AdEx is a new-generation solution aiming to address and correct some of the most prominent inefficiencies of the online advertising industry: user privacy misuse, ad fraud, lack of transparency in reporting, etc.
The underlying technology is called the AdEx protocol, which facilitates trading of advertising space/time, as well as the subsequent verification and proof that it actually occurred. Essentially, it covers all interactions between publishers, advertisers and end users. The protocol combines traditional peer-to-peer technology, cryptography and blockchain-based payment channels.
AdEx addresses some of the most prominent inefficiencies of the contemporary advertising landscape: ad fraud, unclear and misleading campaign reporting, exuberant fees, many middlemen and compromised end user privacy.
If you're a publisher/advertiser, we've created a web application where you can monetize your website or advertise your product, called the AdEx Platform.
The AdEx protocol is intended mainly for display advertising, however its use is not limited to that. It can be applied to a number of different use cases - for example influencer marketing; content micropayments; affiliate marketing; product placement; and so on.
The revenue model could be CPC, CPM, CPA or time-based ad property rentals. This makes the protocol usable for physical world advertising (billboards, point-of-sale advertising, guerilla installations, etc.) as well.
We use Ethereum for payment channels, a mechanism for micropayments. This allows us to be non-custodial, not rely on payment processors (which also take hefty fees), and securely pay for each impression individually, with no withdraw thresholds.
Per-impression micropayments are also the backbone of our transparency, since they also double as reporting data.
Payment channels are a mechanism to execute payments instantly and with very low fees, by not executing each payment on the blockchain. Instead, the balances between the participants are guaranteed in a way that can be settled on the blockchain at any time, therefore benefitting from the underlying security.
We use DAI, which is a so-called stablecoin: it's pegged to the US dollar, so that 1 DAI = 1 USD. When using AdEx, you only need DAI, since fees are paid in it too. You can read our guide on how to get DAI.
You can also deposit Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as fiat (EUR, GBP).
AdEx uses it's own payment channel network called OUTPACE. The LN is the most established payment channel network, but it uses a hub-and-spoke architecture, which has certain usability issues for our specific use case: for example, publishers need to deposit funds to be able to receive funds (open a channel) and channel rebalancing has to be performed often, among other things.
OUTPACE, while inspired by the LN, was designed for our particular use case to circumvent those issues.
Yes, in the sense that AdEx performs the same role as an ad network: it connects advertisers to publishers.
The difference is that AdEx is more of a technical solution (protocol) that facilitates this. We have no custordy of funds, collect no data, and cannot censor ads. This is why we describe AdEx as a "decentralized advertising network".
We charge absolutely no fees or commissions for using the AdEx Platform itself. However, you may be required to pay a tiny fee for the validators that you use.
The way the validator consensus works implies that channel validators have to represent opposite sides; if they don't, the channel should not be used. This means that at one point or another you may end up using a third-party validator.
Running the validator stack requires computational resources and the third-party validator may require a small fee.
Furthermore, you need to pay Ethereum network fees when withdrawing funds or opening campaigns. In the AdEx Platform, all fees are paid in DAI.
You go to the Platform and follow the instructions.
You can also sign up for AdEx with no crypto wallet at all, only by entering an email. This way, an in-browser wallet will be created for you. However, we recommend using a crypto wallet, since the security is much better. If you sign up with an email only, you can always upgrade your account by linking a secure crypto wallet, such as Trezor, Ledger or Metamask.
You can sign up for AdEx with Trezor, Ledger or Metamask.
The simplest way is by copy-pasting a HTML snippet that you will be presented on the Platform when you create an ad slot. More sophisticated integrations are possible using the adview-manager.
The information that marketers get about their campaigns generally comes from the same source - the ad serving network - and is not objectively verifiable. This means that there is no mechanism to protect marketers and advertisers from losses caused by bugs or even by malicious intent.
In order to avoid this, we are introducing real-time tracking and reporting where the exact same data is easily accessible by each advertiser or publisher. The reporting data is derived directly from the users from the SDK to the publisher's validator and the advertiser's validator, and this guarantees reporting transparency.
We don't collect any data about the user. Instead, we use contextual targeting.
In the future, we may introduce behavioral targeting, while still preserving privacy: all of the information can be collected through the AdEx AdView into the user’s local storage. This information never leaves the device of the user, and they are able to clear it at any time.
When we implement this, end users will be presented with the AdEx Lounge - a user-facing part of AdEx that will allow them to see what type of data has the AdView collected about them and modify it. Once again, it's important to note that all of the targeting data resides in the user's browser and never get sent to anyone as an additional layer of privacy. The end result of this is minimizing the possibility of user data/metadata sales to third parties; of exploiting information about consumer purchasing habits; etc.
