Brave, a popular browser for the privacy-inclined, has been making positive strides into the emerging phenomenon of micro-tipping. Its native cryptocurrency, the BAT token, is now able to be freely given to content creators on Reddit, and Vimeo, after recently expanding to Twitter.

Micro-tipping is turning into a bit of an arms race as more and more content consumers realize the one-way street of internet advertising revenue. People are starting to get to grips with the idea of platforms selling their data and pocketing the profits, and have now had enough of it.

Micro-tipping, especially on Brave with its purpose-built and paying adverts, allows for individuals to be in control of their decisions as to where funds should go. It enables them to tip their favorite content producers with BAT tokens earned by watching Brave Ads.

Brave is now looking to expand to a bevy of popular platforms, hopefully attracting both content producers and tippers, to form an alternative web browsing service that could put a big thorn in the sides of those who siphon off advertising revenue.

Brave offers a web browser that does not collect data, allows users to opt-in for watching adverts – which earns them BAT – and with its expansion to a variety of platforms, allows those BAT-earning users to spread the love and support their local content producer.

This system has all the hallmarks of a decentralized internet that has long been craved for by fans of cryptocurrency and their decentralization, anonymity, and transparency. Brave, of course, wants you and your content producer to be using their platform and have everything enabled to effect this, which may call into question any true decentralization.

Additionally, Brave may be a well-known and respected entity trying to offer a private web-browsing service with micro-tipping, but they are not the only ones.

There is also Tippin.me, a browser extension that supports tips made using the Bitcoin Lightning network which showed a significant number of downloads when it first came to market – some 13,000.

However, the race is in full flight now though because Brave have reported an increase in publishers on its platform of 1,200 percent in just over a year. With more publishers piling in, the assumption must be that there are more tippers also joining the party; even BAT’s value is on the rise which all points to decent growth in this micro-tipping world.

It will be interesting to continue monitoring the move towards platforms like Brave, which offer privacy, but also this new funding model for content creators. No doubt, the creators will appreciate a new revenue scheme but equally so, the tippers will appreciate the control and power it wields for them through the use of cryptocurrencies.