If you’ve been using Brave for a while, you’ve probably at some point wondered about BAT crypto and Brave Rewards. I’m here to tell you that if you’re using Brave and not using Brave rewards your throwing away free money. So I want to help show you how to get set up.
Why Use Brave Rewards?
Brave blocks website ads and tracking. Then pays you directly in BAT (Basic Attention Token) for viewing privacy-friendly ads. No creepy tracking. No selling your data. You stay in control. You can in return use the BAT to tip websites you like. So websites like mine can still make money to keep running without running crappy ads. Or you can just keep all the rewards for yourself and cash them out for real cash.
My History with Brave Rewards
I started using and Brave Rewards back around 2019-2020 with Gemini. BAT rewards would go right into my Gemini account. Back then I probably made a few $100 with the donations and by selling high when BAT coins went up in value. It was my number one funding source for this site. But at some point that stopped working. I don’t know why but you can no longer link a Gemini wallet.
I looked at uphold the other option but I feel like they are real bad on privacy. They not only demand you send them a photo ID but they also demand you use their phone app. Since I use the privacy focused GrapheneOS on my phone their app will just flat out not work.
Self-Custody Setup
The only option left was to use Brave Wallet. I don’t know why but I avoided this for years. I’m not a super big fan of crypto anyway and I guess I did not want to deal with yet another thing I had to keep up with. But I probably lost lots of money by ignoring it.
Step-by-Step: Setting Up Self-Custody Brave Rewards
Note: Before you get to far ahead I want to tell you this will not work on iOS. Apple restricts Brave from doing this.
Here’s what you do:
- Install or Update Brave Browser
Make sure you’re on the latest version of Brave (works great on Desktop or Android). - Turn On Brave Rewards
Click the BAT triangle in the top right of the address bar then Toggle Brave Rewards on. - Set Up Your Brave Wallet
- Click the wallet icon in Brave.
- Create a new wallet (or import one).
- Very important: Back up your recovery phrase and store it safely. This is like your bank account number or a password. If you lose it you lose access to any money you have in your wallet.
- Get a Little Bit of SOL
This is the part I got suck on for a while. You need a small amount of SOL (I got $5 worth). Why SOL? It’s needed to create the BAT token account on the Solana blockchain. Basically your connecting up your rewards to your wallet and you have to pay a small amount for the transaction on the SOL block chain. This is a one time fee for the BAT token account.
I bought SOL on Gemini since I already had that from the past and I did not have any friends that use SOL that could send me a friendly startup amount. - Send the SOL to your Brave Wallet’s Solana address. Gemini made me wait a week to do this after I added my wallet address. A safety period I guess. Also Double-check addresses when sending crypto. Mistakes here are permanent.
- Connect Your Wallet to Brave Rewards
- Go back to the BAT icon.
- Choose Connect account then Self-custody.
- Select your Brave Wallet.
- Approve the connection and the small SOL transaction to set up your BAT account.
Once that’s done, you’re all set.
- Start Earning
Turn on ads in the Rewards settings and start browsing normally. You’ll see occasional privacy-respecting ads, and your BAT earnings will land directly in your wallet once per month.
Getting money back out
After you get some BAT from rewards you can send this back to an exchange and then exchange it for US dollars or Bitcoin or whatever you want.
Final Thoughts
Brave Rewards isn’t going to make you rich, but it’s basically free money once everything is setup. Your also supporting a privacy-first company. Setting it up with full self-custody gives you complete control over your BAT.
If this was helpful to you then maybe you can stop back by after you earn some BAT and leave me a tip. I would appreciate it!
