Opera, [NASDAQ:OPRA] the company behind the popular, eponymous multi-platform web browser, today unveils its “Crypto Browser Project,” offering users direct, frictionless access to Web3 services with beta versions immediately available for Windows, Mac and Android.
The new beta offering caters to the crypto-native and the crypto-curious, placing Web3 front and center in the browsing experience. With its crypto browser project, Opera intends to make it easier than ever to browse decentralized apps (dapps), games, and metaverse platforms for a more seamless cross-platform experience. The browser comes equipped with a news and data aggregator, dubbed “Crypto Corner” — a dedicated space with key information including crypto news, crypto asset prices and gas fees, in addition to crypto events, airdrops and even podcasts.
The Opera browser is already one of the most secure privacy browsers in the world, thanks to its no-login VPN, and native ad & tracker blocker. The crypto browser integrates these same industry-leading standards and services with a new set of novel features that make using the new blockchain-based web as simple as accessing Web2.
Jorgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera, says: “The interest in Web3 continues to grow but none of the existing web browsing experiences offered today are built to create a seamless and secure user experience in the decentralized web. Opera’s Crypto Browser Project promises a simpler, faster, more private Web3 experience for users. It simplifies a Web3 user experience that is often bewildering for mainstream users. Opera believes Web3 has to be easy to use for the decentralized web to reach its full potential.”
“We are releasing our beta to the world to get feedback from the crypto community and to build it together moving forward,” added Arnesen.
These include direct access to decentralized exchanges, Web3-based NFTs, and gaming Dapps as well as integrated Telegram and Twitter support — accessed directly from the browser’s sidebar. A built-in non-custodial wallet will initially support Ethereum in beta but will soon extend interoperability across the major networks and naming systems through partnerships with Polygon, Solana, Nervos, Celo, Unstoppable Domains, Handshake, ENS, and many more to be announced.
The wallet supports both fungible ERC-20 standards as well as non-fungible standards including ERC-721 tokens with ERC-1155 coming in Q1 2022. It also allows users to purchase crypto via a built-in fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, as well as facilitate direct crypto-to-crypto swaps. Users can also check their crypto balance and gas prices, and even access a built-in NFT gallery.
Partnerships with Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, such as Polygon, will enable Opera’s Crypto Browser Project to address one of the most crucial issues associated with blockchain technologies — the environmental costs of carrying out each transaction.
To illustrate, the Polygon network consumes just 0.00079 terawatts (TWh) of electricity per year — several orders of magnitude below the energy consumption by the major Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain networks which average between 35 to 140 (TWh) per year.
Opera’s Crypto Browser meets the growing consumer need for greater Web3 access, simplicity and an overall better user experience as more and more of our daily activities shift online. The size of the market opportunity is significant: PWC estimates the expansion of the Web3 and the metaverse will add $1.5 trillion to the economy by 2030. Despite this extraordinary growth, current rates of adoption are lagging as access technologies are unnecessarily complex. Opera’s Crypto Browser represents an important step toward simplifying and streamlining user access to this newest iteration of the internet.
About Opera
Opera is a global web innovator with an engaged and growing base of hundreds of millions of monthly active users who seek a better internet experience. Building on over 25 years of innovation that started with browser products, Opera is now leveraging its brand and highly engaged user base in order to expand its business into new segments. Today, Opera offers users around the world a range of products and services that include PC and mobile browsers, the newsreader Opera News, and apps dedicated to gaming, crypto, e-commerce and classifieds. In 2018, Opera introduced the first browser with a built-in crypto wallet and web3 support. Opera is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (OPRA).
