Brave browser provides very small amount of rewards for displaying ads. These rewards are available in BAT (Basic Attention Token). BAT is a token for the digital advertising industry. In order to redeem the BAT received as rewards while using Brave browser for daily internet searching, you may use custodial wallet partners such as Gemini or Uphold. I've been used Gemini for many months, since I've started to use Brave as my first web browser option. Since the amount of BAT tokens wasn't a lot, I haven't redeemed Brave rewards every month. Few days ago, after claiming my rewards for July, I tried to add the BAT tokens into my Gemini account.

First I've received a message telling me "Unfortunately, your Brave Rewards cannot be verified because your region is not supported for Brave Rewards verification at this time.". I was convinced that it was an error somewhere between Brave, Gemini and the internet connection since it was mentioned "at this time". So I forgot about it for the next 24 hours. Then I've tried again and I received the same message. Trying to figure it out and understand exactly what is happening, I've started to search for this issue.

I was surprised to see that on the Brave community there were other messages regarding this situation. There were many messages asking for the same situation and the answer was that some regions are now restricted to support the connection between Brave and the Gemini account (may check this link https://community.brave.com/t/notice-new-region-restrictions-on-verifying-brave-rewards-with-gemini/393482).

Great! I was thinking that I should make a new account on Uphold. But after going more deep into this "research", I found that even Uphold has restricted some regions for opening new accounts and my country was among those restricted ones (see link https://support.uphold.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026786712-Non-Supported-Jurisdictions). The arguments for these restrictions seem to be linked to certain regulations since Brave, Uphold and Gemini are American companies acting under the US law. On the other hand, various countries have regulations and laws trying to ban or to control cryptos and every income. Accordingly, some regions are now restricted to connect Brave with Gemini and Uphold accounts, even if you may still use Brave Rewards and Gemini or Uphold wallets.

Even if  BAT tokens amount is not at all a great fortune, at the end of the day you may want to have them into a wallet. But it seems that this would be a challenge for users living in various countries. At this moment I didn't find another option to redeem my BAT tokens. If I know how to do this or if I will find a way, I will come with that into a new post.

If you know how to withdraw BAT without using Gemini or Uphold, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below. It may help many users who are searching for a different way to redeem their Brave rewards.