Ayberkin, DorukÖzen, Üstün2026-09-012026-09-0120262148-3736https://doi.org/10.31202/ecjse.1843205https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12403/8363The contemporary digital advertising ecosystem faces critical technical and operational challenges, primarily driven by centralized intermediaries, data opacity, and privacy vulnerabilities. To address these systemic issues, this paper proposes "Ex-Mad," a decentralized architecture leveraging blockchain technology and the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). The proposed framework integrates three core architectural layers: the user entities (advertisers and end-users), the blockchain ledger for immutable transaction recording, and IPFS for distributed content storage. Unlike traditional centralized models, Ex-Mad utilizes smart contracts to automate campaign management and enforce trustless interactions, ensuring verifiable reward distribution based on user contribution without third-party validation. Furthermore, the integration of IPFS optimizes on-chain storage costs by handling large media files off-chain while maintaining data integrity through cryptographic hashes. The system design enhances auditability through a tamper-proof ledger, eliminates single points of failure, and provides a technically robust alternative to current ad-tech intermediaries. This study demonstrates how the proposed architecture improves system efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness in the digital advertising domain. © 2026, TUBITAK. All rights reserved.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessBlockchain TechnologyDigital Advertising ArchitectureDistributed SystemsIpfs (Interplanetary File System)Smart ContractsArticle13220621910.31202/ecjse.18432052-s2.0-105037829148Q3