I have been using Brave browser on and off for over a year now. I took an interest in the project partially because of Brendan Eich, the founder of Mozilla browser which meant that this crypto project was in safe and time tried and tested hands. However, I also understand that to have a real impact on online running a browser software would enable to overwrite the code that sites within browser such as web based apps and other websites including cookie ad tracking. This video below explain the past, present and future of Brave browser and what the project is all about.
The BAT coin, which is the payment instrument between users of Brave browser, publisher who integrate Brave browser and promote it using referral links and Brave Browser which attempts to glue the ecosystem together using these privacy lead micro ad payment BAT coins.
During the current downturn in the crypto market, the Brave browser is one of a very few crypto blockchain projects which has actually built a unique, useful project that actually work, but not only that its UX, graphics and other work is fantastic. On par with the internet great giants such as Yahoo, Google and its predecessor Firefox Mozilla.
Therefore, seeing Brave browser as almost a solution to the current privacy mess market abused by the oligopoly of internet giants it was surprising to see that the Facebook.com domain name has integrated Brave Tipping banner as a publisher.
Facebook even changed their intro greeting from ‘Brave Rewards’ to ‘Welcome!’
The Brave browser’s pop up wallet with the ‘Send A Tip…’ button is one of the current core features of Brave browser and a push to reward publishers for great content with micro-payments.
The belief in this feature is so strong that auto-contribute was built for the browsers users to be able to donate a pre-agreed amount to websites in accordance of the time spent on them.
However, as Facebook is a verified publisher of Brave browser that accepts tips and donations from its users and auto-contribute is turned on while you ideally spend time looking at your friends’ picture, each month large proportion of your auto contribute donations are going to one of the wealthiest companies on the planet.
The whole idea to build Brave browser was to fix the privacy issue within advertising industry but also reward original content creators for it rather than uphold the status quo. Therefore, if the lion’s share of auto contributions are still going to the oligopoly of the internet advertising than the whole purpose of Brave browser is defeated. Still it’s early days.