What Is WOM Protocol (WOM)?

The WOM Protocol (WOM) is a user-generated marketing channel that leverages word-of-mouth marketing. WOM plans to create an ecosystem of creators, authenticators, publishers, and advertisers, to create, get incentivized, and receive rewards.

As per its whitepaper, WOM plans to resolve three core challenges:

• Technology Barriers- Desktop and mobile ad-blockers are overgrowing, making online advertising less and less effective.

• Behavioural Changes- Consumers also mentally block ads in addition to physical ad-blockers. Consumers subconsciously skip over or ignore anything that feels like an ad and distracts from their goal.

• Trust Issues- Influencers and affiliate programs are examples of how the advertising business uses the power of peer-to-peer recommendations to combat ad-blockers and banner blindness.

WOM plans to address all challenges mentioned above by bringing organic word-of-mouth recommendations into their marketing mix in a measurable and scalable way. With the integration of blockchain technology and digital tokens, WOM aims to solve issues in the marketing industry.

The WOM protocol works like opt-in legislation forcing a fair, peer-to-peer interaction. As a result, the WOM Protocol allows all members to communicate with one another and contribute to the ecosystem's value.

In the WOM Ecosystem, each member has a distinct and valuable function to perform.

• Creators: Content creators make word-of-mouth recommendations for any product, service, event, or place they love. WOM tokens are awarded to creators based on the amount of interaction a recommendation receives. (e.g. likes, shares, comments, and views). These WOM tokens are traded or exchanged similar to any other crypto token.

• Authenticators: WOM authenticators validate and authenticate the word-of-mouth recommendations from creators. Authenticators rate the recommendation on a scale of 1-10. Based on ratings, creators earn or lose stake of their WOM tokens.

• Platforms: Platforms are any entity that collects, hosts, displays, or otherwise facilitates participation in the WOM Ecosystem by creators and consumers. Participation in the WOM Protocol awards platforms WOM tokens.

• Consumers: Consumers benefit from WOM-authenticated content as they make educated purchase decisions through the honest recommendations created and authenticated by their peers.

The WOM token is the native utility token of the WOM Protocol. The WOM token plays a significant role in the functioning of the ecosystem on the WOM Protocol. The WOM token is planned to be used solely as the primary utility token on the network. The WOM token is implemented as a token contract on the Ethereum blockchain, based on an ERC20 compatible standard.

History of WOM Protocol

The team behind WOM includes Melanie Mohr, the CEO of WOM, and Chris Hardaker, who is the CPO of the platform. WOM was launched in 2018. WOM token has a maximum supply of one billion tokens.