Solana [SOL] is soon set to integrate with multi-platform web browser Opera in the 1st quarter of 2022. As stated in their official press release, the partnership will facilitate Opera’s Android users to be able to gain accessibility to Solana’s wide range of decentralized applications [DApps] as well as benefit from its popular features such as low gas fees and faster transactions prevalent in the ecosystem.
As a matter of fact, Opera had launched its first Web 3-ready browser and a built-in crypto wallet back in 2018. In the same period of time, the Norwegian browser had announced a joint collaboration with the prominent strategic blockchain advisory and financial services entity, Ledger Capital to explore the potential of digital ledger technology.
Why Solana?
With growing mainstream interest in web3 technology and decentralized finance [DeFi], the leading browser is moving on to the next stage of integrating faster blockchains with lower transaction costs amid a growing pool of developers and users. As per the blog post, the main reason behind choosing the Solana blockchain is its ability to bring fast, low-fee transactions that will help onboard more individuals to web3 and DeFi. The layer one blockchain will provide direct access to Opera’s hundreds of millions of users and will initially provide support to the browser’s Android version.
In addition to that, Solana would also ‘allow for lightning–fast finality and very low transaction fees of only $0.00025‘. In fact, the platform currently boasts a burgeoning ecosystem of dApps such as Serum, Raydium, Metaplex, Orca, Audius, gaming among other things. Speaking on the collaboration, Susie Batt, Crypto Ecosystem Lead at Opera said that the partnership is aimed at fulfilling the shared ambitious goal of ‘onboarding one billion people into the crypto ecosystem.
Echoing similar sentiment, Austin Federa who heads the communications division at Solana labs noted,
The path to 1 billion users can’t be built by just two or three platforms. This integration will give tens of millions of new users even more choices of how to connect to Solana, and work to keep the dream of the open web alive and well. The mobile web3 revolution has barely just begun, and Opera is helping lead the way.