Technology

The builders of the Brave browser have begun serving replacement advertisements to volunteers, a key part of a business model that relies on stripping others' ads from web pages.

"We're now ready to start voluntary testing of our ad model before we scale to further user trials," the company wrote in a post to a company blog last week. "Once we're satisfied with the performance of the ad system, Brave ads will be shown directly in the browser in a private channel to users who consent to see them."

The initial testing will be limited to users who raised their hands when Brave Software asked for volunteers in March. By the replies to that call, as many as 1,000 responded to join what the firm dubbed "Brave Early Access."