There are more competing web browsers than ever, with many serving different niches. One example is Brave, which has an unapologetic focus on user privacy and comes with a radical reimagining of how online advertising ought to work.
Brave is based on Chromium, the open-source code that forms the basis for Google Chrome. But is it any good? And for those using Google Chrome, is it worth switching to Brave?
A Brief History of Brave
When Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy founded Brave in 2015, they wanted to address what they perceived as the biggest problem with the modern internet: intrusive advertising.
Advertising is the fuel that powers the modern internet, allowing websites and digital creatives to monetize their content without charging users for each article read or every video watched. That said, Eich and Bondy think it’s got some pretty significant downsides, citing the potentially privacy-harming nature of advertising trackers, as well as the negative impact it has on the overall user experience.
Brave’s first release came about amidst two significant trends, which ultimately defined the new browser.
First, the cryptocurrency revolution was in full swing. Companies and individuals alike—like the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto—were creating their own decentralized cryptocurrencies, which quickly reached billion-dollar market capitalizations. Second, ad-blocking technology entered the mainstream. By the decade’s halfway point, millions of people were blocking ads online across all browsers, desktop, and mobile.
Brave was one of the first browsers to include built advertisement and tracker blockers, leapfrogging the likes of Opera. It also came with its own cryptocurrency, called BAT (or Basic Attention Token), allowing users to reimburse the sites and creators they like.
Essentially, Brave wants to re-imagine how the Internet works: not just on a usability level, but on an economic level. It’s an undeniably radical vision, but you wouldn’t expect any less, given its founding team.
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