Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a critical component of the Brave browser ecosystem. It is an Ethereum-based utility token that is a critical component of the Brave browser ecosystem. BAT was developed to address the underdeveloped digital advertising market. The Basic Attention Token is the unit of reward in this advertising ecosystem, and is exchanged between advertisers, publishers and users. Advertisers pay for their advertising campaigns in BAT tokens. Out of this budget, a small portion is distributed to advertisers, while 70% is distributed to users. The intermediaries that typically drive up advertising costs are cut out of the equation to improve cost-efficiency.
Brave open source browser was created by the all-about-privacy team with the clear goal of reshaping the web as we know it. Brave takes a different approach and completely changes the system: instead of accepting the role of bystanders, users can be substantially involved in their web-browsing activities by earning and giving away cryptocurrency, Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) in particular. The Brave browser was created in 2016 and the first BAT tokens were issued in 2017.
