Opera’s web browser is slowly amassing a following among those advocating for a decentralized internet, with 170,000 users now engaging with its built-in Ethereum, Tron and Bitcoin wallets every month.
- Announcing crypto wallet usage numbers for the first time Friday, the longstanding Norwegian browser company gave some context to its two years-long courting of the Web 3, decentralized application (dapp) and distributed computing communities.
- While the firm would not provide a breakdown of the numbers by blockchain network, Charles Hamel, head of crypto at Opera, said Ethereum is "by far the most popular."
- While the wallet engagement figures pale in comparison to Opera’s total monthly active user-base (about 360 million) they’re not quite as far off from similar web-wallet products. MetaMask, a wallet browser extension provider, measured 192,000 monthly active users in May 2019.
- Opera worked on Friday to woo yet more wallet users by announcing that decentralized application clearinghouse Dapp.com will now power its Web 3 app store.
- U.K. users will now also be able to access the crypto top-up feature that Opera had previously rolled out in the U.S. and European markets. Fiat-to-crypto bridge company Ramp Instant will provide the U.K. service, Opera said.