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The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

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Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#71

Post by manigandham »

justsee wrote: post #47

I think the privacy crowd drawn to Brave couldn't care less what the (current) digital advertising industry wants. Anyone who's been involved in the current ad-tech industry knows it's a total tire fire of fraud, technical incompetence and deep hostility to end-users. Brave's model is very interesting and also a threat to the current ad-tech cesspool, so there should be no surprise to see attempts to misinform people…

If you want advertisers, you need to care about what the industry wants. Obviously that's for Brave to deal with, not the users, but showing ads for money is an ad network.

Microtransactions have been tried many times. I spent half a million testing it. Didn't work because of user behavior. And unless users are buying with their own money, it's just converting the BAT they earn from ads into BAT they pay the publisher. This is an ad network.

Even the block-and-replace-ads model has been tried before. Everything from iframes to browser toolbars. Again, this is an ad network.

If you have to use language like "economic layer" to describe your business model, you're either hiding something or you don't have one. Or we can just use the standard definition: brave is a browser-based ad network.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#72

Post by atomical »

RandomBacon wrote: post #64
rayiner wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless, Brave is a pretty great browser. It increases battery life on my machine by an hour or two compared to Chrome by blocking all those ads.

How is the battery life of Brave comapred to Chrome with an ad-blocker ? How about the more privacy-respecting Firefox with an ad-blocker ?

If everyone uses either of your suggested options the publishers go broke and there is no content to view. Brave has a plan for that. So yes, they are farther along than any idea you have presented.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#73

Post by xur17 »

MagicPropmaker wrote: post #63

According to the article, Eich will pay you in a "cryptocurrency" which cannot be exchanged for cash. > Brave will give users a 70 percent cut of its advertising revenue, which Eich estimates could work out to about $5 a month. Brave will pay users with its own bitcoin-style "cryptocurrency” called Basic Attention Tokens or BAT, which has traded for as little as 12 cents and as much as 46 cents over the past 12 month…

> Today, there’s no way for users who receive BAT for viewing ads to swap their digital currency for dollars, but Eich says Brave will partner with cryptocurrency exchanges to make that possible.

I'm confused by this statement - there are currently several exchanges you can use to trade BAT for USD. Is this suggesting that the UI will be made more clear in the future, or are users actually blocked from withdrawing BAT from their wallet?

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#74

Post by tssva »

justsee wrote: post #47

I think the privacy crowd drawn to Brave couldn't care less what the (current) digital advertising industry wants. Anyone who's been involved in the current ad-tech industry knows it's a total tire fire of fraud, technical incompetence and deep hostility to end-users. Brave's model is very interesting and also a threat to the current ad-tech cesspool, so there should be no surprise to see attempts to misinform people…

Blocking someone's means of income and then telling them they can get some of it back if they change their business model so revenues now flow through you isn't opt-in economic activity. It is extorted economic activity.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#75

Post by bravoetch »

techntoke wrote: post #42

Remember that the CEO of Brave is the same guy who had to leave Mozilla for donating money to support California Proposition 8, which called for the banning of same-sex marriage in California.

Are you worried he's making your browser Catholic? I've met him, he's a great guy. Just because you might disagree with his political views doesn't mean you should choose your browser based on that difference.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#76

Post by xur17 »

justsee wrote: post #28
TwoNineA wrote: post #3

Can't wait until someone automates it.

I'd say good luck with that. To acquire BAT at scale fraudulently from rewards will likely cost more than it's worth, and to convert it into fiat will require going through KYC / AML processes AND avoiding being flagged by Brave's fraud analysis. I don't think they've published anything on fraud analysis, but what their research team has published is indicative of the calibre of Brave's team: https://brave.com/resear…

> to convert it into fiat will require going through KYC / AML processes AND avoiding being flagged by Brave's fraud analysis.

Are they going to require KYC to withdraw from your wallet or something? Otherwise I'm not sure what keeps people from withdrawing and trading on whatever sketchy exchange they want.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#77

Post by justsee »

turdnagel wrote: post #52

I find these kind of bait-and-switches to be really tasteless. Company X is created originally with the sole purpose of blocking ads and privacy trackers - and then decides to monetize using some kind of "good" ad. (I'm looking at you, AdBlock Plus.)

There's no bait and switch here. Ads are opt-in and for many of us aren't the most interesting aspect of baking a digital wallet right into the browser.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#78

Post by atomical »

tssva wrote: post #74
justsee wrote: post #47

I think the privacy crowd drawn to Brave couldn't care less what the (current) digital advertising industry wants. Anyone who's been involved in the current ad-tech industry knows it's a total tire fire of fraud, technical incompetence and deep hostility to end-users. Brave's model is very interesting and also a threat to the current ad-tech cesspool, so there should be no surprise to see attempts to misinform people…

Blocking someone's means of income and then telling them they can get some of it back if they change their business model so revenues now flow through you isn't opt-in economic activity. It is extorted economic activity.

A lot of that income is from tracking users, storing that data, and then selling it. I don't feel one ounce of sympathy for them.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#79

Post by justsee »

RandomBacon wrote: post #64
rayiner wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless, Brave is a pretty great browser. It increases battery life on my machine by an hour or two compared to Chrome by blocking all those ads.

How is the battery life of Brave comapred to Chrome with an ad-blocker ? How about the more privacy-respecting Firefox with an ad-blocker ?

They publicised their research here (20%-40% battery savings on Android) : https://brave.com/brave-saves-batteries/

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#80

Post by PudgePacket »

manigandham wrote: post #71
justsee wrote: post #47

I think the privacy crowd drawn to Brave couldn't care less what the (current) digital advertising industry wants. Anyone who's been involved in the current ad-tech industry knows it's a total tire fire of fraud, technical incompetence and deep hostility to end-users. Brave's model is very interesting and also a threat to the current ad-tech cesspool, so there should be no surprise to see attempts to misinform people…

If you want advertisers, you need to care about what the industry wants. Obviously that's for Brave to deal with, not the users, but showing ads for money is an ad network. Microtransactions have been tried many times. I spent half a million testing it. Didn't work because of user behavior. And unless users are buying with their own money, it's just converting the BAT they earn from ads into BAT they pay the publishe…

Brave doesn't need advertisers though, it needs users. Once it has users then advertisers need Brave.

I don't see how Brave has to win over advertisers at all, they'll come around when Brave can offer some non-insignificant amount of money to them.

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