"Brave" - New, faster browser with integrated BTC micropayments

[pawel7777]

There's new project from Brendan Eich (co-founder of Mozilla and creator of the JavaScript) coming soon. It's a browser called 'Brave', which is supposed to be much faster, due to auto-blocking certain type of ads (and replacing them with their own ads).

https://www.brave.com/index.html

What's interesting, they do intend to implement integrated BTC payments, in partnership with BitGo. From FAQ:

8. How do you use Bitcoin (BTC)?


We’re still developing the system, now entirely in the open source on github.com, but at this point we know we will use BTC only for permissionless payment delivery to user and publisher wallets that we will create using BitGo’s APIs. We hope to keep funds in BTC only in monthly payment buffers, to reduce effects of volatility. We intend to let expert users “bring their own BTC” to self-fund their wallets and auto-micropay for as much of their browsing as they like.

I doubt whether they'll manage to capture large share of the market, but that still sounds like pretty big news.


Some related press coverage:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/mozilla-co-founder-unveils-brave-a-web-browser-that-blocks-ads-by-default/
http://www.cnet.com/news/is-the-ad-blocking-brave-browser-too-good-to-be-true/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3025314/browsers/former-mozilla-ceo-reveals-brave-a-browser-that-speeds-up-the-web-by-blocking-all-ads.html
http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/20/brave-browser/

[CoinCube]

Interesting, thanks I will have to keep an eye on this

[SFR10]

This makes me have second thought about them. The good part would be the would surely manage to introduce BTCitcoin to some of it's users and the bad part would be, not sure if it would be entirely safe to use browser base wallets and to add to that up, on the faq tab they said "we will use BTC only for permissionless payment delivery to user and publisher wallets that we will create using BitGo’s APIs" meaning we can't use our own created wallets unless it's created with BitGo's API which is a big turn off for limiting users to use BitGo wallets only (for those who don't know, BitGo is restricted for some countries).

[DimensionZ]

But what if I don't want to use the BitGo wallet. I currently use an online based wallet where I can enable the bitcoin payment links to be handled by my Firefox browser and forward me to the wallet page so I can authorize the transactions. I feel better having the power over my funds and what I do with them.

[criptix]

If 10% of mozilla users will use brave and 10% of brave users will use btc.
Tbh i think there will be a shitton of new ppl. O.o

[maokoto]

Yes it is indeed interesting news and very convenient to pay directly from browser. If they manage to make a really fast browser it might have some serious adoption and that would help bitcoin. Just imagine tipping your favorite blogs and sites directly from browser.

[SuperCoinGuy]

If 10% of mozilla users will use brave and 10% of brave users will use btc.
Tbh i think there will be a shitton of new ppl. O.o

What is the market share of Mozilla now? Haven't they lost the first place to Chrome browser?

[Raimonn]

I think this could be good for bitcoin community, more publicity, easier bitcoin payments for new users, but i'm worried about security, other browsers had problems with malware that changes bitcoin address. And we will need to use a bitgo wallet?

[pawel7777]

But what if I don't want to use the BitGo wallet. I currently use an online based wallet where I can enable the bitcoin payment links to be handled by my Firefox browser and forward me to the wallet page so I can authorize the transactions. I feel better having the power over my funds and what I do with them.

I would imagine it'll work similarily to changetip etc, meaning it's not meant to be a 'wallet', just a dedicated account for sending/receiving micro-transactions.

Integrating proper wallet is not feasible for the purpose of small txs, as in such case the txs would be happening on-chain and would have to include standard miners fees.

[bizerinm]

I just don't think this will work. I think it's a laudable idea -- produce less intrusive ads, displayed in a standard manner that don't include bothersome AUTO-START VIDEOS (the WORST content/traffic offenders!) and don't allow intrusive pop-ups. That said, you have to get current advertisers and sites to ALLOW your browser! What if they detect and BLOCK your browser altogether, due to the fact that you block standard advertising? Then you will have a useless paperweight.  Bottom line: Content is FREE on most sites precisely BECAUSE of ADs. If you start holding hostage the people who already PAY for normal ads, then you won't have very many content producers willing to use your service or allow your product. That said, current advertising, though absolutely necessary for us to have the content that we have, is overly-draining on IT resources, overly-intrusive and incredibly annoying --- especially AUTO-PLAYING VIDEO!!!!

