The browser wars continue with Google Chrome clearly leading the game following by Mozilla Firefox in 2nd place while others like Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari are lagging behind.But this does not stop anyone from launching new browsers. Brendan Eich, Mozilla’s Former CEO and the creator of JavaScript is coming with an upbeat browser named Brave which will be free from Ads and packed with a lot of security features like Firefox.
Also, there is lot of buzz going on recently about ICO (Initial coin offerings) which is used by companies to raise funds through sale of cryptocurrencies, but not many have executed it successfully so far. Brave, the modern ad-free web browser start-up founded by Brendan Eich was able to raise $35 million in less than 30 seconds through its Initial coin offering. Brave used Ethereum-based Attention token (BAT) to generate their initial funding and all their tokens got sold out within 30 seconds and fetched $35 million in cash. One of the buyers had purchased 20,000 Ethereum tokens which are worth about $4.7 million.
Digital currency is gaining a lot of popularity in recent years and even hackers are demanding ransom through digital currencies like bitcoins. These Ethereum tokens are designed to create a new revenue source for publishers. ICOs operate by selling cryptocurrency to investors which are considered a new method of investment similar to traditional shares.
Brave created their own digital currency called Basic Attention Token for this ICO and sold one billion tokens to investors who were interested. The total value of the sold BAT tokens were around 156, 250 ETH which is equivalent to $35 million as of today. They have also created another 500 million tokens which are reserved for user growth and they don’t plan to conduct another token sale in near future.
This ICO is the biggest till date and Brave is also planning to use block chains for its future business. Brendan Eich who left Mozilla in 2014 had already raised $7 million for his new start-up Brave from investors like Founders Fund and others. He believes that the current online advertising platforms are not efficient and lack flexibility. He plans to make use of Blockchains to enhance the online advertising network which can be more efficient for all parties including the users, publishers and advertisers. The new browser developed by Brave promises to offer faster loading times, better privacy and security features and also the potential for users to earn money just by reading content. It can automatically block ads and trackers which will ensure a safer browsing experience for its users.
Brave plans to use the earnings obtained from its Initial Coin Offering to develop its new online advertising platform. Its major challenge will be the adoption of its new system by publishers and users, but it hopes that offering incentives through its tokens can provide the required assistance.