The Presearch ICO started on July 25, 2017, with Lot 1 of its crowdsale. The Presearch ICO Lot 1 quickly sold out the 20,000,000 PST tokens available.
I wrote a post on Jul 13, called “Presearch Project – Taking on GOOGLE” on July 13, 2017, that addressed the reason for the project. I will briefly describe it again here and insert the link at the bottom of this profile.
I will then address the approach of Presearch in addressing the issues it outlines with the current search opportunities in the market today and its approach to addressing those issues and the use of its PST Token in the Presearch Search Engine.
Issues with the Current Search Engine Market
As we all know, Google has the majority of the market when it comes to search on the internet. With approximately 77% market share in this market, they dominate the space. Google was originally designed to be the “decentralized” search engine giving users a fair and nonbiased place to search and find what they were looking for on the web. Google has grown into a multi-billion dollar business and it appears that its priorities have changed. With its purchase of You Tube and its Gmail, it has tremendous reach and dominance in the online world. Presearch defines search engines as the “Gatekeepers” of the internet with tremendous influence on its users and their interaction on the web.
Presearch describes the issue of Google as a “Gatekeeper” in its whitepaper as follows:
“Unfortunately, Google appears to be abdicating their responsibility as the primary gatekeeper of the Internet by becoming increasingly secretive and taking few steps to become more transparent, despite having more than 15 years as the dominant search engine and billions of dollars in capital.
They default to ‘just trust us’ messaging in place of processes, information, and communication and hide behind their algorithm, justifying their secrecy by blaming hackers and spammers who would take advantage of any information they share. While there is some truth to this, and we recognize that Google is in a different position than many businesses, they also have a vested interest in not developing better processes to prevent gaming of the system, and their automated algorithms are actually supplemented by human reviewers, which negates many of the claims that they are hampered by technology and must remain secretive to protect the quality of their results.
While there is some truth to this, and we recognize that Google is in a different position than many businesses, they also have a vested interest in not developing better processes to prevent gaming of the system, and their automated algorithms are actually supplemented by human reviewers, which negates many of the claims that they are hampered by technology and must remain secretive to protect the quality of their results.”
Presearch questions Google’s motivation in the market place today as opposed to when it was launched. Is Google truly looking to give the user the most relevant information that the user is looking for or is Google looking to give the results that best fits its ability to make profits? Instead of Google being a search engine it has become an answer engine, presenting on the SERP direct answers to questions which prevent the user from browsing different answers to the same questions. Additionally, Google places paid sources at the top of search results instead of the most useful results for the user.
The Presearch ICO – Working Towards the First Truly Decentralized Search Engine
Presearch knows that creating a decentralized search engine is a huge challenge. To be able to index all of the information on the web is nearly impossible at this time. With this in mind, Presearch will approach the market in multiple stages. The first stage is to create an engine that offers users the abiloity to choose which search engine they would like results to come from. As Google is the dominant engine, this will be the default option.
The second stage is to build a truly decentralized search engine with open-source criteria for search results that the community can see and full transparency. Presearch identifies that the most efficient way to accomplish this goal is through the participation of the community.
Presearch’s Community Constitution
Presearch explains the Community Constitution as follows:
“The Community Constitution is a concept that we have been thinking on for many years at a local level with ShopCity.com. Because each local community is unique, and its values and ideals different, we believe that there can be no one-size-fits-all
Because each local community is unique, and its values and ideals different, we believe that there can be no one-size-fits-all approach, and that each community must have the right to create its own constitution with the ground rules for participation. In this instance, the community is extremely broad – anyone on the planet can be part of the Presearch community, and because this service is one of those fundamental, utility-like services that must be as fair, balanced, open and transparent as possible, the constitution, like that of the United States of America, must be broad in scope and should focus on the inalienable rights of Members, instead of specific rules or regulations. This document will be a work in progress, and at the time of writing is only loosely defined.”
In this instance, the community is extremely broad – anyone on the planet can be part of the Presearch community, and because this service is one of those fundamental, utility-like services that must be as fair, balanced, open and transparent as possible, the constitution, like that of the United States of America, must be broad in scope and should focus on the inalienable rights of Members, instead of specific rules or regulations.
This document will be a work in progress, and at the time of writing is only loosely defined.”
Presearch ICO – The Token Proposition
Presearch is introducing its PST token to serve four basic purposes:
Rewards and Incentives for the User:
- Members will be rewarded with tokens for using the Presearch system.
- Members will be rewarded for clicking on Sponsor links and giving the Sponsor a shot at solving the Members’ needs.
- Members will also be incentivized to share the platform with their network and will be able to earn rewards for new sign-ups.
Sponsorship Platform:
- The Sponsorship Platform will allow businesses to connect with potential customers.
- Sponsors can earn exposure through an auction based system.
- PST will be awarded to Sponsors when their results are seen and additionally when they are clicked.
Referrals and Partners:
- Members who choose to spread the word about Presearch will receive PSTs for their efforts
- Build a network of partners who can leverage their own traffic to generate awareness and searches through the platform.
Voting & Project Funding:
- PST-holders will be able to use their tokens to vote on the direction of the project and help shape the Community Constitution.
- PST-holders will be able to organize and contribute to crowdfunded campaigns for development projects and other topics of interest to the community.
Presearch ICO – Allocation of Tokens
There will be 1,000,000,000 tokens created by Presearch before the Presearch ICo. They will be allocated as follows:
1. Pre-sale: 50,000,000
2. Early Adopter Sale: 200,000,000
3. Public Sale: 300,000,000
4. Rewards: 300,000,000
5. Team: 150,000,000
Presearch ICO – Early Adopter State
The early adopter stage started on July 25, 2017. Of the 200,000,000 tokens available for the Early Adopter stage 20,000,000 tokens were sold for .$.075.
Stages 2-5 are set as follows:
- Stage 2: Starts August 8, 2017 and 30,000,000 PST will be available at $.10
- Stage 3 will start on August 15, 2017 with 40,000,000 PST available at $.15
- Stage 4 will start on August 22, 2017 with 50,000,000 PST available at $.20
- Stage 5 will start on August 29, 2017 with 60,000,000 PST available at $.25
Presearch envisions the Main Public stage to take place 12-18 months after the Early Adopter Stage once it has established its platform and vision for the decentralized solution.
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