Here at EthBattle, we think that in order for Basic Attention Token to have any chance at success, the first thing that had to happen was widespread adoption of Brave Browser as an alternative to incumbents such Chrome and Firefox.
So far, so good.
2019 started with the exciting news that there are now more than 5.5 million monthly active users on Brave, indicating an impressive growth of 450% during 2018. Then, in March, Brave passed another huge milestone, reaching 20 million downloads on Android.
Of course, not all of those active users are cryptocurrency enthusiasts. But that’s a big reason why Brave’s progress is so encouraging.
As one of the only browsers on the market that stores user data client-side rather than on their own servers, people who are tired of having their data mined and sold by giant tech companies have good reason to switch over to Brave regardless of what they know about cryptocurrencies.
Add to that Brave’s native ad and tracker blocking capabilities, plus a constantly improving UX, and it would be a surprise to see user growth stop accelerating anytime soon.
Indeed, things are going undeniably well for Brave lately — and BAT by association. Even the co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, has made the switch to Brave and announced it publicly on his personal website.
As a long time Brave user myself, I’ve begun earnestly recommending the browser to friends and family over the past couple of months. That’s something I wasn’t doing 6 months to a year ago because it was still a bit too buggy and rough on the edges, but it’s certainly come a long way since then.
There’s a big elephant in the room that I haven’t mentioned yet, though. That is, for all of Brave’s success, what about the actual cryptocurrency tied to it: BAT?
The waters do get a bit murkier here. BAT’s success is highly dependent on the success of the BAT advertising model (explained here), in which advertisers pay users to opt-in to seeing targeted ads.
Phase 1 of the Brave Ads roadmap hasn’t yet been introduced, so it’s still hard to guess how it will be received.
With that said, the upcoming launch of Brave Ads is probably the biggest reason to watch BAT in 2019.
The Brave user base is large enough at this point that the novel advertising model actually has a fighting chance at success, so now it’s just a matter of watching (and using!) Brave in the months ahead to see how it all unfolds.
One thing is already undeniable, though. Brave Browser is one of the best working products to be delivered by any cryptocurrency project out there.