Many people in the web3 space chose to ditch Chrome and Opera and adopt Brave as their browser of choice. But what is the reason for this and what is Brave browser anyway?
Brave is a next-generation web browser built from the ground up and based on the Chromium development framework—that is, the same basis of Google Chrome browser. This means that Brave offers the same functionality that you’d expect from Chrome; bookmarks, extensions marketplace (including all Chrome-based extensions), developer tools, browser profiles, and private browsing. It’s available both for desktop and mobile and is compatible with all the major operating systems.
The main distinguishing factor of Brave -relative to other web browser - is the Brave Rewards system. Users are rewarded with a valuable digital token in exchange for being shown small advertisements and in return, advertisers pay to have their advertisements shown to users.
This allows for an equitable solution between users and advertisers. Since a user is slightly interrupted and needs to spend some time viewing the advertisement, Brave issues rewards in the form of Basic Attention Token (BAT), an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token designed to reward users for their attention.*
Brave Browser purports to put the user in control over how much advertising is shown and provides a seamless exchange of value between advertisers and users in terms of their “attention”. Brave Browser Rewards are an integral part of the browser’s function and are easy to set up, meaning a user can start earning Basic Attention Token (BAT) simply by browsing.
Central to the Brave browser is a sentiment of ‘give and take’ with their platform, allowing users to tip content creators with BAT which they earned by viewing privacy-respecting advertising.
Within the settings of Brave Rewards, users can choose how frequently they want to be shown advertising, from 1–5 times per hour. This lets the users control how much time they spend viewing ads.
Once a user views an advertisement (ad), they can either click it to view a full version in a private tab or click a dismiss button and continue browsing. A small amount of BAT is allocated to the user’s browser’s in-built wallet once they have received a notification for an ad.
Brave Rewards Tab
Brave-registered content creators can get BAT denominated tips from viewers. Tips are a great way to give a little bit extra to the content creator in exchange for content the user finds valuable. Tipping is extremely simple and takes just a couple of seconds, which is useful for those who want to give back to their favorite content creators. Brave takes zero cut and all the content creator pays for is the blockchain withdrawal fee.
Tips can go to authors of a tweet or a YouTube video for example, and the BAT is sent instantly from the user’s browser wallet to the content creator’s wallet.
