Brave now has opt-in ads that pay users back a 70% revenue cut

Brave made a name for itself by being one of the best web browsers with built-in ad blocking functionality across mobile and PC. Last year, the team behind Brave did begin testing its own advertising platform, but with a twist that would give users a 70 percent revenue cut for opting in. Now, the feature is leaving testing and rolling out to the broader user base.

The new advertising system is opt-in only and is being rolled in to the Brave Rewards system. Once switched on, users can choose how often they would be willing to view ads on a per-hour basis, scaling up to 5 ads per hour. Users that choose to view these ads will get a 70 percent cut of the advertising revenue in the form of a Basic Attention Token (BAT), which is a form of cryptocurrency based on Ethereum. These tokens can then be converted into your local currency via Uphold, a partnering cryptocurrency exchange site.

By default, Brave blocks cross-site advertising trackers. Brave advertisements will operate differently, appearing as notifications that only pop up during a time deemed to be non disruptive. So if you are watching a full screen YouTube video, a notification shouldn't pop up and get in the way. On the privacy side of things, Brave says it matches ads to users directly on your device, so data isn't being sent back and forth from your machine to Brave or third-party partners.

Brave Ads will only be available to users on desktop systems for the time being. However, it should roll out to iOS and Android users later this year.

KitGuru Says: This is certainly an interesting idea but it is also an odd move for a browser that rose to popularity by being ad-free. Is this something that you would be interested in using?

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