Why did Brave pick Chromium vs Gecko?

Hey, Brave community!

I’ve been a long-time user of Brave. I love this project and what it stands for. And I just love the browser.

I haven’t thought to ask this before, but why did the Brave project choose to use Chromium instead of forking the Gecko engine since Eich was behind Firefox before?

Personally I prefer Chromium anyway: sites play nicer with it and I think it’s usually faster and smoother. But I’m just wondering what the team’s decision was based on.

Thanks!