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Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

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Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#211

Post by jblow »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #136
AnabeeKnox wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search on this page for the word "fraud". Here's what I'd do in your position: remove anything on the internet which personally identifies you as an employee of your company. Nobody knows what is going to happen next, but be prepared for it.

There is zero chance an employee is going to get in trouble because a browser company they worked for collected funds in an escrow account to be released in the event that an intended recipient signs up.

I would think twice about hiring someone if their previous place of work was a scam company, at least because it tells me something about that person's ethical compass.

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#212

Post by jblow »

davidgerard wrote: post #32
SheinhardtWigCo wrote: post #31

Brave is a web browser that takes your money and claims to pay out to your favorite websites and content creators, but in most cases actually pays into a "user growth pool" that funds pyramid-shaped marketing (paying users to use the browser) and referral programs for partner content creators. How is that not fraud?

> How is that not fraud? The answer appears to be "technically", and "sue if you think you're big enough".

I would be interested in suing them if they have a page up for me. How do I tell if they do?

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#213

Post by int_19h »

brandnewlow wrote: post #85
duxup wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds so clumsy that I suspect they really don't care / want folks to fail to collect.

I am on the business team at Brave. We want people to collect and get paid. It's a huge part of why we come in to work every day, to work on stuff that helps creators get paid. I'm sure there's UI/UX stuff in Patreon that could be better. That doesn't mean they don't want creators to get paid. It just means there's room for improvement.

If you're sincere, then for starters, how about removing the $100 threshold immediately, and notifying all people who have had donations made to them, so that they can come and claim the money?

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#214

Post by int_19h »

isoskeles wrote: post #198
Traster wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be clear - you cannot start collecting donations on someone's behalf without their consent and expect them to be happy when they find out. Especially when the person you are donating to is a business person with their own public image that they have to maintain and especially when you act shifty about actually handing over the money. Brave might be a great group of people with fantastic intentions, but their be…

> identical to someone committing identity theft I don't fully understand what you mean here. Are they attempting to take out loans or credit cards for their own use with this person's information, resulting in potentially ruinous consequences for this person's credit? Rhetorical question in that case, but really, I'd like to understand what you mean. Is it in reference to your first sentence? My assumption is that p…

The UX for donations does not say anything about "on behalf". Nor does it say that the person has not requested that. Nor does it say that the money won't actually go to that person unless and until they explicitly come and claim it. Nor does it say that the person isn't even notified until the total is over $100.

As far as consequences to the person - asking for donations in and of itself affects one's reputation.

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#215

Post by stevenicr »

Is this de-platform proof? eg, if - and they got lots of complaints for triggering - can the payments to gab,storm,badguy,badgirl,camgirl etc get stopped from brave or get brave stopped from taking payments all together from higher up the chain or whatever?

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#216

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

brandnewlow wrote: post #89
egypturnash wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I suspect this is part of their overall revenue model.

Honest question: Why do you suspect that? (I work at Brave. We're all very, very nerdy here. It'd be helpful to understand why a fellow nerd suspects we're up to no good.)

> why a fellow nerd suspects we're up to no good

You're taking money on peoples' behalf without their knowledge or permission.

What the fuck more is there to understand?

Here's the bright ethical line: don't accept any money unless you can be assured that you can provide it to the beneficiary. At least failing that, make it abundantly clear to donators that there's no reason whatsoever to expect the funds to actually go to the recipient.

The moral hazard is blindingly obvious: the worse you are at getting funds to where they should go, the more money you make.

This is going viral and it's time to talk to your lawyer about your personal liability in this clusterfuck.

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#217

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #136
AnabeeKnox wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search on this page for the word "fraud". Here's what I'd do in your position: remove anything on the internet which personally identifies you as an employee of your company. Nobody knows what is going to happen next, but be prepared for it.

There is zero chance an employee is going to get in trouble because a browser company they worked for collected funds in an escrow account to be released in the event that an intended recipient signs up.

He calls himself VC, so he may be more liable than you think.

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#218

Post by NeedMoreTea »

brandnewlow wrote: post #89
egypturnash wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I suspect this is part of their overall revenue model.

Honest question: Why do you suspect that? (I work at Brave. We're all very, very nerdy here. It'd be helpful to understand why a fellow nerd suspects we're up to no good.)

Why would I suspect anything else with the way it's presented?

Presumably you'd be entirely happy if I made a fork of Chromium or addon that asked for donations on every Brave related site and personality.

I'd try and tell you via whois data (even when it's twitter and YT that doesn't have whois lookup for end users) when the amount passed $20k. I'd go with $100, but as it's a side project I can't yet add a system to manage smaller donations. It's on the todo list.

You can withdraw funds earlier if you ever happen to randomly discover I'm collecting donations for you. Otherwise I'll sit on it to help with development and hosting costs. Thanks.

Brave Co would be happy with this and would not resort to lawyers?

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#219

Post by maxencecornet »

egypturnash wrote: post #72
egypturnash wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh apparently they understand Twitch channels too, huzzah, ugh.

So I typed my domain into the setup thing and I got this: "Hello. It looks like you are using WordPress!" "Your domain is NOT using HTTPS.Uh oh! Your domain is NOT using HTTPS. You will need to fix that before continuing." "The following error was encountered: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv2/v3 read server hello A: sslv3 alert handshake failure" Why do I need to be using HTTPS before you'll think about pay…

I mean, they are not wrong, you should be using HTTPS.

Re: Brave taking cryptocurrency donations “for me” without my consent

#220

Post by hollasch »

sonicdream wrote: post #200
hollasch wrote: post #185

My basic objection to the "opt-out" scheme is that my browser is effectively acting as a man-in-the-middle agent, confusing both the reader and the author, and co-opting any existing compensation or donation procedure. For example, consider http://www.vim.org , which hosts the text editor Vim. The author, Bram Moolenaar, makes this editor freely-available, and asks that any donations be directed to ICCF Holand, a cha…

Bad example. The purpose of the BAT token is for ads and tipping, not for donations. Hence the name, Basic Attention Token.

I use the Vim browser, and I want to support the project. Let me just grab the manual to gain a clear understanding of the terms and definitions the browser requires me to understand before I render said support according to the protocol we (reader and author) now find ourselves subject to. Oh Brave new world …
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