The creators of the privacy-centric Brave browser have created a cryptocurrency called Basic Attention Token, or BAT, which you can earn by viewing ads and pay to sites you like. We show you how to start racking up BAT and how you can spend it.
Brave is a privacy-focused browser that aims to prevent its users from being tracked online. That largely means preventing advertisers from tracking you, which disrupts the main way many websites make money. Brave’s makers aren’t just interested in the privacy side of the equation, however. One of their goals is to fundamentally change the way websites make money, using the BAT (Basic Attention Token) cryptocurrency, based on the Ethereum blockchain. News and information sites like this one—and their readers—particularly stand to benefit from the concept. Will it catch on? It’s hard to say, but shifting the power (and some of the money involved) into the hands of users is an attractive idea.
What Is Brave?
Brave, just like Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi, is based on Google’s open-source Chromium browser code, so it’s compatible, fast, and familiar. It sports some unique features, too: Ad blocking and web tracking protection are built in, its private browsing mode can hide your traffic using Tor, it includes a built-in BitTorrent utility, and it offers a cryptocurrency wallet.
The BAT system will only take off if lots of sites take advantage of what it offers: ad-free content support and letting the users earn by giving their attention to a site’s advertisements. Brave claims that over 500,000 content creators and publishers participate in the program. The company also makes a compelling case that most of the ad money on the web is going to Google and Facebook these days, rather than to the actual content publishers.
How Do I Earn Cryptocurrency Using Brave?
The premise is simple: If you endure viewing Brave Ads (which are push notifications, rather than on-page display ads), you can earn a fractional smidge of BAT. Conversely, if you want to get past a site’s paywall and view it ad-free, you contribute a bit of BAT to the site.
After using the browser for a couple hours, I found I had earned 7 cents, so while it’s not something to quit your day job for, extrapolating that to several hours per day could help stuff your digital piggybank. In any case, the intention of the cryptocurrency is to fund information sites, rather than to earn you a living. Find out how to set all this up below.
