Developers Fork Crypto-Powered Brave Browser to Remove Adware, Affiliate Links

A group of developers has created a fork of the cryptocurrency-powered Brave browser to create a version of it without any adware such as sponsored images, without any affiliate links, and without its Basic Attention Token (BAT).

The new browser, according to the developers, was meant to be an alternative to the Brave browser that users can choose, but that would boost the browser’s ecosystem. It’s being named as the “Braver browser,” and comes shortly after it was revealed Brave was autocompleting addresses on the browser with its affiliate code for top exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.

Brave has apologized for the incident on a blog post, and its co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich has claimed on social media the browser won’t be taking any revenue from Binance. Per Eich, the issue is being fixed so the default autocomplete isn’t the referral link.

I confirmed that we get no revenue from Binance for these bogus default completions that added affiliate codes. Bug fix is out already in Nightly, uplifting to all releases today.

— BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) June 8, 2020

Despite its move to fix the problem, developers still forked Brave to launch the Braver browser. On GitHub, it touts it is essentially a version of Brave with no adware – including sponsored images and sponsored notifications – no BAT token, and no affiliate links.

The team behind it has already shared images of the new browser, although it isn’t yet available for download.

The first test build of @BraverBrowser completed a few hours after its fork, removing Brave’s referral link injection.

The full release will remove all adware:
Rewards
Brave Together
Branded Wallpapers
Sponsored Components
BAT icon
All future ad integrations pic.twitter.com/TQjJ0uc0C9

— Braver Browser (@BraverBrowser) June 8, 2020

Eich has already reacted to the Braver browser’s development, wishing the developers working on it good luck but arguing the project may struggle because the developers “want to drop several major revenue legs. That leaves nothing but donations for funding.” Eich also informed the developers they will have to rename and run “a bunch of services and updates on their own,” as there’s “no free riding on our servers.”

It’s worth noting that users can opt-out of the Brave Ads program to avoid receiving ads while browsing the web. These ads, however, reward users with the BAT token. Most of the browser’s users, according to Eich, don’t use the crypto features.

It’s worth noting this isn’t the first time the Brave browser was forked. Last year social media platform Gab forked it to replace its BAT token with Bitcoin on the Lightning Network. Gab’s version, called Dissenter, is available for download.

Featured image via Unsplash.