It is with great pleasure to be a participant in this week assignment of professor @wahyunahrul which he taught about VERASITY - ADVERTISING SERVICES ON BLOCKCHAIN, I can say I understood the class and I have been able to give back base on my own understanding and the research I made. I stand corrected in any way as I might have come short in details of a particular question.
1). What is Verasity? What do you think about the performance of this platform broadly?
What is Verasity?
Verasity is a video-sharing and game development platform that runs on blockchain technology. On the platforms, services such as advertising, subscriptions for on-demand videos, crowdfunding, and pay-per-view are offered.
It makes use of blockchain technology with its proprietary protocol called Proof-of-View PoV. It aims to bring about a direct and transparent relationship between viewers, content creators, and advertisers.
By using blockchain the content creators get directly involved with their viewers instead of advertisers having a say based on the number of viewers the content creator has.
The video-sharing platform has a protocol which is its Proof-of-View protocol and 3 main layers which help to maintain the ecosystem.
One of the main layers is the Verasity.tv. It is a layer where users can watch videos and earn rewards in its native tokens VRA. It is an aggregate of the works of content creators from YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, JWPlayer, Brightcove, VideoJS, Kaltura, FlowPlayer, iVideoSmart, and publishers on other platforms were struggling to earn revenue for their work.
Another main layer is the VeraWallet. It is the official wallet of Verasity. This allows users to earn VRA tokens from watching videos and playing games. It is also used to allow users to stake their earned tokens on the platform to gain more rewards. It also enables users to buy more tokens so as to operate on the platform efficiently.
The last main layer is VeraEsports. This is where game developer brings about game competitions and tournaments that users can engage in and earn rewards. Players can also watch other games and earn rewards.
The Verasity platform was developed by its founder Mark R.J. who has a successful background in the software and hardware industry. He's backed by many others who have successful backgrounds as well. To mention a few, David Archer who is the director and legal, and Robert Keogh who is the financial director.
What do you think about the performance of this platform broadly?
It has collaborated with so many video player partners with its B2B products that include SDKs for sites such as YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, JWPlayer, Brightcove, iVideoSmart, Kaltura, VideoJS, Flowplayer, and Ooyala. These video players represent more than 95% of all the video players utilized, this shows how useful Verasity is.
They have very good industry remarks from legends such as Pedro Pereria who is the CTO of ebonus.gg. After integrating their site with Verasity's platform, they had significant improvement on their site which is something to behold.
Another legend that gave a good remark about them is the founder of Binance centralized exchange, Changpeng Zhao. This is something very remarkable bearing in mind who the founder of Binance is in the cryptocurrency street.
Finally, according to LunarCrush, Verasity has experienced remarkable growth in its social media presence. It has up to 35,000 members on Telegram in different countries and languages, 60,000 followers on Twitter, 25,000 followers on Facebook, and thousands of followers on other platforms. As at this time it had up t 101,000 wallet registrations through VeraWallet. This shows the power of Verasity now and its effect in the future. There are other relevant data that have not been stated.
2). How does the Proof of View system used by Verasity validate real viewers? Explain in detail and make an illustration about it.
The Verasity protocol Proof-of-View goes through 3 different phases in an attempt to filter out fake views and get original views only. The 3 phases are:
1. Initial Phase: This is the initiation phase where the PoV tries to recognize the viewer of a video by using a metric so as to get a certain score that is used in the filtering stages. This takes place just before the impression is given.
2. Viewing Phase: In this phase, the PoV gathers the metric statistics it has generated from the initiation phase and then gives out some challenges that are exclusive to the POV, so as to generate additional data.
3. Scoring Phase: This is the final phase where the PoV analyzes the data it has derived from phases 1 and 2 with its proprietary Artificial Intelligence. It also makes use of IVT filtering data gotten from vendors which act as third parties but are in partnership with Verasity. It is after the processes involved in this stage are completed that it can now determine if a view is authentic or fake.
After the phases have been completed, the data derived is gathered by PoV and sent to VeraChain (the side chain of Verasity). At this point, the data derived is marked and recorded in hashes and campaign IDs. After that, they are registered into blocks and verified by VeriFiers.
These VeriFiers are selected through the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism that is being employed in conjunction with PoV.
3). Why is "fake viewers" so detrimental to all parties related to videos and advertisements that are shown?
There is a wave on traditional video-sharing platforms where the viewers that watch advertisements that should be humans are now turned into bots created from computers. This makes it that the viewers are not genuine as they have been turned into bots and this makes the advertisers who pay for advertisements feel and also be at a disadvantage because those bots that watch their advertisements are not interested in their products.
According to the fraud detection site, more than $ 6 million is lost to a type of bot called Chameleon. In 2020 alone the losses that were recorded globally were put at $35 billion due to fake views using bots. This translates to as much as 36% of ads that are being displayed on these video-sharing platforms being fake, fraudulent, and invalid.
In addition to this, the advertising companies will not get the maximum engagement they require, and as such the revenue paid for the advertisements would yield low returns.
4). Mention and explain ways so that we can get VRA Token rewards.
There are basically 3 ways that you can earn VRA tokens. They by watching videos on Verasity.tv, VeraWallet, and VeraEsports.
Verasity,tv
On the Verasity.tv platform click on Watch&Earn. Then you would be taken to a page where there are tons of videos. Click on anyone.
When you click on a video, a trophy icon would display with a message to click on it to sign in to earn rewards.
