Wikipedia is joining 240,000 other verified publishers and creators on the Brave web browser, according to a news release on the Brave project’s website.
The move is a smart one by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit arm that owns the website. Becoming a verified publisher essentially means that Brave’s seven million monthly active users will be able to donate tokens to the project. This is all possible because of the Brave Rewards system.
How Brave Rewards Works
Brave Rewards is the name the project uses to encompass each of its three rewards programs. Those programs break down as follows:
- Auto-Contribute
- Tips
- Brave Ads
Brave’s auto-contribute program allows users to donate Basic Attention Tokens to their favorite content creators on a monthly basis. Donors don’t have to worry about deciding how much to give to a content creator. The Brave browser tracks how much time users are spending on the websites they visit and splits the monthly donation across those publishers according to the amount of attention the user provides to their platform. Everything displays in a pie chart inside of the auto-contribute settings, meaning users can see exactly how much attention they’re giving to content creators. It’s easy to set up, donations happen in the background, and users can see it all happening in a visual format!
The second element to Brave Rewards is the tips program. Rather than making automatic monthly donations, donors can give an immediate tip to creators. At the same time, content creators can receive tips. Everyone wins and nobody is committing it a monthly or ongoing arrangement.
Lastly and most recently comes the Brave Ads program, which allows users to willing see up to five ads per hour in exchange for BAT. Users can see as little as one ad per hour and still earn tokens and can turn off the ads completely at any time. The ads never leave the user’s device and the whole process uses local machine learning, meaning data doesn’t go to third parties.
How Wikipedia Works
Wikipedia is the world’s largest online encyclopedia. The site earns more than 15 billion page views every month. Its 50 million articles are available in more than 300 languages. The website’s content creation process is supported by countless volunteers who create pages on new topics, edit them and verify sources. It’s a big undertaking that requires the Wikimedia Foundations to ask for donations on the website regularly. The site is now in its eighteenth year of existence and remains arguably the world’s most widely known reference guide.
A Bright Future for Brave
Given the nature of the organization’s content distribution, it only makes sense to align Wikipedia with a platform like BAT. Both rely on donors who want to contribute to good content,, without sacrificing privacy for the sake of company profits. It’s a win, win for everyone.
It’s also a sign of the times. Privacy rights issues are a hot button topic in society right now. Many in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space are hoping the partnership is a sign of things to come.
Enthusiasts need not jump up and down in excitement just yet however. Despite the major news, BAT’s price is tumbling over the last 24-48 hours. Growing trade tensions between China and the United States are impacting both cryptocurrencies and the stock market.
