3 ms·

How is Brave shady? Or are you just trolling?

by pschastain 7y ago

NikkiA 7y ago
Probably the built-in cryptocurrency mining.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  I think it's unfair to call it mining. You're simply able to be rewarded in their token if you allow ads. That is completely different from mining.
safeplanet-fesa 7y ago
I think that it's shady too. I don't know much about Brave and don't want to know. To me a huge red flag is that Brave tries to push its Basic Attention Token (BAT). BAT is a token of low quality because of the following reasons. 1. The developers try to make up a reason to create another coin for something, that doesn't need a coin; 2. The relationship between the browser and the coin is not cryptographically strong and will never be — it's impossible to prevent fraud when their system is just a program that checks for certain condition (an ad viewed) and communicates to its backend, instructing it to give some address a coin. 3. The developers created a billion of tokens out of thin air and now try to give it some value. And traders do believe that it has some value. I personally don't tolerate shitcoins even the slightest. Thus, I see Brave as nothing, but a browser engine with a content filter and a shitcoin embedded.
- ljcn 7y ago
  I hoped at one point Brave would follow more of a patreon-like model - block ads on pages and give the site my money in exchange. Unfortunately they've gone for showing me different ads.
  - hanniabu 7y ago
    That'd be a really nice feature
  - _corym 7y ago
    Brave does follow this patreon style model. There's a section in the Brave Rewards panel that mentions "Auto-contribute" which does what your describing. You can also easily enable and disable Brave Ads while still contributing (though you'd need to fund your browser wallet)
    - bduerst 7y ago
      Doesn't every single website have to opt in for this to receive any payment?
  - bduerst 7y ago
    This is really hard to do because it involves a myriad of ad networks and payment systems. Others have tried to solve it but maybe Brave can? Dunno.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  It sounds like you have something against cryptocurrencies as a whole and not their tokenomics as to me it seems the reasons for creating your own token for this case is fairly clear.
- knocte 7y ago
  I completely agree with all your points. However, to me Brave is the least-worse browser because at least it has a step inside the territory of blockchain-based browsing. It's the first browser that will add an integrated wallet by default (mainstream will never accept using the weird developer-centric MetaMask extension).
xgulfie 7y ago
Brave has a history of acting shady. For a while they would take BAT "donations" for any website, and would just keep them unless the site owner signed up to receive them. This stopped a few months ago. The whole monetization model of replacing a site's ads with their own is questionable. The whole BAT thing seems like a scam, they offer ways to buy them but no way to sell them. Really anything that uses a cryptocurrency for funding has that "con stink".
- alibert 7y ago
  "The whole monetization model of replacing a site's ads with their own is questionable." Just to be more concise, they are not exactly "replacing" ads on the site. The built-in adblocker remove all ads irrelevant of the sites and if you enable Brave Ads (the coin thing, opt in), you get up to 5 per hour (configurable) OS native notification. The notification contains a text ad with a link. Even if you don't click on the notification, you get the coin.
  - BrendanEich 7y ago
    We are not replacing ads on any site right now, and we won't do it without the publisher as partner, getting 70% of the gross revenue.
- _corym 7y ago
  You can sell BAT via any crypto exchange or website. Coinbase, Uphold, Binance, etc. You can even choose to have BAT automatically convert to USD, Euro, etc.

How is Brave shady? Or are you just trolling?

NikkiA 7y ago

Probably the built-in cryptocurrency mining.

hanniabu 7y ago
I think it's unfair to call it mining. You're simply able to be rewarded in their token if you allow ads. That is completely different from mining.

safeplanet-fesa 7y ago

I think that it's shady too. I don't know much about Brave and don't want to know. To me a huge red flag is that Brave tries to push its Basic Attention Token (BAT). BAT is a token of low quality because of the following reasons. 1. The developers try to make up a reason to create another coin for something, that doesn't need a coin; 2. The relationship between the browser and the coin is not cryptographically strong and will never be — it's impossible to prevent fraud when their system is just a program that checks for certain condition (an ad viewed) and communicates to its backend, instructing it to give some address a coin. 3. The developers created a billion of tokens out of thin air and now try to give it some value. And traders do believe that it has some value. I personally don't tolerate shitcoins even the slightest. Thus, I see Brave as nothing, but a browser engine with a content filter and a shitcoin embedded.

ljcn 7y ago
I hoped at one point Brave would follow more of a patreon-like model - block ads on pages and give the site my money in exchange. Unfortunately they've gone for showing me different ads.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  That'd be a really nice feature
- _corym 7y ago
  Brave does follow this patreon style model. There's a section in the Brave Rewards panel that mentions "Auto-contribute" which does what your describing. You can also easily enable and disable Brave Ads while still contributing (though you'd need to fund your browser wallet)
  - bduerst 7y ago
    Doesn't every single website have to opt in for this to receive any payment?
- bduerst 7y ago
  This is really hard to do because it involves a myriad of ad networks and payment systems. Others have tried to solve it but maybe Brave can? Dunno.
hanniabu 7y ago
It sounds like you have something against cryptocurrencies as a whole and not their tokenomics as to me it seems the reasons for creating your own token for this case is fairly clear.
knocte 7y ago
I completely agree with all your points. However, to me Brave is the least-worse browser because at least it has a step inside the territory of blockchain-based browsing. It's the first browser that will add an integrated wallet by default (mainstream will never accept using the weird developer-centric MetaMask extension).

xgulfie 7y ago

Brave has a history of acting shady. For a while they would take BAT "donations" for any website, and would just keep them unless the site owner signed up to receive them. This stopped a few months ago. The whole monetization model of replacing a site's ads with their own is questionable. The whole BAT thing seems like a scam, they offer ways to buy them but no way to sell them. Really anything that uses a cryptocurrency for funding has that "con stink".

alibert 7y ago
"The whole monetization model of replacing a site's ads with their own is questionable." Just to be more concise, they are not exactly "replacing" ads on the site. The built-in adblocker remove all ads irrelevant of the sites and if you enable Brave Ads (the coin thing, opt in), you get up to 5 per hour (configurable) OS native notification. The notification contains a text ad with a link. Even if you don't click on the notification, you get the coin.
- BrendanEich 7y ago
  We are not replacing ads on any site right now, and we won't do it without the publisher as partner, getting 70% of the gross revenue.
_corym 7y ago
You can sell BAT via any crypto exchange or website. Coinbase, Uphold, Binance, etc. You can even choose to have BAT automatically convert to USD, Euro, etc.