Those of you who, like myself, are deeply interested, and excited, by the Brave browser project will more than likely already be aware of the impending milestones laid out on the company’s roadmap (available on Github here). To put it bluntly, on April 23rd 2019 the BAT team will be releasing an update to their MVP, the Brave browser. The update will advance the project towards its overall goal of a private, secure and decentralised web experience.
For the past month, give or take, the Brave browser has been testing its attention rewards system, which issues BAT tokens to users for allowing websites to display ads to them. Their user retention advertising model is now set to be rolled out on the big screen and the prospect has the cryptocurrency world excited with anticipation.
User Rewards for Allowing Ads
What does this mean? Simply put, it means anybody who uses Brave browser and allows websites to display adverts will be able to earn tradable cryptocurrency tokens. This means that publishers and advertisers will no longer be the only people which earn money for the content that is posted online. The Brave team have long said that advertising is broken and lacks any true transparency.
At present there are so many people taking their cut of the funds raised from advertising that publishers end up getting crumbs, while those viewing the ads get tracked. With the Brave browser’s new update, publishers will be able to cut out all the middle men. They will also be able to decide an amount of the BAT rewards they receive to be issued to their audience. This simple act has the ability to change the lives of the most in-need.
In less developed countries, such as India, people are using the internet and viewing adverts on a regular basis. By providing a method by which they can actually receive a financial reward for doing something they already do Brave has offered a new source of income for them. At its current price (~ $0.46 or ₹32) 1 BAT token is enough for a street food meal, can you imagine the affect this could have?
That’s Not All Folks
If you have looked at the roadmap you will have seen that the impending update also features technological advancements, beyond the rewards system rollout. There is a planned overhaul of the bookmarks, settings, history and downloads pages. There are also plans to upgrade the browser’s backbone to a new version of Chromium (74) as well as fixes for the localisation of Brave shields, plus changes to exception handling.
I have been using the Brave browser for longer than I can remember and am excited to see the project move into its next stage. Since the news of this mega update the BAT token has seen a huge spike in activity, reaching almost half of its all time high. I would expect this update, paired with the May 13th update, will help to stabilise and increase the platform’s value.
Peace, love and happiness.