The creator of Brave Browser, Firefox, and the JavaScript programming language Brendan Each recently invited crypto research firm the London Letter to Brave Software’s downtown San Francisco headquarters for an interview. In the candid interview, Eich discusses a number of topics, including the Brave Browser, its native cryptocurrency token Basic Attention Token (BAT), how smart investors “HODL” during bear markets, and what might happen if the Ethereum blockchain BAT is built on fails in the future.
Brendan Eich on Brave and the Current Internet Economy
You may not know his name, but nearly every time you browse the internet, chances are you’re running into technology the founder of Brave Browser and its native cryptocurrency token BAT created.
Programmer and serial tech entrepreneur Brendan Eich created the programming language JavaScript, which along with HTML and CSS make up the core technologies powering today’s internet. Eich is also the co-founder of the Mozilla Foundation, the company behind the free, open-source web browser Firefox.
Eich stepped down from Mozilla and is now focusing his efforts on developing the Brave Browser as CEO of Brave Software.
According to Eich, the current internet’s current monetization system is “mature, but troubled,” suggesting that the human attention economy through the Basic Attention Token will eventually replace the need for fund-raising through sites like Patreon or through traditional programmatic digital advertising exchanges.
“The Basic Attention Token is an ERC20 token on Ethereum designed to be a unit of account of human attention in a reformed and private system of internet advertising and anonymous contributions. This system could replace the current web digital ad system which has a number of problems,” Eich explained.
Eich says the current $200 billion global advertising industry is “inefficient” due to the scale of the web. Because publishers and other websites rely on ad exchanges, “excessive fees” are involved due to so many middlemen having a hand in the process. Worse, Eich says, are the prominence of malware distributors who “buy cheap ad spaces and put cuddly disguised exploit-kit loaders and fake ads.”
“You also get the counterpart abuse which is ad-fraud where fake publishers, fake humans played by bots, take ad-revenue,” Eich added.
The Brave Browser blocks advertisements and website tracking cookies by default, and lets users opt to pay their favorite content creators and publishers with the Basic Attention Token. Brave Software is also developing a solution that allows users to opt into advertisements sold by Brave.
Given Eich’s track record of creating disruptive new internet technologies, Brave Browser and BAT have the potential to forever change the internet economy and create a better, safer user experience for all internet users.
Switching BAT’s Blockchain If Ethereum Fails
The JavaScript creator was asked what would happen if Ethereum, the blockchain the ERC20-based Basic Attention Token is built on, were to fail. While Eich doesn’t see that happening, he says “it could be done.”
“That would be a big mess if we did it. I mean, it could be done, it would be like a wartime rescue operation. And I don’t see Ethereum under that kind of wartime threat right now,” Eich explained.
Ethereum’s price has suffered in recent days, and just last week reached a one-year low of under $170, giving investors an uncertain outlook for the future of the number two ranked cryptocurrency by market cap.
Brave Browser Founder: Smart Investors “HODL”
When pressed by the London Letter on his thoughts around the current bear market cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and BAT are currently experiencing, Eich suggested he and his team do like other “smart investors,” saying “we HODL.”
“I think that’s what people should do with crypto if they have conviction… So we’re pretty much ignoring the market conditions,” Eich said.
Regardless of the bear market, Eich and his team plan to press forward and “try to fulfill the vision of the utility token that we articulated.”
