Once again PUBLISH0X is running a writing contest. This time it is about Presearch. If you know nothing about PRESEARCH then just you wait. You are about to get a crash course on what Presearch is and how to use it. This is going to be a long post guys so buckle in and open your brains so we can do a brain dump!
1 - What is Presearch
2 - How to setup and run a node
3 - How to use Presearch
4 - What now?
5 - Presearch Token
What is Presearch?
I am sure you have seen an uptick in posts on Publish0x about "Presearch" but you may be asking yourself "What even is this Presearch thingy everyone is talking about?". I am here to help you in that regard. Presearch is at it's core a Search Engine. Think Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. Those are all Search Engines. What a search engine basically does is it crawls the internet and sort of documents websites and various links. So when someone searches for a word or phrase it knows what websites has that info and can point you to those relevant websites.
The more and more the Search Engine is used the better and better it gets. If someone searches for "Walrus" and everyone who searches for it clicks on a website that is 40 places down in the list then the search engine will learn that is what the people who search "Walrus" are looking for and will bring it higher up the list. A Search Engine is a computer program at it's core. An Algorithm if you will. The company behind that Algorithm want to make it the best it possible be so that more and more people utilize it.
Well Presearch is a decentralized Search Engine. Just like every other cyrpto project they have took the 'central' authority out of the picture and leave it up to the blockchain to regulate itself in a way. You can go to www.presearch.org right now and type in words and click search and you will get a result back of possible websites based on your search result. That is it. That is the user facing side of Presearch.
What happens on the backend though is where it is very interesting. This is what happens at Google.
What happens is that Websites pop up on the internet (red ovals). The Google Datacenters (black boxes) around the world go out and find it and put the URL and the website as a whole in it's Datacenters. It is basically cache'd there. When you search something on Google.com (bottom) It goes out to the Google Datacenters and gives you back results it has listed on what you searched. That is all fine and dandy BUT Google controls all data in this example. They know everything you search for, they know every link that you click on. They can relay that information to whomever they want to sell better ads to you or honestly whatever they want to do with your information they can do.
The problem a lot of people have with this though is they know Google has so much data on them and they continue to give Google more data because well Google products work so well and they have cornered the market on Internet Search. Their algorithm is just that good. Google started doing just this by HAND. Some people want another option but no other option is as good. The reason for that is because Google knows where you go, they know what you buy, they know who are your friends. So if you search Indian restaurant near me. They know where you are and the location of the Indian restaurant that you went to last week. Google truly is a double edged sword.
Now lets take a look at Presearch.
When you search on Presearch you query goes to a Node Gateway Server where all your information is either removed or encrypted. So the search request is anonymized and truly "incognito" (stupid Google). That Node Gateway Server then sends out the request to a Presearch Node that meets it's requirements. If a node is unreliable it won't get picked. Then that Node goes out and gets the information you requested by various means. Along the way the Presearch Node is given PRE tokens as a payment for helping out. You the user searching are given PRE tokens for searching. You get your data and everyone is happy.
The Presearch method of searching online takes the personal data out of it and still gets you what you want. You can even use Presearch to search on Google or DuckDuckGo or other places directly. That's it really.
How to setup and run a node?
Node Pre-requisites and items of note:
Running a Node does not require a computer with a lot of RAM or CPU. What a node requires is a fast and steady internet connection as the node will be used to go out to the internet to retrieve data and relay it to the person searching. You will need a computer that can run Docker which isn't much resources.
In order to obtain rewards from running a node you need at least 1,000 PRE tokens. You can run a node without them but you will not get any rewards for running it. You will just be helping out your fellow Presearchers.
One of the main points of Presearch is to anonymize your search results. However if you are running a node then your ISP will most likely be able to see the traffic your node is utilizing. So if you are worried about that I would recommend not running a node.
Step 1: Download Docker
https://www.hub.docker.com/editions/community/docker-ce-desktop-windows/
This link is for Windows, when you get here click on the "Get Docker" button on the right hand side and wait. It is about 400-500 MB in size.
Step 2: Install Docker
Once it downloads double click it and you will be prompted with the 2 checkmarks. I HIGHLY recommend leaving them both checked.
One thing to note is that on my Windows 10 VM I ran into an issue later so I had to uninstall Docker and reinstall Docker as a local admin. So I would recommend right-clicking on the executable and select "Run as Administrator".
