BAT — The Currency of the Internet?
Bitcoin gave us a secure decentralized electronic payment mechanism and introduced the world to the blockchain and cryptocurrency. As much as Bitcoin has given to the world, it's now relegated as a store of value rather than a daily-use cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is clearly the most popular cryptocurrency in the world but when it comes to a cryptocurrency for day-to-day use, there is no clear market leader.
The cryptocurrency that fills this gap will likely become the world’s most popular and widely used cryptocurrency. For the astute investor, this offers an extraordinary investment opportunity.
Is the cryptocurrency to fill this gap the Basic Attention Token (BAT)?
What is BAT?
The Basic Attention Token is an Ethereum token. What makes this token of particular interest, is its native integration within a privacy-focused web browser. This web browser is called Brave and was developed by the same founder that worked on the Mozilla and Firebox browsers.
The Brave Browser
The Brave browser is privacy-focused and integrated with a cryptocurrency wallet, allowing users to send, receive, and store BAT.
This multi-functional wallet/browser offer doesn’t have any comparison. Not only does the Brave browser offer better privacy and security than traditional browsers, but it also has an embedded cryptocurrency wallet and Brave users can also be paid to surf the internet.
The Advertising Model (Paradigm Shift)
The Brave advertising model includes a revenue share with the users which is not like any traditional advertising model. The philosophy behind Brave is a fairer and more equitable exchange of value. The philosophy includes the belief the users' attention is of value, and in exchange for the user’s attention, BAT is granted.
The Brave browser is the ultimate package of online security, privacy, and cryptocurrency wallet. Include the ability to earn cryptocurrency while surfing the internet — Brave becomes an easy preferred choice for many users.
Is this enough to evolve BAT into the currency of the internet?
The currency of the internet not only has to be easy to use, fast, inexpensive but also marketed to the world at large!
The Browser Wars
A silent browser war has been taking place since the inception of the internet. It is a war of market domination and control over the global browser market.
A quick slice into this history takes us back to the late 2000s, when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) dominated almost 60% of the world's browser market share.
What is interesting to note is within a short space of ten years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer lost out to Google Chrome, which now dominates the browser market with almost 70% market share.
Today, there is an invisible browser war taking place right now. It’s happening with Brave and most people don’t realize it. Let me explain…
What is Brave’s Market share?
This is a big mystery - The total Brave browser market share is unknown.
The answer to this question is difficult to determine. According to NetMarketShare, the Brave Browser has a market share of 0.05%. However, this number is likely heavily understated.
Given the privacy and security nature of the Brave browser, this browser disguises itself as other popular browsers (like Chrome and Firefox), making its true market dominance unknown.
The Brave website does offer some clues to the number of users, with a claim of over 20 million active users and 7 million daily active users.
Unless it’s from an internal source, it’s virtually impossible to tell what the market dominance for the Brave browser is, other than assume it’s likely significantly more than what is actually reported.
The BAT ‘to market’ Strategy
Every cryptocurrency suffers the challenge of getting its product to market. For a cryptocurrency to take the world stage, it needs to be put in the hands of millions of people, be easy to use, and fast.
It’s entirely possible the Brave Browser maybe this delivery system to introduce cryptocurrency to the world at large as it is a contender in the global market. Recent history has shown flippenings can happen and can happen rather quickly.
The Currency of the Internet
There is a massive market need for a daily-use cryptocurrency. At the moment this market is highly fragmented and there are no clear leaders in the space.
The cryptocurrency that fills this gap will need to be fast, inexpensive, easy to use, and sharable to the world at large.
The adoption and use of cryptocurrency integrated within a web browser is a novel concept and if the Brave Browser achieves market dominance, this will likely result in transforming BAT into a dominant global cryptocurrency.
What is the Price of BAT Today?
This article was published on March 27th, 2021 when BAT had a trading price of $1.02. A $100 investment in this coin would have bought ~98 coins.
Today the $100 investment is worth: