ScreenCoin: A Blockchain-Enabled Decentralized Ad Network

Abstract

One hundred thousand bulletins, eight thousand digital billboards, one million busses, forty thousand taxis, and thirty-five thousand movie theaters are examples of out-of-home (OOH) advertising. OOH is an advertising media located outside homes, generally found in highly-transited public locations. Digital out-of-home advertising is any OOH media displayed digitally, such as on a digital billboard. OOH advertising is a growing multi-billion-dollar industry that remains controlled by a small number of parties, stakeholders, or providers with high barriers to entry for advertisers. Large purchase minimums have made it impractical for low-budget advertiser to publish their content on OOH platforms. This paper introduces the ScreenCoin protocol, a solution to this issue that utilizes a decentralized ad network built on a blockchain and a token called Screencoin to advertise content. In this system, miners will earn tokens by storing and serving advertisers’ content, creating a decentralized OOH ad network with fewer entry barriers.