Ad-Blocking Web Browser Will Now Pay You Crypto to Watch Ads

But don't expect to be able to spend it on yourself just yet.

Brave New World

The Brave web browser's primary selling point has been that it wouldn't let websites try to sell users anything — it automatically blocks ads.

Now, the company has launched a version of Brave that lets users opt into a program that will pay them in cryptocurrency to — wait for it — watch ads.

The user can then choose to keep the crypto or give it to their favorite content creators or websites — an interesting shake-up of the internet economy.

"With Brave Ads, we are launching a digital ad platform that is the first to protect users’ data rights and to reward them for their attention," CEO Brendan Eich said in a blog post.

Ad It Up

As of Wednesday, Brave Ads is available via the desktop version of Brave for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Users that opt into the program will receive 70 percent of the ad revenue share for any ads they view in the form of Basic Attention Tokens (BAT), according to a news release.

Users can then choose which content creators to give their accumulated BAT to or allow the browser to automatically donate the tokens to the sites the user visits most often. Eventually, Brave plans to let users redeem the tokens for rewards such as restaurant vouchers and gift cards — or even cash them out for fiat currency.

READ MORE: The Brave browser launches ads that reward users for viewing [TechCrunch]

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