my experience with the brave rewards has been super frustrating.
I started using Brave and the rewards years ago, a few days after the supported wallets have ended to offer services to users in my country (the ones who made the account in time could still use it though).
Then I could still collect BAT though I had to wait for a wallet provider to be available again to be able to access them.
After the latest updates I can’t even collect BAT rewards anymore AND my BAT that I saved and collected for years just vanished.
Were did my BAT go?
Will I be able to get them back as soon as Brave supports another wallet service that operates in Germany?
Why was I able to collect BAT even though I had no wallet connected and then suddenly not anymore though nothing changed?
In your browser. Any vBAT you had wouldn’t have disappeared. And anything you earned prior that was sent to Uphold or Gemini would still be there.
The only way it would be gone is if you reset Rewards, uninstalled Brave, factory reset your device, or if you sent it as tips or left auto-contribute on.
Maybe? I mean, if they happen to add your region again before they finish sunsetting vBAT then you’ll be able to withdraw it there. Otherwise you can count everything you had earned as “lost” if you haven’t given it away to anyone.
Thanks but can you be more specific, you first said it cant be gone if I didnt uninstall etc and later you said that if I didnt give it away in time its gone.
Is it gone now or is there a way to recover it once Germany is supported because all of a sudden I cant see it anymore…
Look again at what I said. I spoke about existing BAT. You asked where it went, so that’s past tense. So when I said not gone unless you gave it away or uninstalled, basically. It’s still in your browser.
Then in the next part you referenced which is “giving it away in time” was about sunsetting of vBAT. In that I was answering your question as well about whether you’ll get your BAT if Brave gets a new partner that operates in Germany. Big issue is you’re up against a deadline. Go read the article I linked, the one that speaks of important changes to Rewards.
That said, article I believe referenced how we were going to see sunsetting of vBAT happen earlier. They delayed it. Now it’s likely to land not long after exchange partner hits for India. But nobody knows for sure when it is going to happen. Just key is once sunsetting, vBAT will “go away” and not be able to be used or redeemed. This is why I said “maybe” when you asked if you’d get access to yours. As it really comes down to whether support to Germany will come before or after sunsetting vBAT.
If it’s suddenly not showing, please first try restarting your browser (please close the app completely). Oftentimes, it’s just a temporary display bug that can be fixed by restarting the browser.
I have given up hope that this will still happen. We’ve been waiting for many many months now for Germany to finally be back, but nothing is happening. Absolutely nothing.
Is it Brave, Uphold or the fact that Germany is a digitally developing country with excessive bureaucracy - and currently also with a completely incompetent government? I don’t know.
We haven’t heard anything from the Brave team in this regard for a long time, so it seems that this is the new status quo and nothing will ever change again. It’s deeply frustrating to be excluded from the rewards because of your nationality.
I have a still working and verified uphold acount as a german and my brave browser was still collecting and sending over BAT to uphold. But with the last update Brave browser cut my connection to uphold. I guess Brave devs have decided to not support german users at all, even if they have a verified uphold account. i now can only collect and send brave to creators. no more collecting for my own pocket. i guess its time to check other browsers now. The main reason beside its features was the earning BAT aspect. i am kinda disappointed how this all plays out with brave now.
@stevang I believe there’s flags for it you have to activate. Always show Brave Rewards custodial connection options which is at brave://flags. Otherwise it defaults to what it shows for everyone in your region, which is that Rewards are not available in your country or whatever, which I think is what you’re showing me.
At least you can give that a shot and see if it lets you connect, assuming it’s the same exact browser and Rewards profile that has remained connected until now.
It gives me the old display back but it seems i can’t make the connection to uphold work. i think brave still does not accept the authorization coming from uphold due to my country. thanks anyway.
ps: at least uphold sent me a confirmation email about the authorization
Can’t manipulate or attempt to manipulate Services. They speak of things like contributions of money and all.
That last part is what really applies in what you’re saying. It would be not only trying to circumvent restrictions, but then it’s to manipulate services in a way that favors yourself. It’s certainly not using Rewards and Creators for the intent that is established by Brave.
The User TOS is actually similar. You’re not allowed to manipulate Services and you aren’t permitted to circumvent restrictions. I mean, if you really want to get technical, the TOS says once you added your BAT to the browser you aren’t allowed to withdraw them:
But Brave has kind of eased up on that and allows it to be withdrawn if you’re connected to a third party exchange partner, such as Uphold.
That aside, governments are kind of big on KYC/AML. Even though you’re talking a petty amount, people do this type of thing as money laundering or to fund things like drugs or terrorism. Argue as you may you’re trying to remove just a small amount and it’s a one time thing, there have been people who were trying to do this for the wrong reasons and abused systems. Part of that is actually why there’s the current restrictions in place.
