Opera has launched its “Web 3-ready” browser for Android, with crypto wallet integration, support for Ethereum (ETH) and interactions with decentralized applications (DApps). The launch was announced at the Hard Fork Decentralized event in London Dec. 13, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph.
Charles Hamel, product manager of Opera Crypto, has outlined that the new product aims to remove the “friction” involved in “using cryptocurrencies online and accessing Web 3 via special apps or extensions,” in a bid to make the emerging technologies more “mainstream.”
Hamel explained Opera’s choice to support Ethereum and the Ethereum Web3 API as being based on the perception that the protocol “has the largest community of developers building Dapps” and significant “momentum behind it.”
Krystian Kolondra, executive vice president for Browsers at Opera, has said the move is a bid to “accelerate the transition of cryptocurrencies from speculation and investment to being used for actual payments and transactions in our users’ daily lives,” with Hamel adding that:
“[Opera] believe[s] all browsers will eventually integrate some kind of wallet, which will enable new business models to emerge on the web.”
Opera first announced it would be integrating a built-in crypto wallet for its desktop browser in early August, after launching a mobile crypto wallet as part of its beta Opera for Android in July. In September, the firm released an interoperable “Labs” beta version for Android with integrated wallet, Web 3.0 and DApp functionality.
“Web 3.0” is a term that was initially coined to refer to the ambition for the development of a semantic internet, and is increasingly used to refer to the evolution of a more intelligent, open and distributed internet, which could involve the use of blockchain, decentralized computing and cryptocurrencies.
As previously reported, Opera partnered with blockchain advisory and financial services firm Ledger Capital this September to explore possible blockchain applications across its products and ecosystem.