Christopher Phongsa@cphongsa

There are 3 main components of any Ad you see online: the buyer, the seller, and the exchange. Amazon, Meta, Google and more all have billion dollar tech stacks built to serve this transaction and they work really well for the top 20% of users. For the rest of the normal buyers and sellers, the majority, we’re left to fight for the scraps Vertex essentially uses the same components: a buyer, a seller and an exchange as everyone else with a few key differences: 1. We unify the Ad stack for both Buy and Sell Side Current billion dollar platforms like Google, Meta, etc. all extract value at every step and truly advanced ad tech adds even more costs. As mentioned this works pretty well for the top 20% of advertisers and publishers but maybe not so well for the rest of us. Vertex unifies the stack and with nanopayments we are able to charge fees that are a fraction of current models. 2. We execute Sub-Cent Settlement in Real-Time with no Gas Fees Nanopayments are executed in real-time once the auction is won and the ad served. This solution would fail with traditional gas costs because though small in absolute terms gas costs would be a large percentage of each transaction as the winning bids in Programmatic Ad auctions are at the sub-cent level already and thus at scale gas fees would be prohibitively expensive. 3. With Automation we enable even basic users to access the same RTB auction pricing/scale for digital ads as major Advertisers and Publishers. Another major barrier to entry in running Digital Ads is the complexity. DSPs, SSPs, Exchanges, DMPs, Ad servers, Tagging, etc. the whole process can be a lot for even the expert user. With AI technology we are able to simplify this process to a point where any user can explain in real terms what ads they want to run or what ad space they want to sell and with a few prompts to fill in any missing information they can have agents buying or selling ads in real time on our exchange across the entire Open Internet.

📅 May 11–19, 2026 • May 11 – 19: Online Build Phase. • May 18 (Hybrid Build Day – Online & Onsite) • May 19 (Demos & Awards – Online & Onsite) 🌍 Hybrid event. Join online from anywhere or build onsite at the venue. 🏆 Winners will be announced live on stage at the AI & Big Data Expo North America on May 19 📍 On-site Venue (May 18–19): San Jose McEnery Convention Center, CA, USA 🤝 Join solo or with a team. 🏆Compete for a $10,000 prize pool 🧑‍💻 Apply now to design, prototype, and showcase enterprise-ready innovation.

In this hybrid hackathon powered by Arc and Circle, developers will build the next generation of Agentic economic applications using Circle’s Nanopayments infrastructure with settlement on Arc in USDC. For the first time, high-frequency, usage-based transactions between users, APIs, and AI agents can operate without gas overhead eroding margin. Arc provides stablecoin-native settlement with predictable, dollar-denominated USDC fees and deterministic, sub-second finality — enabling real-time coordination and economically viable per-action pricing at scale. 📅 April 20 – 26, 2026 • Apr 20 – 25 (Online): Submit projects by Apr 25. • Apr 25 (On-site Build – SF, CA): Teams refine projects. • Apr 26 (On-site Demos & Awards – SF, CA): Live pitches & winners announced. Get guidance from Arc and Circle experts through on-site support. 📍 On-site Venue (April 25-26): MindsDB SF AI Collective 3154 17th St, San Francisco, California, USA 🤝 Go solo or team up, it's your flow. 🏆 Compete for a $15,000+ Prize Pool. 📍 Please note: If approved for the on-site experience, you’ll also have the opportunity to showcase your project live. Travel and accommodation will not be covered. 🧑🏻‍💻 Secure your spot now – sign up before the Kick-Off Stream!