DECEMBER 2019 PCWorld 59Brave 1.0
PROS- Minimal CPU, memory usage.
- Truly built to protect your privacy.
CONS - Unclear how widespread BAT will become.
- Signing up to accept BAT requires a ton of info.
BOTTOM LINE
Brave’s first browser is a fast, lean, browser that takes
your privacy seriously. And it can pay you, too, with
Uphold’s BAT verification process gets very its blockchain integration.
serious, very quickly.
apparently subject to finance laws, you’ll need
to submit a ton of personal information,
including name, address, birthdate, and so on.
You’ll also need to take a digital photo of your
ID and a selfie, to prove you’re you. I foolishly
entered the wrong birthdate and clicked enter
by accident—and that’s the one piece of
information you can’t easily change.
Jason Cross, a colleague, called the
Uphold process easy, and perhaps it actually is.
But after being forced to go through support,
and after worrying that I’m handing off
personal information to yet another site that
could be potentially hacked, I’m doubtful. Isn’t
my paycheck just enough as it is?
It’s possible, as I noted earlier, that Brave
could be the next big thing for the gig economy,
in much the same way Venmo quietly took over
an enormous chunk of the person-to-person
payments market. But given the significant effort
required by both users and sites for the
blockchain-backed BAT payment options to
work as envisioned, it might not take the world
by storm. Right now, however, I prefer to look at
the Brave browser as a well-thought-out,
privacy-focused browser that’s very much worth
looking at for those reasons alone.
I’m an admitted cheapskate, however, and
the $5 per month that Microsoft Rewards
throws my way just for using Bing as a daily
search engine funds a Starbucks every so
often. Will I probably sign up for BAT soon?
Why not? I try to balance dad jokes on Twitter
(go.pcworld.com/dadj) with some solid
professional insight—and after all, those lattes
aren’t going to buy themselves.