Media group Salon partners IBM, AdLedger for blockchain tracking ad payments

Salon Media Group has partnered IBM and non-profit AdLedger for a blockchain pilot project aimed at achieving more transparency for all ad payments of the internet journalism company, said a report. 

IBM said the private ledger can be audited but not changed, according to the report in news portal Adweek. The AdLedger consortium includes founding members GroupM, IAB, iSpot.tv, Mad Network, Publicis Media and Tegna. 

“This prototype will not only help publishers like us regain more control over our inventory, but will also illuminate where inefficiencies exist within the long and complex supply chain,” Ryan Nathanson, chief operating officer of Salon Media Group, said in the report. “The shared ledger on the blockchain will act as a single source of truth, creating indisputable transparency for both the brand itself and the publisher, which will aid in greater accuracy during reconciliation as well as make advertiser spending much more efficient,” he said. 

IBM, a partner for this pilot, has been running several projects with organisations testing out private hyper-ledgers to smoothen operations and cut down costs as well as bring in more transparency.  

In March, the company said it had 63 blockchain clients and was working on 400 projects with them. Some of these clients include Walmart, DuPoint, Maersk and HSBC.

The company is also running a project with fast-moving consumer goods company Unilever to validate and settle ad payments using private hyper-ledger.

In an interview with TechCircle, Jitan S Chandanani, blockchain leader at IBM, said the company was working with several consortiums and private firms to implement blockchain solutions in the country.

Last month, the company came out with a cheaper alternative for startups and medium-sized companies to build new projects or applications on blockchain.

IBM's blockchain platform is a bit different from other public blockchains such as those underlying bitcoin or ethereum. The company calls it the "permissioned" blockchain. This means that only a limited number of parties can access the chain.