Basic Attention Token
Basic Attention Token (BAT) — a reference card for a crypto project: what the product does and how verifiable the project’s key claims are; also — alignment with the Decentralized AI thesis (DecAI Fit).
Basic Attention Token (BAT) — a token and an “attention economy” infrastructure for the Brave ecosystem: users can earn BAT for viewing private Brave Ads and support creators/websites via Brave Rewards; the BAT token is an ERC‑20 on the Ethereum network.
Disclaimer
Important: this page is a reference overview of the project. Within DecAIHub, we separately record a verification based on open sources within the AI thesis (what is real AI/onchain/why a token, and which sources this is based on).
This is not financial advice and not a recommendation to buy/sell/hold any asset. We do not assess price, returns, or entry/exit timing.
Conclusions are based on publicly available materials found as of the verification date. The absence of confirmation does not imply the absence of the technology.
TL;DR (for readers who are not into AI)
- What it is: the BAT token and the Brave Rewards product infrastructure for attention-based advertising and donations (attention economy).
- Who it’s for: Brave Browser users (Rewards/Ads), content creators/websites (Creator network), advertisers (Brave Ads).
- Why onchain/token: BAT is used as a unit of account/reward (earning, contributions, payments); onchain mainly acts as a registry of ERC‑20 ownership and transfers, whereas ad display and matching happen in the Brave product (offchain).
How it works (very briefly)
- The user does: enables Brave Rewards and (optionally) Brave Ads.
- The system does: displays private Brave Ads; credits the user with BAT for viewing ads (according to the Rewards rules).
- The user gets: BAT, which they can manage as a crypto asset and/or send as contributions to creators/websites.
- Where the blockchain is: BAT is an ERC‑20 on the Ethereum network; onchain records token ownership/transfers.
- Token role: the unit of account in the Brave Rewards/Ads ecosystem and in payments/donations.
Quick links: AI thesis fit
Project passport
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Project name | Basic Attention Token |
| Also known as (aliases) | BAT |
| Logo (logo) | ../assets/12_basic-attention-token_logo.svg |
| Token symbol (ticker) | BAT |
| Category | AI/Other | AdTech |
| Primary chain (chain) | Ethereum |
| Type | EVM |
| Network status | mainnet |
| Consensus (consensus) | PoS (Ethereum) |
| Launch date (launch_date) | 2017-05-31 |
| Project status (status) | active |
| Token (standard) | ERC-20 |
| Token contract | 0x0d8775f648430679a709e98d2b0cb6250d2887ef |
| Token model (token_type) | utility (ads + rewards + payments) |
| Max supply | 1500000000 (BAT) |
| Issuance | fixed |
| Tokenomics (tokenomics, brief) | cap 1.5B; the distribution includes public + Brave + user growth pool |
| Governance | company (Brave Software), onchain‑governance details not established |
| Admins/keys | — |
| Audit | — |
| Bug bounty | yes |
| Team (team) | Brave Software |
| Funding (investors/funding) | token launch (crowdsale), details — |
| AI component (ai_component) | on-device ML for ad selection |
| Use‑case (use_case) | private ads + rewards + donations |
| DecAI Fit — AI thesis fit | 3/6 — medium alignment with the Decentralized AI thesis |
| DecAI Fit component summary | 1 / 1 / 1 / 3 |
| Last verified | 2026-02-10 |
Links (links_*)
| Type | Link |
|---|---|
| Website | https://basicattentiontoken.org/ |
| Docs | https://basicattentiontoken.org/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf |
| GitHub | https://github.com/brave-intl/bat-ledger |
| Releases / Changelog | https://github.com/brave-intl/bat-ledger/releases |
| Whitepaper | https://basicattentiontoken.org/static-assets/documents/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf |
| Roadmap | https://brave.com/blog/bat-roadmap-3-0/ |
| Security advisories | https://github.com/brave-intl/bat-ledger/security/advisories |
| Explorer | https://etherscan.io/token/0x0d8775f648430679a709e98d2b0cb6250d2887ef |
| X | https://twitter.com/attentiontoken |
| Discord | https://discord.com/invite/batbrigade |
| Telegram | — |
| Medium | https://medium.com/@attentiontoken |
| Audit report(s) | — |
| Bug bounty | https://hackerone.com/brave |
| CoinGecko (profile, reference) | https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/basic-attention-token |
| CoinMarketCap (profile, reference) | https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/basic-attention-token/ |
General project overview
BAT (Basic Attention Token) is described as a token and a payment layer for a “user‑first attention economy” around the Brave Browser. In the whitepaper, BAT is proposed as the unit of exchange in an opt‑in advertising system: users are rewarded for attention, creators/websites receive contributions, and advertisers get reporting without user data being sent to a server (the “anonymous accounting” concept). Brave Rewards is the user-facing mechanic that allows earning BAT for viewing Brave Ads and supporting creators.
Features/modules
- Brave Rewards: an opt‑in mode in which users can earn BAT for viewing Brave Ads and send contributions to creators.
