Brave - Putting browsing power back in the hands of the user
For my 0.2 release I decided to choose the Brave browser to work on.
The Brave browser is an open source project dedicated to producing a browser that automatically blocks unwanted advertisements from the user. Instead, users may choose to send donations towards a site using a cryptocurrency known as BAT (Basic Attention Token).
Created by the maker of Javascript as well as the co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox, these tokens have a fluctuating monetary value and are currency supported by the Brave Browser. This currency is not able to be tracked back to the user who sent the tokens, even by the developers of Brave themselves. This allows for a completely anonymous donation system fueled by the user base themselves, and not ad companies. If you would like to learn more about BAT itself, visit their website: https://basicattentiontoken.org
Brave's source code is available on github. There are repositories for many different parts of the project, the more notable ones being the laptop/desktop browser repo, the ios repo and the android repo. You can find the laptop/desktop repo (the one I decided to contribute to) here: https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop
The readme.md for this repo is very straightforward, and will allow you to set up your own local version quickly and easily. It addresses how people can help contribute, the various community pages set up for discussion about further development/fixes of the browser as well as a tutorial on how to run different tests with the project.
I chose this project not only because of the interesting premise, but also because I believe in the fundamental philosophy of this project's design. To return the power of browsing back to the user is a liberating and exciting idea. By directly funding the creators and sites you frequent, you cut out the unnecessary middleman of annoying and sometimes intrusive website ads. I am very excited to see how the development of Brave progresses, and will be eagerly using it myself as it continues.
Although I will not be focusing on the cryptocurrency side of the project development-wise, I am also very intrigued about how the public will react to it once it becomes more ingrained within browsing culture. An easy to use cryptocurrency that has the potential to be adopted by the mainstream public would be an extremely exciting feat!
The Brave browser is an open source project dedicated to producing a browser that automatically blocks unwanted advertisements from the user. Instead, users may choose to send donations towards a site using a cryptocurrency known as BAT (Basic Attention Token).
Created by the maker of Javascript as well as the co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox, these tokens have a fluctuating monetary value and are currency supported by the Brave Browser. This currency is not able to be tracked back to the user who sent the tokens, even by the developers of Brave themselves. This allows for a completely anonymous donation system fueled by the user base themselves, and not ad companies. If you would like to learn more about BAT itself, visit their website: https://basicattentiontoken.org
Brave's source code is available on github. There are repositories for many different parts of the project, the more notable ones being the laptop/desktop browser repo, the ios repo and the android repo. You can find the laptop/desktop repo (the one I decided to contribute to) here: https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop
The readme.md for this repo is very straightforward, and will allow you to set up your own local version quickly and easily. It addresses how people can help contribute, the various community pages set up for discussion about further development/fixes of the browser as well as a tutorial on how to run different tests with the project.
I chose this project not only because of the interesting premise, but also because I believe in the fundamental philosophy of this project's design. To return the power of browsing back to the user is a liberating and exciting idea. By directly funding the creators and sites you frequent, you cut out the unnecessary middleman of annoying and sometimes intrusive website ads. I am very excited to see how the development of Brave progresses, and will be eagerly using it myself as it continues.
Although I will not be focusing on the cryptocurrency side of the project development-wise, I am also very intrigued about how the public will react to it once it becomes more ingrained within browsing culture. An easy to use cryptocurrency that has the potential to be adopted by the mainstream public would be an extremely exciting feat!
Comments
Post a Comment