The Adbank Network hopes to completely disrupt digital advertising by transforming advertisers and publishers from passive victims to active participants in the ad-buying ecosystem.
In today’s ad-buying ecosystem, both the advertisers and publishers are frequently victims of middlemen and scam artists. Widely-quoted statistics indicate that around 50% of the revenue generated by digital advertising goes to middlemen.
Middlemen can take that much money because they have erected a toll booth at the entrance to the digital-advertising ecosystem. Anybody that wants to buy digital ads; or put digital advertising on his or her website, has to pay the toll.
The Bot Menace
To make matters worse, there is evidence that up to 56% of the traffic at most websites is phony. This fake traffic is generated by ad bots or meth bots; algorithms that mimic users and bombard websites with false traffic.
Crooked advertisers and corrupt middlemen use the traffic generated by bots to rip-off both website publishers and advertisers. The amount they take can be vast; Adloox the Audit Verification Company projected that digital-ad fraud will cost advertisers around the world $16.4 billion in 2017. Such fraud cost advertisers and publishers $12.48 billion in 2016.
The bot menace is getting worse as fraudsters build bigger and better bots. An organization of Russian criminals was able to rake in between $3 million and $5 million a day; by using next-generation ad-fraud-technology called Methbots, White Ops alleged in December 2016.
A New Kind of Advertising Ecosystem
Adbank’s plan is to eliminate the middlemen and their toll booth and make fraud harder by building a new kind of advertising ecosystem.
Adbank will use Ethereum-based blockchain to create a simple, seamless, and direct connection between advertisers and publishers. Users of Adbank will be able to bypass the toll booth and go straight to customers or suppliers. If it works as advertised, Adbank’s system will take 0% of the profit from advertisers and publishers.
Adbank’s new advertising ecosystem will be built with the latest fraud-fighting technology, including patent-pending artificial intelligences designed to detect fakes. The system will include an open-sourced fraud-detection solution that will reward users for reporting ad fraud. There are even plans for a web-browser plugin that is designed to block bots.
A New Marketplace for Advertising
The basis of this new advertising marketplace will be the ERC-20 cryptocurrency (Ethereum-based token) ADB. Advertisers will be paid in ADB, and publishers will use ADB to pay the advertisers.
Since ADB is an ERC-20 token it can be easily converted into the widely-used Ethereum cryptocurrency (ETH). Ethereum is the second most popular cryptocurrency in the world. To facilitate seamless transactions and ensure a high level of encryption, the AdBank Network itself is being built with Ethereum-blockchain technology.
AdBank hopes to create a market for ADB that will power its new marketplace for digital advertising. The company will use an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of ADB to fund the building of the AdBank platform. This will include both the AdBank open-sourced platform and marketplace, and other ad networks AdBank plans to buy and partner with.
Another feature of the ecosystem will be the AdBank Token Marketplace. Advertisers will be able to use the Token Marketplace to create Ethereum-based smart contracts to guarantee payments. Publishers might be able to create smart contracts that only pay when ad traffic is verified.
Part of AdBank’s business plan to expand its footprint is using $10 million raised by the ICO to acquire existing advertising networks. That will give AdBank access to existing pools of proven customers.
AdBank ICO Planned for January
AdBank’s ICO is scheduled to begin on December 14, 2017, and run through January 21, 2018. The token sale will end early if AdBank achieves its goal of selling 50,000 ETH worth of ADB before then.
Each ADB Token will be worth 0.000133333333333 ETH at the beginning of the ICO. Persons that buy ADB during the first three weeks of the sale will pay a discounted bonus price that will give them bang for their buck.
Those who buy ADB during the first 24 hours of the sale will receive a 20% bonus. Persons that buy before December 22, 2017, will receive a 15% bonus. Individuals that buy before December 29, 2017, can take advantage of a 10% bonus. People who buy before January 5, 2018, will get a 5% bonus. There will be no bonus during the final two weeks of the sale.
AdBank plans to sell 51% of the one billion Total Supply of ADB or 510 million tokens during the ICO. The remaining 49% of the tokens will be divvied up as follows: 15% will go the Adbank Founding team, 2.5% will go to early advisors, 2.5% will be used for a social-media bounty program to promote AdBank and 29% will be released after the sale.
Meet the AdBank Team
The AdBank Network will be built and run by a team of experienced entrepreneurs, advertising and marketing experts, engineers, technologists, and cryptocurrency veterans based in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. The team’s members have a vast amount of experience in digital advertising and marketing.
Chief Technology Officer Chiron Bramberger spent 17 years developing marketing software for Fortune 100 companies and government agencies. His past clients include General Motors (GM), Google, Toyota, the FBI, Groupon, and NASA. Along the way; Bramberger created GM’s first verticially-integrated marketing software, and helped found an ad network that was sold to Google for $23 million.
CEO Jon Gillham owns more than 6,000 advertising websites, so he knows the business inside and out. Gillham cofounded a successful digital asset marketing firm and built a digital-asset portfolio that generated over $100,000 a month in earnings.
Chief Brand Officer Kelsey Cole worked as head of public relations at Revlon Canada. Cole is a co-owner of the advertising agency Multivitamin Media which has launched numerous brands. She has also done brand work for Tesla, Red Bull, Juicy Fruit, Garnier, L’Oreal, and TIFF.
Chief Community Officer Leon Pereira brings cryptocurrency experience to the team as the “godfather of Ripple” and the founder of the XRP Exchange. Chief Marketing Officer Angelo Dodaro worked as a creative marketer for Tesla Motors and helped launch the company’s Model X SUV in Canada. As the co-owner of Multivitamin Media, Dodaro has run marketing campaigns that have generated tens of millions of dollars for clients.
Learn More about AdBank
For more information about the Adbank Network, the ADB Token Sale, and digital-advertising fraud and bots please visit the Adbank Network website at https://adbank.network/.
More details about Adbank’s business plan and technology; including full details of patents pending, the ICO, and digital advertising fraud can be found in the Whitepaper. The Whitepaper can be downloaded or read in PDF form at: https://www.adbank.network/Whitepaper_AdBank2017.pdf