> Brave will replace blocked ads with its own ads, taking a 15% cut of revenues.
> In practice, Brave just sounds like a cash-grab. Brave isn't just a glorified adblocker: after removing ads from a webpage, Brave then inserts its own programmatic ads. It sounds like these ads will be filled by ad networks that work with Brave directly, and Brave will somehow police these ads to make sure they're less invasive/malevolent than the original ads that were stripped out. In exchange, Brave will take a 15 percent cut of the ad revenue. Instead of using tracking cookies that follow you around the Internet, Brave will use your local browsing history to target ads.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/mozil...
From my point of view it's essentially a scam on multiple levels:
1. It doesn't significantly change the Web - users will still look at ads.
2. Without providing anything of value (see 1), Brave gets a cut of publisher's ad revenue.
3. As incentive not to sue them into oblivion, Brave offers publishers a cut of the stolen revenue.
4. The whole thing is built on top of a sketchy cryptocoin system where a significant stake is owned by the developers.
And removing tracking from ads is a massive improvement on the status quo.
> Ads and trackers are blocked by default. You can allow ads and trackers in the preferences panel.
> Later, as mentioned above, Brave will let you opt into receiving a reduced ad load that comes without trackers, maintains your privacy and helps support the publishers you like.
Do you have any evidence that Brave's ads are not intended to be a replacement for traditional ads on publisher sites? What else would they be for?
And, regardless, the rest of my comment stands. It may be "better" to shows ads without tracking, but it's still rent-seeking in the ad blocking space. Ad blocking is a solved problem - just use uBlock origin.
Edit: from only a year ago:
> Brave will scrub sites of ads and ad tracking, then replace those ads with its own. Meanwhile, BATs will be awarded based on user attention, or put plainly, time spent viewing ads and content. Brave users who agree to receive ads will be rewarded with BATs. The tokens, in turn, will be exchanged between users, advertisers and site publishers.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3284076/brave-browser-...
