Sam Kim, co-founder and CEO of Lucidity, said blockchain technology offers a solution to cut down on fraud and bring more transparency to digital advertising.Kim was previously chief operating officer at The Mobile Majority, a mobile ad company where he said he saw the challenges of reconciling the data used by different parts of the ad supply chain.
So at Lucidity, his team has created technology on the Ethereum blockchain to create smart contracts that track this data across the ecosystem.What weve built is a protocol for industry participants come to a consensus what events are valid and what are invalid, he said.
We allow all the participants trafficking that ad to submit that data so that basically becomes a single source of truth across the industry.On top of the protocol, Lucidity has created products focused on specific issues.
Theres one around fee transparency, where every participant in the supply chain submits the information about the fee they charged and verification that they actually ran the impression, which Kim said could replace a drawn-out reconciliation process.
And theres another product for confirming publisher identity and flagging fake bid requests.When I asked whether ad platforms and publishers will feel comfortable sharing this data in a new way, Kim said, As an industry, theres a lot of pressure from the advertisers to become more transparent.The way we designed it, it will benefit those who are honest and transparent, he added.
Those who arent, itll be harmful to them.
We expect to see adoption from those who are completely transparent and honest, and hopefully drive the industry in that direction.As for potential privacy concerns, Kim noted that Lucidity doesnt currently include consumer data.
That could change in the future, but if it does, Kim said it would be done in a way that ensured privacy was addressed.Lucidity has been in beta testing since earlier this year, and its already signed up partners from the ad world including Audience Group and Digital Remedy.Kim said the goal is to get the benefits of the blockchain disintermediation, transparency and trust butdeployed in a way thats not cumbersome and difficult for the current players.
So if youre an advertiser, you dont need to worry too much about the underlying technology; you just get a dashboard with the data you want.At the same time, Kim said the company is using cutting edge technology, for example by implementing Plasma, a side-chain processing technology thats supposed to address Ethereums speed and scaling issues.
And its partnered with IAB Tech Labs Blockchain Working Group, the Enterprise Ethereum Association and Hyperledger.The startup was previously known as Kr8os (from the Greek word kratos, which was one of the ingredients for democracy).
Today its rebranding as Lucidity.Wed been thinking about the rebrand for some time, Kim said.
Kr8os is a process we used to ultimately drive our vision for Lucidity.