You're probably familiar with the BRAVE browser. It seems that everyone interested in crypto knows about it or uses it, and anyone not interested in crypto has never heard of it.
One of the benefits of Brave is that it uses the idea of shared revenue when it comes to advertising. This was probably my first exposure to Web3, and the idea that advertising should reward those who consume it rather than all the ad spend flowing solely to a near-monopoly provider.
It also helps that Brave ads appear in predictable locations and don't attempt to make themselves look like other content, so that on top of getting small rewards makes me far more amenable to seeing them.
Disappearing Adverts
About 2 months ago, I stopped seeing most of the ads, which meant my BAT earnings had dropped from 10-15 BAT a month down to less than 1. In the scheme of things, the actual value lost is quite low, but if BAT ever goes up in value it would be nice to have a decent stack !
At first, I assumed it was something to do with my VPN. So I turned it off except for when I wanted to view something that was blocked in the UK. It's only when you pretend to be in some other part of the world that you realise how much the UK censors the internet, often content that's uncontroversial and benign but comes from sources the UK authorities don't like.
That made no difference, so I checked my Brave Rewards settings, and they all looked fine.
Solving the Problem
Totally by chance yesterday, I stumbled on the solution. It turns out it was something that was changed without my knowledge (or consent) when Microsoft did a Windows update.
It's one of those really simple "now why didn't I think of that !" things.
All you need to do is;
Go to "Settings" on your PC.
In the Settings window, type "notifications" and in the dropdown which appears, select "Turn app notifications on or off".
Check that the slider button for "Get notifications from apps or other senders" is on, and then go down the list to check that Brave is set to "On".
The update had switched it to "Off", and as soon as I switched it back to "On" the adverts and BAT started flowing again.
This is in Windows 10, but I expect Windows 7 and 11 to be very similar. All images are screenshots from my PC, but with other icons and identifying features blanked out.
Hopefully this will help anyone else who is wondering where their ads had gone !
This post was first published by me on my Hive account. Copyright by me !
The cover image is from
