Separating Brave and BAT from Uphold

Brave Rewards Publishers
#1

Is there a way to separate Brave and BAT from Uphold?

I’m familiar with MetaMask, which is just awesome, and I’m becoming familiar with Brave. I thought I’d try becoming a publisher and see how well everything ties together and get to know the community and followers contributing BAT. So, I went about the process of getting Verified.

  1. The tight coupling between the browser and BAT account is confusing, coming from other crypto wallets and plugins like MetaMask.
  2. Uphold setup process is extremely awkward and the coupling between Brave, the BAT account, and Uphold is disturbing and confusing.
  3. Uphold verification is what it is, but it doesn’t work. Despite sending them all of the documents and personal and tax information, my account is stuck “in processing”. I’ve had no problems with more streamlined and professional financial services, so this leaves the impression that… I should NOT have given some strange company Uphold my information.
  4. Like an idiot, trying to understand the coupling between Brave and my new BAT account that I thought would quickly become “Verified”, I sent some of my BAT from my easier to manage, fully personally controlled, wallet. It landed in my Brave+BAT+(apparently Uphold owned account).
  5. Days have passed now, and not only am I still not “Verified”, MY BAT is tied up in Uphold’s account, obviously not a crypto wallet I control.
  6. I’ve requested help from Uphold, they are unresponsive, but automated emails unprofessionally, sympathetically describe getting ones funds locked up as “super annoying”. It’s not super annoying, it’s worrisome, unprofessional, childish, and super dooper annoying.

Is there a way to be a part of the Brave + BAT ecosystem and forego the whole custodian-like, sneaky BAT+Uphold hook? It makes me very uncomfortable that an unresponsive, dysfunctional financial company could hold my wallet/money.

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#2

Well, after about 10 more minutes of perusing the forums here, I’ve found an overwhelming amount of users that have lost their tokens, experienced locked up accounts, and a variety of other disturbing issues, seemingly, mostly related to the integrated BAT account and Uphold. Something smells fishy here, and my instinct is to steer clear. I guess I lost a few dollars with the Uphold setup. Lesson learned. It looked like something fun, interesting, and rewarding, but I’d rather not risk the time and more money. I’m cutting my losses while I’m… well, while I’m only behind a few dollars. Hopefully, someone will see this and the other user experiences before they get excited and jump in like I did.

#3

I agree with everything you said. I’d just like to add that I joined this community after coming back to Brave and finding out that a version of Metamask has been incorporated into the Browser, but it is not easily displayed as an extension. It’s just weird because it’s so easy to use in Chrome, what’s with hiding it in settings? Why use a “proprietary” version? The Uphold thing is just a whole 'nother fiasco.

#4

That’s interesting, with the way it’s integrated and the force to hook into Uphold, I didn’t realize it was their own version of MetaMask. Maybe that explains some of the issues other people are experiencing as well. I’ve been using MetaMask (the real version) for quite a while and even from the earliest versions I’ve had no experiences that worried me about the integrity of it. Just reflecting on this whole experience, I suppose the main draw to Brave was that there was a growing community and an even simpler way for the community to support creators. I was looking forward to being a part of that experience, but again, whoa was I wrong. I’ve been regularly checking in on my Uphold account and the funds that I sent over there. It’s still locked in, can’t get it back. So I just sent them another email and asked them to send my money back. I’m bailing out of the entire thing. Maybe I’ll get the money I sent to Uphold back, but I have my doubts.

#5

Here is the Community Post on the topic. I think it’s the identity management you’re facing causing the issues; I really just don’t get the split from Metamask, while retaining all of Metamask properties, including the look.

#6

It’s been weeks now, just following up. Uphold took my money and still has not returned it. They said they would a few times, but never followed through and now they’ve become unresponsive.

Can you imagine a legitimate financial institution taking deposits then saying you aren’t eligible for an account, then keeping your money? That’s the experience with Uphold so far.

#7

I know that contacting uphold support can be a bit annoying but they are the ones who can solve the problem regarding the identity verification, I know it is very easy to say that you do not give up but so far I think it is worth it give it a try because this “brave” project is good! Many platforms ask you to verify your identity before withdrawing funds, this is your experience so that you do not send money to a platform until you read the fine print! I hope you can solve!

#8

I did contact Uphold. They have all of my legal documents, tax id’s, driver’s licenses, etc. They still opt’d to make the account ineligible. After some perusing, and first hand experience, I think they don’t really want to support the Brave community. However, the fact that they allowed most of the account setup, and a deposit of my personal funds, and then said they’d return my funds, yet did not, and then quit responding, says a lot about Uphold to me.

Back to the real point though. Why all the weird hooks and dependencies. I could understand (and it’s what I expected) IF all of this integration streamlined being able to support the community, but it doesn’t. It’s the exact opposite. It makes it much more difficult to contribute or accept payments. Matter of fact, “custodian accounts” go against the heart of decentralization and empowering community and creators.

Anyhow, doesn’t really matter to me anymore. I’m no longer trying Brave. Just giving a follow-up. At this point it’s comical and offensive how long Uphold has held my money.

#9

The thing is that in order to the brave rewards being functional it has to be subjetc to regulatory laws, one of this is KYC laws. Uphold is one of the ways brave has manage to fullfill this requirement. But well, if you don’t feel good with Uphold there is comming soon an update with another wallet called gemini (Is already available for publishers)

#10

correct if I’m wrong. Gemini only works with Us residents. Therefore, this is a weak decision for the World Total Hegemony of our beloved Brave. :wink:

#11

My region is not supported, but well xd it has support for 50+ regions

#12

it sounds much better, but it seems to me that Brave needs to make 3-5 variants of wallets in order to cover the whole world and be able to users to choose between these services. As you noticed, Gemini does not work in your region. :wink: :wink:

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