4 ms·

Why the negative perception? If you don't like it, turn it off. I switched to brave 4 months ago after trying all the available ones (Chrome - memory and power

Why the negative perception? If you don't like it, turn it off. I switched to brave 4 months ago after trying all the available ones (Chrome - memory and power hog, Everything else – no good app store). First use it, before you review it! Duh!

user-the-name 6y ago
Because Brave has a long history of very questionable business decisions, and is not really trustworthy. They have collected donations on behalf of people without the consent of those people, they have secretely added affiliate links, and they are deeply involved the incredibly shade business of cryptocurrencies.
- ketamine__ 6y ago
  They made some mistakes and took responsibility. Consider that Brave is taking on Google with the GDPR. That's pretty cool.
  - user-the-name 6y ago
    They absolutely did not take responsibility properly. They dragged their feet, they argued and argued that they were doing nothing wrong, and them finally reluctantly changed things when they could find no other way to weasel out of it.
    - mthoms 6y ago
      >They absolutely did not take responsibility properly. They dragged their feet, they argued and argued that they were doing nothing wrong, and them finally reluctantly changed things when they could find no other way to weasel out of it. This is not only a lie, it's a particularly egregious one. And very easy to verify. Original tweet (2:36 AM Pacific, June 6 2020) https://twitter.com/cryptonator1337/status/1269201480105578496 https://twitter.com/cryptonator1337/status/12692014801055784... Response from Brave (10:00 AM Pacific, same day) https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269313200127795201 https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269313200127795201 It took them all of one whole business hour to respond. One hour. That's absolutely unheard of. The above just goes to show how eager some people are to spread FUD in a blatantly dishonest and malicious way about certain things they oppose. It blows my mind.
      - jonathansampson 6y ago
        And by June 9th, less than 3 whole days later, user's had an updated build of Brave with the issue resolved: https://brave.com/referral-codes-in-suggested-sites/ https://brave.com/referral-codes-in-suggested-sites/.
- kilroy_jones 6y ago
  How are cryptocurrencies any worse or more shady than banks, investment firms or any other business involved in finance?
  - user-the-name 6y ago
    By being something like 90% scams?
    - celsoazevedo 6y ago
      It's a mistake to assume that a project is shady just because it's involved with crypto. I use Brave Rewards (as a website owner) and never had any issues. I receive BAT, convert it to my local currency, and then transfer it to my bank account. That's money I would never receive because it comes from users that block ads.
- jlkuester7 6y ago
  > Because Brave has a long history of very questionable business decisions, and is not really trustworthy. Okay boomer... Seriously people, ease up on the hyperbole and approach this with a little perspective. Sure, Brendan Eich != Mother Theresa, but its not like he is claiming to be! He is just another bloke with some good ideas and some not so good ideas, trying to be successful (and honestly doing a pretty good job of it). Sure, Brave has made some mistakes along the way and it is right to call them out on it. Stuff like secret affiliate links is not great from a transparency perspective, but it is also not really hostile or harmful to Brave users. Plus, let the record show that corrective action was taking when Brave was called out. I am not saying we should all "trust" Brave any more that other companies (do your research and come to your own conclusions), but lets not pretend that the folks at Google or anywhere else are really any more trustworthy. (Lastly, I am sorry if cryptocurrency makes you uncomfortable, but that does not change the fact that it is a really effective way to provide a low-friction method of exchanging value (e.g. micro-transactions). IDK if the BAT is the future of ad-tech, but I applaud them for trying to find new methods of monetization that don't involve directly harming users and their privacy...)
