YouTube and BAT Announce Gamechangers
It’s been said many times throughout the tech community, but in light of recent news, it bears repeating: cryptocurrency is the future of our world. The very same week that YouTube served monetization eviction notices to its smaller publishers, the Brave browser announced that it is literally giving monetization away to its users. As the buzz over these two developments calms, signs are beginning to point to long-term positive outcomes for online publishers.
YouTube
It seems that Facebook is not the only platform seeking to improve the quality of the content it publishes in 2018. YouTube announced yesterday that it will officially demonetize channels with fewer than 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months and fewer than 1,000 subscribers. In a blog post, YouTube sited its desire to improve its “creator ecosystem.”
The post goes on to cite the platform’s new mission to hold content to a higher standard before rewarding it with ad revenue. According to YouTube, creators hoping to monetize their channels need to be developing and publishing high quality content that contributes to positively to the community. Once the new rules take effect, channels that hit the new statistical standards will also need to apply in order to be considered for monetization.
Rewarding positive contributions to the platform, while simultaneously punishing for harmful or malicious content...this new policy sounds eerily similar to the conceptual framework driving the Basic Attention Token (BAT). Ironically, the BAT creators recently began allowing YouTubers the opportunity to become verified publishers on the Brave platform. The current upheaval within the small and medium channel community will likely lead many frustrated users to leave the platform. This trend, combined with Brave’s new offer of crypto-backed monetization, could spell the biggest and most lucrative opportunity for Youtube publishers in over 10 years.
$BAT and Brave
Even more Ironically (or not?), BAT also made headlines today with the announcement that it is giving away $1 million in tokens to users of the Brave browser. Existing users need simply to open the Brave browser and accept the prompt offering $5 in free tokens. New users must install and open the browser on their personal computers in order to see the same prompt.
This is the project’s second round of grants from its user growth pool meant to stimulate platform use and user buy-in. The last giveaway ended in only 30 hours, with users snatching up $500,000 in BAT. Only publishers have the ability to exchange BAT for cash, but unlike with any other platform serving users ads, Brave’s users also have the chance to be rewarded in BAT for supporting verified publishers and allowing them access to their online browsing space.
The BAT and Brave could very likely announce more grants in the future. Until then, YouTubers should run, not walk, to their browsers, download Brave, and apply to become verified publishers. The embedded video explains each step of this process, as well as the amazing features built into the revolutionary Brave browser.
BAT Donations: 0x2570a954caab1b80e110464938ada22dec1e41d5
