Media Pitch: How Cryptomining Can Enable Publishers to Monetize Engagement

Cryptomining may be the latest method for publishers to tap into new online revenue. Mining involves verifying cryptocurrency transactions by cracking the blockchain code associated with those transactions. When the miner successfully verifies a transaction, he earns cryptocurrency. Gath3r, a technology startup founded in 2018, has made cryptomining a monetization vehicle for publishers. By using spare computing power from readers who are browsing publishers’ websites or apps, Gath3r can mine on behalf of publishers. The longer readers spend on a publisher’s content, the more cryptocurrency that publisher can earn. In this interview, Gath3r founder Raghav Reggie Jerath, explains why he believes cryptocurrency and blockchain will play an increasingly important role in publishers’ monetization strategies. What is your technology and how does it work? We are a monetization platform for publishers. Our technology revolves around web browser mining. The mining process essentially entails the usage of some of the spare computational power of regular website or app users in order to mine cryptocurrencies for the owners of those websites or apps — the publishers. We have taken an already existing, albeit very new concept and improved it wherever we saw shortcomings. The more your users spend time on your site or use your app, the more money you make. The Gath3r team brings the experience we have across cryptocurrency, blockchain, marketing, technology, and finance to bear on one of the Internet’s biggest problems. We are driven by a passion to make the world a better place and by a belief that blockchain and cryptocurrency present a unique inflection point in human history. What problem are you solving or opportunity are you enabling? We have noticed quite a few shortcomings when it comes to web miners out there: transparency issues, high fees, restricted payouts, and malware are just a few. This is how Gath3r came into existence. We embraced the same concept, however we improved every aspect we found to be unsatisfactory. Our technology is completely transparent, only works if a user lets it, and can make as much, if not more, money than traditional digital advertising. Gath3r’s blockchain mining solution also ensures user privacy by not gathering any data about the user — and because of the nature of the solution, we don’t need to track users, know who they are, what they do, or any other information about them. Simply put, publishers and app developers don’t make money by selling their audiences, but by engaging their audiences. How did you come up with this idea? We came up with the solution after seeing the current lack of alternate of monetization methods for publishers. While there are other smaller methods, none of them were as scalable as advertising. However in today's digital age, advertising has led to mass data collection and farming, invasions of privacy and general lack of respect for users. People care more about their identities and their data, especially with the constant news of data breaches and other data fraud. We knew something had to change, a way for publishers to make money while respecting their users. How do you help media companies increase revenue or cut costs? Currently the cryptocurrency market is quite suppressed, however as the market grows, so does our profitability. For example, a website with 3.7 million sessions per month, with an average engagement of 3 minutes and 24 seconds can earn approximately $3,000 monthly after a few crucial features are developed. The same calculation yielded double a few months ago. These numbers also depend on the user consent rate and at what capacity the publishers choose to run on the miner. For the same website, with a clickthrough rate of .35%, a CPC of $0.75, and CPM of $2.80 can earn around $10,000. Note this number can change depending on the website traffic and content type. Niche content publishers tend to earn higher CPC and CPM, while general consumer publishers tend to earn less. Other factors also include where the traffic originates from. Traffic from India and Africa pay lower CPC and CPM compared to traffic from the U.S. and U.K. Mobile applications are also well suited to use Gath3r, as in-app ads are extremely intrusive and the monetization methods for apps are more limited. What do you think are the most important trends affecting the media business today? The most important trends are user data, privacy, and consent. People are acutely aware of the importance of their data and how it can be misused, from ad blockers to people putting tape on their webcams, the message is loud and clear: businesses need to start respecting their users’ privacy again. How do you plan on expanding or improving on your offering? The sector is very nascent and has a lot of room to grow; our next steps are to keep adding value in terms of analytics, additional methods of monetization, user loyalty systems and further refine our technology. We plan to build specific iterations for certain industries, such as networked hardware and IoT devices. Just about anything that has a central processor or graphics processing unit and an Internet connection can be used to mine cryptocurrency.

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Media Pitch: How Cryptomining Can Enable Publishers to Monetize Engagement

Ellen Harvey

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Ellen Harvey