I just stumbled across this and it seems interesting. Sort of like Brave browser’s model but for search. I’ll just post the marketing blurb I found here instead of rehashing what they wrote much more eloquently than I could:
Presearch Engine
The Presearch Engine harnesses the power of a number of the world’s top search engines and other data sources to provide users with a compelling search experience that offers great results, protects user privacy, provides more choice and control, while also being censorship-resistant.
PRE Tokens
Rewards in the form of PRE tokens, the Presearch cryptocurrency are provided to searchers to incentivize them to switch to the Presearch Engine from Google and other search engines.
Presearch Nodes
Presearch nodes can be installed on any computer or server that supports Docker, and provide the computing resources to power the Presearch Engine. Those running nodes are also rewarded with PRE tokens.
Presearch Keyword Staking
The Presearch Keyword staking platform enables advertisers to bid on keywords using PRE tokens to have their ads displayed. Whoever stakes or commits the most tokens to a keyword has their ad displayed.
Presearch Marketplace
The Presearch Marketplace enables keyword stakers and node stakers, as well as project supporters to purchase PRE tokens directly from the project with Bitcoin, Ethereum or USD.
Ethereum Blockchain
The Ethereum blockchain enables PRE token holders to easily transfer, sell, buy and store their PRE tokens, as well as view all transactions on the network in an open, transparent manner.
They also have a referrals system whereby if you join using a referral, both parties get a bonus number of tokens. I’m not bothered either way and my intention isn’t to spam this for profit so I didn’t include the referral in the main post link. I’m mainly interested in your thoughts on this tech.
However, in case anybody would like the initial bonus, here’s a referral link:
Sort of like Brave browser’s model but for search
Yes, that’s precisely the problem. This is a traditional evil startup doing open-washing/p2p-washing. A blockchain is in 99.9% of cases the wrong approach to the right problem. And even when a blockchain is an acceptable solution, advertising remains utterly unacceptable (buying into people’s minds and opinion is the opposite of democracy) and a single for-profit entity having power over what’s considered a public utility (a blockchain) can only lead to bad outcomes.
Brave Browser has had many shady practices over the years, and is owned by the ad industry. They have repeatedly shown their commitment to dubious, user-hostile practices for their benefit. See for example a few examples listed on their wikipedia page (among others).
Advertising is bad, right, but keyword ads, what they sell, is a lesser evil that DuckDuckGo uses as well.
The business models would be pretty decent without the meaningless crypto layer. DDG does almost the same.
Great rundown, thanks for the info. I’ll think twice about this one.
I don’t like Brave’s/Presearch’s business model…
If anyone is looking for the privacy policy it is here: https://presearch.org/privacy
nothankyou
but glad that alternatives start popping up. let’s hope there will be some good ones eventually
Can I ask why you don’t like the premise? Genuinely curious because I haven’t put much thought into it.
sorry i only just saw this :/
@southerntofu summed it up nicely. thanks for that!