- Brave Ads: private ad formats inside the browser (not a “replacement” of ads on websites).
- BAT (ERC‑20): the token for payouts/donations/payments in the ecosystem.
Typical scenarios
- Scenario 1: a user enables Rewards/Ads → sees private Brave Ads → receives BAT.
- Scenario 2: a user sends contributions (BAT) to favorite websites/creators → supports them directly.
- Scenario 3: an advertiser launches a campaign in Brave Ads → receives effectiveness measurements without user profiling (as described in the BAT/Brave materials).
Getting started (wallet/network)
- What you need: Brave Browser + Brave Rewards enabled.
- Network/chain: BAT is an ERC‑20 on the Ethereum network (for onchain transfers/storage).
- Fees: Ethereum network fees apply to onchain BAT transfers.
Architecture/tech (non‑AI)
- Components: Brave Browser (Rewards/Ads logic), the Brave Rewards/Creators infrastructure, the BAT ERC‑20 contract on Ethereum.
- Participant roles: users, creators/websites (Creator network), advertisers, the Brave team.
- Where logic runs: ad impressions, Rewards payouts and matching — in the Brave product (offchain); BAT ownership/transfers — onchain (Ethereum).
- Dependencies: Ethereum as the L1 for the ERC‑20; the repository/releases of the Brave components (bat-ledger).
Token/economics (expanded, no forecasts)
- Token utility: the token of exchange/rewards in the advertising system and for contributions to creators (whitepaper; Brave Rewards).
- Protocol necessity drivers: users receive BAT for attention; users can spend/transfer BAT on contributions and other actions in the Brave ecosystem (Brave Rewards).
- Who pays fees: for onchain BAT transactions, the sender pays the fees within Ethereum.
- Where fees go: Ethereum network fees go to Ethereum network validators; they are not part of the BAT economy as a separate protocol.
- Issuance/burn: the whitepaper states a cap of 1.5B BAT; inflation of the BAT protocol is not described as a core mechanic.
- Security/incentive mechanisms: the incentive mechanic — BAT payouts for viewing Brave Ads and the ability to support creators.
- Distribution: the whitepaper describes the distribution (including public, Brave, user growth pool).
- Treasury: — (not recorded as a passport fact by a single Tier‑1 source).
Governance
- Who makes decisions: Brave Software (product decisions on Rewards/Ads); the details of a formal onchain governance for BAT are not established.
- How protocol parameters change: via updates to Brave products/components and documentation.
- Where decisions are discussed: official Brave/BAT channels and GitHub repositories.
- Keys/multisig: —.
Security and incidents
- Audits: —.
- Bug bounty: yes (HackerOne Brave; see links_*).
- Incidents: —.
- Threat model: risks of the centralized part of Rewards/accounting logic; risks of the ERC‑20 smart contract and of wallet/exchange infrastructure.
Project status and timeline
- Current status: active.
- Key releases/milestones: the token launch is dated 2017‑05‑31 in the whitepaper.
- Roadmap: see links_* (BAT Roadmap 3.0 / Rewards 3.0).
Ecosystem/integrations
- Integrations: Brave Browser (Rewards), Brave Creators, BAT integrations in web3/wallets (within the Brave ecosystem).
- Partners: —.
- Where it’s actually used: Rewards/Ads and contributions inside Brave; otherwise — as an ERC‑20 token in the Ethereum ecosystem.
AI component of the project
- What is real AI here? The BAT whitepaper mentions in‑device machine learning for selecting relevant ads (in the browser), but without published quality metrics.
- What is truly onchain? BAT as an ERC‑20 token: ownership and transfers are recorded on the Ethereum network.
- Why is a token needed? BAT is used as the unit of reward and account (earning for ads, contributions to creators and other ecosystem scenarios).
- Red flags (based on the information found): AI‑washing — medium risk (there is an ML mention, but no metrics/technical details); onchain‑washing — high risk (the key Rewards/Ads logic is mostly offchain); token‑washing — medium risk (the whitepaper describes the utility, but the replaceability of the token with an alternative payment asset is not examined by Tier‑1).
DecAI Fit component summary
- DecAI Fit: 3/6 — medium alignment with the Decentralized AI thesis
| Component | Level | Score |
|---|---|---|
| AI reality | low | 1 |
| Onchain necessity | low | 1 |
| Token necessity | low | 1 |
| Evidence | Tier‑1 present | 3 |
Details
AI reality
AI_0 — AI intent (Tier‑1 roadmap) (1/0)
- AI_0 (decision): 0
- Claim (one line): we do not record an AI roadmap intent as a separate protocol item; there is a mention of ML as part of the product.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — —
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): the focus is on AI_1 (the ML mention in the whitepaper), not on roadmap intents.
- Conflict note (if any): —
AI_1 — what the AI does (1/0)
- AI_1 (decision): 1
- Claim (one line): the use of on-device machine learning for selecting relevant ads is claimed.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — https://basicattentiontoken.org/static-assets/documents/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): the whitepaper explicitly mentions “in-device machine learning” as the matching mechanism.
