A basic fundamental part of the internet experience is, unfortunately, exposure to the menace of online advertising.
In fact, one of the basic fundamental experiences of the human experience is exposure to ads. Advertising companies on and offline have fought hard over the decades to normalize an increasingly invasive targeted advertising campaign towards anyone within reaching distance. The rise of the internet has allowed companies to become even more pervasive throughout the human collective conscious, with targeted campaigns that learn your secrets and algorithms that mine your psyche.
Advertisers are at their most confident, bullish and insidious. Fortunately, the internet allows an equal playing field for those seeking an alternative through open source software and freeware, and the ad-plagued browsing experience can be at least partially stifled nowadays with the simple installation of a few extensions. Brave offers further innovation, using blockchain technology to monetize user-ad interaction into the form of Basic Attention Tokens, which are then distributed back to users in an unprecedented 70-30 ad revenue split.
At the current stage in the Dev version of Brave, BATs are only available to users to donate to websites they want to support, however, the ability for users to cash in their Tokens themselves is reportedly on its way. Before Brave, there was little incentive for users to switch their default browser from Chrome or Firefox. If the idea were to catch on it would be akin to rising up against the ad establishment and forcing them to evolve past their current wanton predatory tactics.
Your faithful Captain Archibald James Haddock considered Chrome to be the gold standard of browsing for a decade or more before getting into Brave by sheer happenstance. The browser feels like Chrome, but adds an optional Tor browsing window, open tabs displaying the number of Ads & Trackers blocked set against gorgeously rendered photography, as well as a running count of HTTPS upgrades and Estimated Time Saved (ads are not only bad for your sanity but your battery as well). Watching Brave's experience enhancement in real time is rewarding; the entire browsing experience feels somehow cleaner and less congested.
It obviously takes a lot to get a user to switch over from their standard browser, especially if it's Chrome. That's because Chrome immediately felt sleeker than its competitors, it felt cool to use and offered an incentive with seamless integration into Google and it's myriad of services, apps and extensions. Brave provides the same access to Google, along with its own engaging option to opt into the ability to view (or dismiss) targeted ads in a separate tab via small, unobtrusive notifications. These engagements earn the user more BATs. This level of interactivity powers Brave into the realm of exciting to use, and there may lie the latent tinder for a mass adoption wildfire, one that could disrupt the entire advertising establishment.
Brave is currently offering 35 Basic Attention Tokens to users who upon installation of the Dev version and opting into the shared rewards advertising system. User's digital wallets are displayed accessible through the triangular BAT symbol to the right of their search browser. When clicked, the wallet opens up to show the current trading value of the user's Token stash. With a probable Withdrawal option coming to the wallets, Brave is offering a truly unique incentive to ditch Chrome and its insidious Google Advertising integration for an ad-free experience that is on track rack to pay its users.
