I am an 18-year Digital Advertising Veteran, who helped grow the UK’s first Performance Affiliate Ad Network back in 2000. In this time I have spent Billions on Digital Ads and created Trillions in clicks and Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Revenue for Advertisers like Apple, Amazon, ebay etc…
I was in the first round of UK Agencies to buy Ads on Google Adwords in 2003 and on Facebook in 2006 for a measly $0.05CPM. These Ads have no doubt annoyed a lot of people, and for that I am sorry!
Based on this I have decided to join https://www.Oysterprotocol.com (Powering an Ad Free Internet on the blockchain) for two reasons:
1. If the only reason the internet remains free is because of Advertising then it is broken
2. How can Wikipedia/BBC.com generate revenue without asking for Donations and remain Ad Free?
Oyster Protocol want to solve this problem.
Ad Free Internet
Look firstly there WILL always be Ads of some form, but we want to start a revolution. Ads are at best annoying. However, with over 90% of all new Ad Revenue going to Google and Facebook the other publishers are desperate for any Ad Dollars. They are fighting for the scraps of your attention to generate revenue and that means poorer and poorer journalism and content in general.
More and more we hear stories from ex Google/ Facebook Execs like Sean Parker
and Tristan Harris
and Chamath Palihapitiya
on how Facebook and Google and Social Networks in general have teams tweaking with their algorithms in order to capture our attention using small hits of addictive dopamine in “likes” and “shares” and “continuous play” loops on Youtube and “streeks” on Snapchat etc. These are called Dark Patterns. These social platforms are riddled with fake accounts, ad fraud, illicit content and have lost control and their moral compass by exploiting our lizard brain feedback loops. These companies are in a fast race to the bottom by choosing to erode societal structure and communication in general in my opinion.
I have joined Oyster to give website owners a new alternative. An Ad Free revenue stream. Also to give website users a better Ad Free experience that creates value for the website owner in not having to use an Ad Blocker. Ad Block prevents website owners generating ANY revenue so does not solve the problem of keeping the Internet Free.
The last couple of companies I have worked for have scaled rapidly. Deloitte Tech Fast 50 have recognised this in Cashrewards.com growing 12,500% in 3 years, becoming the 4th fastest growing company in Asia including China in 2016, growing at a faster rate than Atlassian. and Codecamp.com.au growing 5,679% in 3 years, with the last six months seeing 100% growth.
Oyster are committed to achieving this mission and I am certainly on board with this journey. Long live the Internet (ad free of course).
Check us out here https://Oysterprotocol.com
Oyster is a firm that has the same core values as myself. Oyster engages development within the ethics of decentralization, therefore progress can be made by anyone if it conforms with protocol specifications. We are Open Source and open for business.
The team has a deep empathy for an Ad Free Internet that give users choice of what Ads they choose to see or not. The development team are incredible and enabling a true revolution on the block chain. For all of these reasons and more, I’m thrilled to join the Oyster
I can’t wait to introduce Web Publishers to this new paradigm shift and close the loop by allowing them to concentrate on producing quality Ad Free unbiased content – working with new thinkers that dare to be different whilst helping build the next generation of the Internet.
As excited as I am about the next step, I’m also sad to leave an extraordinary team and experience behind at Incentloyalty.com and Codecamp.com.au. I have nothing but admiration for the talented, passionate people who are working hard to ship all the amazing innovations that are coming down the pipe.
Finally, to all readers: I’ll be writing much more! The new job will let me put down a lot of what I’ve learned about the Ad Industry for all to interrogate. The Good the bad and the ugly.
For more information click here https://www.oysterprotocol.com and watch the explainer.
Useful articles
1. Media company Salon makes a bold bet on the use of blockchain technology in advertising and media. http://fortune.com/2018/02/13/bitcoin-mining-monero-price
2. If you aren’t aware of this you could be locked out of your own documents. https://www.influencive.com/google-just-proved-need-dec
3. With the $1 million promotion, it hopes to prompt YouTube stars to sign up for the technology and get their followers to do the same. https://www.cnet.com/news/ad-blocking-brave-browser
4. Search giant Google has unveiled an experiment that lets people pay to visit sites rather than see adverts. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30144073
5. Media group Salon: Let us use your computer to mine crypto https://www.ft.com/content/acc26c6a-10a1-11e8-8cb6-b9ccc4c4dbbb 4 days ago – Do you use an ad blocker? That’s cool — just let us use your computer’s processing power to mine cryptocurrencies. That is the idea behind a programme that left-leaning US media group Salon began testing on Monday, according to a spokesperson. “For our beta program, we’ll start by applying your ..
6. The Decentralized Cloud And The Future Of Data Are Here – Influencive https://www.influencive.com/the-decentralized-cloud-is-here/ Oct 22, 2017 – In light of the recent Equifax hack, exposing over 143 million Americans confidential information, one must ask, can we really trust these giant corporations with our most sensitive data? Equifax … Centralized storage units have to set up new facilities which are costly and take time and staff to maintain them.
Cryptocurrencies with different tech
Decentralised Storage
1. Storj – Decentralized Cloud Storage https://storj.io/ Distributed, encrypted, and blazing fast object storage, where only you have access to your data.
2. Sia.tech https://sia.tech/ Sia is the first decentralized storage platform secured by blockchain technology. The Sia Storage Platform leverages underutilized hard drive capacity around the world to create a data storage marketplace that is more reliable and lower cost than traditional cloud storage providers.
3. Filecoin https://filecoin.io/ A blockchain-based storage network and cryptocurrency.
Ad Free Internet
1. Brave Browser | Join Brave and change the web together https://brave.com/ Block ads and trackers. Brave blocks ads and trackers by default so you browse faster and safer. You can add ad blocking extensions to your existing browser, but it’s complicated and they often conflict with one another because browser companies don’t test them. Worse, the leading ad blockers still allow some ads and all …
2. AdEx – Decentralized ad network https://adex.network/ AdEx is a decentralized ad serving network based on blockchain and smart contracts technology.
3. MetaX – Unlocking the Blockchain for Digital Advertising Advertisers and publishers have a comprehensive audit trail for everything related to a campaign and the impressions where it ran. Cryptographically Secure Event Processing. Using the MetaX platform, advertisers and publishers can execute massive transaction volume while maintaining integrity and security of their …
