Was using Brave on and off for a couple of years. I liked the idea of the privacy and security of the browser sure. But to me it’s mainly about the trust. Can I trust Brave, from many things that I have seen, I can certainly say that I do not trust them. Recently saw an article explaining how the CEO of the Brave tells the person talking to him how only about 10% of the people using Brave use the Rewards part of it. If you ask yourself though why only 10% people of do take part in the Rewards program, all you have to do is look at forums and social networks, about all the people having issues with receiving their BAT every month, not receiving credit for referrals, not receiving their BAT tips, and many other issues. I know right now we have a few things going on, like COVID-19 and the protests, but this issue has been going on since Rewards were first introduced, and the excuse is always the same, bugs, working on it, it’s still on beta, etc. But when you do this to people every month, what do you expect will happen? There has to be trust, if people can’t trust you, how long do you think they will keep using the Brave Rewards program, or even just your Browser for that effect? I for one never joined your Rewards program, and never would, just by seeing what people go through every month related to the BAT rewards program, and you wonder why not more people use it? Just saying, think about for a sec. As soon as Chromium Edge became available, I switched to it, I always use uBlock, Privacy Badger, and HTTPS Everywhere on other browsers anyways, which are all open source, and seem to do a better job at blocking things like ads than Brave does. I mean I already own a machines with Windows 10 on it, which is Microsoft’s, why not just use a browser developed by them. To me that is better than installing another browser like Brave, and having to share more of my information with another third party. Specially when this other Browser has lost my trust.
This is just my honest opinion of what I think of the Brave browser after having been using for a couple of years. I hope you guys don’t just delete this post, and take this information to improve on how you do your business with the browser. I do care about my Privacy and Security, but I simply lost trust in the Brave browser. I am one person telling you what exactly I think, now think about how many people just stay quiet and don’t say anything, and leave the browser, etc. If people can’t trust you, what do you expect, you have to build trust and keep that trust. Yes I hate what Google does as well, which is why I do not use Chrome.
Here is my story, just to give you another perspective:
Yes, there are bugs and there are glitches with the rewards system but all in all I am a happy user of Brave and all issues I’ve stumbled upon have been resolved by the Brave team so far.
I’m now using it as my main browser on my Mac, my Android phone as well as my Android tablet and it works very fine for me incl. syncs, rewards etc.
I’ve earned about 1000 BAT so far just by using the rewards system and referring it to some friends and family members – yes, others have earned way more but for me this translates to about 200+ Euros which is quite an amount for just using it. (I could have certainly earned way more if I would have more than a handful of social media followers…)
As said, there have been glitches and I once lost about 20 BAT due to a Brave bug but they have been refunded by the Brave team as soon as I wrote them an email). And yes, there are still some things a tiny bit buggy with the payouts (delays, some issues while displaying wrong numbers but nothing really lost) and all in all it is getting better every month.
So, to sum up: if you don’t freak out if there’s some glitch and follow up with them then everything is fine. We’re still dealing with a very young and ambitious project and for me the rewards system is still in a kind of beta stage but it works nonetheless.
If you think that you are getting ripped off then don’t use it – but if you apply some common sense and don’t expect to get rich just by using the rewards system then it completely fulfills it’s purpose: privacy, ad blocking and earnings by more respectful ads than websites being plastered with time-consuming ads & trackers.
As said: it works for me and I am quite happy with it
I was quite aware that they are using them on e.g. Binance and I’m quite fine with them doing it – okay, maybe they should make the user way more aware of it and give them some kind of way to disable it but I at least got some kind of info as soon as I enabled the Binance widget, as far as I remember.
So I know that they will make some bucks when I use those services but that is fine with me – your mileage certainly may vary.
Picturing it like fraud or any other kind of mis-doing is way over the top in my humble opinion.
I’ve been using brave for a couple years, but the repeated sketchy behaviour in inserting ads, referral codes, etc has lost my trust in Brave.
I understand that a company has to make money, but you have to be transparent and honest with your users, especially when you present yourself as a privacy focused business.
