• by Melynda Fuller , March 10, 2020

Users of blockchain-based privacy platform Brave can now use their Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) through its desktop browser, the company reports.

Plans for the launch were announced early last year in conjunction with a new partnership with rewards-as-a-service tech company TAP Network. Through the partnership, Brave users can redeem BAT for rewards offered by more than 250,000 brands and merchants in the TAP Network, including Hotels.com, Uber, Starbucks, Hulu and Target, and nonprofits, such as the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, World Wildlife Fund.

Users earn BAT by watching opt-in private ads from brand partners.

In a little over a year, Brave has seen an increase in publishers of 2,444.44%, jumping from 28,000 verified publishers in January 2019 to over 440,000 active publishers today.

The platform counts over 12 million monthly active users.

“Most publishers have had enough with the current ad tech ecosystem. They are tired of being starved of revenue by a select few tech giants and too many intermediaries. They are looking for new ways to sustain their business while respecting consumer privacy,” Brendan Eich, cofounder-CEO of Brave Software, told Publishers Daily.

“That’s why our Verified Publisher program has taken off in the last year. Since January 2019, the number of verified publishers and content creators that have signed up to receive BAT from Brave users has increased by nearly 16x,” he added.