I want my N F T (with added utility)…

Thomas Scovell, Alkimi Exchange advisor and community admin, dissects the future of targeted advertising and launches an exclusive offer for our NFT holders.

Not only are Alkimi ADS token holders currently receiving a tasty APY for staking currently but many are now in possession of an AlEx The Alkimist NFT.

Anyone who staked over 10K ADS has been given the ability to mint one of 3000 NFTs and so far over 1400 have been created. 18% of these come with an ADS bonus of up to 40K which has made some lucky holders very happy indeed. We previously interviewed Ballem🥳ns who unlocked the first “ultra-rare” NFT.

In addition, all holders of the NFTs have had exclusive access to the “AlEx into the Metaverse” game and have been up for both glory and more token bonuses for topping the leaderboard.

It’s pretty clear that NFT collectibles are hot right now so you could be excused for mistaking AlEx as being an interesting play in that space, but the power of NFTs goes well beyond what projects like Bored Apes and their many copycats are doing.

One of the biggest stories in digital advertising the past two years has been the imminent “death of the cookie” — with this hack on ’90s technology finally outliving its welcome as privacy advocates and consumers came to realise cookies take so much data from consumers and give so little back.

There are a number of proposals on the table to replace them but nothing has been agreed upon by all browsers. Google were, until recently, pushing a system called FLoC (“Federated Learning of Cohorts”) but this failed to get traction and they have pivoted to a watered-down version called “Topics API”.

Most solutions are based on the same concept though — rather than sending your personal data to advertisers when you view a page, your browsing behaviour is analysed on your own device and then you are assigned into one of a set number of user “types” that describe what you are into. Advertisers can then target these segments without knowing specific details about what sites you have visited etc.

It is more private but not massively so. But would we expect any better from Google, who have been, literally, exploiting consumer data and short-changing advertisers and publishers millions of dollars with their opaque digital advertising products for years? In short, no.

Whatever the near-term solution ends up being, it will be an evolution on web 2.0 — something which largely keeps control over what advertisers know about consumers and what advertisements they get shown in the hands of the publisher, advertiser and the browser.

What is needed is a revolution — which calls for web3 technologies. Which is where we come back to the potential power of NFTs. Rather than allowing a browser to classify you and share your data — crypto wallets and NFTs offer a way for a user to specify what data they want to share and to explicitly choose when and who to share it with.

It’s a concept called “vendor relationship management”, where consumers are able to choose what to share with businesses in a way that ensure they get the best results and value for the data they offer up. The opposite of the “consumer relationship management” (CRM) — the wordy name for businesses owning your data and offering up nothing but ill-targeted ads and emails in return.

So if you’re lucky enough to hold an AlEx NFT — it’s a lot more than some bonus ADS, access to a game and a great PFP, it’s a breadcrumb leading you to the future of advertising. We’ll be hearing a lot more from the Alkimi team about what this means in the coming months I’m sure.

And in the short term, I’m very pleased to announce a little extra utility for AlEx The Alkimist holders today with the launch of the AD-VERSE. newsletter, sponsored by Alkimi Exchange.

AD-VERSE. newsletter lives at the intersection of technology and marketing. It’s an insight into the worlds of crypto, web3 and the metaverse for folks from the world of advertising, and a view back into adland for those who already live in these new frontiers.

It’s $15USD/month normally, but for AlEx The Alkimist NFT holders it’s absolutely free.

Go here to subscribe and hang on for more news about how Alkimi Exchange and web3 are transforming marketing and advertising for the benefit of everyone.