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Permission.io is a platform that pays users in ASK tokens to interact with, or even watch, ads. Built on a fork of the Ethereum blockchain, the Permission platform incentivizes users to grant advertisers and other participating merchants access to their time and data in a peer-to-peer manner.
Over the past 12 months, the startup has raised $ 5 million through a symbolic presale and recently closed another funding round that raised the company to $ 47 million raised through equity financing. And since the platform came out of beta a few weeks ago, it has over 450,000 users, according to the company.
“Our model predicts that advertisers are able to pay people directly through encryption, where advertisers’ return on their investment will increase dramatically,” said Charlie Silver, CEO of Permission. “Everyone is happy and everyone wins. The user is now being rewarded for what companies like Google and Facebook are typically compensated for today. “
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Data ownership: how users are granted authorization
The idea of passing on the benefits of ads to users and advertisers rather than intermediaries isn’t necessarily new. The Brave browser, for example, has allowed its users to choose whether or not to activate their reward token system in exchange for displaying ads since its official launch in 2019.
Silver, while complimenting Brave’s leadership in the area, is quick to point out that Permission is different. He said Brave is purely a browser that doesn’t collect data, arguing that the ads it offers to people are random.
Authorization, on the other hand, allows people to receive ads via their “behavioral data”. Behavioral data indicates that ads are served based on activities such as brand interactions and content consumption.
“By the end of the year, users will have access to a feature called ‘Personal Data’, which will allow them to insert specific data points around preferences that will create even more precise ad targeting and also limit the ability of brands to reach users who are not interested in their products, “said Silver.
Silver said this tool will allow users to revoke or manage their data directly, with the permission acting as an agent for this data rather than an intermediary.
All data generated through the authorization, regardless of source, is anonymized on the advertiser side, according to SIlver. Although the permission will know what data is tied to a person (for the purpose of assigning ASK coins), advertisers will not be able to link it to an individual.
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The startup has integrated with the payment provider CoinPayments, accepted by over 3,000 merchants and resellers, to allow people to use various cryptocurrencies such as ASK for online purchases.
When you sign up for the authorization, you earn some ASK to do it. You’re then free to go through the platform and “purchase and discover product videos that may interest you,” according to Silver.
Bespoke Advertising: How Merchants Get Authorized
There are two ways merchants can connect with customers through authorization. First, Permission hosts its own Shopify store where it lists all merchants participating in its program.
Second, the authorization allows merchants to install their own plugin on their Shopify store sites.
“We have created plugins for Shopify and Magento, so ecommerce merchants can simply install a plug-in, which will allow them to offer ASK on their site and reward their customers,” said Silver. “So in Authorization we are working to demonstrate the effectiveness of this type of authorization-based ad serving.”
For example, a shoe store on Shopify could connect to Permission and display its ads in the Permission marketplace, reward people with ASK for displaying tailored advertisements, and then allow people to purchase their products in the Permission marketplace. me, using ASK.
To test it, I logged into Permission.io (I earned 100 ASK for doing so) and was taken to the marketplace dashboard, where I was shown several ads. One was for a pair of steel-toed trainers and I clicked on them.
After watching a 30-second video of someone jumping around in sneakers and rolling their steel-protected foot out of a car, I earned 100 ASK.
At this point I only had 200 ASK in my wallet, but if I had to complete enough homework and earn enough ASK, I could spend it on these sneakers, giving up on US dollars.
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“While we will promote these stores on our platform, we are ultimately looking to help e-commerce merchants drive traffic and conversion to their stores,” said Hunter Jensen, CTO of the authorization. “By installing our plugin, users will interact with the merchant’s store but will be able to earn ASK along the way to purchase.”
Silver said he thinks the authorization model is a key part of data ownership and sovereignty, based on the user, rather than companies like Google and Facebook.
“Our goal is to build what we call the permission economy, where millions of websites offer their users ASK to interact with them at various levels,” said Silver.
