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Brave expands Basic Attention Token platform to YouTube

(basicattentiontoken.org)
321 points Helloworldboy | 10 comments | 17 Nov 17 14:45 UTC | HN request time: 1.174s | source | bottom
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natural219 ◴[17 Nov 17 17:30 UTC] No.15724002[source]▶
Lots of people here pointing out minor, easily fixable nitpicks here, completely fail to understand how bad the ad/monetization/content world has gotten. Ad fraud is still an insanely huge problem that companies like Twitch and Youtube constantly wrestle with (former Twitch employee here). Monetization policies are still arcane, unfair, and increasingly untenable for many content producers on Youtube (google "Youtube monetization drama" if you really don't know).

The whole idea that you can pay creators instead of watching ads is obviously a good one, and this is really the best attempt so far at actually solving the problem. Someone suggested implementing this as a chrome extension -- Really? They took an ambitious route with building their own browser, but that's obviously the correct move if Brave's goal is to transform the way ads and monetization work on the internet, which if you haven't paid attention, is currently destroying everything good about the Web and eating away at the values of civic society (again, see recent congressional hearings on Russian Manipulation if you've missed the news)

(Disclosure: I hold a small amount of BAT, but mostly discouraged by the finnicky nature of some of these comments that want Everything to be Perfect Overnight without realizing the scale of the problem that Brave/BAT are trying to accomplish)

Edit: If you want more reading on the subject of how screwed the digital content monetization industry is, this link is also sitting on Hacker News a couple stories below this one.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/theres-a-digital-media-c...

replies(1): >>15725273 #
1. Ajedi32 ◴[17 Nov 17 19:35 UTC] No.15725273[source]▶
> that's obviously the correct move if Brave's goal is to transform the way ads and monetization work on the internet

Why? This doesn't seem obvious to me at all.

In fact, I'd argue the opposite. Depending on users installing and using an entirely different browser just so they can get one feature that could easily be implemented as a browser extension is likely to be a serious obstacle to that goal.

replies(1): >>15725561 #
2. natural219 ◴[17 Nov 17 20:07 UTC] No.15725561[source]▶
Well. It would a while to explain the business and technological fundamentals if you don’t already understand them. Check out their whitepaper (https://basicattentiontoken.org/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePape...) for their long-term vision and truly ask youself if this is implementable as a browser extension.

Browsers need disruption anyway — chrome is increasingly buggy and slow, and I trust “the person who literally invented browsers, javascript, and the modern internet” to write another one.

replies(2): >>15725661 #>>15726062 #
3. JetSpiegel ◴[17 Nov 17 20:20 UTC] No.15725661[source]▶
Brave uses Blink, the same engine as chrome. How disruptive is that?
replies(1): >>15726322 #
4. tree_of_item ◴[17 Nov 17 21:21 UTC] No.15726062[source]▶
Wow. Brendan Eich didn't "invent browsers" or the modern freaking internet.
replies(1): >>15726313 #
5. natural219 ◴[17 Nov 17 21:54 UTC] No.15726313{3}[source]▶
Okay, fine, that’s slightly exagerrated. A key pioneer of the early web, inventor of Javascript, grandfather of the open web movement, and somebody working diligently on core web intrarstructure for over 20 years. That better?
replies(1): >>15735392 #
6. natural219 ◴[17 Nov 17 21:55 UTC] No.15726322{3}[source]▶
Startups should do things in order. I’m sure better engines are in the pipeline, but you can’t do everything overnight.
replies(1): >>15726598 #
7. JetSpiegel ◴[17 Nov 17 22:43 UTC] No.15726598{4}[source]▶
> Startups should do things in order.

It's a browser company. What do you mean, "order", do they have other priorities other than creating a browser?

replies(2): >>15726911 #>>15731819 #
8. natural219 ◴[17 Nov 17 23:42 UTC] No.15726911{5}[source]▶
All the other stuff they're working on that's more important than creating a new engine.
9. remir ◴[19 Nov 17 01:58 UTC] No.15731819{5}[source]▶
Creating a browser engine from scratch is no easy task. Knowing this, why not use a quality browser such as Chromium as a base and build on it? Their goal and priority are to change the advertising and monetization of the web, not build another engine that would take years and millions of dollars to make.
10. BrendanEich ◴[19 Nov 17 19:18 UTC] No.15735392{4}[source]▶
“Father” - I’m not that old.