Brave Browser Shields Users From Trackers, Rewards Publishers

Online advertising blockers have become increasingly popular in recent years as a way to speed up websites and improve security. The open-source Brave web browser includes an integrated set of blocking and security technologies, grouped under the name Shields, to protect its users. Brave, which was co-founded by Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich, goes a step further than just blocking advertisements; it also provides a blockchain-based approach to reward publishers with a cryptocurrency it calls the Basic Attention Token (BAT). With BAT, Eich and Brave are aiming to create a replacement for advertising revenue that is lost from blocked advertisements. In this slide show, eWEEK looks at some of the key highlights of the Brave browser.

The default start page for a new Brave browser session highlights one of the key promises of the browser, showing how many advertisements have been blocked and how much time a user has saved as a result.

Brave provides a built-in set of protection capabilities that are grouped under the category name “Shields.” The Brave Shield provides advertisement, cookie and third-party fingerprinting protections. Phishing/malware filters are also built-in, as is the ability to block scripts.

Brave’s Shield settings also include the ability to use HTTPS Everywhere, which provides HTTPS secured connection to sites that do not use SSL/TLS on their own.

Brave has its own blockchain-based crypto-coin called the Basic Attention Token (BAT), which can be used to help support publishers.

As part of its user acquisition strategy, Brave offers site publishers $5 worth of BAT for each new user they get to sign up.

Brave is an open-source project with code hosted on the GitHub project repository. The main browser engine is based on Chromium open-source web browser project led by Google.

The Brave browser is available on all major desktop and mobile operating system platforms.