When the Basic Attention Token (BAT) first became available for public purchase, it did so in the company of some intimidating rivals.
Despite competing against a growing number of cryptocurrencies, BAT broke records on the 31st of May, 2017, by selling out in a matter of seconds – 30 seconds to be exact. The ICO closed 30 seconds after it opened, having sold all of its coins for a grand total of $36 million. Currently however, BAT is valued at slightly under 20~ cents per coin, causing many to question its potential value.
To understand its true value, we need to consider why Basic Attention Token was thrust into the spotlight. The secret to its hype is due to the fact that it’s more than just a cryptocurrency. It aims to provide a market solution to an increasingly relevant problem in the digital age. The problem is online advertising, and BAT aims to be the solution to a system where almost everyone loses.
If you’ve ever looked into the world of online advertising, you might have noticed a few key issues. The first is that most of the money is made directly by the middlemen and the megacorporations that sell billions in ad space each year on the behalf of publishers.
The second issue is that your average consumer doesn’t want to interact with ads — for good reasons. In their current state, adverts can be intrusive and malicious. They can track us without our consent, and cause higher bandwidth charges. This has caused an increasing number of users to install adblock software, causing website revenue to plummet.
The BAT team seek to combat these issues with their appropriately-titled browser ‘Brave.’ Through Brave, the user is able to browse the web without ad-trackers and malicious advertisements. For interacting with and looking at ads, the user is rewarded with Basic Attention Tokens which they can distribute to their favorite sites, or spend as they wish.
The publishers (or websites) make their money directly from the advertising companies without any need for a middleman. The publishers benefit from being paid in BAT from the users or from the ads they choose to run on their site. The advertisers, on the other hand, benefit from having access to more accurate data since the blockchain system is public and eliminates the rate of fraud — as well as from having users who are motivated to view advertising.
In theory, it all sounds great. It’s a system where everyone wins. Except, of course, the middleman.
That’s where BAT faces its biggest threat. With companies like Google and Facebook projected to make $106 billion from advertising in 2017 alone — you better believe they won’t give up their share of the market without a fight.
However, while BAT does not have the resources of its competitors, it does have a good product. The Brave browser is currently available for download, and since it is not slowed down by ads and ad trackers, it runs great. While it’s an uphill battle, founder Brendan Eich’s previous success as the founder of Netscape, inventor of Javascript, and co-creator of Mozilla (not to mention the incredible team surrounding him) suggests that if anyone could succeed in overthrowing the current system, it’d be them.
But what does that mean for you as a consumer?
The future of BAT is not quite as clear as we’d like it to be. While more and more marketplaces are moving towards listing BAT, and well-respected wallets like Exodus have decided to add it alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum — the sheer scope of the project makes it a risk. The monopoly held over the digital world is not an easy one to overthrow, but by convincing advertisers of the benefits of moving to BAT and users continuing to adopt the browser, the coin’s value could skyrocket in a few years time.
