Step aside, Brave, Opera Browser wants to become the king of Web 3 browsers.
In an official blog post on Friday, December 10, Opera announced a partnership with Solana Labs to add native support for the popular blockchain, allowing it to run a native Solana wallet along with all the dApps in the ecosystem.
The Opera team said on Twitter that the integration was expected to be ready by Q1 2022. By then, users should be able to enjoy all the benefits of the blockchain in desktop and mobile browsers without any restrictions
Opera’s interest in Solana is not surprising. Since at least 2018, the browser has been taking a targeted approach to cryptocurrency support, blockchain technology, and the so-called Web 3.
The news doesn’t seem to have excited the markets much. Opera’s stock closed Friday’s trading session at $7.24, down -4.36%, albeit a modest rise from the $6.96 it started the week at.
For its part, Solana’s price trend did not react to the news, maintaining the bearish trajectory initiated in early November right after its ATH. SOL, Solana’s native token, closed the day at $166.97 for a 7.86% drop. At the time of writing, the price has corrected to $169.21, which is still almost 35% below its ATH and a 14% drop in weekly performance.
Unlike Web 1, where users consume content provided by a website, and Web 2, where users interact through a centralized platform, in Web 3, there is no centralized entity controlling interactions, but rather the communication is done through technologies such as blockchain where data flows in a network with no single point of failure.
Some examples of Web 3 focused developments are Sapien, UjoMusic, Storj, Filecoin, Hive, and Minds.
Despite some controversies, Brave has been the undisputed king of the crypto-browsers for a while. The browser is even powered by its own blockchain, and its BAT token serves as the basis for an entire ecosystem that aims to rethink the business of advertising and content promotion, rewarding users for viewing ads, and allowing the community to reward quality content creators.
Opera, however, has taken a more pragmatic approach. They have not developed a cryptocurrency, nor do they want to create a new experience, but their browser has adapted to Web3 like no other. In addition to Solana, Opera has a native cryptocurrency wallet, support for Dapps, and other features geared towards blockchain adoption.
