Brave Ads: A Few Pennies Are Not Worth the Headache.

Brave is great and all, but I don't have to be a fan of everything. Ads is one of those things.

Brave is still my favorite browser, so I'm not hating!

Ok, begin rant:

Brave’s ad system sounds slick—get paid in crypto (BAT) for eyeballing ads while dodging the usual web-tracking nonsense. Cool pitch, right? Except when you peel back the curtain, it’s a dud. Here’s why I’m not buying the hype.

The cash is laughable. You’re snagging, what, 0.005 BAT per ad? Maybe 0.01 if you’re lucky? I'm not really familiar with Crypto, but I Google things...With BAT hovering around $0.20-$0.30 as of March 17, 2025, that’s pennies per peek. Even if you’re glued to the screen and hitting the max 5 ads an hour, you’re scraping together a buck or two a month. I’ve found more change in my couch cushions. For that kind of haul, I’m not pausing my day to stare at pop-ups.

And don’t get me started on the “privacy-first” irony. Brave blocks creepy ads, sure, but then slides its own notifications under your nose or slaps sponsored pics on every new tab. I signed up for a clean browser, not a side gig as an ad-watcher. X users are griping about it too—feels less like a perk and more like a bait-and-switch.

Then there’s the hassle factor. To cash out your precious BAT, you’re roped into setting up a wallet through Uphold, wrestling with crypto exchanges, or hunting down gift cards that take it. All that for a couple bucks? Nah. I’d rather disabled the adds (which Brave still gives you a choice to do, fortunately)—no crypto gymnastics required.

Brave Ads might tickle the fancy of coin-chasing nerds, but for the rest of us? It’s a time-suck with a payout that wouldn’t buy a gumdrop. Pass.