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Brave expands Basic Attention Token platform to YouTube

(basicattentiontoken.org)
321 points Helloworldboy | 3 comments | 17 Nov 17 14:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.79s | source
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joshuamorton ◴[17 Nov 17 16:40 UTC] No.15723512[source]▶
(disclosure, I work at google, and previously at YouTube)

This allows a user to donate to a content creator even if that creator doesn't have any way to get access the donations. That is, until youtubers start registering themselves in the payment tool, this is essentially watching someone's video, and then throwing money into a hole.

With other patronage systems, like patreon, you cannot donate money until the creator has an account. To me, that feels super sketch.

Edit: It reminded me to go and check my old bitcointip and altcointip accounts on reddit, on which I apparently had combined closed to $30 in BTC at today's prices, but which have both been shuttered and are now inaccessible. That's not promising.

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1. username223 ◴[17 Nov 17 17:07 UTC] No.15723785[source]▶
Yeah, seems pretty sketchy, more or less like sending money via PayPal to random email addresses in the hope that the owner checks it for money. I respect Brave for trying, but accepting money from consumers and holding it until creators sign up to receive it is not good enough.
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2. michaelbuckbee ◴[17 Nov 17 17:55 UTC] No.15724246[source]▶
That in large part is how Paypal got started. You would get an email that said: "You were just paid $25, click here to get your money." and you'd signup for Paypal.
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3. angryasian ◴[17 Nov 17 18:11 UTC] No.15724421[source]▶
No there was a big difference. Paypal was a referral system and the money came out of Paypal's pocket not the user sending the referral. So if the user never redeemed it was no loss to paypal.