AdEx ads completely adhere to EFF's Do Not Track policy. There is no tracking of any kind (cookies, supercookies or fingerprints) and there are no logs. The validators do receive an IP/UserAgent and may log this, but they will not retain any of that information (unless anonymized and aggregated) for more than 10 days.
No, AdEx does not use cookies or any server-side tracking. Instead it relies on contextual targeting, which means it picks ads based on the content of the page.
Payment channels help preserve the privacy of publishers and advertisers. In a single payment channel, all participants can see the transactions between themselves, ensuring transparency, but no external parties can access this data.
No - the blockchain is public and immutable. However, payments between advertisers and publishers are on payment channels, which makes the more private (as well as faster and cheaper). Furthermore, no information about who the payment parties are is exposed on the blockchain.
As for the end users themselves - none of their actions or information is written in the blockchain.
There are many different types of ad fraud. For example, an ad network may under-report to publishers to generate more revenue. This is something we completely eliminate thanks to our transparent reporting.
Unfortunately, fake clicks/impressions are still possible in any advertising system. However, we provide plenty of ways to mitigate them that you can read about on our blog or spec.
We use contextual targeting, which is a method of targeting the ads based on the page content (i.e. context). Each publisher can provide use any data they want/have to tune the targeting for their case.
On Ethereum, gas fees are paid in ETH. However, we made our own abstraction that allows fees to be paid in DAI.
No. However, AdEx advertisers can take advantage of header bidding, which is quickly replacing real-time bidding anyway.
Header bidding is the process of pulling all the bids in the browser, evaluating them and then sending the preferred bids to the ad exchange. In AdEx, there is no classic ad exchange, but what we do is even more convenient: we pull all information about demand (campaigns, bids) in the browser, and directly select the bid depending on what we know about the user, therefore implementing targeting without revealing the user's profile.
OpenRTB is an open standard for real-time bidding, and along with AdCOM, it covers how most components in a modern ad tech supply chain should communicate. Because AdEx also incorporates payments, and does not allow revealing user data, it's different enough to be considered an alternative standard that you can use in place of OpenRTB.
That said, AdEx does not try to reinvent the wheel, and therefore (1) can interoperate with OpenRTB in certain situations and (2) will support using AdCOM formats in near future
AdEx tries to achieve the same general goal: provide a platform that allows advertisers to place ads and publishers to monetize their content.
However, AdEx has a few important distinctions:
- AdEx aims at completely preserving the privacy of the end user, with no personal data collection
- Minimized fees: fees in AdEx are less than 5%, while Google Ads will only give you 51% or 68% of your actual revenue
- It is regulated by its users: there is no central authority which controls which ads are allowed to run, or what content is allowed to monetize; the publishers can decide which ads they deem acceptable
- There are no withdraw thresholds/limitations: you can withdraw any amount at any time; and you get paid in the DAI cryptocurrency
- Transparent reporting: statistical data is sent directly to the publisher and advertiser
AdEx is focused on improving the digital advertising landscape by introducing a drop-in solution that works similarly to existing ones (e.g. Google Ads), but with privacy preservation and minimized fees.
The Basic Attention Token (BAT) takes a different approach: users of the Brave browser (which blocks all ads) get rewarded for seeing whitelisted ads. Once this happens, they can choose to reward the publishers, and/or withdraw the token. As of 2019, BAT only works within the Brave browser and withdraws are not live yet.
Another prominent difference is that AdEx uses DAI for payments, which is price-stable (pegged to 1 USD).
Those are two completely different approaches, and we believe both can coexist.
It's worth noting that AdEx provides the technical ability to pay users for their attention, but it's up to the publishers whether they will do it, and how.
Yes, we do. We offer rewards for security vulnerabilities that coders discover after every major release of the AdEx Platform. Read more about the AdEx bug bounty.
We attend a number of various events around the world. Follow us on social media to see which conferences, meetups or hackathons we are going to (we usually announce at least a couple of weeks in advance of each event).
The ADX token is used for staking if you're running or want to nominate an AdEx validator. Staking ADX can nominate a validator in a global registry where it's visibility will be proportional to it's total staked amount.
The staked amount will be slashed if your validator misbehaves (i.e. an economic punishment will be applied to the misbehaving validator).
We are currently working on the specification of the AdEx Registry, however you can track the progress here.
Please read our release announcement and guide.
Stakers earn a portion of the validator fees. For more details on how to calculate the projected reward, read our guide.
The validator fees, and therefore the staking rewards, are in DAI or other stablecoins.
Starting August 2020, there are an additional 7 million ADX distributed to stakers as an additional incentive, read more here. This post also describes how to calculate the APY.
The APY is heavily dependant on total amount of ADX staked - as of writing, it is around 386% with 7.05 million ADX staked.
