News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:15AM (#23235745)
Wow!!! - Brave is holding payments in escrow for parties that did not even sign up for the service, that’s not shady at all. Even makes me wonder what’s happening to all the funds in escrow.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by BrendanEich on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @01:02PM (#23237192)
No, you're mistaken. We don't hold payments at all (we are not licensed to intermediate). If you use the browser to tip a creator who hasn't signed up, your browser holds the tip and retries every 30 days up to 90th day.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by fhars on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @05:04PM (#23240173)
Didn't you just say that you stopped pretending to accept tips for people you have not signed up in January 2019? And yet here you say that you still have this same deceptive behaviour in your browser?
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @04:56PM (#23240088)
(Please clearly state you how you’re related to Brave in your profile if you don’t want me to repeatedly ask you when posting comments.)

Feel free to link to public documentation on Brave’s site showing the screenshots of Brave’s workflow, policies, etc.

As is, you’re comment assumes I understand a lot of things, which you say I don’t, then go on to not explain them; tip, comments, tweets, etc are a poor place to do this.

For example, what has happened before the 30th day; as in please list from start to finish everything that happens from me downloading Brave, finding myself, making a “payment” to myself, and nothing nothing. Also, if relevant, disclose any and all business policies & procedure; for example, is there a difference between a $5, $101, $1001, etc transaction.

Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by saagarjha on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @06:45PM (#23241198)
Brendan is the CEO of Brave and fairly famous for a number of things, so I can't say I understand how you (as someone who is apparently savvy enough to understand how Brave works) don't know who what his relation to it is?
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @07:34PM (#23241601)
Exactly how do you know that user is the CEO of Brave? (Serious question, I don’t have an answer.)
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by snazz on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @09:26PM (#23242372)
He’s relatively famous and easy to google. That HN account is not a brand new account someone made to pretend to be him either.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by fomine3 on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @02:17AM (#23243818)
I won't google a random HN username unless any disclosure.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by snazz on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @09:08AM (#23246390)
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by fomine3 on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @12:52PM (#23249064)
How famous is not a problem. I don't watch carefully HN username while reading posts unless hints.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by DennisP on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:24AM (#23235858)
If they're doing it right, it's locked in a smart contract, in a bunch of individual balances that get unlocked when an admin at Brave provides a withdrawal address. That way, while they could steal from those accounts, it'd be readily apparent to any intended recipient whose funds were stolen.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:35AM (#23235986)
Let me be more clear, using an example. Appears Brave only attempts to contact the Whois email after the funds in escrow exceed $100 USD.

Let’s say the have million in escrow, they invest it, don’t lose any of the funds, and 5 years later end up paying out all funds due.

Does the “all funds due” just the million, is it the million plus the returns they made on million, is it adjusted for inflation because they sat on it 5-years, etc.?

Comparable example might be the funds held in escrow by gift cards; my guess is unless Brave is being super careful what they are doing is or will be defined as illegal.

Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by xur17 on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:59AM (#23236326)
It's worth noting that the funds they are holding are funds they are giving out to users to donate to websites (as part of their boostrap fund), so it's not really as horrible as you are saying (but still.. weird).
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:12PM (#23236506)
It is horrible & toxic — no party regardless of intent should be collecting funds on behave of another party unless that party has legally agreed for it — or they’re legally using a well known structure for doing so that’s audited; for example, in the country Brave is headquartered, a non-profit business.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by ketamine__ on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:15PM (#23236564)
https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1085238644926005248

> A final update on the thread about Brave: they're now opt-in for creators! While it's still possible to tip folks who haven't opted in, the data is stored in-browser and the UI has been clarified. These are good changes, and they fix the complaints I had!

Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:30PM (#23236806)
Brave doesn’t make it easy to see the changes they made without installing the software and likely having to buy their crypto to test it; appears Brave is still selling the tokens for third-parties without their knowledge. System should be you send funds, transfer is not done until 3rd party authorization is received, 3rd party has no fee cash option instead (fees if any paid by donor) — and transaction voids after 30-days.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by ketamine__ on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:03PM (#23238762)
> Brave doesn’t make it easy to see the changes they made without installing the software

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser

> and likely having to buy their crypto to test it

I have 24 BAT and I didn't buy them. I donate some of what I earn from ads to a project maintainer on Github.

> Brave is still selling the tokens for third-parties without their knowledge

Brave doesn't sell tokens. They did raise money through a token sale but that's not relevant.

> System should be you send funds, transfer is not done until 3rd party authorization is received, 3rd party has no fee cash option instead (fees if any paid by donor) — and transaction voids after 30-days.

The transfer isn't done until the creator verifies with Brave. See my comment above.

Doing a minimum of reading (wiki, brave website, reddit) would do wonders for your comments.

Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @05:04PM (#23240170)
So Brave blocks AD from one creator, made gave you tokens to give a another person of your choice for watching their ADs?

What am I missing? You’re basically stealing, fencing the goods, and somehow giving away the proceeds makes that okay and I need to waste my time reading more?

As for doing more reading, sounds like a personal attack, if so, combined with your “Robin Hood” life style, maybe you’re the one that needs to spend more time.

Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by ketamine__ on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @05:29PM (#23240489)
It's not a personal attack. You have made so many false claims. I'm out.
Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by billme on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @05:58PM (#23240804)
Where did I make false claims?