The Basic Attention Token (BAT) is the token that is part of Brave, a blockchain-based digital advertising platform, that aims to improve the security, fairness, and efficiency of the online ad world.
Through the Brave browser, BAT incentivizes users for watching or clicking on advertisements.
It can also be used to pay publishers such as blogs and content creators for ad spaces on their sites.
It’s no secret that data privacy is a big issue in the online advertising industry, particularly for users frequently targeted by intrusive ads or even malware.
Publishers, on the other hand, have lost out due to significant price cuts from the likes of Google and Facebook.
The idea behind BAT is to allow users to determine which ads are relevant to them, with their attention being rewarded in tokens each month.
Advertisers can then target users better based on their content choices – without invading their privacy.
To do this, the Brave browser removes privacy-invading cookies that build data profiles based on users’ browsing history. Doing so offers publishers a different way to monetize their content through BAT.
How does the Basic Attention Token work?
The Basic Attention Token (BAT) is the unit of reward in the digital ad platform and is exchanged between advertisers, publishers, and users.
The Brave browser incorporates BAT tokens through two channels:
- BAT Advertisement
- Brave Payment.
BAT Advertisement requires advertisers to use the BAT token to buy ad spaces.
Users who opt into Brave Payments allow ads to be displayed on the Brave Browser, generating BAT based on their browsing habits and also having the option to tip their favorite publishers or websites.
Users are entitled to up to 70% of the total revenue generated while advertisers and publishers share the remaining 30%.
As an Ethereum-based open-source project, BAT analyzes how users engage with digital ads and preserve this data in a distributed ledger.
BAT uses an algorithm to track users’ attention spans and measures maximum engagement among the millions of users who enabled Brave Payments on their Brave browser.
Advertisers can then see how effective their ads are in retaining users’ attention, which entitles them to more revenue at the end of their ad campaign.
In addition, BAT uses the ANONIZE algorithm to protect users’ data privacy rights.
Advertisers can use data to create tailored ads, but all user data and tracking information are saved exclusively on the user’s device, ensuring anonymity.
BAT is seen as one of the most successful altcoin projects to date. Since its integration into the Brave browser’s global private ad platform, there are now over 50 million monthly active users and over 17 million daily active users.
Team Background
Co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox Brendan Eich created the Basic Attention Token. He is also the co-creator of the well-known programming language Javascript.
The Brave team is based in San Francisco, with senior members coming from big names in tech, such as Microsoft and Intel.
This includes co-founder and CTO Brian Bondy, who also previously worked in Mozilla and Evernote, as well as CISO Yan Zhu who was a Technology Fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Notable Investors: Pantera Capital, AB Capital, Blocktree Capital, Digital Currency Group, M31 Capital, ICONIUM
Token Metrics:
- Holder addresses: 455,000+ on Ethereum, 22,129 on Binance Smart Chain, 113 on Avalanche, 166 on Solana
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Liquid supply: 1.5 billion BAT
- “One billion BAT was sold. In addition to the tokens sold, we created a development team pool of 200 million tokens. Finally, we created a user growth pool (UGP) of 300 million BAT.”