I just downloaded the Brave browser on my computer and phone, and then promptly deleted the Chrome app. Here’s the official Brave browser website: https://www.brave.com/
Here are the 3 main reasons why I decided to use the Brave browser starting today:
(and no, this is not an endorsement or advertisement. Also, I don’t own any BAT Tokens, so I am not pimping this for my personal gain.)
I hate being tracked and targeted with ads online.
Like most people, I’m no longer interested in my every move being tracked online. Before I installed the Brave Browser today, I had no clue how much of my data was being tracked. I never saw a tool that displayed this kind of information.
Today, I saw it for the first time.
In a matter of 30 minutes, 194 trackers and 80 ads were blocked. Jeez! I had no idea that these numbers would be so huge in such a short amount of time. After doing some more research about the Brave Browser I learned that Brendan Eich, the inventor of Javascript (yeah, the guy who invented the Javascript programming language) is behind this software development. And it’s open source, of course too. Well, that’s about all the convincing I needed to feel safe downloading Brave. I’m really enjoying seeing the data displayed telling me how many ads and trackers have been blocked while I surf the net.
It’s so gratifying!
I never realized just what the hell was going on with the tracking of our every online move. I knew it was bad, but seeing these numbers makes me realize just how bad it actually is.
I’m security conscious.
Anyone involved in cryptocurrency has to be more security conscious just to avoid getting hacked. The Brave Browser has a SHIELDS section in the preferences and the default setting is to block phishing and malware. You can even block scripts and get fingerprinting protection, but these settings are not recommended. The Brave Browser’s default setting is to block ads and tracking. Here’s a look at how I configured my preferences today:
I’m interested in being rewarded with BAT tokens for my attention in the future.
It looks like in the future, users will get paid in BAT token for their attention. A quick look in the Support section of the Brave website led me to the Basic Attention Token roadmap. As of right now, YouTube creators can be paid with BAT tokens that are given by fans. There’s no automated process as the system relies on donations. But in the future, according to their roadmap, it appears that users will be able to turn on the Brave Ads and receive BAT tokens for their attention. You can read more about that here in their roadmap excerpt from BAT
BAT Mercury (summer 2017)
• BAT wallet integrated into Brave
• Convert Brave Payments from bitcoin to BAT
• Extend Brave’s secret-key sync to include the Brave ledger and wallet
• Compile demand-side dashboard data into BAT ad and offer catalog that is downloaded and updated on-device; scraped and mock ads/offers with micro-BAT subsidized revenue
The one problem I’m having: Pixabay photos don’t show up for download.
After using the Brave Browser for a few hours, the one issue I’m having is that certain things don’t show up. For example, on Coinmarketcap, the charts don’t display and on Pixabay, the photos don’t show up when I click on them. I think this might have something to do with the Flash settings, as I read something about having to configure them manually. If you use the Brave browser, have you been able to download images from Pixabay?
Google has been kind of pissing me off recently because they don’t like my VPN, and sometimes Google blocks me completely from surfing online. I have been looking for a good alternative and I think using Brave in combination with duckduckgo is pretty much the best thing I’ve found so far. I’m also looking forward to the end of our current advertising models, as I find them completely ridiculous and worthless.
Here’s a video that reviews Brave:
Cheers,
Stellabelle