TECH
Fuck Google & Earn Income While You Browse
The new kids on the (online) block are fighting back
This is not anything like the stuff you will usually find me writing about on Medium, and I write about a variety of things (I hope that doesn’t confuse those of you who read my stuff occasionally).
I’m a normal human being, with a variety of interests, emotions and responsibilities and I’m here to share and connect honestly and not just to gain an audience and make money.
No, this story does not contain an affiliate link. I just really like what these guys are up to.
I found Brave a few months back and am delighted with what they are doing, so I thought I would share it with whoever may be interested in privacy, personal freedom, tech and common human decency.
I was a web developer for (too) many years. I love (and loathe) the internet and I am a bit of a rebel by nature. I despise Capitalism and greed. And I loathe dishonesty the absolute most of all.
I’ve been really concerned about the collection of our data, for some time now, and how it is being used. Did I mention that I’m into minimalism and I believe that consumerism has most of us trapped seeking incorrect ideals of success that are almost unattainable, and pretty fucking unhealthy as well?
Well. I am and I do. And no, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. What I am, is a little bit educated about online stuff, and I don’t think I even know the least of it.
“You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.
― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
I’ve also been trying to learn more about Crypto Currencies.
I figured, some time ago, that if we all believe that printed pieces of paper hold any real value (which they do not — they are just promissory notes, once given in exchange for actual gold, now forgotten and thought to be of actual value and printed on demand… if you start trying to figure out online transactions, loans and credit etc, things get really strange), then why not buy into other made up currencies to exchange with?
So people would dig around, find gold, and then go to a bank and give it to them in exchange for a promissory note. The bank would promise to exchange back, the note that they gave the industrious human for, the actual gold if the industrious human ever needed it. Over time, people just began to swop pieces of paper instead.
I guess a bag full of gold nuggets gets pretty awkward to carry around.
I can’t imagine, that if we all took all of our promissory notes into a bank and requested that they fulfill this “promise” and give us the value back in gold, that they would be able to do it. Anywhere. Even if they all got together and heaped all of that so-called gold into a massive, global Troll-ly pile.
Didn’t a European economy crash a bit back, precisely because of something like this? Yet on we go, merrily wasting valuable time, trying to get hold of more pieces of paper to give to the bank to keep fuck knows where for us, and to be charged ridiculous rates for them to do this for us, on top of it all.
Brilliant. Masterful. Diabolical!
I’m shit with money and I don’t really understand how it works. I have a hardly even basic understanding of Economics (which I took for a year at school and then never picked up again).
Yawn.
I enjoy creativity, ideas, music, art, dancing and other things that fill my arty soul. Money is a necessary evil in my life, that comes and goes. I’ve had quite a bit of it. And I have had so little that it was scary at times. What I’ve not yet done, in my now fifty years of walking in the world, is work with the soul aim of making the stuff as my main motivation.
Nor have I, yet (but I did considered it when I was hungry at times), sold out on my personal principles and values to get hold of it. Maybe this is because I was raised with enough privilege for me to never have been hungry enough for financial stability. More… I think… it was the influence of my Dad, who I fucking adored and, who was incredibly clear about walking in the world in a way that would keep a mind and conscience clear.
Anyway. It has come to my attention, recently, that the more of the paper stuff you have, the more it can buy you certain freedoms. So perhaps it is not as unnecessary as I once, naively (and yes, privileged again), thought it to be.
I do want to spend less time at my desk and more time with my kids, doing the stuff that fills my soul at this age. Despite me talking about not caring about making loads of cash, I’ve spent most of my life working my ass off trying to pay bills as a responsible parent and citizen.
So I’ve begun to look at ways of combining the things that interest me, and setting up more passive income streams.
I never really had a look at Crypto, though.
I was given some Crypto in place of actual “money” a few years back, and I forgot about it and let it sit for three years. I didn’t even know what to do with it to be honest.
During a crazy life challenge, when a financial bottom out happened as part of the process, I dug up the online “wallet” details and went to have a look. The Crypto (I won’t say which one as I am not encouraging you to trade the stuff, which is as risky as stocks etc if you don’t know what you are doing), had tripled in value.
I did a bit more research, found a platform that exchanged the stuff and set up a withdrawal to my bank account. It arrived, in my currency, in my local bank account within a couple of days. Yep. That is how far this has come along.
I was fascinated. Of course.
I don’t have enough knowledge about how this all works to say anything further about investing in Crypto. Just don’t go off using strange platforms and giving them your hard earned paper notes, or virtual whatever it is now, until you know what you’re doing. Same as any kind of investing, I guess. I’m no expert. Again.
I did find these guys, however, when I became even more pissed off about my online privacy and have kinda fallen for them. Also, I’m fucking pissed off with Google and ALL of the so-called social media platforms because of their intentions these days.
Their intentions being that they just want our attention to guide us in the direction that best suits their own wallets.
So sharing this knowledge is a small fuck you, to the now monopoly of the internet.
Hello, Brave, you darling l’il rebels and fellow humans who also believe that honesty is best, and that sharing is caring.
Don’t change, mmmmkay?
Here is what Brave have to say when you visit their website…
Online privacy made simple
All the good of ad-blocking, incognito windows, private search, even VPN. All in a single click.
How cool, huh?
But it gets even better! These guys have set things up so that you earn Crypto for your attention.
Here is what they have to say about why they have set this up.
Your attention is valuable. Earn by viewing privacy-respecting ads and pay it forward to support content creators you love.
With your old browser, you paid to browse the web by viewing ads with your valuable attention. You spent your valuable time downloading invasive ad technology that transmitted your precious private data to advertisers — without your consent.
Today, Brave welcomes you to the new Internet. One where your time is valued, your personal data is kept private, and you actually get rewarded for your attention.
You get to choose whether to view the ads that they run to make money online, and they share 70% of that revenue with you if you do. That is a transparent, honest and fair exchange.
I love these new kids on the internet block. I’m still trying to figure out how this all works myself, but what a concept, huh?
Anyway. Use it. Don’t use it.
Thanks for your reading time!
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