Let’s face it: stumbling across an internet ad that’s relevant to your interests is rare these days. What’s the problem? Wouldn’t it make sense for an industry that has been so meticulously developed over the years to be spot on at catering ads to match consumer preferences? Well, despite the astronomical amount of data collection that exists in the multi-billion dollar digital advertising industry, Meta and Google dominate what is now considered a broken market– all due to the oversaturation of bots and middleman publishers that have thrown the ad-matching algorithm off-kilter. 

Believe it or not, there’s a working solution to the problem! Fluree has partnered with Fabric to restore autonomy to consumer data and rebuild trust in an industry where skepticism is the norm.

So what is Fabric, exactly? 

Paul Taylor, Fabric founder and CEO, generated the idea for the company in 2017 with the angle of reinstating data ownership to consumers and eradicating the role of middlemen publishers like Meta and Google that collect consumer data and sell it unsanctioned to advertisers. The goal was to disrupt the current advertising paradigm by requiring every consumer and advertiser to open a bank account that would prove their identity while creating transparency and trust between both parties. Taylor introduced an Ad Marketplace connected to these bank accounts, allowing users to watch ads and get paid by advertisers for doing so. Users willingly input select demographic information, watch ads from a variety of brands, and provide feedback on how they received that advertisement. They’re subsidized with a Fabric banking card that holds funds earned from their time watching advertisements. In return, advertisers have access to high-quality, first-party, targeting data from verified users that they can use without needing to incorporate a middleman publisher.

Where does Fluree come into play? 

Fabric uses Fluree technology to enable consumers to control and monetize their own personal data without being exploited by companies like Meta and Google. Fluree CEO Brian Platz says, “With Fluree’s trusted ledger database, Fabric has built a business that seamlessly helps to improve the relationship between regular people and the brands appealing to them. Fluree seeks to work with disruptive organizations looking to build new applications and services that make data more sovereign and business models more equitable.” Fluree’s blockchain-secured database ensures that advertisers know their consumers are real. This helps to eliminate ad fraud, which cost marketers upwards of $120 billion last year, while simultaneously cryptographically protecting consumer identities. Consumers are able to harness Fluree’s blockchain technology to sell their personal data to the advertisers that they choose. Fabric CEO and Founder Paul Taylor says that “Fluree’s unique data management platform unlocks new opportunities for startups like Fabric that are disrupting traditional business models… enabling Fabric to operate in a fraud free environment.”

What makes this partnership great? 

The collaboration between Fluree and Fabric is a game changer for the digital advertising industry. Fabric’s Ad Marketplace is one where consumers can own the value of their own data and advertisers can guarantee the direct value of that data as well. That Ad Marketplace is powered and made possible by Fluree’s unique data management infrastructure, where data can cryptographically prove its own integrity and provenance, and where collaborative access to data can be governed by policy at the data layer itself. Fabric and Fluree both believe that by empowering data with additional security, integrity, and trust, the value of that data can be unlocked for consumer and enterprise alike.

A larger trend

Fabric’s use of Fluree’s technology is a perfect example of the next generation of technologies powering what we call “Web3.” The Web3 movement is chipping away at traditional business models and restoring trusted data ownership and sharing that protect consumers and empower businesses with higher quality data. 

Web3, although confused by many, is a generation of technology that we are still just stepping into. At Fluree, we believe Web3 rests on trusted data and semantic interoperability. Semantic interoperability refers to the ability of different systems and applications to understand and exchange data in a shared, meaningful way. It ensures that the data is accurate and consistent, regardless of the technology or system used to create or interpret it. By leveraging semantic interoperability, Fluree enables organizations to collaborate and share data more effectively, ultimately leading to better decision-making and business outcomes. This use case with Fabric is just the beginning of a larger trend we can expect to see, where more and more organizations harness the power of clean data to create a trusted and reliable product for consumers and vendors alike. We are excited to have set the standard for this trend and look forward to watching it progress as Web3 technology continues to develop.