exactly what we said we would.

The team, lead by Dr Fodé with lots of work from Conor and our entire development team, have achieved a lot. Very few projects deliver a working platform let alone one that is trusted by Governments and industry leading companies.

Here is just one of our repo’s that is currently private while some security audits are completed…

Below is our accountability table showing the status of everything we said would be built in the whitepaper…

What is our priority now? Users & Utility!

Now that a lot of the version 1 ecosystem has been built, what is the primary focus of adbank?

Token utility from the start has been the core objective. We were never going to sit back and passively “build it and hope they will come”.

From the start we stated we would actively engage with the community to acquire/convert existing ad networks, launch vertical specific ad networks and manage pilots on our platform.

This is now a key focus for the team.

Not only will this drive the token ecosystem flywheel but it will also allow us to rapidly learn and adapt our technical vision based on market feedback.

Some of the common feedback we receive is that companies love the transparency but are not yet ready to deal with cryptocurrencies/volatility in their media buying cycle.

“We are excited to be experiencing the way blockchain is providing a new level of accountability and transparency in ad technology. Adbank is delivering on a concept that appeals to the entire marketing ecosystem — and we look forward to seeing how the industry will evolve when it’s deployed at scale” David Saabye, SVP of Customer Experience @ Adweek

So our solution for these enterprise clients has been to peg their media buying to USD. This means that the adbank powered network takes on the token volatility risk/reward. This does not represent any change for how the token ecosystem operates and creates a unique opportunity for adbank to remove ADB from the market. Regardless of whether an enterprise customer is not exposed to the token volatility, the flow of tokens from the secondary market is the same and adbank takes the volatility risk/reward.

Now that we have a verified fit with our product and a solution to their most common concern we will be focusing on driving scale.

This will look like…Pilots, Pilots, Pilots… from the activities at AdWeek, activity within the IAB (Joni IAB Blockchain Chair in Canada) and other similar events, we are actively planning pilot campaigns similar to the Austria and Red Bull one (covered by Forbes here).

Integrating existing tech onto our platform is now possible and piloted with ECigMedia but will not be our immediate focus due to the relative effort and success of pilots.

Through both pilots and our operating vertical specific ad networks we plan to continue to drive the utility of ADB and adbank.

All This Utility Could Introduce a Challenge… Velocity

With all this focus on driving utility it may introduce a problem into the token ecosystem… velocity!

There have been some great articles talking about the challenges of token velocity as it relates to a utility token.

CoinDesk — https://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-token-velocity-problem/

MultiCoin Capital — https://multicoin.capital/2018/02/13/new-models-utility-tokens/

Solution Part 1 — Both Velocity & Token Volatility for Media Buyers = Adbank Holds ADB in Reserve

As became more apparent during discussions and execution of pilots there was a clear need for a solution to both token volatility for media buyers and velocity for the token ecosystem.

After studying and reviewing several complex solutions it was determined a simple renewable 3 year strategy would provide the most predictable outcome.

The plan is to hold the ADB generated from adbank managed pilots in reserve. This will ensure 15% of all ADB revenue generated by adbank managed pilots gets locked in reserve.

This will be verified in circulating supply as…

Circulating Supply < (Un-Vested Reserve & Team Tokens + 15% of ADB’s revenue from managed pilots)

Solution Part 2 — Introducing BLADE — AdBlock & Reward System

This is being officially announced today, live on stage in Chicago, by CSO Kelsey Cole!

Introducing the adbank ad block extension that allows only adbank powered ads through while rewarding you for viewing those ads!

This will work on all browsers and will work with the existing digital advertising inventory.

In addition to this development we have a signed partnership that brings some of the biggest publishers in crypto inventory to be available on IntergalacticAds.com (more on this partnership next week).

In 2019 you will be able to earn ADB viewing adbank powered ads on some of the crypto sites you visit everyday!

How will BLADE impact the token ecosystem?

Token Sink — The large push with IntergalacticAds.com signing a partnership to bring many large crypto publishers you visit everyday on board will incentivize many in the crypto community to add the extension/get ADB. This will have the effect of many small holders acquiring ADB tokens.

— The large push with IntergalacticAds.com signing a partnership to bring many large crypto publishers you visit everyday on board will incentivize many in the crypto community to add the extension/get ADB. This will have the effect of many small holders acquiring ADB tokens. Staking — Future development could involve a staking feature that will impact the total amount of the reward available earned. The more you have staked, the higher the % of the reward for viewing the ad you will earn. This is on the roadmap but some testing will be required to verify the technical feasibility.

Technical details will be revealed next week in a tech update and the reward formula will be revealed before deployment.

Note — Countries the rewards of BLADE will be available to is still to be determined.

Updated Roadmap:

Below is the roadmap for adbank for 2019. It is focusing on 4 main swimlanes.

Summary: Objective & Key Results for 2019

3 objectives for ADB success in 2019…

1. Objective — BLADE adoption — adbank ad block extension that allows only adbank powered ads through while rewarding you for viewing those ads!

1a. Key Result — #1 ad block/reward extension used by the crypto community. Attracting many users and a dominant presence within the crypto community especially!

2. Objective — Pilots, Pilots, Pilots — Our pipeline has never been more full and we are bringing on additional team members to help handle!

2a. Key Result — Consistent monthly and growing pilots similar to the Austria & Red Bull pilot

3. Objective — Utility driven by operating AdNetworks (Signed agreement to bring some of the largest crypto publishers inventory available on IntergalacticAds.com)

3a. Key Result — IntergalacticAds.com and other vertical ad networks #1 or #2 by market share in their verticals