- Conflict note (if any): —
AI_2 — demos/examples (1/0)
- AI_2 (decision): 0
- Claim (one line): no reproducible demos/examples of an ML model (dataset/model/code) are recorded in Tier‑1.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — —
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): there is a general statement about ML, but no demo artifacts.
- Conflict note (if any): —
AI_3 — metrics/quality (1/0)
- AI_3 (decision): 0
- Metrics: —
- Context (version/date/how measured): —
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — —
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): there are no Tier‑1 quality metrics for matching/ML.
- Conflict note (if any): —
AI_4 — tech description/architecture/versions (1/0)
- AI_4 (decision): 0
- Claim (one line): Tier‑1 describes approaches to private on-device ML (including federated learning), but does not record the versions/architecture of the Brave Ads matching ML models.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — https://brave.com/blog/federated-learning
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): there is a technical description of the approach/principles, but no specification of models/versions/architectures to set 1.
- Conflict note (if any): —
Onchain necessity
OC_1 — contracts/addresses/chain (1/0)
- OC_1 (decision): 1
- Chain: Ethereum mainnet
- Addresses/identifiers: BAT ERC‑20 contract: 0x0d8775f648430679a709e98d2b0cb6250d2887ef
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — https://etherscan.io/token/0x0d8775f648430679a709e98d2b0cb6250d2887ef
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): the contract address is confirmed via the onchain explorer.
- Conflict note (if any): —
OC_2 — onchain beyond just a token (1/0)
- OC_2 (decision): 0
- What useful logic is onchain: onchain records BAT ownership/transfers; the Rewards/Ads logic is described as product logic (offchain).
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — https://basicattentiontoken.org/static-assets/documents/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf ; https://brave.com/brave-rewards
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): Tier‑1 describes the system as a browser + a token, with no separate onchain logic other than the token.
- Conflict note (if any): —
OC_3 — onchain is critical (1/0)
- OC_3 (decision): 0
- “Replace the blockchain” test: without Ethereum, the public verifiability of BAT ownership/transfers is lost, but the main Rewards/Ads functions remain Brave product logic.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — https://basicattentiontoken.org/static-assets/documents/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): the description contains no statement that onchain is critical for the core ads/rewards functions.
- Conflict note (if any): —
Token necessity
TK_0 — no token (1/0)
- TK_0 (decision): 0
- Claim (one line): the system uses the BAT token (ERC‑20).
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — https://basicattentiontoken.org/static-assets/documents/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): the whitepaper describes BAT as the token of exchange in the advertising system.
- Conflict note (if any): —
TK_1..TK_4 (1/0)
TK_1 — payment for the service (1/0)
- TK_1 (decision): 1
- Claim (one line): BAT is used as the unit of account/payments in the advertising system and for contributions to creators.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — https://basicattentiontoken.org/static-assets/documents/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf ; https://brave.com/brave-rewards
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): Tier‑1 describes BAT as a “token of exchange” and the Rewards/contributions mechanic.
- Conflict note (if any): —
TK_2 — incentives/collateral/penalties (1/0)
- TK_2 (decision): 0
- Claim (one line): staking/slashing/collateral in the BAT system are not described as a core mechanism in Tier‑1.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — —
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): the whitepaper/Rewards describe rewards and payments, but not staking/slashing.
- Conflict note (if any): —
TK_3 — governance (1/0)
- TK_3 (decision): 0
- Claim (one line): token‑based governance for BAT is not recorded in Tier‑1.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — —
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): Tier‑1 describes BAT as a payment/reward token, without a governance process.
- Conflict note (if any): —
TK_4 — token is replaceable (1/0)
- TK_4 (decision): 0
- Claim (one line): the replaceability of BAT with an alternative payment asset is not established per Tier‑1.
- Evidence: Tier‑1 — —
- Why sufficient / why not (one line): setting 1 requires a Tier‑1 argument about full replaceability without loss of meaning of the system.
- Conflict note (if any): —
Evidence (table)
| Tier | Source | What it proves |
|---|---|---|
| Tier‑1 | https://basicattentiontoken.org/static-assets/documents/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf | the purpose of BAT as a “token of exchange” in the advertising system; cap 1.5B; token distribution; the mention of on-device machine learning for ad matching. |
| Tier‑1 | https://brave.com/brave-rewards | the Brave Rewards mechanic: earning BAT for Brave Ads and contributions to creators/websites; privacy (data stays on the device). |
| Tier‑1 | https://brave.com/blog/federated-learning | the technical context of private on-device ML (federated learning) in Brave products. |
| Tier‑1 | https://basicattentiontoken.org/ | the positioning of BAT/Rewards and the roadmap (as navigation to Tier‑1 artifacts). |
| Tier‑1 | https://etherscan.io/token/0x0d8775f648430679a709e98d2b0cb6250d2887ef | the onchain fact of the existence of the BAT ERC‑20 contract and the basic token parameters. |
| Tier‑1 | https://github.com/brave-intl/bat-ledger | the source code of bat-ledger (a component of the Brave Rewards infrastructure). |
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