Why I like BAT, and why you should too

BAT stands for Basic Attention Token.

What problem is BAT is trying to solve?

Browsers are broken! Furthermore, the way we consume content online is broken.

If you go to Facebook, and you browse around, then many nefarious things are happening to you. You are being tracked, your data is stored, and it is sold to advertisers. They in turn use that information to sell you stuff that you don’t want.

Facebook is not the only one doing this. Google, Amazon, Ebay and every other large internet company does this. They are mining your data, profiting from it, and then making more money by selling you targeted products.

This is a major problem. This ecosystem is broken with you paying the price with your privacy and behavior.

The Brave browser solves this by changing the relationship between content producers, advertisers and users.

The Brave browser uses the BAT token as ‘currency’ between these three sets of entities.

• Users get paid in BAT to watch adverts that advertisers create.
• Advertisers pay users BAT to watch ads.
• Users in turn can patronize content producers that create excellent content using BAT

It’s a trinity of Awesomeness that results in the web being cleaned up with better content and better value for everyone.

Why trust Brave at all though?

I trust the Brave Browser and BAT implicitly, because of one person; Brendan Eich! Simple as that.

JavaScript

Everyday of your life you use what this man has created. Quite likely for the next few decades you will still be using what he created.

He has been a staple of the evolution of the internet and has laid the foundations of the web with perhaps the most ubiquitous programming language ever created. That language is JavaScript.

He created it way back in 1997 and he built in ten days! He built it so good (and bad) that it’s still used to this day. I personally have a career because he created this awesome language that allowed me earn a living by coding.

You don’t affect the internet that positively and not build up some street cred!

Firefox

Not only did he create JavaScript, but he also helped co-found the Mozilla Foundation which produced the open source browser Firefox which has been a staple in every web developers toolkit. This browser helped move the web forward in massive ways. While Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was causing everyone and their grand daddy pain, Firefox helped make the situation better.

Street Cred

Brendan Eich has got street cred because of what he did to advance the web. He sits in a pantheon along side others like Vint Cerf and Sir Tim Berners Lee.

So when he pronounced that they were going to make a browser to fix the broken advertising model that incentivizes bad actors and bad behavior, I listened.

When he said they were going to create the BAT digital ecosystem to benefit creators and consumers, I simply bought the token. No questions asked!

Brendan Eich has got street cred because of what he did to advance the web. He sits in a pantheon along side others like Vint Cerf and Sir Tim Berners Lee.

Tweet

Impressions after using Brave and BAT for a while now

I am really digging using Brave. It’s a super fast browser with minimal adverts and you’ve got the ability to tip content creators with BAT.

If you’re using sites like Publish0x for example you can tip an article and you and the writer will earn some BAT.

Personally I haven’t really earned a lot of BAT watching adverts, but I think that’s a function of my location. However I do seem to have a ability to earn small amounts of BAT by simply tipping good quality articles and creating my own solid content.

I have noticed that some Decentralised Applications seem to stall the browser which can be annoying. Irrespective, it’s hands down one of the best browsers out there combining the best of all of competitors.

Download the Brave Browser here using my referral link https://brave.com/jay780 or go directly to Brave.

Conclusion

There’s is a lot of positive things happening for the web right now and BAT is one of them. This is a good direction for the internet because users are starting to gain back control from mega conglomerates.

It can be very hard for users to tear themselves away from using the likes of Google, Facebook and Instagram. However, if we start using these simple tools then soon a we will reach a tipping point where we take back control.

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash