Yesterday the advertising and media-oriented blockchain MadNetwork announced it is absorbing the blockchain protocol Po.et, which focuses on content monetization. Collectively the firms will target identity validation to enable content and monetization use cases. Founded in 2017, MadNetwork is backed by investors Blockchange and Fenbushi. The latter is China’s first venture capital firm that invests exclusively in blockchain firms.
“MadNetwork is building the fundamental layer that almost all enterprise solutions need: the ability to validate the identity of anything in the digital world; whether its people, assets, organizations or devices,” said Adam Helfgott, CEO of MadNetwork Adam Helfgott. “Absorbing the Po.et team and resources will help us achieve our shared vision of a more transparent, fair, and accountable web that much more quickly.”
Founded in 2017, initially Po.et built open-source software for content timestamps and data attribution using Bitcoin’s blockchain. More recently, it started using Ethereum but experienced significant issues such as high transaction expenses, storage, and scaling.
MadNetwork’s solution addresses some of these issues by creating an Ethereum sidechain to achieve speed and manage transaction costs. In its recently updated whitepaper, the firm says, “by anchoring MadNetwork into an Ethereum smart contract system, those same properties that otherwise make Ethereum a difficult technology in the enterprise setting may be leveraged for the benefit of creating a more secure system.”
Officially launched in 2018, MadNetwork released developer tools through advertising and data platform MadHive, whose mission is to simplify programmatic advertising. In August this year, MadNetwork partnered with non-profit blockchain consortium AdLedger to help form technical standards in advertising and media. Then in October, MadNetwork was selected by Verizon to promote its corporate transparency initiative, Full Transparency. The project is designed to work as a decentralized record holder for newsrooms and outlets. Its ultimate goal is to “stop the truth decay caused by fake news.”
