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>How is this different than having all ad publishers integrating with Google Token? Presumably you wouldn't want to be locked into a proprietary platform that

>How is this different than having all ad publishers integrating with Google Token? Presumably you wouldn't want to be locked into a proprietary platform that can raise fees once it has an effective monopoly.

hudon 9y ago
How is that different than being locked into the BAT? Brave decides how much BAT will get you an ad spot right?
- Jabanga 9y ago
  A blockchain platform can be designed to not give the developer direct control over things like pricing, or anything at all. I don't know if that is what Brave is planning with its ad platform mind you, but it's certainly possible, and would be a differentiator only possible by building on top of a distributed ledger. A good example would be the blockchain itself, where every cost users incur, like transaction fees, is determined by end-user action (e.g. the miners and users), rather than through collusion by some set of owners.
  - hudon 9y ago
    > A blockchain platform can be designed to not give the developer direct control over things like pricing, or anything at all The developers don't control the price... It's a market between brave/publishers/users. Are you saying Google's engineers would be able to affect the price? That possibility has no affect on the product's success. That's like saying Amazon engineers can go and change the price of items so we should replace Amazon with a blockchain.
    - Jabanga 9y ago
      >That's like saying Amazon engineers can go and change the price of items so we should replace Amazon with a blockchain. Not Amazon engineers, but Amazon itself could raise fees if it attains a comfortable de facto monopoly.
      - hudon 9y ago
        If it does than, then it can get out-competed by Rainforest, which is a clone of Amazon but with lower fees. Then if Sahara comes along and copies Rainforest but uses the blockchain for payments, they won't be able to compete because they will have to pay for blockchain network transaction fees and potential blockchain network backlog (unreliable payments compared to say funding a Google Wallet or some such)
        Jabanga 9y ago
        That depends on whether the market leader benefits from network effects. All other things being equal, the market leader in a naturally monopolistic industry, like say social networks, has a much more compelling product than competitors. That allows the market leader to extract monopoly rent.
kolinko 9y ago
@hudon - it's a blockchain protocol, so BAT will be bound by the rules of the token as well. I.e. it won't be able to do any gatekeeping on who uses the system and for what purpose, or do any other monopolistic practices.
- hudon 9y ago
  > " it won't be able to do any gatekeeping on who uses the system and for what purpose" Agreed. This is actually something the blockchain has that existing systems do not: censorship resistance. The ability to participate and not be shut down, fined, or jailed by the rule of law. However, if you remove the need to be censorship resistant and assume that no one will use the ad publishing system for illegal activity, I'd be really curious to hear what you mean by "other monopolistic practices".

hudon 9y ago

How is that different than being locked into the BAT? Brave decides how much BAT will get you an ad spot right?

Jabanga 9y ago
A blockchain platform can be designed to not give the developer direct control over things like pricing, or anything at all. I don't know if that is what Brave is planning with its ad platform mind you, but it's certainly possible, and would be a differentiator only possible by building on top of a distributed ledger. A good example would be the blockchain itself, where every cost users incur, like transaction fees, is determined by end-user action (e.g. the miners and users), rather than through collusion by some set of owners.
- hudon 9y ago
  > A blockchain platform can be designed to not give the developer direct control over things like pricing, or anything at all The developers don't control the price... It's a market between brave/publishers/users. Are you saying Google's engineers would be able to affect the price? That possibility has no affect on the product's success. That's like saying Amazon engineers can go and change the price of items so we should replace Amazon with a blockchain.
  - Jabanga 9y ago
    >That's like saying Amazon engineers can go and change the price of items so we should replace Amazon with a blockchain. Not Amazon engineers, but Amazon itself could raise fees if it attains a comfortable de facto monopoly.
    - hudon 9y ago
      If it does than, then it can get out-competed by Rainforest, which is a clone of Amazon but with lower fees. Then if Sahara comes along and copies Rainforest but uses the blockchain for payments, they won't be able to compete because they will have to pay for blockchain network transaction fees and potential blockchain network backlog (unreliable payments compared to say funding a Google Wallet or some such)
      - Jabanga 9y ago
        That depends on whether the market leader benefits from network effects. All other things being equal, the market leader in a naturally monopolistic industry, like say social networks, has a much more compelling product than competitors. That allows the market leader to extract monopoly rent.

kolinko 9y ago

@hudon - it's a blockchain protocol, so BAT will be bound by the rules of the token as well. I.e. it won't be able to do any gatekeeping on who uses the system and for what purpose, or do any other monopolistic practices.

hudon 9y ago
> " it won't be able to do any gatekeeping on who uses the system and for what purpose" Agreed. This is actually something the blockchain has that existing systems do not: censorship resistance. The ability to participate and not be shut down, fined, or jailed by the rule of law. However, if you remove the need to be censorship resistant and assume that no one will use the ad publishing system for illegal activity, I'd be really curious to hear what you mean by "other monopolistic practices".