Decentralized, privacy-centric search engine Presearch has announced a partnership agreement with leading nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea to foster the growth of the Web 3.0 ecosystem for the global commons.
The Presearch network is powered by a community of node operators and supporters who are rewarded in Ethereum-based PRE tokens for enhancing the network’s activity.
According to analysis detailed in the company’s release, the platform has amassed a registration of 2.7 million users, in addition to facilitating 3.5 million daily search requests.
Cointelegraph spoke to the founder of Presearch, Colin Pape, to attain an exclusive perspective on the inspiration behind the OpenSea integration, as well as the precedent this sets for the cryptocurrency ecosystem:
“While many of our users are crypto enthusiasts, we also have many artists and gamers, and they are now spending more time in the NFT metaverse as well. This release makes Presearch the easiest way for them to search and get access to all of the results they want, including NFT details.”Following the integration of CoinMarketCap in early October and now OpenSea — the latter of which averages 100,000 users and $80 million to $100 million in transaction volume per week — the platform has expressed ardent intentions to incorporate a number of other popular NFT marketplaces in the near future.
In September, Presearch became the first crypto-oriented search engine to be integrated into the default list of Google-governed new and factory-reset European and United Kingdom Android devices.
Back in 2018, Google, the world’s most popular internet search engine, was deemed guilty of breaking fair competition laws by the European Union’s antitrust authority for insidiouslystrengthening the position of its search engine monopoly on Android devices.
The fallout of these findings resulted in a record fine of 4.24 billion euros ($4.2 billion), vastly eclipsing the previous record of the 1.06 billion euro ($1.2 billion) fine handed to fellow tech firm Intel back in 2009.
In response, Google was forced into making a series of alterations to its browser settings; including increasing the number of default search engines visually presented in users’ option list, as well as removing the requirement for payment as a means of acquiring rankings.
Related: Decentralized search engine becomes default option on European Android devices
The platform’s native token, PRE — which functions as a utility token for features including keyword staking and search incentivization for registered users — soared over 1,000% across September and mid-October, from approximately $0.04 to all-time highs of $0.44.
This considerable rise in asset value was partly contributed to by positive fundamental news, such as the Android announcement.
Toward the end of the conversation, Cointelegraph asked Pape to share his opinion on the importance of platforms and companies operating with, or constructing, decentralized structures as crypto emerges into the mainstream market. He responded:
“Decentralization is at the heart of blockchain, and the transparency, interoperability, ownership and lack of gatekeepers inherent with blockchain is what makes NFTs so different and so valuable. [...] It’s important to preserve these qualities and this ethos, and by linking decentralized platforms and communities with NFTs we’ll ensure that this incredible technology is not just co-opted by Big Tech for their own gains.”
