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by tlholaday 2446 days ago
Two comments:

* BAT is a non-financial utility token, not a currency.

* The Brave Referral Program specifically prohibited participants from making statements that BAT is a currency, a store of value, or an investment.

Examples of real-world non-financial utility tokens are amusement-park ride tickets and beer-garden food-and-drink tickets.
2 comments
otterley 2446 days ago
If it's not a currency, what value does it have to the holder?

It should also be noted that the law determines what qualifies as a currency, not the issuer. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck - you know the rest.

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solidsnack9000 2446 days ago
Utility tokens are, like arcade game tokens or food and drink tickets at a fair, valuable for their use with a particular venue or service -- not for their exchange value. Generally, the law does not recognise these kinds of things as currency.
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otterley 2446 days ago
I'm reminded of Itchy and Scratchy Money, themselves a parody of Disney Dollars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dErRj6V8_xQ

I'm not sure why Brave thinks the public will seriously value these.

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solidsnack9000 2446 days ago
Purpose specific tokens make sense when the scope is "limited enough". The public does actually use laundromat tokens, food tickets at fairs, arcade tokens and similar things. They wouldn't take them seriously outside of the appropriate context but they definitely take them seriously within them.
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otterley 2446 days ago
Sure, but the world isn't a Chuck-E-Cheese's restaurant. The real world deals in cash, not tokens to be exchanged for trinkets. It stretches the imagination to believe that website purveyors are going to want to deal in Brave Bucks, or whatever they want to call them. And if they can be exchanged for arbitrary goods and services, as opposed to a tightly constrained set of options, it's going to be deemed a currency.
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solidsnack9000 2446 days ago
What if the token were only redeemable on-network for advertisements and reading, and otherwise the only thing to do with it would be sell it on an exchange for currency?
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smitop 2446 days ago
Amusement ride tickets have inherient utility: you can redeem them for a ride. What utility can you get from BAT, other than selling it?
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