The problem Placeholder solves

A New Way to Keep Ads Honest

Placeholder is an On-Chain Attestation Reputation System designed to bring honesty, safety, and transparency to the world of online advertising.

---

The Problem with Traditional Advertising

In the old days, verifying the integrity of online ads was extremely difficult:

• No Accountability: Publishers could run malicious ads without consequence.
• Unsafe Experiences: Ads containing malware, scams, or inappropriate content could appear just about anywhere.
• Untrustworthy Ecosystem: Advertisers and publishers had little incentive to maintain high-quality standards.

---

Introducing Placeholder

Built on top of the TrueNetwork Attestation Layer, Placeholder empowers users—that means you—to have a direct say in what ads and publishers earn your trust.

How It Works

1. Community Votes: You cast verifiable, on-chain votes rating the quality and trustworthiness of both advertisers and publishers.
2. Reputation Score Generation: A cutting-edge Reputation Algorithm blends your votes with on-chain activity data to produce a dynamic, tamper-resistant Reputation Score.
3. Enforcement of Quality: Ads and publishers with low Reputation Scores lose their placements, ensuring that only the most honest, reliable content gets through.

---

How Can You Use Placeholder?

Publish Ads (No Gas):
With Coinbase’s platform, anyone can publish on-chain ads without gas fees, lowering barriers and encouraging new participants. This is instantly displayed on our digital billboard powered by a raspberry pi and display.

Rate Ads:
Use our Flutter app to rate ads. Your signed input goes to TrueNetwork’s Attestation Layer, applying Quadratic Voting principles to yield a fair Reputation Score.

Community Power:
Your collective ratings filter out malicious ads, ensuring a safer, more transparent ecosystem. Placeholder lets users—not corporations—shape advertising standards.

Challenges we ran into

• Figuring out the right formulae for the reputation
  Gving each user the same weigtage for thier votes did not seem like the right solution for us.
  We combined a user's on chian actvity and Formula that follows Quadratic Voting Principles to achieve a normalized Reputation Score.

• Integrating the TrueNetwork SDK
  Understadning the architecture and working pricniples of TrueNetwork seemed quite challening for us since , this was the first time we were introduced to this. The support from the TrueNetwork Team proved quite valuable here.

• Crafting optimal smart contracts
  We debated amongst oursleves what was the right onchain stratgey for our contracts. Wheather it should include staking or other form of consesus , while at the same time something simple enough to be finished in the hackathon.
  Finally we dicided to keep things simple and crafted smart contracts that operates coheisvely with the entire system.

Additional Features

Below is a more concise version, approximately 2000 characters, maintaining clarity and essential details.

---

We originally tested the Placeholder concept at Unfold 2024, focusing on a demand-side platform for dynamic billboard ad pricing. That initial build helped us understand how to manage and adjust ad costs in real-time. Yet, it lacked deeper community involvement or trust mechanisms.

At EthIndia 2024, we expanded the vision to incorporate on-chain attestation and reputation, turning the project into a more transparent, user-driven ecosystem. Instead of just dynamic pricing, we introduced verifiable feedback loops, allowing the community to determine which ads deserve visibility.

What’s New During EthIndia 2024?

• On-Chain Reputation System: We integrated the TrueNetwork Attestation Layer, enabling anyone to rate ads, with each rating cryptographically signed and recorded. These inputs feed into our reputation algorithm, ensuring that ad placements depend on honest community feedback rather than just payment. A low reputation score means an ad might lose visibility, encouraging quality and trustworthiness.

• Physical Display with Raspberry Pi: To demonstrate our concept in a tangible setting, we hooked up a Raspberry Pi to display ads in real-time. This isn’t just about seeing ads on a screen; it creates an interactive, real-world experience. Users can view ads “in the wild” and provide immediate feedback.

• User Interaction via Flutter App: Next to each displayed ad, a QR code invites anyone to scan it using our Flutter app. After scanning, users can quickly rate the ad. Their input travels through the attestation layer, ensuring verifiable, tamper-resistant data. The community’s aggregated feedback continuously updates on-chain reputation scores.