A “Brave” New World

Micropayments on their own can seem pretty insignificant. A half a penny here. An eighth of a token there. Yet slowly and consistently, they accumulate over time. And they can catch you by surprise.

A couple of years back, the Internet Archive signed up to be a Brave ‘creator’. Brave, the web browser that prides itself not only on its speed but also its commitment to privacy and security, launched a program where anyone with a website can get paid by its users. So if you install Brave and spend time on archive.org, you can express thanks in the form of a tiny tip, right there in your browser.

Two years ago, this seemed like a fun experiment. A way for the Internet Archive to support a like-minded tech organization, and at the very least, try out something new. This experiment, turns out, has amounted to something far more significant. And worth sharing.

Last week, we hooked up our cryptocurrency wallet to our Brave creator account. Those tiny micropayments that Brave users had tossed into the Archive’s virtual tip jar had accumulated, growing into more than 9k Brave Attention Tokens (BAT) – the equivalent of $2500 USD!

This was an unexpected windfall. It was also proof that the current web, the one that’s driven by ads that know our every move, doesn’t have to be the web of the future. There could be a better way that’s secure, private and supported by its citizenry. To all of our Brave browser tippers, we thank you. Every little bit makes a big difference.

If you use Brave and would like to tip the sites you love, learn how here.

If you publish content on the internet, here’s how to become a Brave creator.

Thank you, Brave, for your push into micropayments to find alternatives to advertisements. And thank you for including Internet Archive early in your program in such a way that we have earned $2,500.


9 thoughts on “A “Brave” New World

  1. Enmodo

    You’re welcome – I had not tipped you before but I did just now so have another 10 BAT on me and many, many more thanks for the all the hard work creating and maintaining the archive over the year!

  2. Hanniffy

    WAKE UP!
    The threat of censorship is looming..
    The only way Archive.org will survive is to be a private website, only accessed my subscription or micropayments.

    You clearly have no idea what’s going on and what needs to be done for archive.org to survive the global elite and the machinations to censor the internet.
    Archived content will be their no.1 target ! It already is.

  3. TYRA RAHMA

    This experiment, turns out, has amounted to something far more significant. And worth sharing.

  4. corbax@corbax.com

    I’m pretty sure I’ve found the ideal Chrome alternative in the Brave browser. Brave has extensions, it is compatible, it can synchronize between devices and above all it is very fast. It’s a really good option that has not been created by Google.
    In this browser the idea was to navigate faster, more safely and, in essence, better. To achieve this, it focuses on eliminating components that harm the browsing experience: ads, scripts, components that track our sessions … all that ends up increasing the size and loading time, and Brave eliminates all the superfluous (and warns you of who is doing that).
    Unfortunately, another of the features you would like to help the Internet Archive is not available in all countries, but hopefully we can help in other ways to maintain this reference project on the Internet.
    Greetings: Huberto.

  5. Ryan Nolan

    Huh? One of the largest websites on the internet made only $2500 from alternative form of advertising? What are the little sites supposed to do? Just get bent over and take it?

    Brave was designed by grifters and for grifters, don’t get caught up.

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