Blockchain: A cure for industry transparency issues?

Allure Media CEO Jason Scott
By Allure Media CEO Jason Scott | 21 June 2017
 
Jason Scott

Jason Scott will appear at AdNews Live: Tackling Transparency next Tuesday (27 June), the half-day forum at Sydney’s Monkey Baa. He will appear on Debate #1 with six other speakers who have already pre-submitted their solutions to ‘digital’s murky supply chain’. You can buy tickets here.

The media industry has enjoyed some amazing advances. Content is everywhere. The tools and technology for people to get their voice heard have expanded in amazing ways. However, any industry experiencing growth attracts all types of actors. Some will seek to build the future, but others will try to cash in on an opportunity to exploit vulnerabilities during development.

Most people in the industry will be across the recent narrative around ad fraud, disparate measurement systems, viewability, and other issues, such as ad tech tax. And, of course, there was the Mark Pritchard speech in January.

This has got everyone in discussion mode, and it’s a great first step, but what can we do about these issues? We all have a role in building a robust future for the media and advertising industry in Australia. It takes a village to combat some of the challenges we face as an industry. So how can we mobilise to take advantage of some of the most transformative times of our careers and lives?

One of the technology development areas we have been watching is blockchain. When AdNews called for industry solutions as part of its pending transparency conference it got us thinking: what about blockchain for advertising?

First, let’s get on the same page in defining what is involved in a blockchain transaction system.

Ian Khan, a TedX Speaker and Technology Futurist, says: “As revolutionary as it sounds, blockchain truly is a mechanism to bring everyone to the highest degree of accountability. No more missed transactions, human or machine errors, or even an exchange that was not done with the consent of the parties involved. Above anything else, the most critical area where blockchain helps is to guarantee the validity of a transaction by recording it not only on a main register but a connected distributed system of registers, all of which are connected through a secure validation mechanism.”

“The highest degree of accountability”, and the end of “missed transactions, human or machine errors, or even an exchange that was not done with the consent of the parties involved.”

This sounds like a desirable future.

With a public ledger, blockchain-style approach, the ecosystem of publishers, advertisers and agencies can use their collective muscle to ensure standards and protocols are upheld. It takes favour out of any measurement systems, as the entire ecosystem makes up the ledger.

Think of it as a neighbourhood watch program for advertising.

Implementing this idea will take a village. But I said it would.

And I am buoyed by reading this week that MetaX and DMA blockchain-based platform adChain, ICO, launches in the US on June 26.

Keep your eyes peeled and see you at AdNews Live: Tackling Transparency next week.

Jason Scott will appear at AdNews Live: Tackling Transparency next Tuesday (27 June), the half-day forum at Sydney’s Monkey Baa. He will appear on Debate #1 with six other speakers who have already pre-submitted their solutions to ‘digital’s murky supply chain’. You can buy tickets here.

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