  - tommit 6y ago
    I agree with your comment. I'm continuously surprised at how much hate Brave gets from HN. It's a decent browser with a unique and novel way to try to deal with the current adpocalypse. If anything, they should be celebrated for actually trying out a new business model. Come to think of it though, the comment sums up HN perfectly, ending with `deeply involved the incredibly shade business of cryptocurrencies`. I've been using Brave for about a year now and am really happy with it. I love paying creators directly and just wish more creators would sign up for the rewards.
    - thefreeman 6y ago
      I think it's really the idea of blocking a websites ads AND replacing them with your own that turns so many people against it. It just feels..... wrong. Way more like stealing from content creators than just blocking ads in the first place. That combined with what feels like a cash grab with their cryptocurrency likely immediately turns a lot of people off. ps. I know, I know. Brave's ads are unobtrusive, they don't track you, they donate crypto to the sites, etc. etc. It doesn't change the underlying emotional response a lot of people seem to have to their business model.
- celsoazevedo 6y ago
  > They have collected donations on behalf of people without the consent of those people Wasn't this related to YouTube channels? I remember Tom Scott complaining about it on Twitter. While the browser probably shouldn't ask users if they want to donate to people that haven't joined Brave Rewards, the money is returned to the sender (up to 3 months later, I believe) if the creator doesn't join Brave Rewards. It's not like they stole donations. > they have secretely added affiliate links They did that with some crypto sites when typing the keyword/URL in the search bar. I can't defend the decision, but the code is on Github[0] and they admitted doing it as soon people pointed it out. And then reverted the change. I'm not sure what to think about this monetisation strategy. What's the downside for users? Is it worse than generating revenue by selling the default search engine to the highest bidder? And why is it wrong for browsers to do it but it's fine when some search engines do it? --- 0. https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/1cac2377c9a2d5e35873d4d3d74130336b86d062/components/omnibox/browser/suggested_sites_provider_data.cc https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/1cac2377c9a2d5e3587...
  - jonathansampson 6y ago
    Regarding the tips and affiliate links, please see my response here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25410189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25410189.
gruez 6y ago
>I switched to brave 4 months ago after trying all the available ones (Chrome - memory and power hog Are you sure you're not experiencing placebo effect and/or confirmation bias? Brave and Chrome use the same underlying rendering engine, so the performance and memory usage should be the same.
- admax88q 6y ago
  Theres a lot of code in chrome that is not the rendering engine.
- jonathansampson 6y ago
  Brave excises quite a bit of Chromium[1], but that isn't what makes it fast and lightweight. The real savings come by way of not having to download all of the cruft of the Web. For many sites, more than 50% of the data loaded consists of ads and trackers[2]. When you don't have a sea of third-parties dropping scripts and more onto your machine, the Web is quite a bit more enjoyable [1] https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Deviations-from-Chromium-(features-we-disable-or-remove) https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Deviations-from-... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/01/business/cost-of-mobile-ads.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/01/business/cost...

