TL; DR
Full story
So Brave Browser is in the news again.
This time, it’s because they’re integrating Solana wallets into their browser – allowing users to securely store their $BAT (Brave’s native token) – and it serves as a clear reminder that:
We don’t talk about Brave Browser enough.
And we should too! Being the ideal Web3 onboarding tool for non-technical people, the pitch is simple and very persuasive:
Surf the web → get paid when you see an ad.
Here are its basic mechanics…
In Web2we had two options regarding tracking/advertising:
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Suck it up and accept it.
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Install an ad blocker (and take money from creators who rely on ad dollars).
Brave Browser reinterprets these options and looks like this:
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Disable ads and tracking.
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Enable ads while staying anonymous AND getting paid (in addition to the creators) to advertise.
Okay…but how are the ads relevant if you’re anonymous? And how does the payment system work?
RE: ad relevance…
The Brave team realized that they can still serve relevant ads with a much smaller amount of information.
For example, if someone spends a lot of time reading Business Insider, watching videos on how to improve their golf swing, and checks Yahoo Finance daily…
That’s enough to suggest they might have a penchant for ads selling financial services and pastel-colored polo shirts.
Regarding the payment system:
Advertisers buy ad space using the $BAT token → new, less invasive ads are placed in the browser window where Google’s and Facebook’s used to be → the ad money is split between Brave, creators/publishers, and users.
Helluva concept!