Earning crypto through your daily routine - The Brave browser

Crypto makes it possible for people to earn money for doing things they would typically do for free. Using the Brave browser is one of the ways to achieve that, and in this article, I'll talk a bit about that.

I thought that, by now, pretty much everyone involved in crypto would be using the Brave browser already. Still, after a recent conversation with some people - nearly all newcomers in the crypto world - I realized that is not the case.

I'm sure some people have reasons not to use it, but I found out that an alarming number of people have simply never heard of it, so I decided to make this post and help spread the word.

What is the Brave browser?

Brave is a Chromium-based web browser that is supposed to be faster and more private than Chrome. I never tested it against Chrome, so I don't know how faster it really is, but they claim to be 3x faster.

One thing that I can vouch for, though, is the ad-blocking feature. Using what they call "Brave Shields," you can block ads, trackers and "other creepy things" (this exactly what they call them, by the way). The shields are up by default, but you can deactivate them for specific sites, which I do on LeoFinance (I want to help the boys by generating some ads revenue!).

Brave is also compatible with most Chrome apps and extensions. In all the time I've been using it, I found only a couple of things that did not work properly, and they were things that I rarely use, so I can pretty much say that Brave completely replaced Chrome for me.

So, yes, Brave is a great browser and all, but I know that's now why you are reading this article. You're here for the "earning crypto" part of the title. It's okay, I don't blame you, and I assure you it's not clickbait. The Brave browser really rewards crypto to people that use it.

Brave Rewards

The way Brave rewards users is based on digital advertising. From time to time, users get a notification with an ad they can click on and then be redirected to the advertiser's website.

It is possible to set a maximum number o ads you will get per hour if you prefer, but obviously, the fewer ads you allow, the less money you will make in the end.

At the end of every month (or at the beginning of every new month, I can never remember), you will be able to claim the rewards you earned for that period.

It's important to note that the ads that give people rewards are not the same ads you find online on every website you visit. These are separate ads that you will only get through the browser notifications.

But what exactly are these rewards and, more importantly, what can you do with them?

The Basic Attention Token (BAT)

The token that is rewarded to Brave users is called the Basic Attention Token or BAT, which is a very suitable name since people pretty much get paid for "selling" their attention to the ads shown by the browser.

BAT is an ERC-20 token primarily created to be traded between publishers, advertisers and users. I didn't know it until very recently, but the founder and CEO of BAT is Brendan Eich, who is also the creator of JavaScript Mozilla and Firefox.

Being a token like many others, you can swap it for other tokens, convert it to FIAT and do pretty much anything you can do with other tokens. Surprisingly, BAT currently has a market cap of $1,216,923,987, ranking #90 on CoinGecko which is much more than I thought it would be before checking it.

Is BAT going to make you rich?

As with all things in crypto, this is very hard to predict. Despite having an ATH of $1.90, BAT has been trading around the $0.8 mark for a while now. Also, I don't really know the reward rate, but I don't make much more than 3 or 4 BAT a month, so the odds of getting rich on it are slim, at least for now.

But the point for me is I'm not doing anything different from what I would do if I weren't using Brave. Ok, every now and then, I have to click an ad for a few seconds and then close it, but that's about it.

Brave is also an excellent browser, so it's not like I'm settling for something worse than Chrome just for the rewards. It's actually the opposite. Even if the reward program suddenly ended, I don't see myself switching back to Chrome ever again!

Final thoughts

Brave is an excellent browser that rewards you for your attention, and while you don't really earn a huge pile of tokens at the end of the month, it's almost effortless, and the tokens eventually add up with time. There is always the chance that BAT moons and you get yourself a lovely bag of crypto, but you can always sell it now and buy a token of your preference instead.

I have a great experience using Brave, and I recommend it to everyone, but this is only my opinion and personal experience, which should not be treated as financial advice. Do your own research before you make any decisions.