What is Brave Browser?
Brave is a free and open-source (FOSS) web browser based on the Chromium web browser. Brave is a privacy focused browser, and automatically blocks online advertisements and website trackers in its default settings. It also allows users to turn on optional ads that pay users for their attention in Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) cryptocurrency. Users can then send contributions to websites and content creators, or keep the cryptocurrency they earned.
Why should you use Brave Browser?
1. Free BAT for turning on pop-up ads and sponsored images
This is definitely one of my top reasons for using Brave Browser. If you opt-in to the Brave Rewards program in the browser settings, you earn BAT for viewing pop-up ads and sponsored images. The pop-up ads appear as notifications and do not affect the browsing experience, and they can be easily dismissed. When you open a new tab in Brave, the background usually shows aesthetic photographs of scenery, but sponsored images will occasionally be shown as the background. Personally, I feel that my browsing experience has not been negatively impacted by these ads, and I usually earn about 1 to 2 BAT ($0.50 to $1 at current prices) per week of browsing, so I feel that turning on ads is pretty worth it.
To withdraw the BAT you have earned, you must have at least 15 BAT and you can only withdraw them to an Uphold wallet, which requires KYC (identity verification). Uphold is also not a commonly used wallet, and is not very popular in the crypto community. This is the main negative aspect of the Brave Rewards program, but Brave may release their own wallet or allow withdrawals to other wallets soon.
2. Inbuilt Ad Blocker
Now, you might be asking: If you don't mind the ads Brave gives under the Brave Rewards program, why do you care about the inbuilt ad blocker? Well, the ads on websites tend to be a lot more intrusive, sometimes taking up all the space on the sides of the website. They also often make the website take far longer to load. The ad blocker also blocks ads on Spotify if you use the web version, so you don't have to pay for premium to get that functionality. The ads Brave gives are a lot less intrusive and have no noticeable impact on the browsing experience.
3. Privacy
Widely used browsers like Chrome and Edge give users very little privacy by default, and securing them often requires installing some extensions and digging into the privacy settings. However, Brave blocks trackers, third-party cookies and third-party fingerprinters (that track you by creating a unique profile of you using your browser and computer settings) that monitor users' activity, and allows users to control what they want to be blocked, like ads, cookies and login buttons. It also offers extensive customisation in its privacy settings.
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