What is Brave Browser?
Brave Browser was lunched with the clear mission to fix the web by giving users a safer, faster and better browsing experience. Brave 1.0, the fist stable version was launched on 13 November 2019, as a fast, private and secure PC browser which will have all the attributes to fight against the existing top browsers, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
Brave focused on the support for content creators, with the help of the native Brave ecosystem reward, the Basic Attention Token (BAT). Users will also be rewarded for their attention towards published content. The relationship between User, Publisher and Advertiser will be inter-linked, and all the three components of the chain will have their benefits, but always maintaining privacy. The user data is monitored but never leaves the device or gets leaked to 3rd parties, the publisher receive BAT rewards based on the community attention, and the advertisers are achieving better targeting. Brave Shield automatically blocks adds, trackers spam, malicious and offensive content, making the browsing experience quicker and safer. Another benefit obtained by the user, as a result of no adds and trackers will be less data transfer, therefore the user will save bandwidth.
Recently, Brave has launched the 1.12 version, upgrading the syncing functionality for the Android and desktop browsers. The new upgrade allows users to regain control over browsing by blocking absolutely all trackers and better syncing with all supported platforms. The Sync V1 aims to help users who installed Brave on multiple devices, and will allow them to have the same features, bookmarks and history on all of them.
Users can opt-in to see adds or to block them completely, however, the Brave users who opt-in to receive ads will be rewarded with BAT tokens, which can be kept into the Brave Browser, moved to Uphold or other wallets or given to publishers as support for their sites. It is important to know that all adds will are checked and verified by Brave, and is no demographic or user-profile saved in the process.
My Brave journey
My Brave journey started in March, few days after my birth as a Publish author. Simultaneous with the transition from Chrome to Brave was the change from Google search to Presearch. I currently use Brave on one desktop, two laptops and on my mobile and I decided to do a breakdown of how much better was Brave compared to my old browser, without even going into the rewards and earning side of the business.
The main laptop is the one doing all the hard work, from binge browsing, faucet claims, writing on Publish0x to Disney+ and Netflix. On this device, my browsing sessions were 5.4 hours quicker, I saved 13.07 GB of bandwidth as a result of 385 thousands of blocked ads and trackers.8a12838c698db5b7fbc4318cb92c7965a9284cff9edf7ccd2138abcd5fe2512d.jpegThe desktop was used mainly for work staff, creating documents, writing paperwork and Publish0x content. In the 6 months since I started using Brave, my browsing was 38 minutes quicker, I saved 1.05 GB of bandwidth and over 45k of trackers and ads were blocked.
Laptop no.2 was usually used for online meetings, Zoom conferences and quick sessions of internet browsing. Being the newest and lightest device, this is the one I take when I go in holidays. In 6 months, my browsing sessions were 15 minutes quicker, I saved 325 MB of bandwidth and nearly 18k of trackers and ads were blocked.
On the phone I use Brave Browser for the ZCash and ZEN faucets only and taped few adds now and then but it still blocked 7.9 k of ads and saved me some time and data.
The 6 months result is astonishing, with 15 GB of saved data, 457 thousands of blocked ads and trackers, and a quicker browsing experience which saved me 6.4 hours.
Brave earnings and why BAT is the future
The Basic Attention Token (BAT) project is 100% open-source and decentralized, built on the Ethereum platform. The main aim was to correctly price user attention within the platform by using block-chain technology to anonymously track user attention securely and rewards publishers accordingly. The BAT price remained stable during all the dips and 2020 catastrophes, which is the main hint that the token is doing well.
From the above four devices, my attention was rewarded with 71.74 BAT, valued at $26 . The amount is what I currently hold in the Uphold wallet and doesn't include the August payout. For this month, I accumulated 15 BAT Tokens ($5.5), but I forecast to reach at least 20 by the 6th of September. Therefore, I went from 0 BAT's in March to 90 at the start of September.
I am constantly recommending all friends to install Brave Browser for the fast browsing experience, and give them the option to opt-in for Brave Rewards. Until now, no one ever said no to the rewards, and after the first month many were surprised by the nice incentive they got by doing what they were usually doing for free.
Presearch and Brave Browsers are like Coca-Cola and whiskey, or like tonic water and gin. You can have them separately but togather they do such an amazing duo. The value of PRE bounced between $0.015 and $0.025 for the majority of 2020, but considering that the All-time high was $0.81 and the utility of the token, Presearch has still a lot to offer.
In the first 6 months of using this extension, I made 220 PRE tokens, which at today's price is $5.20. The reward feels quite good, considering that all PRE tokens are from search, and none are from referrals. Users will get 0.25 PRE for each search, 25 PRE for joining after being recommended by an existing customer and 25 PRE for every new referral. You will become eligible for the 25 token bonus after the referral has earned 50 search reward tokens and was active for at least 30 days after the sign up.
Brave against Google's Web Bundles
Web Bundles by Google is seen as the killer of privacy by many . The new Google feature will create integrity of a web page and its sub-resources but in the process, will disable the add-blocker and will let users exposed. Brave, through Peter Snyder voice, stepped in and decided to stand against Google's abuse against privacy. He highlighted how Web Bundles is risking the users privacy and how google web specifications can destroy content blocking and code scrutiny. The new Google web specification will bundle the files which are building a Web page and all other codes and components into a single file with a .wbn extension. The .wbn file can be delivered from a content delivery network node, accessing the page quicker than when it is accessed from the server. However, the extra speed comes with a risk, as the Web Bundle removes the URL and gives Google control over the .wbn content. The feature will also et private namespaces to all URLs making privacy tools unable to identify the offensive content.
"The concern is that by making URLs not meaningful, like just these arbitrary indexes into a package, the websites will become things like .SWF files or PDF files, just a big blob that you can't reason about independently, and it'll become an all or nothing deal," Peter Snyder - Brave Senior privacy researcher
Brave! Long live the King of the Browsers!
Being build on Chromium, gives Brave the same basic attributes as Google Chrome, but Brave is the true King of the Browsers for all the extras it can offer. The main reason I loved Brave was the privacy, because I've got less and less comfortable with Google knowing more and more about me. They are currently collecting my location, my YouTube-watching habits, my shopping preferences, etc.
Brave is different than the competitors by promoting an aggressive anti-ad attitude. If on the other browsers, all your searches will be stored and analytics will than recommend tailored but stressful and repetitive content, Brave ads strip will come from their own network. Basically Brave will scrub sites of ads and ad tracking, will replace them with verified advertising, and users will be paid for it. Everything is simplified and users can opt-out from ads, for a 100% adds and trackers free internet surfing. The ads are not individually chosen, they are send anonymously to users from the Brave users pool. Long live the King of the Browsers!
Those were the reasons which made me abandon a Google Chrome which was saving and storing all my information, and to join the Brave Browser army. I am using now the fastest browser on the market, with an excellent reward system and no ads, cookies or trackers. My advice is to switch to Brave now, and I am telling you in a deep Schwarzenegger voice .... Come with me if you want to live!
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