The Brave web browser has been gaining popularity in recent years and recently hit over 50 million users every month. Besides being a speedy fast web browser and developed further using Google’s Chromium project, one of the main driving reasons is the ability for users to earn Brave’s own cryptocurrency, called the Basic Attention Token (BAT).
BAT is used to reward its users for viewing privacy-respecting ads as they surf the web. BAT was introduced in 2017 and is now available in many cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, KuCoin and Coinbase. At the time of this article, the price of one (1) BAT is approximately over USD 1.
While earning BAT while surfing the web using the Brave browser is easy, there are also several different technical concepts and similar names in the Brave ecosystem that one needs to understand. One common query is the purpose of the Brave Rewards wallet over the new Brave wallet.
This article will explain the difference between the two wallets and what you can do with them.
Main Differences between the two
[Brave Wallet] is essentially a cryptocurrency wallet that Brave built from scratch and now lives inside your Brave browser. You can use it to store the BAT tokens that you have earned from the browser. In addition, there are features within the wallet that you can use to buy other cryptos and perform deposits and send cryptos. However, to deposit your existing BAT from your browser into the new [Brave Wallet], you must first verify your [Brave Rewards wallet].
[Brave Rewards wallet] is the temporary wallet holding place every Brave user will have by default. It stores your earned BATs and tells you when is the next BAT payout. Once you hit the minimum withdrawal requirement of at least 25 BATs, you should verify your [Brave Rewards wallet] by linking it to Uphold or Gemini exchange so that you can take full custody of BAT tokens. From here, if you wish, you can send BAT to your new [Brave Wallet]. However, if you do not verify after you hit 25 BAT, you risk not recovering your BATs if you have to re-install your Brave or encounter some technical issues on your device that runs Brave.
To know more about their own features and purposes, please read on further to find out.
Brave Wallet – (Explained)
In November 2021, Brave announced the launch of their own native browser wallet called the [Brave Wallet]. This wallet requires no additional installation because it is not a browser extension. Instead, it is built directly into the Brave web browser. As a result, it is supposedly more secure, less prone to security risks, and requires lesser computing resources on the device it operates on.
Previously Brave used a Metamask wallet extension to be installed onto its Brave browser and called it “Brave crypto wallet”. This is essentially still a Metamask wallet. Therefore this old wallet is not to be confused with this new [Brave Wallet].
The new [Brave wallet], by default, is not activated. You have to set it up, which can be done with a few simple steps. Go to the following URL to set up your new [Brave wallet].
brave://wallet/crypto/onboarding
Follow the simple on-screen steps to create your new Brave Wallet.
Once set up, you can use several of its features, such as creating more Brave wallets, using it on several devices (viewed under the <Accounts> tab), buying cryptocurrency through Wyre, sending cryptocurrency to other wallet addresses, and trading between different cryptocurrencies.
Features
- Ability to add more accounts. This means you can create more Brave wallets and easily swap between them using the <Accounts> tab shown in this interface.
- See all your cryptocurrency portfolios in one dashboard interface.
- Add more cryptocurrencies to your dashboard.
- Buy cryptocurrency through Wyre, which is natively supported by Brave wallet.
- Send cryptocurrency to the wallet address
- Swap (or trade) between different cryptocurrencies
Brave Rewards wallet – (Explained)
Think of this as a temporary holding place where your earned BAT resides. If you somehow re-install or lose your Brave browser, you lose your BAT. Therefore the only way to secure and gain full custody of your BAT is to verify your Brave Rewards wallet as soon as possible. This involves linking your Brave browser to a Brave-supported cryptocurrency exchange like Uphold and Gemini.
Open your Brave browser, and click on the red-coloured triangle icon on the address bar (top-right) to bring up the [Brave Rewards wallet] menu.
The key here is the amount of BAT you currently have. You must have at least a minimum of 25 BAT before you can verify your [Brave Rewards wallet].
You can go with any of the two (2) exchanges if you want to store your existing BAT and future BAT there.
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Features
Once you complete your verification process with Uphold or Gemini, you can now do any of the following from the exchange;
- Store your BAT there
- Any future BAT you earned from the Brave browser will be automatically deposited here
- Deposit more BAT to your account from another wallet
- Buy more BAT through the exchange
- Trade BAT into other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum
- Any other exchange features that might have
Summary
The newly launched [Brave Wallet] deals with mainly Ethereum or Ethereum-based blockchains (ones that support EVM, like Polygon or Layer 2 systems. So if you are looking to store popular cryptos like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and others, most of these coins cannot be stored inside (as yet). However, Brave says they are in the process of building support for Bitcoin and other altcoins soon.
The [Brave Rewards wallet] is just holding place for your BATs. Once you hit 25 BATs, you should verify it and link it to Uphold or Gemini so that you can enjoy more features such as withdrawal, deposit and trading into other cryptocurrencies. Keeping your BAT in an unverified Brave Rewards wallet will result in a permanent loss of funds should you encounter any technical issues in the future. Furthermore, you cannot retrieve back your lost BATs.
You can always check the latest price of BAT in CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko.
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