Google’s blockchain-powered competitor

Your location data is a hot-button topic. Spotify wants to know where you live. Facebook is defending its use of location data. And that’s just last week. That’s why it’s refreshing to see a product launch that wants to protect your location data instead of (potentially) exploiting it.

Arcane Maps launched on Product Hunt last week as a blockchain-based alternative to Google Maps. 🔎

“As we keep hearing about data breach news of big companies, it is harder for us to keep trusting them with our personal data, especially our location history. It made us think about finding a better way. We believe the best way to keep data secure is by not having them in the first place. That's why we choose the server-less and encrypted solution with the help of blockchain.” - Arcane Maps Maker Walterion

How it works: You can pull up Arcane Maps in your mobile or desktop browser. The clean design is reminiscent of Google Maps (it’s almost scarily similar), and you can easily type in wherever you’re going. Like Google Maps, you can “favorite place"," but all of your search history will be private, safe and secure, using blockchain-based cloud storage.

Arcane Maps is the latest from Arcane Office, self-described as “the first decentralized office suite” on Twitter. Arcane also launched decentralized versions of Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Photos this year. Read this for a behind the scenes look from Walterion.

Would you use this instead of Google Maps? Tell us here. 🗺

Ryan Singer has spend over 16 years working on Basecamp, inventing many of the processes their teams use to design, develop and ship the right things. And you can ask him anything this week. 👋