This week, a Boston-based company reached its $15 million funding goal to develop a blockchain-assisted platform to store user profiles for advertising that pays users and for lenders who issue micro-loans.
Founded in 2016, AirFox currently has two main efforts, one in the US and one in Brazil. The $15 million funding was raised via a blockchain-based ICO (or initial coin offering) from 2,500 backers.
The one in the US is a non-blockchain platform that is licensed to two US-based wireless networked carriers, Life Wireless and Kroger Wireless.
For Android subscribers to those carriers, random user actions on a smartphone — such as every fifth device unlock or every third phone call — trigger the display of an ad from AirFox, via its integration with various ad exchanges.
The user gets credits for ad impressions, and those credits can be used to add up to 500 megabytes to the monthly data ceiling. A plan with a ceiling of one gigabyte of data per month, for instance, might be increased by 100 megabytes. AirFox co-founder and CEO Victor Santos told me that his company has about 200,000 active users on this licensed platform.
The consumer-focused platform in Brazil will be developed with the newly-raised funding. Its intention is to disrupt both advertising and lending with the assistance of blockchain technology.
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