Now you are going to have to sit and wait. There is a lot to unpack here. Docker isn't just some small stupid application. It is a beast in it's own right.
Once it installs you have to restart your computer.
Once your computer restarts, open up your newly installed Docker program. When I opened it back up it had to run a update. If yours does the same then just sit back and relax.
Once it's done updating you should get a screen like this:
You can either go through the tutorial if you want or just skip it. Your choice. You will eventually get to this screen. Make sure you login with your Docker information at the top of the screen
Step 3: Login to Docker:
Go to https://hub.docker.com/ and create an account to get you a Docker ID
After you create an account it will ask you for what plan you want. Select the Free plan for now
Once you have your account. Go back to Docker and login with your Docker ID if you didn't already.
Step 4: Register an account with Presearch
Go to https://www.nodes.presearch.org/login
If you do not have a Presearch account then please consider using my referral link. https://presearch.org/signup?rid=2127889
When you create your account you are going to be asked to complete the Beta Signup Form.
You can see that after you create your account there is at most a 24 hour waiting period until you get your Registration code. You need the registration code to truly run your own Node.
It took me way more than 24 hours to get my registration code. But I did get it so if you are waiting then just keep waiting. I believe it took me about a week to get the e-mail stating I was approved.
Once you get this e-mail then log into your Presearch account and you will see your Registration Number listed there:
It is also HIGHLY recommended that you have PowerShell installed on your Windows computer. I am running Windows 10 Professional so PowerShell is already pre-installed. I believe PowerShell is limited to certain Windows versions so if you only have the Command Line than that should suffice.
I ran into a lot of problems with getting Docker running on my Windows VM. It is stated that it is supported but since Docker relies on Hyper-V it may be a bit cautious that it really would work. I installed Docker on my Desktop not in a virtualized environment and it worked just fine. I was reading through the github troubleshooting and a lot of people were having getting Docker started. If that if you and you already restarted your computer then try to restart the 'Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management' service. If you need help with that let me know but it appears to have worked for a lot of people.
Step 5: Start the Node
You will need the following commands
- docker pull presearch/node
- docker run -it --rm -v presearch-node-storage:/app/node --name presearch-node -e REGISTRATION_CODE=YOUR_CODE_HERE presearch/node
You will see the bolded section above and that is where your Registration Code should go so it will look something like this:
- docker run -it --rm -v presearch-node-storage:/app/node --name presearch-node -e REGISTRATION_CODE=1234567890 presearch/node
When you first open Docker it will tell you you run a command to start a container. What it really does is make sure you have all the images for Docker,
Here it is being run by me:
docker run -d -p 80:80 docker/getting-started
With that out of the way go back to Docker and you should see this screen:
That means your "Getting Started" command is running on port 80. Which is good. Now we need to run the Node. Copy and paste your commands
docker pull presearch/node
docker run -it --rm -v presearch-node-storage:/app/node --name presearch-node -e REGISTRATION_CODE=1234567890 presearch/node
and paste them into Powershell and hit enter
That is what it will look like when it is running. You can see the last line of text says "Node is listening for searches". That is exactly what we want.
You can go here: https://nodes.presearch.org/dashboard to see your current "stats". You can see how much PRE you have staked. You can see how much PRE you have earned. That is it guys. You have started your own Presearch Node.
I do need to note however that you need at least 1,000 PRE staked to your Node or you won't earn any PRE for running it.
On the Presearch Dashboard you can see all your running Nodes and you can stake PRE to each one.
if you want to stop your node from running you need to go back to Docker and hover over your Node and select the circle with a square inside it.
How to use Presearch?
Navigate to www.presearch.org. There you will see this screen
You can login in the top right corner. You can see that I have earned 0.49 PRE for performing a few searches on Presearch. This website acts just like Google but with a little extra boost. In the white rectangle you can type in whatever you want to search for. By default the P logo is selected under the Search bar. You can switch it to any of the options listed and it will perform you search on that platform. You may think it's stupid to use Presearch to search on Google. But what you are forgetting is that anything typed into that little white search bar is encrypted. So Presearch is kind of like a VPN service for web searches.
You don't have to login to Presearch to use Presearch. But if you want to earn PRE then you need to login to Presearch to track your PRE tokens.
