What is a token?

[6erth6rind6ain]

I recently replaced google chrome with the brave browser because a friend of mine showed me that with brave I can watch youtube all day and never deal with one commercial. 

But as I was exploring this new browser's features, I discovered options in which I can earn BAT tokens. What the heck is a token? Is that just another word for coin?

[jackg]

Yes and no.

A token is a coin that doesn't have an independent chain normally - it can represent ownership of something (often a protocol).

A coin is something with its own dedicated blockchain.

The idea of bat being a token could indicate they wanted to add more tokens or have done. Expecially considering its called basic attention token, there might be a high attention token or active attention token (eg the app games you get) in the works when they originally came out with it or they wanted to leave room for something like that to be a thing.

[Charles-Tim]

Coins have their own blockchain, just like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tron and the likes. Tokens do not have their own blockchain, they use the blockchain of coins such as bitcoin, ethereum, Tron and the likes.

Like USDt that is build on bitcoin blockchain called Omini layer, that have similar address with bitcoin 1-prefix addresses. Or, USDt and USDC that use ethereum blockchain, that is why their addresses are similar with ether addresses. Or USDt that that uses Tron blockchain that its addresses are similar with Tron addresses.

[JeromeTash]

A coin has its own blockchain while a token doesn't have its own blockchain. It's built in and depends on another coins blockchain.
Theymos has a good explanation in this post

A cryptocurrency is self-sufficient, not relying on any other cryptocurrency to function (not including merged mining), and requiring its own software. A token works like a cryptocurrency at a high level, but relies on some other cryptocurrency's infrastructure in order to function, and often (but not necessarily always) lacks its own software.

Example 1
You create an Ethereum asset. This asset is entirely reliant on Ethereum's block chain to function. It is a token.

Example 2
You pick out 1 BTC and split it into 100 million satoshi. Each satoshi represents some part of a real-world thing, and gets a special ticker symbol. This is a token because it is completely reliant on Bitcoin's block chain to function.

Example 3
You create an Ethereum contract which allows anyone perpetually to trade 0.1 ETH for 1 YOURTHING and vice-versa. This is ambiguous, and may require moderator discretion. It may be considered a token, or it may be considered merely a flavor of ETH, belonging in Ethereum threads, etc.

[RapTarX]

that is why their addresses are similar with ether addresses.

You are correct and from some point of view, you are wrong as well. What I mean is BSC addresses are also same as ether addresses. Would you call all the BSC coins as token of ether although I personally would love to call BSC coins as token (they are copied from ether)?