Marcus and Tim sit down with Ben from Alkimi to talk about the businesses behind the ads you see every day, why digital advertising is still full of inefficiencies, and what it would look like to rebuild that market properly.They get into how Ben went from early startup roles in ad tech to building Alkimi, why so much of the online advertising system is still fragmented and opaque, and how Alkimi is trying to bring more transparency, better pricing and faster payments to a market that still takes huge fees at every layer.The conversation also covers Google and Meta’s grip on ad markets, why attention has become one of the internet’s most valuable assets, and what happens when you start thinking about ads more like financial markets. Also in this episode:How Ben went from product design and startup life into building AlkimiWhy online advertising is still one of the highest-value markets with some of the worst fee extractionHow Google and Meta came to dominate the ad marketplaceWhy so many intermediaries take a cut before value reaches the people creating itHow Alkimi works as a marketplace matching buyers and sellers of attentionWhy blockchain appealed as infrastructure for transparency, instant settlement and better data flowHow Alkimi is approaching ad inventory more like a market-making problemWhy delayed payments are such a big issue in digital advertisingWhat “AdFi” means and how Alkimi is using liquidity to solve payment delaysWhy the future of digital advertising may depend on better market structure, not just better targeting Subscribe for new episodes every week: @TheLocalWMCAlso on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get your fix.