Basic Attention Token (BAT) – Is It Worth? An In-Depth Guide
What is Basic Attention Token?
Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a decentralized and fully open-sourced digital advertising platform. It is based on the Ethereum platform, and the goal is to disrupt internet giants like Facebook or Google and give Internet users the rights of their data back. Attention is a measurable unit and has a value.
Companies like Google and Facebook are selling this attention of users to advertisers. The vision of BAT is an Internet where the Attention of users is sold to advertisers in a decentralized ecosystem where every user gets rewarded for his/her attention by becoming a share of the value her/his attention generates.
The most important part of this hugely ambitious project is the Brave browser, a privacy-focused and open-source browser that blocks ads and tracking programs and monitors the user’s attention anonymously.
Ads are disabled by default, and every user can decide whether to turn them on or not, if the user decides to enable advertising he/she gets rewarded with 15% of the fee that the advertisers pay for viewing his ad. 70% are going to the hosting website and 15% to the browser development team.
These payments are processed in BAT, an ERC20-token and the native asset of the platform. Users get rewarded for their attention with BAT and publishers get paid in BAT proportionally to user attention.
Users can use their BAT-tokens to access premium services or special content within the Brave browser or sell them. All user-data is collected anonymously, and the private date of every user never leaves the device at which they are generated.
No middlemen get access to your data and profit from it. YouTube and Twitch support are available by the time of writing
History
BAT is the brainchild of Brendan Eich, creator of Javascript and co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox. He gathered a very experienced and highly capable team around him and started Basic Attention Token. The ICO was held on 31. May 2017 where ~35,000,000 USD was raised in 30 seconds. Zooko Wilcox, among others, is an Advisors to the project.
Can Basic Attention Token be mined?
No, BAT is a Utility token on the Ethereum blockchain. It cannot be mined but earned for enabling advertising or by publishing quality content.
What differs BAT from other Cryptocurrencies?
BAT is not a cryptocurrency by definition; it is a Utility token. The goal of the Basic Attention Token network is one of a kind; they aim to restructure the Internet and disrupt the gigantic advertising industry. And the team is as good as it gets, if someone can pull this off it is them.
How much is Basic Attention Token worth today?
What is the total and the circulating supply?
The total supply of BAT is 1,500,000,000 and the circulating supply at the time of writing is 1,000,000,000 BAT.
Where can you buy BAT?
You can buy BAT on several cryptocurrency exchanges, most notably Binance and Huobi.
Can BAT be sold for cash?
You can sell BAT for cash on several cryptocurrency exchanges that have fiat-pairings, most notably Ethfinex.
Future Development
The team works on KYC implementation for anti-fraud, User Growth Pool (UGP) to support new users, machine learning development, demand-side dashboard, dashboard analytics, user-private ad trials, forming partnerships, Integration of Ethereum state-channels, BAT-integration into other apps.
Verdict and Rating
5/10 Fascinating project, with huge ambitions. The concept is well thought-out and makes sense.
The team is top level, and the code on GitHub looks really good. However, there are some downsides.
The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal among several other members of the Newspaper Association of America stated that the Brave browser is illegal because it takes advertising revenue away from content producers on the traditional Internet.
Brendan Eich defended his product. But it is possible that BAT will run into some legal trouble, and advertising behemoths like Google and Facebook won’t go down without a fight. The token itself is a Utility token with high supply, so not the best choice for an investment. But this project is very exciting and definitely worth to follow.
References
Disclaimer
The writer’s views are expressed as a personal opinion and are for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.More Posts
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