With centralized search engines, your search data is recorded, your IP address is logged, and tracking cookies are used by centralized search engines to create a digital profile of you so they can target you with ads. Even worse, there’s no way to voluntarily opt out of this invasion of your privacy, and every time you type a keyword into a centralized search engine, you’re giving up information that puts you at risk. Additionally, because search is centralized, money is soaked up by ad networks, driving up the cost of online advertising and minimizing its effectiveness, since users are being advertised to without their consent or any incentives.

The solution to these problems is to decentralize search entirely and give power back to users. BitClave, a decentralized search engine built on the Ethereum blockchain, is going to change this and give you heightened agency over your data and increased privacy online. Users care about their privacy more than ever, and thanks to the impending ubiquity of blockchain technology, a search engine that cares about the privacy of users is now possible for the first time in the history of the internet.

BitClave’s decentralized search innovation is made possible by its blockchain. Rather than relying on the centralized recording and analysis of all user data, BitClave gives data control back to users by deploying distributed, customer-driven collection of user data, which is then anonymized in an activity ledger. The data in this decentralized encrypted activity ledger is then maintained by customers directly, who are free to change their profiles and set their preferences as they please.

At the core of BitClave’s decentralized search technology is its token-based ecosystem, which offers advertisers the strength of the traditional online advertising system while removing the aspects of traditional search that have been proven to be problematic: the obliteration of user privacy, dubious sources of data, and external third party advertising networks that drive up the prices for online ads.

BitClave’s token is the building block for an advertising ecosystem that respects the privacy of users (by giving them agency over which data they share with advertisers) while also giving advertisers the ability to target customers with their consent. This ecosystem is market-driven because users are incentivized to participate in the advertising transaction while also maintaining their privacy and anonymity, resulting in satisfaction for both consumers and parties advertising on Bitclave. BitClave’s blockchain technology and market-driven approach to balancing user privacy and advertiser incentives completely eliminates the need for advertising middlemen who drive up the price of ads while harming the user experience of consumers.

One of BitClave’s primary innovations that makes this possible is the BitClave Active Search Ecosystem (BASE), a distributed blockchain-based system that properly incentivizes every participant with Consumer Activity Tokens (CAT). Both BASE and CAT are built upon the Ethereum blockchain. With BASE and CAT, BitClave is ending the days of forced data sharing and granting data liberty to consumers once again. With the elimination of large advertising network solutions (which are completely irrelevant to BitClave), the days of wasted revenue have concluded as well.

The blockchain allows BASE to store and manage vast amounts of user data in a decentralized fashion. The initial vision for BASE and CAT is based on Ethereum technology — an open source, blockchain-based, distributed computing platform which utilizes smart contracts. These cryptographically secure smart contracts are stateful applications stored in the Ethereum blockchain, fully capable of enforcing performance. While Ethereum is the initial target, we may transition to a different blockchain technology if appropriate.

BitClave eliminates the need for ad middlemen and facilitates a direct channel between businesses and customers, where users can choose which data they share with which business, and then receive fair compensation (in the form of Consumer Activity Tokens) each time a business uses a user’s data to target them with an ad. With BitClave’s decentralized search, the money that would have been wasted on advertising middlemen is instead passed on directly to the users. Because of this, businesses are able to offer specifically tailored promotions to BitClave users that are actually appreciated and welcomed, such as promotions that provide tangible value to BitClave users and garner businesses new customers. BASE enables this fair marketplace for search advertising that balances the interests of both users and businesses, and keeps everyone happy.

BitClave’s technology is capable of anonymizing a user’s digital profile via the anonymous activity ledger. Since the activity ledger is heavily encrypted (and selectively decrypted with the consent of the user), the only parties that are authorized to utilize a user’s data are those authorized by the users themselves. If a user has not chosen to share data in exchange for Consumer Activity Tokens, the user’s data will not be shared with businesses. What this amounts to is total and complete agency over data for users and a renaissance of privacy that has not been seen in any search engine currently on the market. And of course, all of this would not be possible without the deployment of blockchain and smart contract technology.

The result of all of this? Decentralized search will transform the search business, and the blockchain will keep make both users and businesses happy by giving users control over the data that they choose to share and fairly compensating users, while still giving businesses the ability to share uniquely targeted content with users who find advertisements to be useful.