For years, many of us have been blindly handing over full control of our personal data to web advertising companies. By agreeing to cryptic terms of service documents, we have enabled them to conduct market research on us for free and sell the fruits of our collective data for billions of dollars. At the same time, with the rise of fake news and fake reviews, online consumers are finding it increasingly more difficult to discern between products and services, or are simply oblivious to manipulation by made-up product ratings.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect earlier this year and with it, individuals became more aware of how and where their personal data was being handled. This presents new challenges for online businesses, who must constantly innovate in order to survive. But how does a business innovate with so much regulation-related friction in the way of collecting timely, detailed insights about their consumer base?
Review.Network is set to address these issues with its brand new technology. The company is developing a review and market research platform using blockchain and artificial intelligence technology that it claims will greatly improve the quality of online reviews and provide direct, live consumer insights to businesses at a fraction of the current cost.
For consumers, Review.Network’s decentralized review platform brings with it the advantage of cryptographically verifiable, accurate and trustworthy reviews, filtered by detailed demographic information. Reviewers will also be incentivized to write high-quality product reviews for a token reward in the shape of the platform’s own cryptocurrency, REW.
Although Review.Network’s true beauty lies in its built-in enforcement of high quality and accurate reviews, it is the ‘democratisation of data’ that is the second big headline.
Review.Network will put the keys to each consumer’s data into their own hands, allowing only them to decide exactly what data they want to share with businesses, as well as whether they will charge a fee (in REW tokens) for the use of this data. Consumers will be able to share just the marketing insights to be gained from their personal data, while remaining completely anonymous. The data will not be stored on any central database, but on each consumer’s device in a form only the owner can decrypt.
In this decentralized system, each consumer will hold the exclusive power to access, share, or monetize any part of their data through Review.Network’s consumer portal.
Businesses will be able to use Review.Network’s complement of market research tools to conduct detailed surveys of a finely targeted segment of the population. With no middlemen and paying in REW tokens, the costs of conducting direct-to-consumer market research will be far lower.
Co-founders Petar Slovic and Ivan Ciric are both software engineers who were early adopters of blockchain technology. This technology, coupled with a shared goal of online transparency led them to create Review.Network.
“We see this as the democratization of data,” enthused Ciric. “Under the current structures of web apps, data is kept on servers without giving public access. This means information can be manipulated behind closed doors or skewed for gains, financial or otherwise. Under the Review.Network model, the same review data is hosted on the blockchain for all to see and can never be removed or edited.”
“Our mission is to give the power of data back to the community while creating the most powerful and credible Review.Network in the world,” added Slovic.
Still in its infancy, Review.Network has already raised over $1,000,000. With plans to launch our ICO in the coming months, additional funds secured will go toward further development to establish Review.Network as the go-to platform in the areas of both market research and online reviews.
For more information and to pre-register go to review.network
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