TL;DR

• Brave, the browser that prioritises privacy and has an integrated web3 wallet, started a project to develop a onchain rewards system.

• Brave's aim to overcome the obstacles presented by custodial transactions, regional constraints, and the changing regulatory landscape is the driving force behind their choice to use Solana.

• The design of account models has changed, with Solana having a parallel execution architecture that maximises efficiency and lowers expenses via program reuse.

Introduction

Within the dynamic realm of decentralised finance and blockchain applications, developers are consistently searching for novel platforms to satisfy the growing needs for efficiency and scalability. High-performance blockchain platform Solana is renowned for its quick transaction times and inexpensive costs.

Brave, the browser that prioritises privacy and has an integrated web3 wallet, started a project to develop a onchain rewards system. They selected Solana as the best blockchain in order to reward users with Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) for interacting with browser-based advertisements.

Brave has been using custodians to facilitate transactions in its off-chain ecosystem for years. Brave's transition to onchain solutions has been accelerated by recent events, especially the introduction of Brave Rewards on Solana. This change represents a major advancement, providing improved scalability, worldwide accessibility, and a more efficient user experience.

Brave's aim to overcome the obstacles presented by custodial transactions, regional constraints, and the changing regulatory landscape is the driving force behind their choice to use Solana. Brave wants to bring in a new era of decentralised browsing and advertising by utilising the cutting-edge technology of the Solana blockchain. This will give users greater control over their browser experience while upholding Brave's fundamental values of simplicity, speed, and responsiveness.

Rewards on Solana

The network, which was once called Brave Payments, started utilising blockchain technology for transactions, at first centred around Bitcoin. However, the team looked at other blockchain options because of the high costs and changing network conditions. They decided to embrace Ethereum in 2017 due to its smart contract features, which at first looked promising due to its cheap transaction fees. On the Ethereum network, rising fees rendered onchain payouts for Brave Rewards unfeasible, despite initial hopes.

The answer was Solana. Not only was Solana less expensive than Ethereum, but Brave also chose it because of its active development community, strong dApp ecosystem, and excellent cross-chain bridges. Through the utilisation of the rapid finalisation of the Solana network, Brave was able to carry out decentralised payments straight to wallets under user control. With this change, there was a major movement from centralised custodians to decentralised onchain settlements, enabling users to use their rewards anywhere in the ecosystem without difficulty. As of right now, Solana's Brave Rewards function is exclusive to invitees, with a small initial group of participants. On the other hand, BAT obtained from Brave Rewards will shortly be sent to a self-custody wallet address on the Solana blockchain for Brave users worldwide.

Brave Rewards' program director, Christopher Nguyen, states that payout address verification was the initial step in the integration process. In order to facilitate easy monthly earnings transfers, users are able to confirm ownership of their Solana address and link it to their Brave Rewards profile. This feature works with various third-party wallets in addition to Brave Wallet. The monthly disbursement of Brave Rewards payments to users constituted the second component of the connection. In order to address the issue of excessive onchain storage charges, Nguyen continues, "even though the current fees are not expensive, lower is always better" and notes that they are investigating additional price optimisation techniques including account compression.

There are several significant distinctions between the two platforms for Ethereum developers considering a move to Solana. The design of account models has changed, with Solana having a parallel execution architecture that maximises efficiency and lowers expenses via program reuse. Its developer-friendly environment and wide range of tools facilitate the creation of creative, decentralised applications, while the local fee markets on Solana and Tower BFT consensus mechanism improve transaction throughput.

Conclusion

Building on Solana creates exciting new opportunities for Brave Rewards' future as the company innovates and develops. Brave wants to introduce the Boomerang protocol in order to completely revamp its rewards program. Boomerang, created by Brave's Research team, is a paradigm change in incentive algorithms towards decentralisation and privacy preservation.

The goal of the Boomerang protocol, which is presently in development, is to transfer all of the user interaction logic for Brave Ads on the blockchain. One long-term objective, according to Lukas Levert, product marketing manager at Brave, is "bringing a full advertising platform onchain." The goal of this ambitious project is to go from on-chain rewards to a Solana blockchain-based advertising network. Brave is investigating cryptographic primitives that might facilitate the on-chain execution of this logic.