Brave - earn crypto while browsing the web

privacy focused web browser

Recently I read an article about upcoming innovative block chain technologies. What stood out the most to me was the mentioning of a new browser called ‘Brave’. What is remarkable aside from a fact that it has a strong focus on the security of your data and the security of your brwosing the web in general is the fact that you can be rewarded BAT which stands for Basic Attention Tokens while using the browser. BAT is a crypto currency and can be exchanged for real money. But in my opinion there is so much more to the browser. So here is a list of reasons why I think you should give this browser a try.

Brave takes care of your security

If possible it will upgrade your connection to an https one. You might have been told that you always have to look out for the lock being shown in the address bar of your browser. This indicates the use of https. This ensures the authenticity of the visited website and the protection of the privacy becaus the exchanged data is encrypted.

It will block all trackers from websites. Online trackers are scripts designed to gather information about how you move through your web. The following situation is probably familiar to you: You search some product you are interested in buying on the web. Next thing you know is that you see advertisements for this product on other websites. Perfect example fo a “successfull” tracker.

Brave is faster

I kept the headline vague on purpose. Because I did not want to perpetuate something that might as well just be marketing. As mentioned above, Brave will block most advertisements and won’t allow any trackers. One result is that it is “much” faster than other browsers (while also saving you bandwith). This claim should be taken with a grain of salt. It might be true that brave is faster than for example a normal firefox browser. Yet, you can install extensions on you firefox browser like the addblocker which does something similar and thus will also produce similar speed improvements. The benefits of Brave here are that you do not have to look for extensions that fullfill your need for security and anonymity. It will come right out of the box. Also, you can rest assured that it will be maintained properly.

You can earn crypto with Brave

Let’s talk about something I really like about this browser. No, it is not the fact that you can earn money with it. Well, only kind of. It is the fact that they are “taking out the middle man”. What do I mean by that?

My understanding of the current modus operandi of advertisement in the net is the following: You are the product that is being sold. Websites get money for showing you advertisements. Your surfing behaviour is analyzed and the gathered data is being sold to show you even custom-tailored ads. Whoever gathers this data can make a ton of money with it.

I am sure that this a gross oversimplification. Hey, I never claimed to be an expert on this. So if anyone has more information how advertisement on the web really works. Than let me know.

What now is different is that all ads you would normaly encounter are blocked. All trackers that would analyze your behaviour are blocked. In some sense there is an advertisement void which Brave knows to fill cleverly. It gives you the option to be shown commercials. This happens in a very low key and non intrusive manner. So now more “Your PC is infected. Get help now!” banners.

Instead, you either get an ad when you open a new tab. Which you might not even notice. Or a box pops up which you might as well could ignore. Whenever this happens you are rewarded with the fraction of a BAT to let you partake in the advertisement revenue.

Afterwards you can also rate the ads you have seen and I assumet taht you will thus not be shown once you did not like.

You also have control over the number of ads you are being shown. If you want, you can even turn of that feature entirely and browse completely ad free.

It should be mentioned that Brave itself does analyze your browsing behaviour. So how is that better than what others are doing? It is better because this happens locally on your device. The information is - allegedly - not shared with anyone. At least not in a form where it could be connected to your devices or user identity.

Brave itself is saying this:

We do not have access to identifiable user data. The anonymized aggregated ad campaign related data we do collect is used for accounting and reporting, but this data cannot be mapped back to devices or user identities of any kind.

In summary: you are only shown a handful of “high quality” ads at your own volation. On the other side advertisers will get better results because their ads are better targeted and they do not have to gave a huge chunk of their profit to middlemen.

As far as I can tell the BAT you earn will only be payed out to you once a month.

BAT as crypto

At first I was somewhat confused.

If I earn BAT by watching ads, does that not mean that more BAT is produced and you will have inflation? But I was missing the point. The BAT that is earned is not produced. Instead it has been “bought” by the advertiser and will be given to you as a reward for your attention.

In total the amount of BAT is limited to 1.5 billion of which 1 billion are in circulation. (https://www.finder.com/how-to-buy-basic-attention-token)

Before we continue, a big disclaimer. My understanding of cryptos is limited. I am fascinated by the topic but did not yet dare to dive into the topic. This is also something I really like about Brave. It lowers the barrier of entry to the topic crypto currencies. I did not mind changing my main browser (especially since I could easily import all settings and bookmarks without issues).

The specifics of how to trady or cash in BATs is still nebulous to me. I intend to give you an update on that once I more experience with that. Aside, there is another user for the BAT you amass.

You can support your favorite content creator with BATs

Brave also thought about all those content creators that might miss out on advertisement revenues. You can support them with your BAT either in the form of a monthly payment or a one time payment.

Note that if the creator or website did not verify itself with brave then your payment will remain in your wallet until they do.

You even have the option to let Brave decide whom to give a portion of your BAT based on your browsing history. It determines the fraction of time you spent on the side and splits up an amount of your choosing when it is payday.

Again, you have fine control over the specifics here and can also choose to ignore this feature entirely. I personally prefer to choose myself whom to give how much.

This has the downside that we are still in the early adoption phase of this technology and mos content creators are not yet verified.

Brave is open source

If you want to, you can check out the entire source code of Brave over at Github. (https://github.com/brave/brave-browser) So far it seems to me like it is based on Chromium. This openess

Brave is not without controversy

So far I spoke only positively about Brave. Because I think they are trying to do something good. Yet, I do not want to hush the fact that there is some controversy around Brave. I have found two things in recent history that raised concern towards the company behind Brave.

What appearently happend was that when users visited certain cryptocurrency websites the browser autocompleted the referral link with the referral code of Brave itself without asking. This was called hijacking but I think that this is not entirely accurate. I think that hijacking would be when you use a referal code which is than replaced by the one of Brave. This is not happening. In fact they are only taking a referal premium that would be lost otherwise. Which probably does not even hurt the users but the plattforms in question. Still I can understand why people got upset. After the public outcry this feature was turned off by default and can still be activated if you are cool with it.

Intransparency with tips

Another controversial topic was tipping content creators that are not yet verified by Brave. Previously the BAT would go into some kind of omnibus account waiting until the creation would register. For some users this seemed like the money was taken by Brave in hopes that it will never be claimed. After this came out the process was fundamentally changed. If you are tipping a content creator that is not yet verified then your tip will remain in your wallet until he does.

Bottomline

I am not entirely sure what to think about this two incidents. In case of the Intransparency of tips I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt. The “hijacking” thing ways a bit harder. It shows me that I should use Brave with some care. It does not directly affect me - yet. As I am not using any cryptocurrency sites as of now.

Final Thoughts

My attitued towards Brave - as you might have guessed - is mostly positive. The two mentioned incidents leave a bit of bitter taste in my mouth. But not to such it an extent that it is off putting. I find their approach to advertisement and their security focus way to mesmerizing and I want to be part of this experiment. It is the first application of the block chain that I can relate to. In the future I will keep you updated once I have delved deeper into the crypto trading portion and the support of content creators.