[arbitrage]

This is good for bitcoin! I will watch this project.
We don't know could this be success or not but is interesting,
and its real example how everyday things can serve to bitcoin..

[DimensionZ]

But what if I don't want to use the BitGo wallet. I currently use an online based wallet where I can enable the bitcoin payment links to be handled by my Firefox browser and forward me to the wallet page so I can authorize the transactions. I feel better having the power over my funds and what I do with them.

I would imagine it'll work similarily to changetip etc, meaning it's not meant to be a 'wallet', just a dedicated account for sending/receiving micro-transactions.

Integrating proper wallet is not feasible for the purpose of small txs, as in such case the txs would be happening on-chain and would have to include standard miners fees.

As I get it receiving and sending tips on ChangeTip don't require paying fees so will the Brave browser company be paying the fees themselves? This could be useful if you are getting a lot of micropayments every month and don't want to get destroyed with the transaction fees. Then at the end of the month you just withdraw everything to your normal wallet for almost nothing.

I may need to have a better look at ChangeTip now during the weekend it spiked my interest.

[fortunecrypto]

I just knew something like this will come up that will challenge all the top search engine company this is a welcome news to the community,who knows with bitcoin growing they could pose a big challenge on some of top searching company ,have bookmarked it and see how it will go

[xdrpx]

That's great! I their browser speed test video on the iOS comparing Safari with Brave, seems pretty quick to load the pages they've tested it on. But I have a question about how the integration of BTC wallet into the browser will benefit the users? Will it allow making Bitcoin payments? or does this somehow benefit the users and help them earn and somehow this is all correlated with the ad-blocking?

[calkob]

sounds very interesting i'll watch this one, thanks for the heads up

[gentlemand]

Interesting idea but like so many others it's solving a problem that doesn't really exist. Hardly anyone tips, lots of folks block all ads anyway and they'll devote time to free workarounds rather than cough up.

[Amph]

i hope they will integrate it in google instead, i welcome those new browser if they are fast enough, but the point is that they will always be a niche thing, because google has the monopoly

[pawel7777]

As I get it receiving and sending tips on ChangeTip don't require paying fees so will the Brave browser company be paying the fees themselves? This could be useful if you are getting a lot of micropayments every month and don't want to get destroyed with the transaction fees. Then at the end of the month you just withdraw everything to your normal wallet for almost nothing.

I may need to have a better look at ChangeTip now during the weekend it spiked my interest.

I reckon it'll be free to send payments within their own network (off-chain) but they'll probably charge some small fee on withdrawals (on top of miners fees).

That's how Changetip works, although withdrawal fees are currently waived:

Withdrawal Fee Policy

There is a 1% fee on bitcoin and USD withdrawals. Currently waived.

Note:
•Sometime between December 15, 2015 and December 31, 2015, there will be a 1% fee to withdraw. The fee will be clearly noted in the withdraw section and confirmation of the change will be sent via email when fees are in effect.
•For bitcoin withdrawals the bitcoin network may charge a minor transaction fee to move the money - learn more).
•Exchange rates may apply for transfer between pockets.
•Bank fees may apply for withdrawals.

https://www.changetip.com/fees

i hope they will integrate it in google instead, i welcome those new browser if they are fast enough, but the point is that they will always be a niche thing, because google has the monopoly

You're confusing search engines with browsers.

[steeev]

maybe development of Bitcoin-in-browser type experiences will be more securely achieved through using pruned node setups to integrate/be able to add on browser content - approaching from the Bitcoin side toward browser, rather than this 'add' Bitcoin onto an existing browser setup... ?

[Kprawn]

The blocking of external advertisements will automatically eliminate a huge portion of the Bitcoin faucet users. The majority of new adopters comes from people who started out

with faucets. It sound good at first, because it incorporate micro payments but the blocking of advertisements has a significant impact. Just create a plugin for micro payments

for IE and Firefox and include it as a default function and we set.