At Opera they have always been quite at the forefront when it comes to blockchain technology. Since 2018 they have integrated their own cryptocurrency portfolio in the browser, and your browser already supports web3 to access .crypto websites, something you’ve probably been hearing about more and more and may not quite understand what it is.
The latest news from Opera has to do precisely with this, with “the web of the future”. The company has just announced its integration with Polygon, an Ethereum scaling platform that incorporates thousands of projects to web3, which would allow its users to access more than 3,000 decentralized applications (DApps) of the Polygon network from the browser. 2022.
And what does this web3 matter?
The web as we experience it today is what is known as Web 2.0In other words, when we go from that mainly text and reading website (Web 1.0) to what we now enjoy with interactive, social websites, loaded with multimedia content that are mainly hosted on centralized servers.
With web3 or Web 3.0, the idea is beginning to be sold that the future is to turn this last point around and decentralize the web to run on blockchains (as well as cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum) powered by P2P networks.
On the web3 applications are called DApps (the ‘D’ is for decentralized) and the main idea is that developers do not create applications that run on a single server, or store all their information in a single database, which as it happens today constantly, they are usually hosted and maintained by a single cloud service provider.
On the web3, DApps run on the blockchain, on centralized networks with multiple p2p nodes, or a combination of the two, something that is becoming known as the “cryptoeconomic protocol”.
In its announcement, Opera also explains that it will allow transactions with MATIC. MATIC is a token with which they want to “remove the obstacles associated with the use of cryptocurrencies.” Namely, Ethereum gas rates that are rising to unsustainable levels.
Polygon is trying to introduce a new Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution of fast, scalable and ultra low fees, and it has become quite popular with users and developers, hosting many game DApps and NFTs.
That is another of the key points of the web3, since cryptocurrencies play a very important role in these protocols by offering a financial incentive to those who participate in the creation, governance, contribution or improvement of one of the projects itself. In Opera’s case, that incentive would be MATIC, at least for now.
At the moment we are probably nowhere near the web3 replacing Web 2.0, and the blockchain is not without its own problems and challenges as well. However, Opera may be the first to jump into the water with such a project, but it surely won’t be the last.