BitcoinX: Using Bitcoin To Build A Better Search Engine

SearchTrade, the search engine designed to share advertisers’ money with its users, has been cleared to launch in February.

Management have been thrilled at the attention and positive response so far. SearchTrade spent the second half of 2015 beta-testing and running a crowd-sale to raise initial funds.

“Search is still the most common activity on the internet,” said CEO Vishal Gupta.

“Billions of searches a day, and billions of dollars in advertising revenue. Where does all that money go? Into profits for just a few mega corporations.”

“SearchTrade is something more egalitarian, truer to the original spirit of the internet. The advertising revenue still comes in, but now it’s shared among all stakeholders – developers, users, value speculators.”

How does it work?
SearchTrade is similar to other popular search engine in one way: advertisers pay it to display marked promotions among search results.

What’s different is what happens to that money next. Using micropayments in online digital currency Bitcoin, it distributes small amounts to every user who performs a search.

Then it gets even more interesting – SearchTrade allows users to ‘buy’ keywords. If you think a search term will be popular, buy it and get paid every time someone searches for it.

Developers can also grab a share of the funds, by building apps on SearchTrade’s platform. When a user performs a search with their app, developers earn.

Crowdfunding through keywords

SearchTrade proved the popularity of its novel idea by selling 1000 of the most-searched words by the end of 2015.

SearchTrade used its initial keyword sales to fund development, selling off the first ‘slab’ of 500 words for 0.4 BTC each and the second slab for ____, at a reduced price. This is because the first word-sale featured the most popular search terms.

50% of the proceeds from those sales went into SearchTrade’s payments pool, while the remaining 50% was used to fund development.

Once bought, keyword owners will be able to trade ownership of keywords on SearchTrade’s exchange – creating a free market for predictions of internet trends and ideas. There’s also a search analysis tool to see exactly how your word assets are performing.

SearchTrade charges a nominal fee to renew keyword ownership each year, to prevent keywords becoming inaccessible if a user leaves the service for some reason.

Why Bitcoin?

“A system like this just wasn’t possible before bitcoin came along,” Gupta continued. “You just couldn’t do massive amounts of micro-payments and transactions in national currencies, transfer fees would’ve made it impossible.”

As well as serving its users, SearchTrade is a live demonstration of a new use-case for digital currency. It will hopefully pave the way for future businesses and inspire entrepreneurs to develop entirely new business models.