user-the-name 6y ago

Because Brave has a long history of very questionable business decisions, and is not really trustworthy. They have collected donations on behalf of people without the consent of those people, they have secretely added affiliate links, and they are deeply involved the incredibly shade business of cryptocurrencies.

ketamine__ 6y ago
They made some mistakes and took responsibility. Consider that Brave is taking on Google with the GDPR. That's pretty cool.
- user-the-name 6y ago
  They absolutely did not take responsibility properly. They dragged their feet, they argued and argued that they were doing nothing wrong, and them finally reluctantly changed things when they could find no other way to weasel out of it.
  - mthoms 6y ago
    >They absolutely did not take responsibility properly. They dragged their feet, they argued and argued that they were doing nothing wrong, and them finally reluctantly changed things when they could find no other way to weasel out of it. This is not only a lie, it's a particularly egregious one. And very easy to verify. Original tweet (2:36 AM Pacific, June 6 2020) https://twitter.com/cryptonator1337/status/1269201480105578496 https://twitter.com/cryptonator1337/status/12692014801055784... Response from Brave (10:00 AM Pacific, same day) https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269313200127795201 https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269313200127795201 It took them all of one whole business hour to respond. One hour. That's absolutely unheard of. The above just goes to show how eager some people are to spread FUD in a blatantly dishonest and malicious way about certain things they oppose. It blows my mind.
    - jonathansampson 6y ago
      And by June 9th, less than 3 whole days later, user's had an updated build of Brave with the issue resolved: https://brave.com/referral-codes-in-suggested-sites/ https://brave.com/referral-codes-in-suggested-sites/.
kilroy_jones 6y ago
How are cryptocurrencies any worse or more shady than banks, investment firms or any other business involved in finance?
- user-the-name 6y ago
  By being something like 90% scams?
  - celsoazevedo 6y ago
    It's a mistake to assume that a project is shady just because it's involved with crypto. I use Brave Rewards (as a website owner) and never had any issues. I receive BAT, convert it to my local currency, and then transfer it to my bank account. That's money I would never receive because it comes from users that block ads.
jlkuester7 6y ago
> Because Brave has a long history of very questionable business decisions, and is not really trustworthy. Okay boomer... Seriously people, ease up on the hyperbole and approach this with a little perspective. Sure, Brendan Eich != Mother Theresa, but its not like he is claiming to be! He is just another bloke with some good ideas and some not so good ideas, trying to be successful (and honestly doing a pretty good job of it). Sure, Brave has made some mistakes along the way and it is right to call them out on it. Stuff like secret affiliate links is not great from a transparency perspective, but it is also not really hostile or harmful to Brave users. Plus, let the record show that corrective action was taking when Brave was called out. I am not saying we should all "trust" Brave any more that other companies (do your research and come to your own conclusions), but lets not pretend that the folks at Google or anywhere else are really any more trustworthy. (Lastly, I am sorry if cryptocurrency makes you uncomfortable, but that does not change the fact that it is a really effective way to provide a low-friction method of exchanging value (e.g. micro-transactions). IDK if the BAT is the future of ad-tech, but I applaud them for trying to find new methods of monetization that don't involve directly harming users and their privacy...)
- tommit 6y ago
  I agree with your comment. I'm continuously surprised at how much hate Brave gets from HN. It's a decent browser with a unique and novel way to try to deal with the current adpocalypse. If anything, they should be celebrated for actually trying out a new business model. Come to think of it though, the comment sums up HN perfectly, ending with `deeply involved the incredibly shade business of cryptocurrencies`. I've been using Brave for about a year now and am really happy with it. I love paying creators directly and just wish more creators would sign up for the rewards.
  - thefreeman 6y ago
    I think it's really the idea of blocking a websites ads AND replacing them with your own that turns so many people against it. It just feels..... wrong. Way more like stealing from content creators than just blocking ads in the first place. That combined with what feels like a cash grab with their cryptocurrency likely immediately turns a lot of people off. ps. I know, I know. Brave's ads are unobtrusive, they don't track you, they donate crypto to the sites, etc. etc. It doesn't change the underlying emotional response a lot of people seem to have to their business model.
celsoazevedo 6y ago
> They have collected donations on behalf of people without the consent of those people Wasn't this related to YouTube channels? I remember Tom Scott complaining about it on Twitter. While the browser probably shouldn't ask users if they want to donate to people that haven't joined Brave Rewards, the money is returned to the sender (up to 3 months later, I believe) if the creator doesn't join Brave Rewards. It's not like they stole donations. > they have secretely added affiliate links They did that with some crypto sites when typing the keyword/URL in the search bar. I can't defend the decision, but the code is on Github[0] and they admitted doing it as soon people pointed it out. And then reverted the change. I'm not sure what to think about this monetisation strategy. What's the downside for users? Is it worse than generating revenue by selling the default search engine to the highest bidder? And why is it wrong for browsers to do it but it's fine when some search engines do it? --- 0. https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/1cac2377c9a2d5e35873d4d3d74130336b86d062/components/omnibox/browser/suggested_sites_provider_data.cc https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/1cac2377c9a2d5e3587...
- jonathansampson 6y ago
  Regarding the tips and affiliate links, please see my response here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25410189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25410189.

gruez 6y ago

>I switched to brave 4 months ago after trying all the available ones (Chrome - memory and power hog Are you sure you're not experiencing placebo effect and/or confirmation bias? Brave and Chrome use the same underlying rendering engine, so the performance and memory usage should be the same.

admax88q 6y ago
Theres a lot of code in chrome that is not the rendering engine.
jonathansampson 6y ago
Brave excises quite a bit of Chromium[1], but that isn't what makes it fast and lightweight. The real savings come by way of not having to download all of the cruft of the Web. For many sites, more than 50% of the data loaded consists of ads and trackers[2]. When you don't have a sea of third-parties dropping scripts and more onto your machine, the Web is quite a bit more enjoyable [1] https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Deviations-from-Chromium-(features-we-disable-or-remove) https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Deviations-from-... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/01/business/cost-of-mobile-ads.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/01/business/cost...