Your Favorite Privacy-Minded Browser Is Teaming Up With Binance

Brave has partnered with Binance to bring in-browser crypto trading to its 13 million users. The Binance Widget allows Brave users to make crypto trades without leaving the browser.

Branden Eich, CEO of Brave Software explained the rationale behind this partnership in an interview with Cointelegraph:

“Our focus has always been on our users. This time, it’s about making crypto more usable by more people. We already have 1.6 million users who are crypto-savvy, they have signed up for the BAT Rewards Program; now they’ll be able to make crypto trades without leaving the browser”.

Source:  Brave

The Binance Widget will appear on Brave Nightly’s new tab. Nightly is a “testing and development” version of Brave that gets updated every night. The Binance wWidget will become available on the main version of the browser sometime in April 

Users will be able to sign into the widget with their preexisting Binance account. For users in the US, Brave is partnering with Binance.US. Various regional affiliates of Binance will be available to Brave users around the world. 

According to Eich, the widget is mostly focused on trading and may be missing some of the more advanced features of Binance. But all the trading pairs available on the localized version of Binance will be available through the widget.

Security and privacy remain central for Brave, the firm’s press release says:

“Additionally, the Binance widget is built into Brave and is not a loaded iframe (remotely embedded document), which preserves the user's privacy. API calls will only be made into Binance if the user authenticates via OAuth and interacts with the widget.”

This configuration also means that Brave does need to worry about Know Your Customer or Anti-Money Laundering compliance, relying instead on the partner exchange.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (‘CZ’) stated:

“The Binance widget on Brave’s privacy-oriented browser instills a safer way to buy and sell crypto and also reduces user friction to onboard, trade and interact with the Binance ecosystem.  We are looking forward to our long-term partnership with Brave to make it even easier to interact with crypto and encourage more utility in the near future.” 

Bravebook, Bravephone, Brave Messenger?

The future is interesting here. Eich confirmed that Brave has looked into the possibility of extending Brave into other areas, like messaging and operating systems for smartphones and computers. However, for now, Brave is completely focused on the browser.

Eich does not believe that we will see the fully decentralized internet anytime soon either, noting that blockchain-based VPNs like Brave’s VPN0 are more realistic.

The announcement of this partnership coincides with reports of Google abandoning the release of Chrome M82 and shifting its development resources to M83 due to COVID-19.

If Binance can capitalize on Brave’s vast userbase, this would lead to the influx of new liquidity to battered crypto markets.