Because the ADX token was made specifically for our staking mechanism, and it's value is determined by the free market by trading. We want our users to transact in a price-stable currency such as DAI.
If you haven’t acquired ADX tokens during our token generation campaign, you may do so at a number of exchanges such as Binance, Bittrex and Upbit.
The ADX token is undergoing an upgrade in August 2020. In this process, there won't be a deadline for upgrading your ADX if you hold them on your own wallet, but some exchanges may stop accepting the old token. Stay tuned for more updates.
Yes, 7 million ADX are minted to be disributed proportionally among stakers. None of those are allocated to the team.
The AdEx Registry is a mechanism to ensure infrastructure uptime by holding participants accountable, through staking/slashing. The Registry uses our native token, ADX.
OCEAN/OUTPACE validators are responsible for tracking ad impressions/clicks and signing the state. The validator set (can also be called a committee) is defined by the OUTPACE channel. Validators receive data from the AdEx SDK. A majority of validators is required in order to achieve a valid signed state.
A validator stack is a collective term for all off-chain components responsible of handling events, managing OUTPACE channels and generating analytical reports.
Running your own validator means that you will profit from fees for every campaign that uses it.
However, unless you're very familiar with the AdEx protocol and confident in your technical skills to keep a validator redundantly online, you will be better off staking, which will still give you a fraction of someone else's profit.
As of 2020, you can stake for existing validators on our staking portal.
Custom events are events defined by the advertiser or by the publisher. For example: an advertiser who is an online retailer may wish to set a purchase of a product as a conversion goal, rather than pay for clicks or impression; setting this as a conversion is a custom event.
OCEAN stands for “off-chain event aggregation”. This is a Layer 2 scalability solution that helps us handle a high number of events off-chain while retaining all the benefits of a trustless consensus.
OUTPACE is a unidirectional payment channel based on OCEAN. OUTPACE allows for creating a simple one-to-many payment channel, where each participating party can withdraw their available balance (advertising budget or ad earnings) at any time. The withdrawn amounts are accounted for on-chain.
Absolutely! The underlying protocol supports any token - the UI, however, only supports DAI as of mid-2020, but migrating to another stablecoin or allowing multiple is possible.
Keep in mind, even if the base currency is a specific stablecoin (e.g. DAI), we still allow topping up your account with multiple cryptocurrencies and fiat.
Rewards are currently distributed through an OUTPACE channel controlled solely by the validator that's responsible for the given pool. Later on, Polkadot parachains may be used to control distribution on certain pools.
No. Once you sign up, you can use AdEx as a publisher and/or as an advertiser.
Yes. Each impression/event results in an immediate micropayment to the publisher, and both sides can see this data in real time as it happens.
Currenly, only display ads: all the classical banner sizes are supported, along with the IAB new ad portfolio.
Support for other formats such as native ads is planned. If you have any suggestions or proposals related to more engaging ad formats, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Check out our Explorer to see the average CPM per ad slot size, in real time.
Check out our guide.
You can also deposit Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as fiat (EUR, GBP).
If you just want to get started and you have a solid use case, we can give you a grant, contact us.
No matter if you're a publisher or an advertiser, you have full control over the ads displayed on your website or the publishers you advertise on, thanks to whitelisting/blacklisting features that you can enable.
There are no restrictions, neither for publishers, nor for advertisers. You set your own restrictions: e.g. you can disallow certain content from being advertised on your website. Or likewise, you can stop your ads from showing on certain websites.
However, we require that publishers pass through an automatic verification to prove they own the domain/website. Furthermore, to protect the interest and funds of advertisers, we may exclude certain publishers from our instance of the ad market if we have an indication that the traffic is fraudulent. Once a publisher is restricted, they can still access their account and withdraw their funds, but they will no longer receive any impressions.
You can always withdraw your DAI and exchange it for USD/EUR/other fiat currency. Furthermore, there are many ways you can spend your DAI or hold your DAI.
It's possible that there may be a low number of impressions that haven't generated revenue yet - especially if you're a new publisher.
We use micropayments, which means that every impression is paid, but sometimes the incurred payment from a specific campaign is not sufficient to cover the Ethereum network costs, and is therefore not counted. Do not worry - as you earn more, the revenue will show up.
Your average CPM depends on targeting and other criteria set by yourself and the advertisers you're being matched with. As such, it may be higher or lower than the average of the entire network. Simply put, if the demand is higher for your particular audience, your CPM will be higher and vice-versa.
We do not try to circumvent ad blockers, because we believe that users who intentionally use ad blockers are unlikely to convert anyway. However, in the long term, we believe that ad blockers will adopt more whitelisting policies in order to be sustainable, and we are positioned to be a part of this by providing privacy-preserving, unobtrusive ads.