The Thirdwave of Advertising

A blueprint for discovery in the onchain economy

From "Punch the Monkey" banners to programmatic precision - digital advertising's evolution tells a story of increasing sophistication. The First Wave was crude but effective: a bouncing ape challenging millions to test their aim, heralding the dawn of interactive ads. The Second Wave brought science to the art, using cookies and device IDs to track users across the internet, optimizing for lifetime value and return on ad spend. But this era is ending, as regulations reshape the landscape while Web3 introduces an entirely new dimension of user identity and behavior.

Enter the Thirdwave of Advertising, where digital and decentralized worlds converge, and users become owners. The onchain economy transforms discovery from extractive to generative, where targeting creates alignment and engagement builds ownership. This isn't about short-term metrics or empty engagement - it's about building intelligent channels that bridge Web2 and Web3 ecosystems. By treating each wallet as a node in the broader Wallet Graph, advertisers can identify, measure, and engage users across the entire digital ecosystem. 

Our thesis is built on five interconnected core beliefs that shape the future of advertising: 

Wallet IDs Are the Most Valuable Persistent Identifiers Ever Created—And No One Is Using Them

Wallet IDs represent a breakthrough in digital advertising - the first truly persistent identifiers that combine real asset ownership, user behavior, and economic activity into a single inherently privacy safe source of truth. They don't just show what users do, but what they genuinely value, revealed through their onchain transactions, holdings, and engagement patterns. Despite their unprecedented ability to provide deterministic data and enhance targeting precision, these powerful tools remain largely untapped by advertisers and platforms.

This convergence of identity, behavior, and economic activity in a single identifier represents an unprecedented opportunity for precision in digital advertising. While traditional identifiers capture fragments of user intent through clicks and views, wallet IDs reveal actual economic commitment and platform participation. They transform advertising from a game of probability and inference into one of verified value and authentic engagement, enabling a level of targeting sophistication that was previously impossible.

The Ownership Objective: View → Click → Own 

Traditional advertising has always been extractive - users provide data and attention while platforms and advertisers capture the value. Web3 fundamentally changes this dynamic. Through wallet-aware advertising, users become active participants who own and benefit from their ecosystem contributions. When engagement leads to ownership, users transform from passive viewers into vested participants, driving deeper platform loyalty and sustainable growth.

This shift from passive consumption to active ownership redefines the fundamental relationship between platforms and users. Rather than treating user attention as a commodity to be monetized, wallet-aware advertising creates a virtuous cycle where user engagement directly translates to ecosystem stakes. The result is a new paradigm where advertising spend doesn't just buy attention - it catalyzes the creation of genuine stakeholders who are incentivized to contribute to long-term platform success.

The Ad Stack – Built Better with Blockchain

Global advertising infrastructure took decades to perfect - reaching billions of users across every digital surface. The technology stack itself doesn't care about Web2 or Web3 - it simply needs the right data to perform. By integrating onchain data, we enhance both deterministic and probabilistic targeting and measurement: wallets provide verified user insights, while their behavioral patterns unlock powerful predictive models. This makes existing ad systems work even better, combining unprecedented reach with both absolute certainty and intelligent prediction.

This integration represents more than just adding another data source - it's about making the entire advertising stack more intelligent. The transparency and immutability of blockchain data creates a foundation for more sophisticated targeting models, where historical patterns inform future predictions and verified behaviors guide campaign optimization. Rather than replacing existing systems, onchain data enriches them, making every component of the advertising stack more effective at identifying, reaching, and engaging valuable users. The real magic? These aren't just Web3 users - they're premium audiences that every advertiser wants to reach, with wallet data providing unprecedented insight into their true economic behavior and potential.

Quality Growth Over Quick Wins — Building for Value, Not Vibes

Web3's fixation on launch-driven growth has created a destructive pattern: projects chase hype and "vibes," pumping tokens to create artificial excitement that inevitably fades. This "Groupon Problem" - where users show up for rewards but disappear when they end - has become the industry's default growth strategy. Compounding this issue, many projects fail to optimize for quality users, relying on volume-driven strategies while flying blind without wallet data. This approach wastes resources on fleeting users instead of targeting participants who drive sustainable growth. Meanwhile, organic channels like social media and airdrops grow more saturated daily, fragmenting attention and diminishing returns.

Breaking this cycle requires a fundamental shift from hype to measurable value. Instead of relying on burst campaigns or hoping for organic virality, successful projects leverage targeted paid channels to reach users who create lasting impact. This means identifying and acquiring participants who demonstrate genuine engagement through governance, staking, or platform usage - not just those chasing the latest trend. When executed with precision and transparency, it creates a powerful flywheel: valuable users fuel growth, growth attracts more valuable users, and ecosystems thrive.

From Onchain to Outcome — The Power of Wallet-Based Targeting

History teaches us a clear lesson in digital advertising: those who master targeting capture the lion's share of value. Facebook and Google didn't win because they had better ad formats or creative tools - they won because they could identify and reach exactly the right users at scale. Web3 presents a similar inflection point, but with an unprecedented advantage: wallet data provides both verified truth and predictive power, combining what users actually do with intelligent models of what they're likely to do next.

While creative, formats, and attribution all matter, none of these fundamentally improve with Web3 versions alone. Even the most engaging creative fails to drive results without access to the right audience. The true breakthrough lies in wallet-based targeting, where onchain data doesn't just verify user actions - it enables smarter predictions about user value and behavior. This dual power of certainty and prediction will drive the next wave of advertising value creation.

Building the Thirdwave of Advertising

The evolution of digital advertising has brought us to a critical inflection point. Through five core beliefs, we've outlined why wallet-based advertising represents not just an improvement, but a fundamental reimagining of how digital advertising creates and distributes value. Just as the transition from "Punch the Monkey" to programmatic transformed advertising's Second Wave, wallet-aware advertising will define its Thirdwave - not by replacing what works, but by making it work better for everyone.

But beliefs without action are just ideas. In our Master Plan, we lay out the systematic approach to turning this vision into reality - starting with the foundation of Wallet Intelligence and building, phase by phase, toward a future where Web2's scale meets Web3's precision. The infrastructure of advertising took decades to perfect. Now it's time to make it work for the decentralized world.

If you're building in Web3 and share our vision for the future of advertising, we want to work with you. Whether you're a protocol looking to grow sustainably, a brand seeking to engage Web3 users, or a developer building the next generation of decentralized applications, reach out to learn how you can be part of the Thirdwave. DM me ( Peter Jonas ), Matt Lorenzen or the team ( Thirdwave ), or email hello@thirdwavelabs.com

ABOUT THIRDWAVE

Thirdwave is building the key advertising infrastructure for the onchain economy. Powered by Wallet Intelligence and the Wallet Graph, we combine verified blockchain data with powerful predictive models to enable precise targeting and sustainable growth across Web2 and Web3. www.Thirdwavelabs.com → Start Building