Basic Attention Token radically improves the efficiency of digital advertising by creating a new token that can be exchanged between publishers, advertisers, and users. It all happens on the Ethereum blockchain.
The token can be used to obtain a variety of advertising and attention-based services on the Brave platform. The utility of the token is based on user attention, which simply means a person’s focused mental engagement.
The Challenge
Digital advertising is overrun by middlemen, trackers and fraud.
Users are abused
Up to 50% of the average user’s mobile data is for ads and trackers, costing as much as $23 a month.
Ads use about 5 seconds of mobile load time on average.
Ads decrease phone battery life by as much as 21%.
Privacy is violated when large media sites host up to 70 trackers.
Malware (malvertisements, ransom-ware) is up 132% in one year.
Publishers are hurting
Google and Facebook take 73% of all ad dollars and 99% of all growth.
Revenue is recently down 66%.
Bots inflicted $7.2 billion in fraud last year.
Over 600 million phones and desktops run ad-blocking.
Publishers cannot seamlessly monetize value added services.
Advertisers are losing
Advertisers lack good information on what they are paying for.
Marketers are often fooled by bogus websites and bots that commit fraud.
Targeting is poor, making users more likely to ignore ads.
The Basic Attention Token is the new token for the digital advertising industry. It pays publishers for their content and users for their attention, while providing advertisers with more in return for their ads.
The Basic Attention Token is the new token for the digital advertising industry. It pays publishers for their content and users for their attention, while providing advertisers with more in return for their ads.
FAQ
What does BAT stand for and what is it?
Basic Attention Token. The BAT, a token based on the Ethereum technology, can be used to obtain a variety of advertising and attention-based services on the Brave platform, a new Blockchain based digital advertising system. User attention is privately monitored in the Brave browser and publishers are rewarded accordingly with BATs. Users also get a share of BATs for participating.
What amount was sold? Will there be a follow-on sale?
We sold the equivalent of 156,250 ETH, or 1 billion tokens. We do not plan to have a follow-on sale.
When did the token sale happen?
The Basic Attention Token sale happened Wednesday, May 31, 2017.
What crypto-currencies were accepted as payment for tokens in the token sale?
Ethereum. (ETH)
What was the price of BAT?
1 ETH = 6,400 BAT.
How was it possible to participate?
See PDFs on this page and see this blog post here.
What do BATs represent?
BATs are tokens intended for use on the Brave platform, a new Blockchain-based digital advertising platform. Ownership of BAT carries no rights other than the right to use BAT as a means to obtain services on the Brave platform, and to enable usage of and interaction with the Brave platform, if successfully completed and deployed. BAT do not represent or confer any ownership right or stake, share or security or equivalent rights, or any right to receive future revenue shares, intellectual property rights or any other form of participation in or relating to the Brave platform, and/or Brave and its affiliates. BAT are not refundable and are not intended to be a digital currency, security, commodity or any other kind of financial instrument.
Additional information regarding the utility of BAT on the Brave platform is available in our terms and conditions.
How will tokens be distributed?
We plan to distribute tokens as follows:
Tokens available sold: 1 billion BAT
BAT development pool: 200 million BAT
User growth pool: 300 million BAT
BAT Contract BAT Total Distribution
0x88e2
366,350,000
300M User Growth Pool
How will Brave use ETH raised during the token sale?
The ETH received in the token sale will be used by Brave to build out Brave’s Blockchain-based digital advertising platform, which uses BATs as a token for obtaining services on the Brave platform. Existing Brave investors will not receive any amount of ETH.
How will Brave store the funds?
Brave will use the standard Ethereum multi-signature wallet to store ETH.
Are BAT tokens transferable?
Tokens are immediately transferable. Tokens used in the Browser may only be donated or used to pay publishers for premium content or for other services. Tokens may also be used by publishers for promotions.
The first part of the solution, the Brave browser, is already operational. Brave is a fast, open source, privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers, and contains a ledger system that anonymously measures user attention aggregate to accurately reward publishers. The next step is introducing BAT.
