Web browser developer Brave Software has a new weapon in its arsenal against third-party advertisements. While the Brave browser has been automatically blocking ads that target users based on their browsing habits since earlier this year, the beta version of Brave Payments, launched today, is the latest move to advance a disruptive business model designed to give users control over their web experience – and the data it creates. Brave founder and CEO Brendan Eich told CoinDesk how the startup’s technology can be used to give users the power to reward websites with content they enjoy and practices they agree with. Eich said: "You can start funding a user wallet that’s associated with your anonymous identity with Brave, and automatically micro-pay your top sites." To get started, users can either top-up their existing bitcoin wallet, or create one using an integration with Coinbase . Users then set a monthly amount they want to spend, and the browser automatically calculates how to disperse the money to the selected websites based on page impressions. Using a toggle feature familiar to Apple owners, the interface then lets users select if they don’t want to pay some of their most-visited sites. For example, Eich says he’s turned off micropayments to subscription sites he already pays for. Some sites also have been automatically disabled, so users cannot pay them even if they want. Sites that rely on user-generated content such as YouTube and Twitter, for example, cannot currently receive bitcoin. In the future, however, Eich said he would like to enable micropayments at those sites, giving users the power to pay the content creator instead of the host. In other words, if a Brave user in the future is a fan of a particular YouTube channel, he or she might eventually be able to […]