VeraWallet
On the VeraWallet platform click on Earn VRA.
Then you would be taken to a page where there is a list of videos to choose from. Scroll down and choose anyone. I chose technews.guru.
On the technews.guru platform there are many videos to choose from, I chose one. While watching it a trophy icon is displayed.
VeraEsports
On the VeraEsport platform click on Watch and Earn.
Then you would be taken to a page where you would locate where to watch the videos. Click on Watch now.
When you click on a video, a trophy icon would display with a message to click on it to sign in to earn rewards.
5). What is VRA Virtuous Cycle? Explain it in detail.
The Virtuous cycle describes the main activities that take place on the Verasity platform. It is made up of 6 different types of activities that take place during operations on the platform. They include:
1. Buyers buy VRA: The ad promoters, publishers, and game developers buy the Verasity token VRA on an exchange or with a credit card so that they can use it to fund their ads, game tournaments, and campaigns. This process enables them to grow a large following and also helps them to monetize their programs.
2. Publishers Reward VRA: The VRA tokens that were bought by the ad promoters, publishers, and game developers are used to enhance engagements from their respective viewers through rewards given to the viewers for engaging in their programs.
3. Users Earn VRA: Viewers of any videos on the platforms or participate in-game tournaments by the tournament developers, publishers, and influencers get rewarded for participating in such activities.
4. Verasity Earns: This is the part where the Verasity platform gets a percentage from all the activities that are ongoing in the platform.
5. Stake VRA: Anyone who has VRA token either through earned rewards or by buying it can stake their tokens and also get rewards.
6. Easy Conversion For VRA:The VRA tokens is made very easy to get. It can be bought with a credit card with fiat currencies, it can also be bought through VeraWallet. This is done so as to make mass adoption of the VRA tokens by making it easy for anyone (crypto enthusiasts and non-crypto enthusiasts) to be able to obtain the tokens easily.
6). Create a VeraWallet account and show the complete steps (Screenshot Required).
These are the steps I used in creating an account in the VeraWallet.
Step 1
Go to the Verasity home page. On the click on Sign Up.
Step 2
On the next page that follows, input your email address and password and click on Create account. Also, tick the T&C privacy policy.
Step 3
A verification code is sent to your email address, go there and copy it.
Step 4
Then paste the verification code on the verification page and click on Submit.
Step 5
A new page with a 2-factor authentication would display. Generate the necessary code with either QR scan or the with the Account and Key given (by copying them). After generating the code click on Next.
Step 6
On the next page, your account is protected and a key is generated. Copy it and click on Save the Code.
Step 7
An image with your code is automatically downloaded to your device.
Step 8
Then a new page would show. Input your personal information, and click on Submit.
Step 9
Finally, my account has been created on VeraWallet.
7). Explain what use cases the VRA Token has in the Verasity ecosystem.
Reward Users: The VRA tokens are given as rewards to users who watch videos on the platform.
Staking: The VRA tokens can be staked on the Verasity platform to generate a yearly APY of 25.5%. Stakers can also perform verification of blocks of transactions based on the weight of their stakes
Used to Pay for Subscriptions: The VRA tokens can be used to make transactions directly with content creators on the platform. They can do this through subscriptions, pay-per-view, and on-demand payments for content. In this way, content creators can get more returns for the content they created.
Trading Purposes: The VRA tokens can be traded in the open market on exchanges such as Gate.io, OKEx, and KuCoin. Through this way owners of the coins can make profits with the tokens.
8). Explain the steps on how to Staking VRA tokens (Screenshot Required).
These are the steps I used in staking VRA tokens.
Step 1
Sign In to your VeraWallet account. Then on the sign-in page, click on Staking. Which is located at the top right corner of the page as indicated by the arrow.
Step 2
After clicking on Staking, a new page would appear. On this page, there is different information regarding staking on the Verasity platform. Scroll down and click on Stake VRA.
Step 3
A new page would appear. On this page you input the amount you want to stake then you click on Continue. The minimum amount that can be staked is 10,000 VRA.
9). Watch one of the videos on the Verasity Website and show how we can get rewards from watching the video (Screenshot Required).
I used the VeraEsports to watch a video. So on the video, a trophy icon is displayed with a message to click on it to sign in to earn rewards. So I did.
Then it showed to create an account for the Verasity Rewards Program. So I input my details in the required fields. Then I clicked on I'm not a robot, then I clicked on Create account.
In my email address a verification code was sent of which i copied.
Then I paste it on the verification field given, then I clicked on Submit.
Finally, the account was created and the rewards metrics were displayed.
10). Conclusion.
Verasity is a video sharing and games platform for the future. It makes use of the Proof-of-View protocol to detect fake views on the platform. Advertisers are very skeptical about giving ad revenue to traditional video-sharing platforms because they are scared that they wouldn't get the required returns on their investment because of fake viewership.
Its platform creates a high-quality video experience for users on its platform. Its platform is multi-layered with the Verasity.tv, VeraWallet, and VeraEsports. On these layers, users can perform different functions but the most common one is to watch videos and earn rewards. The rewards earned in each of these layers are different.
With Verasity, there is no need for intermediaries such as Facebook and Google to control the fund that advertisers give for ad campaigns. The advertisers get direct contact with their viewers and engage them with content. The contents that are created on the Verasity platform are of high quality and it doesn't have the risk of being flooded with fake views.