There's been some talk recently about the verified wallets feature of the Brave Browser making its way to all of us Android users. In the past, this feature was available exclusively on the desktop and the users have been asking the Brave team for a long time to port it to the mobile version of the popular browser.
As you all know, when using the Brave Browser you are being served ads from time to time. They come in the form of an OS notification that you can click on in order to view the ad. The wonderful part about this process is that you are getting paid to view the ad, in a cryptocurrency called BAT.
Now, BAT usually resides in the local wallet associated with the browser installed on your device. A first problem that arises is that if you change your device there would be no way for you to transfer the BAT from the old device to the new. The Brave team tackles this issue by giving the users the ability to save a backup phrase that can restore their wallets on other devices. Everything we have discussed up until now applies to desktop devices only, so no way to transfer BAT from one phone to another.
On the desktop you can click on the menu in the top right corner of the browser window and click on "Brave Rewards". There, you go to the right panel and click the little cogwheel to reveal the passphrase that you need to save in order to restore your wallet.
If you have keen eyes, you might have noticed that in the screenshot I made, my wallet is verified. This means that I can transfer BAT outside the Brave Browser, and also add BAT from outside the browser. To provide this functionality, Brave partners with Uphold, so you'll need to register with Uphold for an account and go through their KYC process.
NOTE: I do not approve of Uphold, nor their KYC. I advise you to transfer all the BAT from Uphold to a wallet that you really own, meaning that you have its private keys and are managing it through a free and open-source application. Uphold is the only way to transfer BAT out of the Brave Browser right now.
After you complete all the necessary steps you can link your Brave Wallet and Uphold Wallet so you can extract the BAT out of your browser. Doing this gives you a multitude of possibilities, from exchanging the BAT for other cryptos to withdrawing it to your bank account for real cash.
This feature has silently appeared on the Brave-Beta Browser of Android a couple of days ago in the form of a little button that appears when clicking the BAT logo in the search bar.
Notice the Verify Wallet button?
Clicking it gives me this message: "A minimum of 25 BAT is required to verify.". Now that's a bummer since I exhausted most of my funds from last month and I have only 11 BAT pending for next month. I don't understand the reasoning behind this decision, but it's in a beta state anyway so I wouldn't speculate too much.
Diving into the wallet settings on my phone revealed nothing new, which is discouraging. I think in the end, the mobile version of Brave Rewards will have a tighter integration with Uphold and this will also allow you to restore your funds when changing phones.
I wanted to share this piece of news with you since a lot of people here use Brave both on mobile and desktop. For the more fortunate of you that have an Android phone, this feature will hit you in the following months if you are using the stable version. (If you are impatient you can go ahead and download the Beta version, but be warned there might be rough edges)
Overall I'm not pleased by this whole Uphold business, I'd love to be able to just withdraw BAT to my Ethereum address of choice and be done with it. I don't think I'll be able to reach the 25 BAT requirement this month, so if any of you tried this feature please let me know how smooth the process is.
