What is Adshares (ADS)?

Quick Facts

  • Launched: 2017, mainnet live since December 2018
  • Blockchain: Proprietary ESC chain (delegated Proof-of-Stake)
  • Throughput: Over 1.4 million transactions per second
  • Token: ADS — used for all ad settlements and fees
  • Cross-chain: Bridges to Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, and Base
  • Staking: ADS holders earn rewards from a share of network fees
  • Open-source: AdServer software and SDK are publicly available

Introduction

Adshares (ADS) is a decentralized advertising protocol built to fix the core problems of the traditional digital ad industry: opacity, high fees, and rampant fraud. By placing ad settlements directly on a blockchain, it allows advertisers and publishers to transact peer-to-peer — no middlemen required.

The ADS token is the native currency that powers every transaction across the ecosystem, from ad purchases to publisher payouts.

History & Background

Adshares originated in 2017 when its founding team published a whitepaper outlining a vision for a decentralized advertising network. After a public ICO the same year, a testnet launched in early 2018, followed by the full mainnet in December 2018.

The project was co-founded by Leszek Rychlewski, creator of the ESC blockchain, and Jacek Zemlo, a blockchain entrepreneur. Since launch, the platform has served thousands of advertisers and a growing base of publishers across Web2 and Web3 environments.

How Adshares Works

Adshares is built on two interconnected layers: the ESC blockchain and the Adshares protocol.

The blockchain handles all payment transactions in ADS, while the protocol manages the transmission of advertising data — connecting supply and demand between publishers and advertisers. The ESC chain uses a delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) consensus, keeping it lightweight, fast, and energy-efficient.

An open-source AdServer and an SDK allow publishers and developers to integrate Adshares into websites, games, metaverse environments, and mobile apps with minimal effort.

Tokenomics

The ADS token serves as the single settlement currency for all advertising transactions on the network. Transaction fees are split so that a portion flows back to long-term ADS holders as liquid staking rewards, while a share is burned to reduce the freely floating supply. This dual mechanism — staking rewards plus native burning — creates both an incentive to hold and a deflationary pressure on supply over time.

Circulating supply ? 38.75 million ADS
Total supply ? 38.76 million ADS
Max supply ? 38.76 million ADS
Updated 3w ago

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Adshares supports programmatic advertising across a wide range of media: websites, metaverse platforms, blockchain games, mobile apps, AR/VR experiences, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) displays.

Notable integrations include virtual world platforms like Decentraland, where brands can serve verifiable ad inventory in 3D spaces. The SDK and open AdServer lower the barrier for any publisher to join and monetize their digital space.

Team, Governance & Community

The project is led by co-founders Leszek Rychlewski and Jacek Zemlo, supported by a product and development team. Adshares is working toward a DAO governance model that would give ADS token holders direct voting rights over platform proposals and development decisions.

The community is active across Telegram, Discord, Twitter, and YouTube, with open-source contributions hosted on GitHub.

Advantages

  • No intermediaries — direct advertiser-to-publisher payments cut costs significantly
  • High throughput — ESC blockchain handles over 1.4 million transactions per second
  • Cross-chain access — ADS bridges to Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, and Base
  • Staking rewards — passive income for long-term ADS holders
  • Metaverse-ready — purpose-built for Web3 and virtual world advertising
  • Open-source — AdServer and SDK freely available for developers

Risks & Challenges

  • Adoption dependency — success relies on publishers and advertisers choosing blockchain-based ad tech over established platforms
  • Competitive landscape — competing with entrenched ad networks like Google and programmatic incumbents is difficult
  • Web3 growth risk — demand for metaverse and Web3 advertising depends on ecosystem maturity
  • Token volatility — ADS price fluctuations may affect advertiser and publisher confidence in using it for settlements

Long-Term Vision

Adshares aims to become the global standard for Web3 advertising — a universal settlement layer for any media type, from traditional websites to immersive virtual worlds. With planned DAO governance, the project envisions a fully community-owned ad infrastructure that shifts power from centralized ad brokers to publishers, advertisers, and token holders alike.

Frequently Asked Questions

Adshares is a decentralized advertising protocol that enables direct, blockchain-based transactions between advertisers and publishers. It eliminates traditional intermediaries, reducing costs and increasing transparency in digital advertising.

Adshares operates on its own proprietary ESC blockchain, which uses a delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) consensus. ADS tokens also exist as wrapped versions on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, and Base via cross-chain bridges.

ADS is the native settlement currency for all advertising transactions on the Adshares network. It is used to pay for ad campaigns, compensate publishers, cover network fees, and earn staking rewards.

ADS holders who keep their tokens in a native wallet receive a share of the transaction fees generated by ad settlements on the network. This liquid staking reward is distributed roughly every two weeks (every 2048 block cycles).

Adshares supports programmatic advertising across websites, blockchain games, metaverse platforms, mobile apps, AR/VR environments, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) displays. It is designed to serve as a universal ad standard across both Web2 and Web3 media.

By settling all transactions on-chain, Adshares provides full transparency into ad delivery and payment flows. Advertisers can verify their spend in real time, and the removal of opaque intermediaries reduces the surface area for fraud.

Adshares was co-founded by Leszek Rychlewski, who created the ESC blockchain that underpins the protocol, and Jacek Zemlo, an entrepreneur with a long background in blockchain technology.

Adshares plans to implement a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) that gives ADS token holders the ability to vote on platform proposals and guide the direction of development, moving toward a fully community-governed ad ecosystem.