Brave Browser

Brave is a free web browser that blocks advertisements and online trackers by default and is built around user privacy. It was released in 2016 by Brave Software, a company co-founded by Brendan Eich, the creator of the JavaScript programming language and a co-founder of Mozilla, and Brian Bondy. The browser is based on Chromium, the open-source project behind Google Chrome, so it supports most Chrome extensions while removing Google's data collection features.

Brave is notable in crypto for its Basic Attention Token (BAT), an Ethereum-based token that users can earn by choosing to view privacy-preserving ads and can give to websites and creators. It also includes Brave Wallet, a built-in crypto wallet that supports several blockchains, and Brave Search, its own search engine. Brave competes with Chrome, Safari, Firefox and other privacy browsers, and is often cited as one of the most widely used consumer applications with built-in crypto features.

Imagine reading a newspaper in which most pages are covered with adverts, and every advert secretly notes what you read and reports it to a dozen companies. Brave is like a pair of glasses that hides those adverts and blocks the reporting. Pages load faster and your reading habits stay private.

Brave then offers a deal. If you agree to see a few adverts that do not track you, it pays you in a digital token. You can keep the tokens or pass them on to the websites and creators you like. The browser also has a wallet built in, so you can hold and use cryptocurrencies without installing anything extra.

Eich left Mozilla in 2014 and founded Brave Software in 2015 in San Francisco. The first versions of the browser appeared in 2016. In May 2017, Brave sold BAT in an initial coin offering that raised about $35 million within roughly 30 seconds, one of the fastest sales of the ICO era, though the speed meant that a small number of buyers received most of the tokens. Brave Rewards, the system for earning and giving BAT, launched in 2019, and the browser reached its 1.0 release that year. Brave Search launched in 2021, built on technology acquired from the search engine Tailcat, and Brave Wallet was introduced in 2021 to replace third-party wallet extensions. The company has also added a VPN, a private AI assistant and video calling.

Brave's main features include:

• Brave Shields. Built-in blocking of ads, trackers, cross-site cookies and fingerprinting scripts, configurable per site.
• Brave Rewards. Users who opt in see occasional private ads, chosen on their device rather than by a remote server, and earn BAT for them.
• Creator support. Verified websites, video channels and social accounts can receive BAT tips or monthly contributions from users.
• Brave Wallet. A non-custodial wallet built into the browser, supporting Ethereum, Solana and other networks, with connections to decentralized applications.
• Private browsing with Tor. An optional private window routes traffic through the Tor network for extra anonymity, related to onion routing.

BAT is an ERC-20 token with a fixed supply of 1.5 billion units. It is meant to price user attention: advertisers buy ad campaigns with BAT, users receive a share for viewing ads, and publishers receive BAT from users. Payouts to users in some countries are made through partner custodial accounts, which require identity checks. Brave's model of sharing ad revenue with users is presented as an alternative to the surveillance-based advertising that funds much of the web, a topic related to data privacy and to wider debates about the attention economy.

Brave has faced several controversies. In 2018 critics objected that the browser collected BAT donations on behalf of creators who had not signed up, which Brave changed after complaints. In June 2020, the browser was found to autocomplete some cryptocurrency exchange addresses typed in the address bar with affiliate referral codes, which the company acknowledged as a mistake and reversed. Some publishers object to Brave blocking the ads that fund their sites while offering its own replacement system. Privacy researchers have generally rated Brave's blocking highly, but critics note that its business still depends on advertising and on its own token. BAT's value is volatile like other crypto assets, so rewards are not a stable form of income, and users should treat any crypto earned through the browser with the same caution as other holdings. Security risks of browser wallets, such as phishing sites and malicious signatures, also apply to Brave Wallet.

For many people, Brave is their first contact with crypto, since the browser invites them to earn tokens and offers a wallet without installing anything. Its integration of a wallet into the browser itself, rather than as a browser extension, has influenced how other companies think about Web3 wallets. Brave also supports decentralized web protocols, such as resolving addresses on the InterPlanetary File System and blockchain naming services. As of November 2026, the company reports a large global user base, though user figures are self-reported.

• Brave
• Basic Attention Token