Linking blockchain technology and digital advertising: How blockchain technology can enhance digital advertising to be more effective, efficient, and trustworthy

Blockchain technology is often touted as a transformative solution for improving the current over-centralized systems in our economy, where all tangible and intangible assets are traded. Driven by computer science and engineering, blockchain technology is believed to decentralize the current system with its simple yet effective property of distributed ledger technology, which guarantees data transparency that can be seen by anyone in the network. With its robustness, blockchain technology can be applied to the centralized and multi-party-controlled current advertising ecosystem. Despite its potential, there is a lack of scientific discussion linking blockchain technology and advertising. In this essay, we examine the current challenges that render the measurement of advertising effects inefficient and untrustworthy in the advertising ecosystem. By focusing on such challenges as data transparency, consumer privacy, and ad fraud, we explain how blockchain technology can enhance the advertising system, making it more trustworthy from both technical and consumer standpoints.