A decentralised search engine with crypto rewards

Presearch is hoping to change how people search the web with an open-source, block-chain based alternative to Google

Spotted: Canadian startup Presearch is developing a decentralised, open-source search engine with enhanced privacy features. Built on blockchain, it also pays users in cryptocurrency. It is hoping to break up Google’s dominance over internet search.

Presearch aims is to build a community-powered search framework. It envisions data scientists contributing algorithms and experts on certain topics curating content. Those who participate are given PRE tokens, including those who perform “Presearches.” Advertisers can also buy keyword sponsorships with PRE tokens. The company says it does not track user searches, which means no ads are targeted to users based on search history.

“The ultimate vision is a fully decentralised search engine where the users are actually crawling the web as they surf — and where there’s kind of a framework for all of the participants within the ecosystem to be rewarded,” Presearch’s project lead Colin Pape told techcrunch.com.

Presearch has over one million registered users and has roughly 250,000 active monthly users for the beta version of its search engine.