Brave Software officially launched version 1.0 of its Brave web browser on Wednesday, November 13. The first version launched in January 2016 and has since gained more than 2.8 million active users daily and eight million active users monthly. It’s based on Google’s Chromium browser and relies on Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) to generate revenue.
The idea behind Brave’s BAT system is to reward content creators using cryptocurrency. It doesn’t generate virtual coins in the background, but rather provides means for readers to tip 300,000 participating Brave Certified Publishers. These include The Washington Post, The Guardian, MarketWatch, and more.
To enable this feature, users can activate Brave Rewards and the associated Brave wallet during the browser installation. The triangular Brave Rewards icon resides next to the address bar, where users can add funds to their virtual wallet. Users can then send a tip as they read an article or establish a more reassuring monthly payment.
“Brave is built on top of the first global private ad platform, designed from the start to value users’ attention and privacy,” the company said on Monday. “Brave has pioneered a new blockchain-based advertising model that reforms the current system with privacy by design and 70 percent revenue share to users in the form of Basic Attention Tokens (BAT).”
To earn BAT, Brave surfers can opt-in to view specific ads that aren’t linked to a worldwide advertising platform. They’re “privacy-preserving,” the company claims, from brands you know well like Pizza Hut, Home Chef, and Intel.
In addition to Brave Ads, the latest Brave browser automatically blocks third-party ads and trackers. Called Brave Shields, the feature resides as a shield icon next to the address bar and displays the number of “cross-site trackers and other creepy things” it identifies and blocks. Click on the icon to get additional details or change the browser’s ad-blocking settings.
JavaScript creator Brendan Eich co-founded Brave Software in 2015 after resigning as Mozilla’s CEO in 2014. Eich said in a 2016 interview that his new open-source browser blocks ads, their tracking cookies, and related pixels by default. It does not take fees “to let some through as top ad-blocking browser extensions do.”
The intent, however, is not to completely block ads and crash the internet. Instead, Brave puts more control in the readers’ hands.
Brave v1.0 is now available on Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS.
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