Let's get one thing straight - the current advertising model which is used by websites is not working, to put it blunt, it sucks.

Brave have given us a promising glimpse into the future with their BAT token and new alternative advertising model, we're heading in the correct direction.

We're at a stage now where there is support for content publishers to be rewarded for their content on: YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Reddit, GitHub, personal website and Publish0x.

However there's one serious problem with Brave right now which is holding it back - a lack of options when cashing in your BAT rewards.

Why there is a problem with cashing in your rewards

Currently there is only one sole way for you to cash in your rewards and it requires you to use Uphold.

When you open up the BAT publisher dashboard if you have not yet connected your Uphold Wallet you'll see see something similar to the screenshot shown below.

Sadly, even when you sign up with Uphold this does not mean you can cash out your BAT rewards from Brave. To enable the ability to cash out your BAT rewards you need to go through Uphold's KYC verification process.

Shown below is what you will see when you connect your Uphold account to your BAT publisher dashboard but have not verified your identity with Uphold.

If you're already an Uphold wallet user this probably isn't an issue for you however for Brave it might be a problem if users refuse to sign up to another service which requires them to hand over their email address and go through yet another Know Your Customer (KYC) process.

A quick Google search can reveal numerous reasons why there are issues with KYC, I feel the 6 issues listened in The problems with KYC: too long, inconsistent, security, no standard write up sums it up well, however I feel there is one issue missing in that list - KYC completely excludes anyone who is unable to obtain a government obtained ID.

Sadly it looks like if you are uncomfortable going through Uphold's KYC verification system or you are in the unfortunate situation where you are unable to obtain a government issued ID then you will never be able to cash in your BAT rewards.

Even if you do have a government issued ID and are prepared to go through Uphold's KYC verification process you might not be able to cash in your rewards - as Uphold has sadly followed the lead of a couple other companies in restricting the service they offer to users who are from certain countries.

The full list of countries which are not supported by Uphold can be found in the screenshot below.

If you're from any of these countries, I'm afraid you're out of luck and the only thing you can do is donate your BAT earnings to your favourite content publishers.

Unless there's something else the Brave team can offer?

We need more wallet options

There is a high chance that Brave is a lot of users first interaction with crypto - why lock them into Uphold from the get go?

In an ideal world whenever opt-ing into receiving BAT rewards, we would have the option to specify what Ethereum wallet address we want our rewards sent to when publishers cash out their BAT rewards and not have to go via Uphold.

This keeps the freedom with those browsing the web, the end users.

A small number of existing wallets

Shown above is some of the existing Ethereum wallets currently available, this isn't all of them there's some other very popular wallets like Gnosis Safe and Dapper which you should check out if you haven't already.

Perhaps Brave could offer a summary of all these wallets during their onboarding of new users and allow them to pick which wallet they would like to transfer all their BAT to when they cash in their Brave rewards.

We need more options for spending rewards

Right now, I do not believe it's possible to spend your BAT to buy yourself goods & services however this would be a very useful option.

It would be excellent if we could use BAT to pay for some of the most popular subscription services out there such as Spotify, Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Or instead of paying for subscription services, using BAT to pay for items you want to buy on popular sites like Ebay or Amazon.

Got an alternative suggestion?

It would be fantastic if these two suggestions were implemented by the Brave team. If you have other suggestions for how to help with cashing in Brave Rewards, be sure to share them in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading!