Brave browser comes out of beta

Brave has taken its browser out of beta. The company released version 1.0 of its browser on Wednesday. Also, Brave Rewards, the system that allows users to pay creators of articles and videos, is now available on iOS.

The beta had around 8.7 million users, according to the company. The browser has been available for download as a test version for 2.5 years and appears in the stable version for Android, iOS, Windows, Linux and macOS in 52 languages, among others. Users earn by viewing privacy-friendly advertisements BAT, a payment method from Brave. Users can then give these to makers of websites, articles and videos to support their work. It is unknown how much money is involved in the Brave Rewards program.

The founder of Brave is Brendan Eich, the creator of Javascript and former CEO of Mozilla. For the development of the browser, he bought the Link Bubble browser from Android developer Chris Lacy. The company profiles itself as a champion of privacy, including by investigating advertising practices of competitor Google. It also has an incognito mode with built-in Tor function. Brave blocks ads and trackers by default, and is based on Google’s browser project Chromium.