How blockchain could provide an answer to misleading advertising

Researcher looks beyond cryptocurrency as key application

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Online scams and misleading advertisements continue to undermine consumer trust. New research by UvA communication scientist Dasha Antsipava offers a potential solution: harnessing blockchain technology to make digital advertising transparent, traceable, and trustworthy.

In her dissertation, Antsipava demonstrated how misleading advertising is damaging to consumers, brands, and society – and how blockchain could provide both practical and ethical safeguards.

Antsipava considered the perspective of various stakeholders: consumers, advertisers, regulators, blockchain experts, and the news media. Across five sub-studies, she examined how these stakeholders perceive misleading advertising and how they might respond to blockchain-based solutions.

It turns out that, although consumers increasingly recognise online deception as a serious threat, they sometimes lack confidence in their ability to protect themselves. Media coverage can play a role here: the press often portrays misleading advertising as a complex technological or regulatory problem, while simultaneously placing the responsibility on consumers themselves to stay safe.

Blockchain – mainly known for its role in cryptocurrencies – is essentially a secure digital ledger that records transactions within a distributed network. Antsipava argues that this same technology could transform the online advertising sector by creating a tamper-proof register for each advertisement, recording who created it, where and when it was published, and information about any subsequent amendments.

In a blockchain-based advertising network, advertisers would be required to verify their digital identity. Every advert could be permanently linked to its source, enabling regulators and consumers to trace authenticity and hold wrongdoers accountable. Such a system could drastically reduce advertising fraud, prevent fake endorsements, and even help consumers make better-informed purchase decisions by verifying the legitimacy of brands and their claims.

Advertising professionals acknowledge that misleading advertisements damage brand reputation and erode consumer trust, but they remain hesitant when it comes to adopting new technologies. Antsipava’s expert interviews revealed that the success of blockchain in the advertising industry would depend on collaboration across the entire ecosystem, including advertisers, publishers, regulators, and technology providers.

Consumers too, at present, do not seem to trust blockchain. This is probably due to a lack of awareness and the strong association with crypto. However, this perception may change as the technology is adopted more widely in other fields.

Emerce

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