Brave is a free open source product that you don't have to pay for or use. It's a browser with an integrated ad blocker. I opted into Brave, no one forced me to. I asserted my right as a user to run software on my machine how I see fit when I browse the web. The ad model of the web is exploitative, monopolistic, privacy invasive, abusive to everyone, and makes the whole open web ecosystem bow down to the whims of Facebook and Google.

Sources?

That just seems like hyperbole actually, and from a biased opinion or vested interest.

Brave seems to handle privacy very well considering the choices available, and has made a number of good privacy decisions from what I can see after watching browsers evolve for 25 years. I have switched to using Brave and installing it for those I support.

The crypto thing is 1) easy to turn off, 2) an attempt at a possibly better business model where users aren't just sold with it. Regardless I simply turn the crypto setting off.

I've earned over $600 worth of BAT from using Brave in the past 18 months. Can keep it or pay content creators with it, definitely not a scam.

The reason I trust them is that I can monitor what info is sent from my pc from the brave app. So that’s a good thing. They aren’t tracking and reporting all my browsing so that’s good.

I’ve never done anything with the crypto part. I just use them as a clean, ad-free browsing experience. There’s ad blockers for other browsers but brave is the easiest for me to use.