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Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

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Re: Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

#41

Post by Brendinooo »

Karunamon wrote: post #32
Brendinooo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's an accurate way to portray it. I might be able to afford $5/month, but I'd rather buy five songs a month with that money. Ad-free Web viewing is a luxury, not a necessity. Also, not all advertising targets disposable income. I might see an ad for clothing, which I would need to buy at some point. Maybe I'm underwater on my mortgage and want to learn one weird tip to get refinanced. Plenty of ads…

Ad-free Web viewing is a luxury, not a necessity. Given the prevalence of ads as a malware/privacy invasion vector, I'm not sure that's true anymore. Browsing the wider internet without a blocker on is like walking down a bad part of town and sticking yourself with every discarded needle you find.

I agree with you in principle; I now use ad blockers after arguing for years that people shouldn't. But in reality that's a tough case to make.

Sure, the NSA might find out what web sites I've been visiting, but that's a really abstract concept for most people. I don't want to attack your analogy too much, but sticking yourself with discarded needles is a much more tangible risk, and doesn't bring any benefits along with it.

There are some sites I frequent that are egregious about ads, but they provide enough value to me that I keep going back.

Re: Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

#42

Post by hackuser »

To the critics: The problem is, how to pay for content while maintaining user control over their privacy? Micropayments seem like a solution, and Brave has found an economical way to implement them. How would you change Brave and,

* Still solve the confidentiality problem

* Be realistically economical: Everyone gets paid

* Earn a profit (not a sin and a good way to make the project sustainable)

* Have a technical and practical means of widespread adoption (e.g., personal contact with one website at a time isn't practical).

Social change, such as user confidentiality on the Internet, comes when someone finds a practical way to get it done, not when we all complain about it. Naysayers on the sidelines who simply don't like change and find fault for sport are, as reformers have long pointed out, the biggest obstacles.

Kudos to Brave for tackling this tough and very important issue. They just might change the world.

Re: Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

#43

Post by nicpottier »

ramblenode wrote: post #39

I want to like the idea of Brave but have a hard time seeing this project taking off. It requires buy-in both from publishers, who make more money from ads, and from visitors, who probably don't want to spend money, configure a payment option, or switch from their current browser. Good idea for a cross-browser plugin, but an entire browser?

Ya, agreed. I'd much rather have this built into my ad blocker extension. IE, I could configure a wallet there which I could fund and they could send micro-payments based on the ads I block.

(sorta like Google's contributor but more open / distributed)

Re: Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

#44

Post by nailer »

mst wrote: post #22
mike-cardwell wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh. They take a 5% cut. Next question, how do I prevent this system from working on any of my websites?

How else would you suggest they maintain the infrastructure without turning the users back into the product?

Implementing window.payment like Google and Apple do?

Re: Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

#46

Post by ultramancool »

mst wrote: post #22
mike-cardwell wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh. They take a 5% cut. Next question, how do I prevent this system from working on any of my websites?

How else would you suggest they maintain the infrastructure without turning the users back into the product?

If the system was designed right any infrastructure could be distributed (put a bitcoin address and a notification URL in your HTML or something dead simple like that) and development could be sponsored by interested parties if needed. There wouldn't be any need for a fee.

Re: Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

#47

Post by stri8ted »

k__ wrote: post #8

They wrote about URL based microdonations. For example for content creators like youtubers so that youtube doesnt get a cut from the donation. How does Brave decide who has a legitimate claim on that money?!

Presumably the user who generates the URL can claim the funds.

Re: Brave Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments

#48

Post by stri8ted »

nicpottier wrote: post #43
ramblenode wrote: post #39

I want to like the idea of Brave but have a hard time seeing this project taking off. It requires buy-in both from publishers, who make more money from ads, and from visitors, who probably don't want to spend money, configure a payment option, or switch from their current browser. Good idea for a cross-browser plugin, but an entire browser?

Ya, agreed. I'd much rather have this built into my ad blocker extension. IE, I could configure a wallet there which I could fund and they could send micro-payments based on the ads I block. (sorta like Google's contributor but more open / distributed)

Yup. I see no reason why this could not be implemented as a WebExtension (which will be compatible with Chrome/FF/Edge). Perhaps performance would suffer a bit relative to native. Having a synced history between Chrome devices, is enough reason for me to not switch browsers, let alone stored form inputs.

Having a general purpose wallet built into the browser would be quite interesting. Think 1 cent Bitcoin paywalls.

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