In its fairly short history, blockchain technology has been touted as a solution for everything from the decentralisation of financial tools, to ushering in a new paradigm for the future of currency. But far from the realms of finance, it’s actually in advertising that blockchain has now found one of its most powerful niches to date.

Verasity.io, a blockchain-based adstack that enables unparalleled ad fraud prevention, uses on-chain components merged with a traditional adtech stack to seamlessly store and serve data, prevent fraud, and empower a new age of transparency for advertisers and publishers worldwide.

Through Verasity’s proprietary Proof of View technology, patented in both the USA and China, Verasity works to eliminate online ad fraud and NFT fraud, bringing transparency, security and trust to digital transactions, from gaming to digital advertising.

Verasity recently penned a partnership deal with online video platform Brightcove, and we joined Verasity CRO and advertising expert Justin Wenczka to discuss the benefits of the new partnership and what to expect from these two powerhouses in the coming year. Learn how Verasity is helping Brightcove publishers fight ad fraud at its source here.

Brightcove recently integrated Verasity into its marketplace. What are some of the benefits you see coming out of this partnership?

Brightcove is a huge video on demand platform, powering hundreds of publishers the world over—including many household names and brands. Through Verasity’s Proof of View technology and our integration into the Brightcove player, we give Brightcove publishers access to VeraViews, which is our blockchain-powered ad stack.

This allows publishers and brands to monetise their video content and filter out any fraudulent engagement. From Brightcove customers’ perspective, they can go through and generate a healthy revenue stream from video content, preventing fraud and storing real ad serve data on an immutable blockchain ledger.

We are currently progressing through the final stages of integrating with the Brightcove player, which will enable publishers to turn on VeraViews with the flick of a switch. Currently, VeraViews is available to integrate on the Brightcove Marketplace through our own purpose-built player, the VeraPlayer, but the true value and adoption lies in making it simple to use VeraViews with Brightcove’s existing player - which is where the majority of publishers on Brightcove host their content.

From Verasity’s perspective, having access to Brightcove’s prestigious client list is amazing. We've got the biggest brands in the world lining up to run activity through the VeraViews platform, wanting to scale as much as they possibly can. It's a huge opportunity for both of us, and we’re excited to see increased adoption for Verasity’s technology.

How is Verasity’s Proof of View technology beneficial for brands in general?

It's all about proving that people have viewed your advertising content. The video advertising industry has had a problem in that it draws huge amounts of advertising spend, but it also sees a disproportionately large amount of fraudulent activity.

Video advertisements account for 64% of all ad fraud online, according to Forrester, and during a notable period in Christmas 2021, DoubleVerify determined that as many as 66% of all video ad impressions were fraudulent.

With numbers like these, the advertising industry can no longer afford to ignore malicious activity in the digital ad space. Proof of View ensures that ads are served to real viewers, verifiable on-chain and recorded immutably through our purpose-built distributed ledger technology to eliminate ad fraud online. We use a side-chain of Ethereum to keep costs low, and in this manner we can deliver the world’s first truly transparent ledger for advertising technology, proving that ads have been served to real viewers and in turn hugely reducing payment times between advertisers and content creators.

Big brands who are mindful of brand safety - or who just care about maximising the value of their advertising - feel more comfortable with engaging with their users on video platforms if they have enhanced anti-fraud technologies.

What are Verasity’s other priorities right now?

Verasity provides security across a host of products and platforms including advertising and blockchain transactions, and we are working across an expanse of products. We offer transparency, security and trust with our patented Proof of View technology and we are working to eliminate NFT fraud and online ad fraud.

We also have a blockchain-powered Esports platform, VeraEsports, which uses superior blockchain technology to offer the best gamified viewing experience. VeraEsports is creating unlimited possibilities for users and works as the bridge between gaming and crypto by introducing esport enthusiasts to in and out of game NFTs, rewards for watching and competing in esports tournaments. We host some of the largest gaming tournaments in the industry right now, including Riot Game’s VALORANT Champions Tour for the APAC region - one of the world’s most viewed esports events.

What are some of the future opportunities and challenges you see in the market for VeraEsports?

Esports platforms have risen to unprecedented heights, with many people prioritising online gaming over in-person activities. This means that viewership is up, engagement is up and there's a mainstream audience that is definitely there - and growing rapidly.

There is huge growth in the esports market right now. From a size of $694.2 million in 2017, esports products, services and solutions are expected to grow to $2.17 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 18.61%, according to Bitcoinist.

These audiences are young and engaged and that is a great opportunity for brands. In turn, we have a huge opportunity at Verasity to deliver unique content that represents one of the most rapidly growing entertainment industries in the world, and offer this to Brightcove publishers.

Is there anything you’d like to finish with?

Overall, Verasity is a multifaceted ecosystem of products for publishers and advertisers. We take cutting edge content, unique blockchain technology elements, and a powerful ad tech stack and package them into a complete end-to-end ad fraud prevention and content solution for publishers.

We’re looking forward to revealing more details of our partner publishers soon, and we would like to extend our thanks to the entire Brightcove team for their support during our integration and listing on the Brightcove Marketplace.

Also published in: The Drum

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