decentralized-search
(2)
Adot
Adot wants to search the parts of the internet that conventional engines flatten or miss - then let users and developers share in the value of the index. The idea sits somewhere between an AI answer engine, a Web3 data layer, and a public experiment in who gets paid when the internet organizes itself.
Wei Zheng
Wei Zheng is the CEO and founder of Adot (a.xyz), a decentralized AI search network built for the Web3 era. A former founding member of Google's mobile search ads team, Wei brings 17-20 years of deep expertise in search engine technology and artificial intelligence to his mission of building a blockchain-powered alternative to Big Tech search. Since founding Adot in 2022, he has raised $6 million from top-tier Web3 investors including Hash Global, gumi Cryptos Capital, and Aptos, and grown the company to ~140 employees. Adot indexes both traditional web content and on-chain data — smart contracts, NFT metadata, decentralized storage — combining AI-powered relevance with a 'Search to Earn' model that gives users ownership of their search contributions.