Brave is promoting etoro affiliate program and scamming its users

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8793

59 27 6 years ago

hither22• 6 years ago

OK, I suppose this is good reporting, but it is not the scandal you think it is.

Also, etoro does a lot more than cryptocurrency-trading.

Edit: This is a repost too. Interestingly the title of the other post "Brave Browser earning commissions promoting high risk blockchain platform" less click-baity got 2 points, 1 comment.

cortesoft• 6 years ago

It is not good reporting, though. What new information is being brought to light? Brave makes it clear they generate revenue via ads, and this is an example of an ad.

hither22• 6 years ago

I was being non-confrontational.

tuananh• 6 years ago

what etoro does doesn't matter.

kome• 6 years ago

brave is a terrible business model. terrible. yet another private - walled garden - solution to a common problem.

why people can't just understand what the internet is and how it works?

fourstar• 6 years ago

If anyone “understands the internet and how it works” — it’s Brendan Eich.

armitron• 6 years ago

If he understands the Internet and how it works (I doubt it), he's chosen to pervert it. Read "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" to get a better history of the real geniuses behind the Internet.

Look to people like Alan Kay to remind you of how far we've moved from the potential that was inherent in the medium. A platform designed for decentralized robustness and rapid information exchange perverted into a delivery medium for ads, surveillance and centralized control.

jpxw• 6 years ago

For a browser which prides itself on being the ethical and privacy-focused choice, farming its users out like this seems bizarre.

stefan_• 6 years ago

The genius play was having their own cryptocurrency, so they get all the bag-holders to defend them unquestionably. Live in this thread!

maallooc• 6 years ago

Using a browser that the company depends to make money on

Who thought this was good for the first place?

jariel• 6 years ago

Google depends on Chrome to make money, just in different ways. They are not doing it for charity.

hu3• 6 years ago

Using a browser that the company depends to make money on

Mozilla gets paid roughly 500m/year for letting Google be the default search engine.

BrendanEich• 6 years ago

Not that much, by my estimate (I have no inside knowledge).

How many of you work for free, BTW? No hands, huh.

nothrabannosir• 6 years ago

This guy seems to be on a crusade against Brave. Huge drama in the comments, all from one account. Incendiary title and tone, was doomed never to be constructive. Now it's on HN to get what, more views? A mob?

TLDR: Brave advertises for eToro. Is that ethical?

The way it's framed: brave scams its users.

There is probably a good discussion to be had about the ethics of advertising for a trading platform by Brave, but you won't find it here.

flyinfungi• 6 years ago

There a way to remote the ads from Brave? They are quite annoying.

blisterpeanuts• 6 years ago

browse to:

chrome://rewards/

turn off the Ads slider.

hundchenkatze• 6 years ago

There's a toggle "Show Sponsored Images" in the dashboard settings.

huffmsa5• 6 years ago

You have to turn them on. They're off by default.

Why did you turn them on without reading what you were getting in to?

rasengan• 6 years ago

This title should be changed. The user is clearly on a mission to defame Brave. The title does not match the GitHub post.

This post here by JamesTheHacker is slander at best.

earthtolazlo• 6 years ago

I see posts attacking the messenger quite often whenever someone points out yet another cryptocurrency scam. Can you respond to the actual content of the thread?

huffmsa5• 6 years ago

Brave isn't actively scamming anyone. You have to sign up and put your own money in the pot with etoro for anything to get a cut.

If you're willynilly giving people money for complex financial instrument's, you probably shouldn't have control of your own money.

smabie• 6 years ago

I don't see the problem with this. Etoro is not a scam and CFDs are not shady in the least bit. It's just an ad, which other browsers have as well. I don't think this guy really knows what he's talking about or if he does, maybe he should state more clearly what he finds objectionable. Ads in brave? The kind of ad?

huffmsa5• 6 years ago

You have to be participating in Brave Rewards to see the ad.

If you're participating in a crypto token rewards program, you should hopefully have your head on your shoulders tight enough not to blindly sign up for everything you see.

If you don't, well you probably will after you lose a few bucks.

Meekro• 6 years ago

Calling this a "scam" is misleading and inflammatory. eToro is exactly what it claims to be: a cryptocurrency exchange. Certainly there have been scammy exchanges that run off with people's money, but the author hasn't presented any evidence that eToro is one of those.

Brave has been completely up-front about their "sponsored images" advertising program, as you'll see if you read the entire GitHub thread. They are easy to disable, or you can choose to leave them on and get paid for having to look at them.

Brave is promoting etoro affiliate program and scamming its users

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