What is BAT?
BAT is a token built on the Ethereum blockchain that is used for advertising. Developed by the creator of Javascript and the co creator of Mozilla and Firefox, BAT allows advertisers to earn much more for their content because they are no longer in a market dominated by Google and Facebook who take all of the ad revenue. Also, most ads aren't even relevant to the user nor are they safe. A lot of ads you stumble upon on sites can run dangerous scripts when clicked on or redirect you to an unsecure version of the site you think you're going to. With BAT, their focus is to curate relevant ads for users and reward users based on giving attention (or clicking on the ad).
What is Brave?
Brave is a privacy focused browser that focuses on speed and reducing data usage. With Brave, it has a built in ad and tracker blocker. Without the need to load unnecessary ads, browsing speed is multiple times quicker compared to Chrome and data usage is reduced due to less content on the page. Blocking trackers also increases speed, but more importantly it ads a better sense of privacy. You don't have unwanted programs trying to steal data.
How Is It?
After hearing the news today, I installed Brave on my Windows desktop, Ubuntu laptop, and Android phone. Brave works well on all three platforms although with a few bugs. This is understandable because both projects are still Beta. The BAT payments were just added to Brave today but it seems to do what it's intended. With BAT integration, you can add funds to your Brave browser. There is a built in wallet but you control the private key so Brave doesn't hold any data. With the funds in your wallet, you can opt to support your favorite sites even though you block their ads. So for example I block ads on Coindesk. I can set up a recurring payment to that site so the publishers get paid and I don't have to see ads. It's a win-win. Since I just started using everything today, I haven't set that up yet, but the community seems to like it.
Overall Opinion
I love it. After only using it for a few hours, I can see this being very useful the more I use it. The hard thing about browsers is you can't give a definite opinion after a few hours of testing, but with Brave it seems to be a very basic but not so basic browser. They do allow extensions, but not as many as Chrome and Firefox. The main one I'm waiting for is Image Hover for Reddit. It makes navigating through images easier, but I can live without it for a while too so it isn't a big deal.
I'm excited to follow along with development progress and use every new feature they add. With the addition of BAT, this could change the way we see ads. They could become a benefit rather than a nuisance.