Brendan Eich

Brendan Eich is best known in AdTech as the architect of a fundamental challenge to surveillance-based advertising. As CEO and co-founder of Brave Software, he created a browser that blocks third-party ads and trackers by default and introduced the Basic Attention Token (BAT), a cryptocurrency-based system that compensates users directly for their attention while preserving their privacy. This model inverts the traditional AdTech value chain — where user data is harvested and monetized without user consent — and has attracted tens of millions of active users and a growing ecosystem of publishers and advertisers seeking privacy-compliant alternatives. Before Brave, Eich's career established him as one of the most consequential figures in web technology. He created JavaScript in just ten days in 1995 while at Netscape Communications, a language that became the backbone of interactive web experiences and the runtime environment for virtually all client-side AdTech. He co-founded the Mozilla Project in 1998, serving as CTO and later briefly as CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, where he oversaw the development of Firefox — a browser that itself pioneered user-centric privacy features and challenged Internet Explorer's dominance. In the AdTech context, Eich's significance lies in his dual role as both a foundational infrastructure builder — JavaScript underpins ad rendering, tracking pixels, and programmatic delivery — and as its most technically credible critic. His work at Brave represents a rare instance of a technologist with deep insider knowledge building a structural alternative to the incumbent ad ecosystem, leveraging blockchain-based identity and attention measurement to propose a post-cookie, post-surveillance advertising paradigm.

• BS Mathematics & Computer Science, Santa Clara University
• MS Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Created JavaScript in 1995, the programming language that underpins virtually all modern web advertising technology
• Co-founded Brave Software in 2015 and grew the Brave browser to over 70 million monthly active users
• Launched the Basic Attention Token (BAT) via one of the fastest ICOs in history, raising $35 million in under 30 seconds in 2017
• Co-founded the Mozilla Project in 1998, leading development of the Firefox browser
• Pioneered a privacy-preserving ad model that pays users directly for attention without exposing personal data to advertisers

• Brave Whitepaper: Basic Attention Token (BAT) — Blockchain Based Digital Advertising (2016)
• Various technical blog posts on brendaneich.com covering JavaScript, privacy, and web standards