PC World - USA (2019-12)

DECEMBER 2019 PCWorld 51

The compromise was what Brave Software
now calls the Basic Attention Token, or BAT,
which leverages the Ethereum blockchain as a
unit of virtual currency.
Brave not only allows you to accumulate
BAT, via ads that slide in as system
notifications once per hour or so, but also to
receive BAT that’s either paid or “tipped” to
you by other users or readers. You can take
some of that BAT to “pay” other users, or
store it. Eventually, Brave says, you’ll be able
to trade it in for gift cards or other services.
For now, though, I found Brave as very
much in keeping with the current emphasis
on privacy, above and beyond what users
have already established with ad blockers and
other add-ons to prevent scripts from running

on their PC. Brave won’t probably overcome

Chrome or even Microsoft’s Edge, but I could

see the “millions” of users the browser has

reportedly accumulated becoming a devoted

cult following. In a good way, of course.

BRAVE’S BROWSER

DELIVERS EXCELLENT

PERFORMANCE

Like many browsers today, including the new

Microsoft Edge (go.pcworld.com/nwed), the

Brave browser is built upon Chromium, the

foundation of Google Chrome. Brave

tweaked the open-source Chromium code,

including weeding out the Google-specific

code that ties the browser to Google Web

services. Brave runs extensions from the

Brave walks you through a short setup process.