So I had this shower thought ... what if Amazon accepted BAT as a form of payment? It sounds ridiculous but there were a series of other shower thoughts that led me to this question, so if I explain those it might not sound so silly:
- Fact - Google Chrome accounts for (depending on where you get your information from) at least 60%+ of browser usage[1]. As for Brave, I’m not sure but it didn’t feature on browser usage stats sites that I could find. Bonus shower thought - would Brave usage stats be bundled with the Chrome stats since they are both based on Chromium?
- BAT as a payment token is “ripe for forking”[2], so says Kyle Samani. What he’s referring to is the Token Velocity issue. A lot has been written about this but this article[3], with an entertaining Jesus allegory, unpacks the problem nicely. The argument goes that the token will decrease in value as the network grows and speculators hodling the token will be caught with their pants down. It also creates unnecessary friction by introducing a form of payment that is not necessary for the functioning of the network when a common medium of exchange token could be used instead (ETH or - even better - DAI).
- So Brave has a problem with traction, and the Brave/BAT project could potentially be forked so that the (forked) Brave browser accepts a form of payment that has value (besides speculative) outside its ecosystem. But if BAT had greater utility, this would save it from forking and BAT hodlers would rejoice!
- The solution - Amazon accepts BAT as a form of payment! But what’s in it for Amazon? Well, all those users on Chrome - all that data being captured (by Google) for the benefit of advertising revenue (for Google) could be potentially taken away from Google as users migrate to Brave to consume content. Amazon goes all in as an advertiser on Brave. Users of Brave will view Amazon ads (and get paid for it), and head on over to Amazon to buy their stuff (with BAT they’ve just earned)! From Google’s ecosystem into Amazon’s, thanks to Brave!
- BAT increases in value, Amazon hodls it, and sells portions during peak bubble periods.
Please take this article ‘with a grain of salt’. This is somewhat serious, somewhat tongue in cheek! For another interesting discussion on Brave/Amazon synergies see this reddit post.
[1]W3Schools, NetMarketShare, W3Counter
[2]Questions from the crypto idea maze
[3]Understanding the dangers of token velocity