I get what you’re saying, but I disagree to some extent. As far as I know if any company is using affiliate links to profit from, they are supposed to make sure their users are aware in a clear way, are they not? I bet you most users did not know that, most users do not follow their Github, thus they do not see anything related to it, as they mainly use the browser as is. Being transparent is what I refer to. When companies are not bein transparent, and honest, they will lose trust. Is this not how Google started doing their stuff? The more people let things go like this, the more things that will start popping up, do you see my point? What is the point of going from one evil, Google as example to another? And I am glad the BAT program has been working for you, but many many people have issues with it. Even as good as you have done, 1000 BAT as you say, do you ever stop and wonder how many referrals, or tips, or earnings have not been counted or included to that 1000? And as far as your comment of if you don’t like Brave don’t use it, I did explain I stopped using it, and did explain how I would not join or participate on the BAT program. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Brave, I liked what they “stated” they stand for, but with all these issues going on I simply don’t trust them, and I hope these issues get all resolved, because we need a cause like this to protect people’s information, and I started these thread because I care, not to try and make Brave look bad.
I get your point and I agree with being transparent. They really need to be more transparent about these things. As said, I myself was at least notified about the Binance affiliate links when I enabled the widget. But you’re definitely right in demanding transparency.
And regarding the 1000 BAT: I’m pretty confident that there was nothing lost since I just referred it for example to close family members and friends and did help nearly everyone to set it up so I know when there was a referral. I shared it only a single time on Twitter and just one of my 80 followers went through with it so I’m pretty sure that no others have been lost. Besides that, a large part of those 1000 BATs are from simply using Brave on three devices as well as some tips from my friends and here too, I knew about those tips and they came through without any issues. Granted, this is only limited experience and I can’t speak for any larger amounts people do accumulate via large social media campaigns.
And for all those bug repors here on the forum: I read a lot of them and to be honest, most of the time people are just too lazy to wait one or two days, do misunderstand a thing or have done something wrong by themselves. I’ve rarely seen any cases where any large sum of BAT were lost – most of the time they could be recovered very easily and the Brave team was always helpful if you take the time to write a detailed report instead of just complaining with one-liners like “where’s my BAT? Help!”…
As said, I just wanted to give another perspective on this.
I agree that there are things that need to be improved, like being transparent. As you say, all this builds trust and trust is utterly important. Therefore I wanted to share my experience…
i think brave need rebranding, why animal? they can take triangle example or more simple icon. ithink peoples look on icon in android or desktop and mind what is head of lion, itis lol but it major.
i know peoples which have more one browser in system and they use what they understand, because they use chrome, yandex, firefox (now fox in logo no good see and is work), why proples not many use UC Browser, becuse it is squirrel and it is not understand.
sry ts if it is offtopic but also about this post partly
I agree with you that it seems that Brave Rewards “Ads”, while defeating the purpose of an ad-blocking browser, seems to require an inordinate amount of time from the developers to keep it running, and it generates the vast majority of complaints and other posts submitted by the users. To me, it seems obvious that Brave Rewards “Ads” should immediately be cancelled.
I like the idea of Brave Rewards “Auto-Contribute”, but if that also requires a disproportionate amount of support and administration input from the developers, it should be cancelled.
I left Brave as my main browser for the second time in just under two years. Unlike others in this thread I simply want a Browser that works and whose support channels are responsive. Brave had its quirks the first time I tried it 18 months ago. I stopped using it as there was a show stopper bug in it that prevented me from using it as my main browser. Brave filed a bug report on GitHub which I subscribed to and monitored frequently. I received no indication via the thread that the issue that made me stop using it was actually fixed. I just happen to update it and discovered by chance a new setting that fixed the issue.
I returned to using Brave as my main browser. I reported issues with the browser and most garnered responses from Brave personnel then crickets. I replied to one thread here and no response except from a few other users that had the same issue.
It seems from this end user that Brave devs have become spread too thin and are in constant crisis mode fixing issues with BAT etc along with fixing issues in the browser itself. Timely responses from support here and via other channels that Brave has is key to make end users feel that they are dealing with a company that value their end users. I think Brave may have spread themselves too thin and promised too much. I have left Brave and gone to using another chromium based browser which does not suffer from the same issues that Brave does.
At this point in time I do not know whether I will return to Brave. Their BAT Is not something I am interested in. I simply want a browser that works and works properly and where there is a responsive support mechanism in place. Something to indicate that we the end user are not being taking advantage of. For the moment Brave is still installed on a couple of systems here. Whether it remains that way is hard to say.
@fedup Sorta’ interesting story … it would be more interesting had you been specific with your problems with Brave and what browser you are using now instead.
First it was YouTube notifications not working for over a year. Then it was Brave not deleting specified cookies on browser close down and the lack of a response from support over multiple months of me posting replies to a thread here only to hear crickets…
I switched to MS Edge Chromium with uBlock Origin and uMatrix both of which I also used in Brave when I was using it. It like Google Chrome has no issue deleting the exact same cookie that Brave is unable to delete on browser close.
