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Comment by tomstockmail | Hacker News Reader

I'm not a Brave supporter and hold no BAT, but for point #3 they only took back "promotional" coins that were given away for free for trying Brave. They don't take back "donated" coins from however one buys/earns BAT in the other methods. Not sure if they still offer this promotion.

Points 1 and 2 are mostly correct, but it's not like it replaces a banner with their own banner but they still show you ads while blocking other ads. I feel the others saying it's wrong are not being honest, the result is the same: a site owners ad is not shown and a Brave ad is. It's an extortion scheme IMO.

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The BAT text notification rewards are off by default. The adblocker is on by default. How is that replacing?

If you turn the BAT rewards on, you get system text notifications at intervals, it's not anywhere on the site or triggered by browsing.

They are two completely different features. The adblocker is a basic utility for everyone.

The BAT rewards is an optional program you can enable if you want extra tokens.

It's a real user agent, as in, for the user.

Yes, as many have parroted this defense the ad system is off by default. However, when you turn it on, it's effectively replacing the ads, and extorting content creators to say "if you want a piece of the Brave ecosystem, you need to play by our rules." This is why every thread about Brave turns into this conversation, and why it's clear to many of us the system is flawed. Repeating the same points about it being "off by default" doesn't change that Brave still uses this system, and it doesn't mean it will never change to be on by default. As Brave is a for profit company, I'm sure it will be at some point.

Users have a right to block intrusive banner ads on their user agent if they so choose.

Users also have a right to enable a separate rewards text system notification ads program if they so choose.

If content providers want to paywall adblockers they can choose to do so.

You're not having an honest discussion here, trying to spin this as if Brave gives the user more choice. What we're talking about Braves built in ad blocker and ad scheme. Users like myself in this thread have a right to call out what we feel is not an honest system.

That's like your opinion man. You are totally free to feel that way, but I don't agree.

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