The year 2017 is over, and a wave of empty tokens that appear and disappear every day has subsided. In 2018, cryptocurrency projects began to produce viable products, and here are the three most interesting of them.
1. BAT - Brave BrowserBrowser Brave - a competitor of well-known web browsers, including Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Brave already downloads pages twice as fast as Google's browser and is available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and the Apple Store.
Support for BAT tokens is integrated directly into the browser - it allows you to organize payments between content creators, advertisers and viewers. Also, the browser was designed with a focus on privacy, so it instantly blocks cookies and tracking code - third-party software does not need it.
Brave was created in 2015 by Brendan Eich - he was one of the first participants in the development of the popular Mozilla Firefox browser, and also created JavaScript.
In BAT, they plan to change the advertising industry, blocking all usual advertisements and creating a new advertising system based on a fundamentally new concept - monetizing the attention of users. In this case, the BAT token will be the currency for the purchase of advertising space from the content creators.
Also in the company claim that the savings on mobile traffic due to the blocking of advertising on average is $ 23. In addition, if users are ready to view advertisements, they will be able to receive compensation in BAT for viewing certain ads, up to 70% of the advertiser's expenses - when the team implements this functionality.
Browser Brave can be downloaded at
www.brave.com.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fbrave.png&t=665&c=y-lLT-rNl3fRvg)
After installation, the browser will start and ask if you want to make it your default browser - first of all the clean design of the interface is striking.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fbrave2.png&t=665&c=FQfCpXYvUH_rZQ)
Turning to the settings page, we see that Brave has many functions of competing browsers, including support for plug-ins and extensions.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fbrave3.png&t=665&c=RWrVveE619hExA)
On the page "Payments" there are tools for working with the BAT token - here you can set a monthly budget for donations to selected authors or trusted publishers. You can also replenish the balance of BAT here.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fbrave4.png&t=665&c=brVp-6LB2asDig)
The new tab displays browser performance statistics - this shows the number of blocked counters and ads, the number of redirects to the HTTPS version of the sites, and the estimate of the time saved by fast loading.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fbrave5.png&t=665&c=fkmwBFN3sMoFjw)
In general, the browser remains the impression of a professionally and carefully made product - no wonder, given the participation of one of the creators of Mozilla Firefox. Currently, the browser is actively used by about 3 million people. Also in the ecosystem recorded about 16 thousand verified content publishers, and about 11 thousand YouTube-authors.
2. Golem - Decentralized processing powerThe Golem network was created as a decentralized supercomputer - users who have free computing power can give them to the network and receive rewards in the GNT tokens.
In addition, network participants can, on the contrary, rent the missing resources. Today the Golem network supports only applications Blender and LuxRender, but in the future there will be other options - now the developers are preparing examples of the use of the network for rendering computer graphics.
The Golem Brass application is the simplest example of using Golem Network, and it has been available since April for public beta testing.
You can download it at
https://golem.network/rendering/download/After installing the software, you are greeted by a friendly robot, informing the user which ports to open to access the Golem network.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fgolem.png&t=665&c=6nskLx5FLryahA)
Then you must agree with the terms of service and warning that Golem is an evolving project, and the user connects to it at their own peril and risk.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fgolem1.png&t=665&c=9guwE4y-0Goo4w)
After creating and backing up the password, the user will be prompted to enter the username and thereby create a network node.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fgolem2.png&t=665&c=wZkZWZwApbNSgg)
The first screen shows everything the user needs to know. The interface is neat and thoughtful. With the help of the slider shown below, you can choose how much of the computer resources you need to allocate Golem Network, then click "Start Golem" and start renting your computing power.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fgolem3.png&t=665&c=fWUzMUpzdo1d1g)
That's all - now it remains only to wait a little while the computer connects to other nodes of the network.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Fgolem4.png&t=665&c=aIztNPCggbN_KQ)
Since Golem Brass was released very recently, there are very few users on the network, so users who offer resources for rent usually can not find enough consumers to pay back their computers.
Nevertheless, as the popularity of the network grows and the options for its use increase, the number of consumers will increase exponentially.
We can safely say that the Golem team has done an excellent job on Golem Brass - it is shown that the network is working, and now it remains to wait for the implementation of new applications for the system.
3. FundRequest - Exchange for developers of products with open source codeThe alpha version of the product was released on September 27, 2017, and since then the platform has been updated many times. Karen Striegel is in charge of the project.
FundRequest is a block system integrated with GitHub, and with it, users will be able to ask developers who create products with open source code to correct those or other errors.
On May 31, 2018 the FundRequest platform was launched officially. It is known that many authors abandon their projects in the absence of motivation to continue development, and with the help of FundRequest they can receive a reward for this work.
GitHub has more than 24 million users, so FundRequest has a lot to grow. There are also a number of bug-fixing projects that are important for users, and FundRequest provides a platform to solve this problem through economic incentives.
If you have a bug in an open source product or, conversely, some code that requires verification, you can open the site
https://fundrequest.io and publish a job there - it's easy.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Ffundrequest.png&t=665&c=xlhegoFBQbD27w)
For developers, there is a separate section, which lists all available tasks.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Ffundrequest1.png&t=665&c=g8q_lTY6t7U7Lg)
If we scroll down this page, we will see a list of published tasks and their cost - in dollars and FND tokens. We see that the FundRequest team itself has posted several tasks. Also, there are other projects, such as Augur and Brave, who have already published specific tasks for fixing bugs and other improvements.
Clicking on one of the available tasks, you will see the details entered by the owner of the project that posted the task.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Ffundrequest2.png&t=665&c=Nn2BGX2i6R6EjA)
On the "Details" tab, you can see additional information about who published the project and how much you can get for it.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Ffundrequest3.png&t=665&c=tC40MT6WtRjbJg)
Clicking "View on GitHub", the developer gets into the GitHub repository with the project code. The history of this particular repository shows that the FundRequest bot publishes tasks for developers here.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Ffundrequest4.png&t=665&c=f56zoalVBeQOpw)
After successfully fixing the error, the same bot will send a new message to the repository describing how to get the payment.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcryptocurrency.tech%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2Ffundrequest5.png&t=665&c=oXW8BLR3QxcX_w)
At the moment FundRequest is relatively little known, but the team is actively engaged in marketing, and continues to develop the platform, which will inevitably attract the attention of many developers of projects with open source.
Thank you all for attention!