The Internet for People

“The internet is a series of tubes”

Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens

Information + Resources

OFFICIAL SITES

WHITEPAPER

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

WIKI

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BEGINNER’S GUIDES

NEWS SOURCES

SOCIAL MEDIA

WALLETS

Description

The Basic Attention Token is a new Ethereum ERC20 token project led by Mozilla co-founder and JavaScript creator Brendan Eich. The BAT is designed to fix online advertising and data mining schemes so that users aren’t being profited off of for their time and energy spent browsing, especially from fraud, middlemen, and spam. This cuts data use in half on average and saves battery life. Groups like Facebook and Google would not be able to profit off of your data so easily, either. BAT also creates a better reward system for online publishers, creating more business opportunities for creators drowned out in the noise.

The first phase of implementation for the token is the Brave browser, which comes with built-in ad-blocking and cookie blocking akin to AdBlock Plus and Ghostery combined. Users are rewarded with BAT for their attention to ads if they allow them through, which users can turn around and reward publishers they support as well as give feedback about advertisers or block them. Users can also directly pay publishers through the Brave browser. This is monitored by Brave’s system to help clean up bad and irrelevant advertisers from the internet and help good publishers become more visible. It’s all done anonymously, too, to protect user privacy. I really enjoy the browser, the easy interface and browsing speed is impressive. It needs a lot more compatibility work but one can only expect it with the Mozilla guy behind it.

The token sale happened on May 31, 2017, lasting a mere 30 seconds, accumulating over 150,000 ETH or 35 million dollars-worth (at the time) of Ethereum. That’s nuts. It also brought more scrutiny from SEC, as Initial Coin Offer (ICO) sales are still unregulated (unlike the familiar IPOs on the stock market). Bancor raised $144 million in 3 hours on their sale earlier in June also.

Expect regulatory action soon from the public sector, though that should not impact BAT’s or Bancor’s current business standings, among others. There is an insane amount of enthusiasm for blockchain tech. I trust the team behind Basic Attention Token, but someone else could easily create the jargon and some concept art and fool people out of a lot of money. Make sure to know the people you’re investing in, not just the promises they can make.

Future: First phase is go

// Written June 23, ’17. Price at the time: $0.20 / BAT

// Edited Sept 27, ’17. Price at the time: $0.24 / BAT