Brave - Just Another Browser?
I’ve recently stumpled upon the Brave browser. On first sight I got the impression that it is just another browser. Being a Chrome user for ages I didn’t feel any motivation to test Brave. I forgot about it.
A few weeks later I gave it a second, more closer look and I concluded that I want to give it a try. The Brave browser looks really interesting. Some of its features are:
- Based on the Chromium project, which is the open source project serving as the foundation of the Google Chrome browser
- The Brave browser itself is also open source: https://github.com/brave
- Brave blocks ads, web site trackers and malicious scripts (default setting, but you are free to choose what to block)
- Enhanced privacy modes in comparison to Google Chrome. Brave features the standard Chrome incognito mode (called ‘private window’ in Brave). In addition a ‘private window with Tor’ is available, which provides native integration with the Tor network. I’ve never seen such a seamless integration with Tor and I really like it.
- Brave aims to enable a new business model for ads on the web, called Brave rewards. Basically it serves (non tracking) ads to users. Users are rewarded with BAT (Basic Attention Token) a ERC20 token based on Ethereum. Token owners are encouraged to tip their BAT tokens to content creators on the web like websites, blogs, software projects, photographers, etc. For more information about the aims and the business model please have a look at the Basic Attention Token website.
- Last but not least: the father of Brave is Brendan Eich, also known as the co-founder of the Mozilla project and the creator of JavaScript.
Over the last few days and weeks I’ve installed the Brave brave on all my devices: desktop, notebook and on my smartphone. So far it works great and I am really happy with my decision. For me it is not just another browser. Instead it is a project that finally brings some new ideas and innovation to the existing browser space. If you are interested, just give it a try.