Ever stopped for a moment to wonder how it is search engines such as Google provide you and I with free search and mail service? Is it free? Is anything really for free? What if any, are the strings attached? What are the consequences for you and me if those strings get pulled one day? These are legitimate questions every internet user should and must be asking.

 Traditional search engines are no charity causes. They are not here just to make you feel good; give you free information because it makes the world a better place. They are in it for the money and a lot of it. Most search engines like Google and Yahoo! We know make billions of dollars through placed advertisements. But there is a darker less know face to their money-making business. And that is through the sale of your data to the highest bidder without your knowledge and or consent.

 Tens of billions of dollars are made every year through the monitoring of your online activities and the sale of the data it generates. This is a very scary thing if you are privacy conscious and afraid such data might be hacked by malicious hackers or get sold to the wrong people. Privacy is no joke, and we must jealously fight to keep it as a fundamental right. Search engines sell your data, make a lot of money out of it and never give you anything back. Now that is a raw deal as a consumer. Which takes us back to our opening question, and the answer is it is only free because you and I are the product. But this is all about to change as the blockchain technology is set to take the search and online advertising industry by storm.

 At the forefront of this groundbreaking application of the blockchain technology on the internet search is BitClave. This is a startup with revolutionary ideas that will in time turn the status quo upside down. Their ideas almost sound too good to be true, but they have the technology and the resource to back it. Its guiding principles are simple, great value for money for businesses advertising their goods, greater privacy for users, paying users for their time searching and most important of all cut-off the all-powerful middlemen. Too sweet? Thousands of people have so far raised over $16 million in the pre-sale of the start-up’s token, and for a good reason. Let me explain;

Giving Users Total Control over Their Data

 With every passing day, hackers and internet terrorists get ever sophisticated in their ways. To make matters worse, even traditional tech powerhouses and search engines have proved to be irresponsible multiple times with insecure storage of users’ data leading to massive theft of people’s sensitive personal information. So truly one never be sure or feel safe either way. The greatest way to be safe is if the user is empowered to maintain absolute control over their data. And have an absolute say in who if at all anyone gets to see that data. This is for me is BitClave’s biggest coup point and the reason my interest peaked in it. For the first time, you and I will have our data in our own hands, anonymized through high encryption protocols, that no one, not even BitClave can have access to without our knowledge and consent. For the first time, our safety is in our hands, and we surely can trust ourselves to treat our data with much more consideration than a tech company that uses us as a mere commodity.
Incentives for Time Spent

 Not only does it give you ultimate control over your data, but BitClave also aims to make your time spent on its platform worth your while. Your data is hotly sort after by businesses and are willing to pay a lot of money for it. Through BitClave’s search engine you could, for example, reveal that you are in the market for a bike with certain kinds of features, BitClave will then make companies with such product pay you to see advertisements for their products. The key point here is that it was your choice to reveal the information, the scope of it (bike with certain features) was also determined by you, and in the end, you get handsomely rewarded for viewing advert from companies from whom you are under no obligation to buy. BitClave seeks to demystify the search and advert business, empowering you and giving you a taste of what traditional search engines have been denying you and me for too long, pay for the use of our data.

Cut-Off the Middlemen

 Businesses pay astonishing amounts to big middlemen or search engines to advertise to you. And you pay with your personal information to use their platforms. It is a lose-lose situation for both user and business owner. BitClave will eliminate the need of the middleman through the deployment of smart contracts on its platform. The blockchain is probably the most democratic aspect of the internet as we know it today. You will not be under the crushing thumb of the big search engines, and neither will be the business owner trying to get to you as a customer.

Lesser Cost of Products

 In many sectors, the advertisement can cost up to 30 percent of a company’s total expenditure. The use of middlemen to get to you as a customer costs you more than you can even imagine. The price of the eventual product you buy is also drastically upped through the payment of high advertisement fees to these search mammoths. So first your data get sold, second, you don’t get paid, and third, you pay higher prices for goods that your data was critical in forming. The crashing of advertisement fees through BitClave will be a revelation for business owners and a welcome relief for you and I as consumers. Prices will follow a downward trend and don’t forget we get paid for the privilege we granted the businesses to advertise their products to us.

 Cryptocurrency is just part of the blockchain technology’s application. Decentralized search engines are another. BitClave will go on full-scale sale on November 8th, and if you are looking to find the next big thing when it comes to online search and advertisement (the way Bitcoin was found) then without doubt in my mind, BitClave is that revolution that cannot be stopped, and it’s a great time to hop on.