I earn about 0.12 PRE tokens per search. You can just mass search all day and earn a decent amount of PRE.
Here is a short video on how to use Presearch to search.
There is also a Keyword Staking portion that we need to talk about. In Presearch you can stake your PRE tokens to a specific keyword. So so for example you own a custom cake business that sells cupcakes around the world. You can stake/'own' the keyword "Cupcake". So when anyone searches for Cupcake that will see your ad placed 1st in the list of results. It's a pretty ingenious way to go about advertisement and I am on board 100% with it. You can watch Presearch's own video to describe it a little more.
What Now?
So you learned what this Presearch thing is. You learned how to run your own node if you wanted to. You also learned how to actually use Presearch to earn PRE tokens. What is there left to cover really? You should know everything you need to know about Presearch. What I want to talk about now is my personal opinion on Presearch.
I have heard rumbling of Presearch for a while now. It was almost the unspoken rule that people on Publish0x used Presearch but there wasn't any big massive push for adoption. With that being said I really appreciate that Publish0x put together this writing contest to raise awareness. I say that because Presearch is a really great tool. They took the wheel and reinvented. Guys lets be totally honest here. Google is the Search King. They created the space and have run its since. I admire a company coming a long and not out there trying to take down the big dog but merely just hang out with the big dog and trying to get some pets from passer by's.
I think of Presearch to Google in kind of the same light of BRAVE to Google. Brave isn't out to destroy Google (I mean it runs on Chromium for pete sake). Brave is out there to give users a secure and safe alternative to the big name companies while also rewarding its users. Now you could make the argument that these types of companies would HAVE to pay its user base to use their products because nobody would chose them without. But I disagree. I have switched to Brave for everything and even if you took BAT away tomorrow I would still use Brave for everything. I am not there yet with Presearch. I love the concept. I love the execution of the concept. But what is holding me back is the UX. I don't mean UX as in the UI by what I as a user get as an experience.
We already agree that Google destroys the competition in search results. And that is not a fair playing field because of the amount of data on you Google has. I will always be first in line to say stop giving all your data away to the big guys and own your digital identity. But for me I still use my Android phone (Pixel at that). I use all the Google services and Google knows where I am 24/7. I am slowly starting to peel myself back from Google services but it will take time. And during that time I don't know if Presearch will be one of the 1st steps I take. I feel like switching over to Presearch is going to be a long adventure. I love the platform and the service, but Google controls too much. Until I switch over my Google Maps I can't say that I will switch from from Google to Presearch 100%. The services are just to well intertwined that it isn't worth it fully.
Presearch Token
At time of writing the Presearch Token is worth about $0.10 a piece. If you earn 0.12 PRE per search that means each search you perform is worth $0.012. So a little over a penny a search. I am not sure what I expected but that doesn't seem crazy low or crazy high so I am alright with that. Take that with if you earn rewards for setting up a node that could be pretty good. 1,000 PRE for a node would cost you $100 to buy upfront. So an $100 investment to earn rewards on a node. I wish I could tell you what rewards you would get from the node but I do not have the resources to find out before the writing contest is over.
What is good to note however is that the price of PRE is steadily gaining. It has risen 23.09% over the past 30 days. 90 days ago it was worth $0.01 per token. It's all time high price was $0.11 and that was on March 11, 2021. What is interesting is that starting around January 1st, 2021 the price really started to take off. This is a very interesting token to keep an eye on.
What would a writing contest on Publish0x be without a NFT to celebrate the platform we are discussing? So to that end I whipped up a new TrocProcLock NFT just for you guys. As always the drop is completely free to whomever can get one before they run out. This time there is only 300 going to be minted so you better get in quick! As always I have 15 1st Edition ones as well that I will give out randomly to people who comment on this article. So even if you don't write a Publish0x article for this contest you can still win something! Good Luck!
It is a simple design and the color scheme is reversed than normal. Hope you all like it!
https://wax.atomichub.io/drops/10562
How could I forget the little side competition I have going on with PVMihalache? I offered up a wager over on Noise.Cash to him. Winner takes all. We both put up a NFT and whomever wins more money from the official contest (not including tips from readers) who win the other person's NFT. I staked up a GPK NFT. I bought it and I like the little guy, which is why I put so much time into this article. So who are rooting for? TPL or PVM? FIGHT!
