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Comment by smoldesu | Hacker News Reader

Yep. The fact that it even existed in the Brave browser at any point in time is enough to eternally dissuade me from using it.

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The BAT (and before it, Bitcoin) is there as an optional feature. It's not on or enabled by default. It's there for users who wish to anonymously earn rewards for their attention, and use those rewards to support content creators on the Web.

...except those "rewards" don't ever reach the creators pockets, unless they're savvy enough to make their own ERC wallet and go through the collection process.

"If a publisher has not verified ownership, then a user’s contributions will be held in reserve inside the browser for 90 days. [...] At the end of the 90 day period, any contributions marked for unverified publishers will be released back to the wallet. No funds leave the browser except to go to verified creators."

https://brave.com/faq-rewards/#unclaimed-funds

Case in point.

Brave displays if a website is registered for the reward programm...

[This post describes the behavior of Brave Payments in last 2018. It is not an accurate description for how the system works today, in 2021].

No, creators did not have to be savvy enough to make their own ERC-20 wallet. We worked with Uphold at the time. Creators could verify with Uphold (a wallet would be created for them), and we would then send Brave's BAT (earmarked for the creator by Brave users) from our own settlement wallet over to the creator.

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