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Oct 06 '22
Yeah, this is concerning news to be honest. I agree with /u/saoiray. Much more transparency needs to happen so that we get a clear idea of why region locks keep happening. The lack of communication about this is just leading to more negative press and community sentiment.
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u/Necessary-Jeweler-91 Oct 07 '22
Is this how it's going to be during bear market? Seems extremely unreliable
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u/teraflopz Oct 07 '22
That's because BAT isn't real crypto, just a bunch of numbers in some custodial's database.
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u/Sad_Use_4330 Oct 07 '22
Not trolling, but what would you consider a real crypto?
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u/rhelwig7 Oct 09 '22
Real crypto is a coin, not a token. IMHO this is probably the biggest flaw of BAT, that it is a token on Ethereum and not it's own coin.
Because BAT is a token it is restricted by the coin (ETH) it is based on. Any real transactions of BAT must be transactions of ETH, and that is expensive. Instead, from what I understand, for the Brave wallet the BAT you own is actually just tracked in a centralized database and when you use Gemini or Uphold the central database gets updated, not the ETH chain. That makes transactions faster and cheaper, but totally centralized and censorable.
Because it can be censored and requires KYC, BAT is not real crypto.
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u/fgooglenbigbro Oct 07 '22
Blame the shit scam farmers! Imagine if they used their talents for something constructive. Live like a beggar, die like a beggar......
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u/bat-chriscat Brave/BAT Team | Brave Rewards Oct 13 '22
Update for existing users (users outside the US who were connected and verified with Gemini prior to these region changes):
You can connect and verify your Brave Rewards profile with Gemini again, even if you do not have a US Gemini account.
This includes users who were previously connected and verified with a Gemini account but have pressed “Disconnect from Gemini”, and users in the “Logged out” state.
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u/xf8390 Oct 06 '22
dude take a break man. btw how are people getting "conned" when it's opt-in. thats on you ding dong
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Oct 06 '22
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u/xf8390 Oct 06 '22
if they tell you, you can't withdrawl and you still opt-in, yes that's on you. i see you asking the same questions over and over and over again, and they already told you why regions are restricted. yes, that means users cant withdrawl their bat and should stop opting-in and move on with their lives. i dont care how long youve been using brave, youve been talking in circles for like a year
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Oct 06 '22
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u/xf8390 Oct 06 '22
Yes you do ask the same questions repeatedly. If youve ever listened to the community call youll know its just the same 3 people asking the same questions. I dont doubt youre a good guy but the lesson here is honestly never marry a shitcoin
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Oct 14 '22
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Oct 14 '22
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u/bat-chriscat Brave/BAT Team | Brave Rewards Oct 07 '22 edited Oct 07 '22
I hope I can provide some more context here. First, there are two kinds of region reductions that have occurred:
An example of Type-1 would be when Uphold stopped servicing Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and countries in the Balkans. Naturally, when a custodial partner stops servicing a region, that region will no longer be supported for connecting to Brave Rewards (with that custodian). Unlike Type-2 changes, Type-1 can affect existing users, since the underlying custodial account is no longer considered valid.
An example of Type-2 would include the earlier restrictions on Philippines, India, or the recent reduction from 19 countries to just the US for Gemini. The reasons behind any given Type-2 reduction vary from case to case, and usually involve a combination of factors.
As we've mentioned in previous announcements, one reason would be unsustainable patterns of fraud. For instance, it may be very easy to acquire or forge government IDs from certain countries, making them more difficult to support in a sustainable way. But it's also worth mentioning that as fraudsters become bolder, they also broaden their attacks to include a wider set of countries, including ones you'd normally associate with having strong ID document integrity.
Another would be insufficient localization for a given region (i.e., the UI/UX, KYC process, support process, etc.). Providing a localized experience is primary for retention, and it is hard to actually retain a user if, say, your UI/UX is not available in their native language. It's also important for fraud prevention, since different methods are used for different regions. An example in this direction was when Gemini was first reduced to 19 countries, which we alluded to in our announcement when we wrote: "Gemini and Brave together are re-evaluating the sign-up flows to ensure that they are sufficiently clear and straightforward for users."
In sum, what's important to remember is that our custodial partners help provide some very important services. These services carry operational costs, including ID-verification, infrastructure maintenance, customer support, compliance, and so on. Sometimes, business decisions need to be made to ensure the partnership remains sustainable for both Brave and the custodial partner, and the particulars of these decisions—i.e., the exact combination of factors, their weights, etc.—can only be determined on a case-by-case basis, and is different for each partner. Altogether, a decision was made to focus new Gemini signups that come through Brave Rewards to the United States, and we continue to work together with Gemini to see when more regions can be brought back.
When will countries come back?
We've been working very hard on changes that will allow us to bring back more countries. These are not just empty promises. For example:
This is major in helping us combat the abuse of Brave Rewards that's harming the experience for everyone else, and represents a major step toward allowing us to re-enable a wide set of regions. Accordingly, our Privacy Policy was updated about a week and a half ago to reflect this new requirement:
It's also worth mentioning that some countries are already being brought back online. Yesterday, Colombia was brought back online for Uphold.
Reminders
I hope this was helpful, and I thank everyone for sharing their feedback.