Brave Browser Review: Earn Money While Browsing
Updated: Nov 21, 2020
-Edited 21 Nov 2020-
Brave team announced that they will cease their referral program so I have removed my referral link in this post. Other than that, it is still a pretty good browser if you value your privacy and personal data.
Sometime in April while I was learning more about the crypto space, I happened to chance upon a youtube video by Hashoshi talking about Brave browser. That was when I made the switch from Chrome to Brave and never really looked back since. So, in this post I wanna talk about what's so great about Brave and my experience so far.
What is Brave?
Brave is a free internet browser developed by Brave Software aiming to provide safer and more secure web surfing experience for its users. Brave Software was founded by Brendan Eich (CEO), creator of Javascript and co-founder of Mozilla Corporation along with Brian Bondy (CTO) in 2015.
Why use Brave?
Current situation
Web browsers like Google Chrome collects a lot of your personal data via the usage of their services as stated here. The data is then fed into their data analytics which learning algorithms will use it to improve their products.
One of which is their ads targeting which is a large revenue source for Google. Google is able to show you ads that suit your demographics thus increasing the chances of you clicking on the ad. All of this happens at zero cost for Google, they even get paid on top of that. Data has now become the new oil.
Hence, it is why people say there is no such thing as free lunch in this world. Though, Google claimed that their intention was to improve their services for the benefit of its users, the truth is no one knows who else has access to our data.
Personally, there were times where it felt too intrusive. Topics that were brought up during real life conversations appeared as suggestions in Chrome's Discover. For all you know, your phone might be secretly listening your conversations, after all Android is part of Google.
The solution for now
This is where Brave fits in well.
As declared in their privacy policy here, your personal browsing data will not be used in anyway, not even product enhancement. Instead, they will be using crash reports, privacy preserving product analytics that users can choose to deactivate, user feedback and testing of Brave experimental versions.
Additionally, Brave features its very own ad-blocker, Brave Shield, that is user-friendly and easy to configure. Brave Shield seeks to address vulnerabilities of internet surfing by protecting the user from malicious malware and blocking ads with tracking capabilities while improving speed.
Brave's interface is similar to Chrome's since it is built on based on Chromium so users don't have to worry about having to learn a new browser again.
Get paid for viewing ads
Unlike Chrome, a uniquely Brave feature is that they reward users for clicking on their ads. As stated above, 70% of the ad revenue will be paid to users in the form of Basic Attention Token (BAT) which they can either choose to keep it, cash it out or tip their favorite content creators.
Brave users can easily tweak the ads settings in the browser to control number of ads appearing or even turn it off. I have set the maximum amount of ads which is 5 per hour because I'm "jew" like that haha. After viewing 242 ads, I received roughly USD$2.84 worth of payout. Applying some quick math will work out a rate of slightly over a cent per ad viewed so don't expect to get rich from this feature.
Although the setting shows the rate of ads appearing is 5 per hour, do keep in mind that it doesn't mean that users will definitely see 5 ads per hour. It is inconsistent so take note of this before anyone goes complaining.
Another point to note is that price of BAT is subjected to market forces. Don't be too surprised if one day the price for BAT rise like crazy or go to zero. I will write more about BAT in another post.
Drawbacks
After pointing out all the good stuff about Brave, I'm sure some may ask "Hey KaChinging, just now you mentioned there is no such thing as free lunch in the world so what's the catch here?" A good question indeed which is why I have this drawback section here. If not, it will be like what my late ex-colleague used to say "spitting at the sky" haha.
1. Stability
For those whose main concern for surfing the internet is stability, Brave might be lacking a little in this area. Personally, there were rare times where some web pages failed to load for unknown reasons. Here is a quick fix: just close the tab, reopen the page again and it should load properly. Else, one can always fall back on the trusty Chrome browser.
2. Missing rewards
It happened to me once that the BAT held in my exchange wallet went missing. Most people would probably think that my Uphold wallet was hacked. However, it simply doesn't make sense when the amount was only a dollar.
Turns out it was actually a bug within Brave which resulted in BAT tokens being deducted for no reason. Worry not, Brave came up with a fix later and returned the missing amount. So to be safe, it is best to transfer your BAT tokens to another wallet upon receiving from Brave.
3. Still in development
Although Brave is also available for download in iOS and android devices, it is not possible for Brave users to transfer the BAT rewards earned from the browser into a wallet. It is still a pending feature that awaits development.
Important note
Brave users who have experienced missing rewards, Brave team had strongly advised against uninstalling or updating of Brave browser. If not, users may risk losing the BAT rewards permanently. Feel free to check out Brave Community for more details.
Closing thoughts
Overall, Brave is a great alternative to Chrome that provides a web experience with enhanced privacy and security. Brave has achieved a way to return control of our personal data back to us. Soon, we will see more of these movements.
One of such is headed by Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square. Jack Dorsey is planning to set up a team which will look to decentralize certain processes in social media which may tackle the issue of abusive and misleading information.
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