Basic Attention Token (BAT) aims to streamline and disrupt the online advertising industry by providing a blockchain-based solution to common web browsing issues. BAT is the native token of the Brave browser and is used by advertisers to buy services and ad space. Combined with Brave, Basic Attention Token is a decentralized blockchain-based digital advertising platform.
Through their central product, the Brave web browser, Basic Attention Token provides a system that mutually benefits users, publishers, and advertisers. The Brave web browser gives users greater control over their data while allowing them to earn crypto rewards in the form of BAT, the project's utility token, by voluntarily opting in to view ads. Its primary aim is democratizing the attention economy by allowing users to choose privacy-preserving ads they want to view. On the other hand, advertisers can show better-targeted ads for optimum engagement and reduce the losses that often occur due to ad fraud.
By eliminating the need for intermediaries such as advertising firms, Brave aims to help brands connect directly with their target audience. Brands can purchase BAT tokens and use them to compensate users who choose to watch their ads. This way, both users and advertisers benefit from a more transparent and mutually beneficial advertising ecosystem.
BAT is commonly exchanged between different entities in the Brave ecosystem, including content creators, publishers, end-users, and advertisers. Brave has 16 million daily active users, 55 million monthly active users, 1.6 million verified content creators (accepting BAT), thousands of campaigns run by leading brands, and 10.6 million BAT wallets. Some well-known Brave and BAT ecosystem participants are Verizon, Purple, BlockFi, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Vimeo, Gala Games, and Tap Network.
With Brave Wallet and Brave Swaps, the BAT team has brought decentralized finance (DeFi) to the BAT ecosystem. Its upcoming features include BAT utility for search engines, e-commerce, file sharing, and IPNS-verified content.
While the Brave browser went live in January 2016, BAT was launched as an ERC-20 token through an initial coin offering (ICO) in May 2017. The ICO generated over $35 million; the initial BAT price was around $0.036 per token.
How does Basic Attention Token work
BAT can exist as an ERC-20 or SPL token on the Ethereum or Solana blockchain, respectively.
The platform is bridged across Ethereum and Solana blockchains and delivers utility to their ecosystems. In addition, BAT is a payment and rewards token on the Brave web browser and advertising platform.
The BAT ad ecosystem has three main participants: advertisers, content creators (publishers), and end users. Advertisers purchase ad space from the BAT ads network and pay with BAT tokens. They can either use tokens already held by them or buy them with fiat currency.
70 percent of the advertiser's total ad spend is utilized for rewarding users for their attention. There are no intermediaries involved. Hence, advertisers receive maximum returns for every dollar spent. Brave's anonymous accounting allows advertisers to correctly understand their ads' effectiveness without compromising on users' privacy at any time. Advertisers can run ad campaigns through a managed account or a self-serve platform.
Content creators or publishers can register with Basic Attention Token to receive BAT tokens for creating content that receives traffic and attention within the Brave web browser. Because the Brave web browser tracks attention and engagement, advertisers can better understand which publishers and content align more with their target audience.
Lastly, Brave browser employs a privacy-focused, local machine-learning algorithm on the user's end. This algorithm allows for serving highly relevant ads to the end users based on their areas of interest, as gauged from their browsing behavior. No browsing history or personal data ever leaves the end user's browser. Instead, the ads shown to users are derived from a pool of verified browsers. They are served either as system notifications or on the pages of publishers' websites.
The uniqueness of Basic Attention Token stems from the fact that combined with Brave browser, it is the first-ever reputed web browsing platform that pays users for their attention in a token that holds real value and can be freely traded in the market.
BAT is at the center of an ecosystem that creates tremendous value for advertisers, publishers, and end users. Another one of BAT's distinguishing features is that it can be used to tip users who may not be a part of the BAT ecosystem. These users can then register with the Brave platform and collect any rewards accumulated over time.
BAT price and tokenomics
The BAT token has a maximum total supply of 1.5 billion tokens. The total supply of BAT is fully circulating, meaning that the token's emission schedule has finished, and BAT is entirely vested. Therefore, no new tokens will be entering the circulating supply.
The Basic Attention Token completed its token sale in May 2017. Through the initial token sale, the team successfully raised $35 million in funding. A total of 1 billion BAT tokens were sold and released via a public ICO sale on May 31, 2017. In addition, 300 million BAT were set aside for a User Growth Pool (UGP) to incentivize users to participate in the BAT ecosystem. Finally, 200 million BAT were reserved for the development team.
BAT developments
In November 2021, the team announced the launch of the much-awaited Brave Wallet. In-built with the Brave browser, the wallet allows users to easily store, trade, and manage their crypto assets from a singular place. Users can accomplish essential tasks through their Brave wallets, including sending and receiving cryptocurrencies and NFTs, viewing historic and live price charts, managing their crypto portfolio, and interacting with any EVM-based dApps.
The team also announced that the platform would integrate with the Solana blockchain. The integration was completed and reported via a Brave release in May 2022. This was a significant step towards furthering interoperability and adoption of the Brave browser. With this move, users of the Brave web browser can store SPL and SOL tokens in their Brave Wallets. As a part of this integration, BAT was also bridged onto the Solana network, thus making it an SPL token that can be easily used within the Solana ecosystem.
The Brave release gave a preview of some of the other plans of the development team vis-à-vis BAT-Solana integration. They plan to allow BAT holders to directly buy and sell NFTs on the biggest NFT-based Web3 ecosystem, Magic Eden, from their Brave Wallets. The Brave Wallet will also be compatible with Solana decentralized apps (dApps) on the desktop.
About the founders
Basic Attention Token was founded by Brian Bondy and Brendan Eich, two prominent figures in the internet browsing software industry. Brendan Eich, the acting CEO of Brave Software, played a crucial role in creating both Brave and BAT. Prior to his involvement with BAT, Eich founded Mozilla and served as the company's CTO. He is also known as the inventor of JavaScript, a widely used programming language introduced in 1995.
Brian Bondy, on the other hand, serves as the CTO of Brave Software and plays a key role in the development of Brave and BAT. Bondy brings extensive engineering experience to the team, having previously worked as a software engineer at Mozilla, Corel Corporation, and Khan Academy.
