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> Brave being a cryptocurrency scam How so? I think it's reasonable to dislike crypto for any reason you choose, but merely having a crypto wallet feature (th

> Brave being a cryptocurrency scam How so? I think it's reasonable to dislike crypto for any reason you choose, but merely having a crypto wallet feature (that you're free to never use) doesn't mean that something is a scam. Scam is a pretty powerful word and shouldn't be bandied about so casually.

mort96 4y ago
Here's a discussion about why lobste.rs blocks (or blocked?) the Brave user agent: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters-ansible/issues/45 https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters-ansible/issues/45 Here's a hacker news discussion about same issue but affecting Tom Scott rather than the lobste.rs people: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999 (archive of the linked tweet: https://web.archive.org/web/20190203094117/https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1076160882873380870 https://web.archive.org/web/20190203094117/https://twitter.c...) EDIT: Oh, and we can't forget the time when they silently changed links to contain their own referral codes: https://www.theblock.co/linked/67594/braves-browser-has-been-autocompleting-websites-with-referral-codes https://www.theblock.co/linked/67594/braves-browser-has-been... (HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23441605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23441605)
- monetus 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing the links
remedan 4y ago
This is my recollection of events, is it wrong? 1. Brave replaced ads on creator's websites with their own ads. 2. Brave's ads generated some sort of tokens, that the creator then could claim and cash out. 3. Brave happily collected those tokens on behalf of creators who didn't want to be a part of the scheme (e.g. Tom Scott). They stripped the creators of revenue from the original ads and just kept the tokens/revenue from their ads.
- deleted 4y ago
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- zeven7 4y ago
  > They stripped the creators of revenue from the original ads and just kept the tokens/revenue from their ads. It's been a long time, but what I remember was the tokens went back into a pool that were used to pay out other creators who were signed up. Not sure if I have the details right, but when I looked into it I came away feeling like it was in good faith, though misguided.
  - zeven7 4y ago
    Downvoted, but am I wrong?
- tomstockmail 4y ago
  I'm not a Brave supporter and hold no BAT, but for point #3 they only took back "promotional" coins that were given away for free for trying Brave. They don't take back "donated" coins from however one buys/earns BAT in the other methods. Not sure if they still offer this promotion. Points 1 and 2 are mostly correct, but it's not like it replaces a banner with their own banner but they still show you ads while blocking other ads. I feel the others saying it's wrong are not being honest, the result is the same: a site owners ad is not shown and a Brave ad is. It's an extortion scheme IMO.
  - hunterb123 4y ago
    The BAT text notification rewards are off by default. The adblocker is on by default. How is that replacing? If you turn the BAT rewards on, you get system text notifications at intervals, it's not anywhere on the site or triggered by browsing. They are two completely different features. The adblocker is a basic utility for everyone. The BAT rewards is an optional program you can enable if you want extra tokens. It's a real user agent, as in, for the user.

mort96 4y ago

Here's a discussion about why lobste.rs blocks (or blocked?) the Brave user agent: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters-ansible/issues/45 https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters-ansible/issues/45 Here's a hacker news discussion about same issue but affecting Tom Scott rather than the lobste.rs people: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999 (archive of the linked tweet: https://web.archive.org/web/20190203094117/https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1076160882873380870 https://web.archive.org/web/20190203094117/https://twitter.c...) EDIT: Oh, and we can't forget the time when they silently changed links to contain their own referral codes: https://www.theblock.co/linked/67594/braves-browser-has-been-autocompleting-websites-with-referral-codes https://www.theblock.co/linked/67594/braves-browser-has-been... (HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23441605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23441605)

monetus 4y ago
Thanks for sharing the links

remedan 4y ago

This is my recollection of events, is it wrong? 1. Brave replaced ads on creator's websites with their own ads. 2. Brave's ads generated some sort of tokens, that the creator then could claim and cash out. 3. Brave happily collected those tokens on behalf of creators who didn't want to be a part of the scheme (e.g. Tom Scott). They stripped the creators of revenue from the original ads and just kept the tokens/revenue from their ads.

deleted 4y ago
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zeven7 4y ago
> They stripped the creators of revenue from the original ads and just kept the tokens/revenue from their ads. It's been a long time, but what I remember was the tokens went back into a pool that were used to pay out other creators who were signed up. Not sure if I have the details right, but when I looked into it I came away feeling like it was in good faith, though misguided.
- zeven7 4y ago
  Downvoted, but am I wrong?
tomstockmail 4y ago
I'm not a Brave supporter and hold no BAT, but for point #3 they only took back "promotional" coins that were given away for free for trying Brave. They don't take back "donated" coins from however one buys/earns BAT in the other methods. Not sure if they still offer this promotion. Points 1 and 2 are mostly correct, but it's not like it replaces a banner with their own banner but they still show you ads while blocking other ads. I feel the others saying it's wrong are not being honest, the result is the same: a site owners ad is not shown and a Brave ad is. It's an extortion scheme IMO.
- hunterb123 4y ago
  The BAT text notification rewards are off by default. The adblocker is on by default. How is that replacing? If you turn the BAT rewards on, you get system text notifications at intervals, it's not anywhere on the site or triggered by browsing. They are two completely different features. The adblocker is a basic utility for everyone. The BAT rewards is an optional program you can enable if you want extra tokens. It's a real user agent, as in, for the user.