As a counterpoint to this I use Brave on my iPhone, Windows home PC and Mac work laptop. It blocks all ads, I don’t use the crypto at all and never have, and it works for 99% of the sites I visit including ones for various services around work. I never opted in or out of anything, it just works and because it blocks so much nonsense it’s fast. Frustrated by all that negativity when it works great for me as a “download and forget” drop in replacement for Chrome without all the Google tracking.
After reading an article here on HN, I gave Brave a crack for a week but returned to my regular browser. The thrill of dopamine hits from earning a BAT oken for viewing a brave-blessed ad for the underprivileged wasn't worth changing a browser for.
A "drop in replacement for Chrome" just isn't my thing as a Firefox user - I just didn't love the browsing experience otherwise.
If the company were to expand their market for postive-ads and crypto coins by releasing a Firefox plugin as a "drop in replacement for uBlock Origin" it might tickle my fancy.
Yeah I never understood why Brave rewards only works in their own browser. Seems like they're kinda limiting their userbase with this all-or-nothing approach.
Their goal is to change the incentives around web browsing and privacy. It becomes much harder to do that if they help other browsers retain their marketshare.
Yes, to see what the fuss was about with respect to donating those coins to creators.
I didn't view sufficient ads to be rewarded with any crypto in the timeframe (monthly?) and none of the webpages I visit regularly seemed to be eligible for BAT donations. The latter seems a chicken and egg problem; it's an opt-in system for the website administrators who might already have alternative monetization (Google ads, patreon).
How is what the above poster said "that" negative? It was a well-reasoned and well-intentioned post from someone who used it for a substantial period of time.
Seconded! I've been using brave since before you could install chrome extensions directly from the chrome extension page. Brave is no-frills for me. Especially in Android.
