Developers Set to Fork Brave Browser To Remove Invasive And For-Profit Features

A developer group believes the increasing use of the brave browser for-profit features would take away the core principle of blockchain. Thus, they have decided to fork the browser and remove all affiliate links, adware and even the Basic Attention Token (BAT). The users would have the option to either switch to the forked version or keep using the main browser.

Brave browser gained popularity because of its privacy features and also because of the BAT incentives. However, in recent times, the browser has seen excessive use of adware and affiliated links. These affiliated links have been coded into the search engine which directly takes users to the exchange platform if they type the name of the exchange in the search box. After the controversy surrounding it, the browser has since removed the affiliated links and have officially released an apology on June 9th saying it was an honest mistake and has been corrected.

The fork was announced by the developers called ‘Brave Browser’ on June 6th and by June 8th, the group of developers showcased a test version of the new browser with affiliate link suggestion removed. The developer team tweeted,

“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,”

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

Brave Co-Founder and CEO Believe the Fork is a Futile Attempt

Brendan Eich, the co-founder and CEO of the original Brave browser was not that pleased with the forking idea. Eich said the forked browser would have to rename and run their own services instead of being dependent on them.

However, this is not the first time that the brave browser is being forked, back in April 2019 Gab, a social media platform forked brave browser to introduce Bitcoin incentives through the lightning network instead of BAT token.