Sat and fiddled with some crypto friends the other day and got the question from a "beginner" (having only had experience since November of just crypto) what determines which coins I buy - and sell.
Can immediately say that I am not an analytical professional, but try to follow others who are better, make me own image of the "business idea" and look at historical development. Then I follow updates on these coins via Twitter, Facebook and more. Here are my thoughts and how I reasoned about BAT, Basic Attention Token.
What is it?
The basis of BAT is the browser Brave. A browser that focuses on personal privacy, anonymity, speed and being without advertising.
BAT and Brave
Just as Adblock works (for those who download this plugin), all advertising is cleared. After testing Brave and surfing at Aftonbladet and SvD, I can say that it is incredibly nice. For these newspapers have really bombarded their pages with big ads that are both annoying and slow down the loading time.
Bat token
Instead, the team behind Brave and BAT want to develop a system where I as a user can get a certain amount to allow advertising. I can also give "tips" to websites that have really good content and thus show my appreciation. In the system, BAT is the "currency".
A similar idea is also found in TV advertising where TV TWO wants to develop something similar. Get cryptocurrency TTV by choosing to watch advertising when you watch your favorite shows on the TV. In this video you can see how TV TWO works in practice. Haven't found any video showing how to earn BAT by surfing the internet but the idea is the same.
Why did I buy BAT?
When Enjin coin went up 250%, I chose to take home some of the profits to spread the risk on several coins. Had not read about anyone special at the moment and thus began to look through the funds offered at Iconomi. The funds are managed by professionals who follow different investment strategies.
A coin that a couple of funds had was just BAT. It made me curious and after a brief (very brief) review of their idea with BAT, I chose to invest. For sure, it sounds nice with a faster browser that protects your privacy - which also gives you money ...
Begins to be doubtful - Starting from myself
Personally, I change browsers very rarely. Have been using Chrome for as long as I can remember and rarely hear friends mention that they change browsers. Why change something that works ...
Brave is faster - But I haven't had a problem loading a page in 0.1 second…
Brave protects personal privacy - It's good, but if it's so important to me, I shouldn't have Facebook, stop using cookies and surf incognito, which I don't.
Brave removes advertising - Yes, but so does Adblock.
I can see the benefit of Brave, but not enough benefit to switch browsers. The biggest advantage is that I avoid the ad automatically without installing Adblock. But if I want to surf completely without advertising, then the idea with BAT falls. For the idea is that I should approve advertising in order to thereby earn and use BAT.
It becomes paradoxically simple. A browser that frees me from the hassle of advertising - and a token that wants me to look at advertising ...
After following BAT on Facebook for a while, I realized that the vast majority of posts are about how Brave improves speed, removes advertising and protects privacy. It favors the browser - but not with BAT security. Maybe I will use Brave in the future - but not with certainty BAT.
For here comes another point that I feel a little critical. Its token is not strongly tied to their service. I can download Brave today and use the browser (which I also did and tested). Can take advantage of all the benefits of it without having to BAT. The browser can be large without its tokens being sought after.
For example, it can be compared to tokens from SALT, Enjin or No Limit where you have to have tokens to be able to access their service. Alternatively Tenx and Binance which provide a direct financial advantage.
Previous similar projects have not failed
Apart from the fact that BAT is on the block chain, the similarities are great against similar business ideas that existed before. When I was unemployed, I searched extra income from different directions and then found the service that "gave money by looking at advertising and receiving promotional emails". I also got money - but extremely little in relation to all the advertising I accepted. How should the team behind BAT be able to provide so much value that I am ready to start looking at advertising for money?
Now Brave and BAT are a bit more advanced in that you can get both BAT and distribute BAT, but the basic idea is similar.
Is there potential?
Firefox and Asia show the way?
After reading more about BAT and Brave and following the project for a few weeks, I became more skeptical of its potential. However, I saw two "success factors"
First, Brave, among others, is developed by the one who developed Firefox. That show