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Brave is one of the few encrypted web browsers.
There are partner butt reward tokens and built-in crypto wallets, listing some of their tie-ins.
But it also took a privacy forward approach, splashing it across marketing that helps to set it apart from other chrome-based browsers.
“We're (a) a kind of metaphysical rebellion over the great technological surveillance authority that has evolved in JavaScript,” said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave, who created the JavaScript language.
“We didn't think about this enough in the mid-'90s. Cookies were meant to keep the login token,” he added. “It wasn't because of third-party traffic, but that was how it evolved, and JavaScript was the fuel for that fire.”
Eich argued that internet advertising is essentially a “toxic system” in which “everyone fights and is being fooled by each other.”
However, in addition to ZK proofing for privacy, technologies that allow blockchain rails such as “Proof of Humanity” verification will help bring about new browser-native, more private advertising systems.
“We have to reach a private blockchain faster, faster by design,” he said.
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Brave started out as a web browser as it is a starting point where that type of product could reach a mass consumer audience.
“It's a universal app, a daily driver. It has a smaller user population than X,” Eich says. Brave's transparency page lists 308.6 million active users daily and 88.1 million monthly.
Not all brave users like this bit, but Brave Search uses that data to help the company's AI business by improving LLM (Brave Offering Leo AI).
“The browser still appears to be relevant, but we found that the flipside of the browser coin is a search,” the CEO said.
Eich previously co-founded the Mozilla Foundation and its affiliates, and was involved in the Mozilla project for 11 years. He spoke on stage with Midnight Foundation President Fami Said (Midnight is a member of Cardano and is a chain focused on ZK and privacy). Midnight, when the foundation was released last month, plans to include a bat holder in future night airdrops.
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Last month, Brave said it was adding Cardano support to its Brave wallet, which already supports many chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanches and more.
