Opera Launches New Web3 Browser
- The new Opera browser was designed to improve the user experience when browsing decentralized apps, games, and metaverse platforms.
- A new non-custodial wallet will be at the core of the new Opera experience, allowing users to access their crypto and dApps without extensions.
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Popular internet browser Opera has launched a beta version of its “Crypto Browser Project”, a new browser with built-in Web3 integrations, the company said in a blog post on 19 January.
According to the announcement, the new browser was designed to improve the user experience when browsing decentralized apps, games, and metaverse platforms by offering direct access to Web3 services. Opera has also developed a non-custodial crypto wallet for the new browser, which will be at the core of its user experience. The company said in its blog post:
“While you can choose to access Web3 with the Opera Crypto Browser on your PC using your Metamask, Coinbase or Binance wallet, you can also opt to use the brand new non-custodial wallet from Opera to sign in, interact or sign your transactions on the Web. Our new wallet will be a step up from the wallet previously available in our browsers and will eventually replace the wallet solution in our other browsers.”
Currently, the standard Opera browser offers its users a no-login VPN and a native tracker and ad blocker. The new crypto version promises to maintain these security features, while also enabling users to switch between apps — such as decentralized exchanges, Telegram, Twitter, NFT and gaming dApps — without having to sign-in to their wallets every time.
The new wallet will initially support only the Ethereum blockchain, but will soon extend its support to other networks, such as Polygon, Solana, Nervos Network, and Celo. While it only supports ERC-20 and the non-fungible ERC-721 standards for now, Opera plans to introduce support for ERC-1155 sometime in Q1 2022. Users will also be able to easily purchase crypto through the browsers built-in fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, swap crypto-to-crypto, and even access a built-in NFT gallery.
- The popular web3 wallet has partnered with NFTBank, a firm building NFT price-tracking tools, in order to make the new feature possible.
- NFTBank claims it can offer over 90% accuracy on its prediction thanks to its machine learning algorithm that takes into account floor price, rarity, and bid/ask distribution for NFTs.
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- The “Blockchain Node Engine” was designed to be a fully managed service that would help Web3 developers build and deploy new products for the blockchain.
- It features a number of security features, such as Google’s Cloud Armor that helps prevent DDos attacks from slowing down a network.
- Google Cloud will enable crypto payments early next year, though the feature will initially be available only to a select group of customers already active in web3.
- As part of the deal, Coinbase has agreed to move some of its data-related applications from Amazon Web Services to Google Cloud.