Topic: Brave browser scams 1,5k USD out of archive.is based on nationalist rhetoric (Read 160 times)

Exactly right. If they were going to be hyper vigilant over government suggestions about sanctions and impose KYC on users looking to use their browsers earning aspects, why not just simply use FIAT money directly? In my view they're just exploiting crypto here; deriving no ral benefit from it and even damaging the reputation of cryptocurrency. Essentially making it even harder for users to withdraw money.


God fucking dammit. Even honeypot browsers that have a known direct relationship with the Chinese communist party are more subtle about their ways on how they profit off of users... Brave truly seems to have no standards.

After the previous move of Brave browser dev, which has clearly shown the level of greed - I mean ref links don't really bring big money and he has traded his user base possibly for peanuts - of course that 1.5k USD was an amount he couldn't resist.

It's way beyond disappointing. It's not even unexpected anymore. Sad.

Brave has proven time and time again that they are not to be trusted. The BAT token itself is a scam token since the only reason it exists is to enrich Brendan and his pals. A browser doesn't need a native currency when there are already many currencies which are truly decentralized. If they wanted a centralized KYC compliant payment system they could've just integrated PayPal into their browser and it would've been a much smoother experience for users. And speaking of KYC, why would a privacy preserving browser require users to give up personal information to withdraw a few buck in earned BAT from a centralized custodian? Blocking funds from Archive.is is just another example of their shady behavior.

And as a result, archive.is blocked Brave Browser, Lol,



I really don't know what to make out of this issue, except that it turns to be another shit show and cluster fuck.

archive.today/archive.is is a website that allows for on-demand archiving of the contents of a website. It captures sites as they would be displayed in a modern browser.
It's a useful website for keeping archives of contents that might be followed by deletion later and it's also useful for keeping an exact, verifiable copy of a website at a certain time.
The owner is anonymous and for the longest time of the website's existence didn't accept donations. Offering this service pro-bono and without even accepting acknowledgment or assistance. 

So, what does this have to do with Brave Broser?
Brave Brower is a chromium fork that integrates Basic Attention Token (BAT). The browser features a built-in ad-blocker. Users can opt in to view ads and receive rewards for this, while webmasters can opt-in to also receive rewards for the BAT-supported ads on their website. Another feature of the browser was to allow users to donate BAT that would be pledged to a website's webmaster. The inclusion of a built-in ad blocker on the browser had sparked fury upon its release, with the organization behind the browser receiving a cease and desist signer by 1200 publishers.

But what did brave do now?
The organization behind Brave browser appears to have broken their side of the contract with the owner of archive.is, embezzling roughly 1500 USD that were voluntarily contributed by users towards the website via the browser. I'll put the saga in a timeline for easier reading below. This is from the 'Ask' me Anything section of archive.is.









Which was followed by one final block post publishing the email exchange between archive.is and brave.com. It's too big to screencap so I'll just link it for those interested:
https://blog.archive.today/post/626174398020403200/please-provide-all-the-details-about-how-brave

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It seems like archive.is webmaster transferred his domains to a friend. And as a result, Brave decided to withhold that person's own funds via Uphold citing nationality.

I have some opinionated commentary on this. Basically I find it quite appalling for Brave browser to deny people their funds based on nationality. I think archive.is' webmaster puts it exactly right by calling this Aryanization. Crypto affords people the opportunity to conduct transfers of value regardless of their background, independent from government oversight, independent from restrictions from regulators and politicized payment processors... Only to then apply nationalist policy on who gets to benefit from their service? What's the point of using crypto if you're not going to allow your services users to reap its benefits? Brave acts much like a protectionist national leader. They want to participate in international trade for the sake of not missing out on its benefits, but only so that they can squeeze out the maximum benefit out of others, instead of actually giving back.

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TL;DR altruistic webmaster behind free on-demand web-archive service archive.today states he can accept donations via Brave browser's feature, days later org behind Brave denies him his donations citing nationalist rhetoric.