When was the last time your internet browser paid you for watching ads? Let me guess: never. Well, that is over now. Brave is a project that aims to make the web more private and safe but also more democratic. They are disrupting the online advertising industry, remunerating users for their attention with a cryptocurrency called Basic Attention Token (BAT).
Power to the people: An introduction to Brave
Brendan Eich (who, by the way, is also a co-founder of Mozilla Firefox and the creator of JavaScript) and Brian Bondy saw a recurring problem with the internet: Regular people are hostages of the big guys. Social networks and browsers sell their data and personal information to the highest bidder. They are constantly bombarded by ads as well. And what is worse, they don’t see a penny of the revenue these companies make at their expense.
Bearing that in mind, they set themselves to change the game. Give the power back to the users, fix the web. That is the mission under which Brave came out back in 2019. A browser that not only doesn’t sell its users’ information but also protects them against those who do. One that rewards people for the attention they pay to ads instead of making money out of it. All while providing a safe, fast and private web browsing experience.
A unique browser: What are the Brave’s best features?
“Fixing the web” is a pretty bold statement to make. Only an exceptional browser equipped with outstanding features could live up to it. Let’s take a quick look over Brave’s characteristics:
- Security: Brave has built-in shields that block every malicious item on every single website you visit. Brave Shields successfully detect and prevent phishing and malware. Plus, they are 100% customizable, so you have complete control of what you share and what you see.
- Privacy: Brave Shields also remove trackers, cookies, scripts and all elements that collect your personal information like browsing history, purchases made on the web, or social media activity. Also, It is compatible with DuckDuckGo, so your searches remain private as well.
- Speed and time: You wouldn’t believe how many of these trackers, ads, cookies and scripts are on each site. Of course, preventing these items from executing saves bandwidth and computer power. By blocking them, Brave can load websites three to six times faster than other browsers.
- Compatibility: If you’re getting excited by reading this but having second thoughts because migrating from Google Chrome would be too much trouble, don’t worry. Brave is compatible with every other mainstream browser. You can easily import your settings and layout, like your bookmarks/favourites bar or your web extensions.
- Rewards: The browser will block all ads from external networks, like Google or Facebook, and show you only Brave Ads (or none at all, it’s up to you). Every time one of these ads pops up on your screen, you’ll earn a reward in BAT. You don’t even have to click on it.
Brave Rewards: Your attention has value
Above, we said Brave values its users’ attention by awarding Basic Attention Tokens for the ads they see. But how does the rewards program work?
The Brave Rewards program consists of three major actors:
- Users who earn BAT for seeing ads.
- Advertisers who pay to have Brave show their ads to users.
- Independent creators who generate content and whom users can tip for their efforts.
It goes more or less like this: Advertisers buy BAT to pay Brave to launch ad campaigns. Brave pays 70% of the revenue generated by those ads to users, who tip it to their favourite creators. Finally, these creators sell the BAT to cover their costs or take profits. That BAT is repurchased by Brave and more advertisers to launch new campaigns, restarting the cycle.
As you can see, the whole process revolves around BAT. The token has to keep moving from advertisers to users to creators, so the ecosystem stays alive and keeps growing.
You can follow BAT’s price, market capitalization and trading volume in The Crypto App. Download it here.
A win-win-win situation
This system has many advantages, as stated in BAT’s white paper. Firstly, it values the users’ attention and rewards them for it, which no other advertising platform does. Secondly, it enables them to tip their creators directly, cutting out the middleman. Intermediaries usually charge a commission and generate extra costs in traditional online advertising.
Imagine you’re a Twitch streamer who’s just starting their channel. For every $5 subscription you get, Twitch will keep half of it and pay you the other half. On a similar note, if you host Google Ads on your website through AdSense, Google will pay you 68% of the total revenue and keep the other 32%. With Brave Browser, creators receive 100% of the income. Zero commissions. No intermediaries.
Advertisers also enjoy significant benefits, as rewarding users for their attention (and not clicks specifically) enhances audience engagement and reduces ad-fraud schemes, considerably cutting unnecessary losses.
It’s a Brave new world
Brave is a breath of fresh air in an intrusive, insecure internet. Their mission to give power back to the people is a perfect application to cryptocurrency’s potential to the internet.
Furthermore, their dedication is evident through the constant development and recurrent updates released on the browser, and that reflects very clearly in their numbers: More than 190 countries, 25.4M monthly active users, 8.6M daily active users, 1M verified creators accepting BAT (which is in turn listed in many DeFi platforms) and over thirty renowned partners like Binance or Coinbase.
Only time will tell what’s next for them and their Basic Attention Token. It is undoubtedly an ambitious and slow project. However, we can safely say that Brave is moving in the right direction.