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Basic Attention Token: Blockchain Based Digital Advertising

Basic Attention Token. Brave Software.

Brave's 2018 paper for an advertising unit that pays publishers and users from a measured attention event inside the browser, rather than from a chain of third-party trackers. The browser is load-bearing. The token is the unit of account in the paper's payment flow.

The Basic Attention Token paper proposes that a browser measure attention and pay publishers from an advertiser's budget, with the token as the unit of account inside that exchange.

The five-minute read

The problem named is the advertising stack

The paper argues that intermediaries take the surplus, users are tracked, and publishers are underpaid. The proposed fix is a browser that can see attention locally and settle the result.

Attention is measured on the device

The browser is supposed to decide what a user actually looked at. That measurement is the data the payment depends on. It is also a new privileged position for the browser maker.

The token clears three parties

Advertisers buy attention. Publishers and users are paid. The paper's flow uses BAT as the unit. A user does not have to understand a chain for the browser to make the transfer.

Privacy is a claim about local measurement

If the attention score is computed on the device and only a settlement moves, the paper can argue that a profile was not sold. If raw browsing is uploaded, the argument is gone. The implementation detail is the privacy claim.

This is not a general payments paper

The design is about one marketplace inside one user agent. Citing it as a blueprint for arbitrary creator tokens overreads it.

One action, walked through

An advertiser locks a budget denominated in the token.
A user browses with a client that records, locally in the paper's design, which publisher surfaces received attention.
The client computes a payment allocation from those measurements and the campaign rules.
A settlement transaction, often batched, pays publishers and the user's share.
Verification, in the paper, is about whether the client followed the measurement rules, not about replaying every page view on a public chain.

The argument, unpacked

The browser becomes the exchange

Whoever ships the client defines attention, decides which sites qualify, and can change the allocator. That is a great deal of power even if settlement is on a public chain. The paper moves trust from ad networks to the client. It should be described as a move, not as a deletion.

Attention is a constructed metric

Seconds in view, clicks, and scroll depth are choices. A payment system that calls its choice 'basic attention' has picked a formula. Publishers will optimise for the formula. The paper needs that formula to be stable and public enough to be criticised.

A token does not fix an ad market by existing

Advertisers show up if the audience is real. Publishers show up if the payout beats the alternatives. The mechanism can be correct and the market still thin. The paper is a clearing design. Traction is not a theorem in it.

What has to be true

The client actually measures locally what the paper says it measures.
Users and publishers are willing to use that client. Distribution is the constraint.
Settlement batches do not reveal more browsing history than the privacy claim allows.
The metric of attention is specified well enough that a publisher knows what they are selling.

What happened after the paper

Brave shipped a browser and a BAT rewards system based on this thesis, with custodial options and later changes to how rewards work. Those product choices, especially anything custodial or KYC-gated, have to be compared with the paper rather than assumed to match it. The paper is the attention-clearing idea.

What to check before you use the idea

Where is attention computed, on the device or on a server?
What, exactly, is the metric a publisher is paid on?
What does a settlement transaction reveal about a user?
Is the live product the paper's non-custodial exchange, or a later custodial rewards programme?

Terms

Attention: The paper's metric of user focus on a publisher surface. It is a formula, not a raw fact.
User agent: The browser that measures attention and is therefore in a privileged position.
Settlement: The payment that moves after measurement. It is not a record of every page view.
Campaign budget: The advertiser's locked spend, which the allocator divides according to measured attention.

The problem the paper names

Web advertising in the paper's account is inefficient because intermediaries sit between the advertiser and the person, and because tracking is the measurement tool. Brave proposes that the browser, which already knows the page is on screen, can be the meter.

What the design proposes

Users, publishers and advertisers are the three roles.
Attention is measured locally. The paper's privacy claim depends on that locality.
Payments are batched. The chain is not asked to settle every impression.

How the mechanism is specified

The browser is the trusted measurer in the design. A user who does not run that client is not inside the mechanism.
Fraud control — fake attention — is acknowledged as the adversary. A token does not define it away.
The paper is a product design tied to Brave. It is not a general standard for all browsers.

What this page does not treat as proven

Local measurement is only private if the client behaves as specified.
An attention metric is a product choice. It is not a scientific unit, and the paper should not be cited as if it were.
We do not describe token markets or user income.

Why a venture studio still reads it

The relevant studio question is who holds the meter. BAT's answer is the user's client, with settlement batched. A venture that meters attention on its own server and then says 'blockchain advertising' has not adopted the paper.

This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.

Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.