Basic Attention Token: The User Growth Story

BAT is the utility token of the Brave browser ecosystem.Monthly active users of the browser topped 62 million in June.BAT token has outperformed BTC and ETH over the last month.It has been 15 months since I last covered Basic Attention Token (BAT-USD) for Seeking Alpha. Like most altcoins, the price of BAT has done very poorly since that article was published. However, unlike many of the altcoins in the cryptocurrency space, Basic Attention Token has continued to be linked to real economic activity despite the declining prices. BAT is a key component in a fast growing ecosystem that provides real utility in a blockchain-based model. In this article, I'll briefly revisit the utility of BAT, update some of the key metrics in the ecosystem, and compare recent price performance to creator coin peers.Brave EcosystemThe Brave ecosystem is designed to reward both publishers and web users to a larger degree than what is currently experienced in the "web 2" model. The backbone of the ecosystem is Brave's web browser that has built-in privacy and ad-blocking features. Users of the browser can opt into Brave's ad-serving model and earn BAT token in exchange for willingly receiving advertising. Users who receive the BAT token for viewing ads can choose to either take the BAT token for themselves or designate its distribution to the online publishers that they enjoy reading or watching.The BAT token is made possible with the proceeds from ...