
Opera delivers desktop browser with crypto wallet integration - dikkechill
https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2018/09/opera-delivers-the-first-desktop-browser-with-built-in-crypto-wallet-access-labs-version/
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dangero
PSA that Opera is owned by a Chinese consortium as of 2016. I wouldn't trust
it as a safe replacement for Chrome privacy issues.

[https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/18/opera-browser-sold-
to-a-...](https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/18/opera-browser-sold-to-a-chinese-
consortium-for-600-million/)

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jeena
Back in the days I was a big Opera fan, I even bought myself free from the ads
it came with in the top right. But since they abandoned their own rendering
engine I literary haven't even downloaded it a single time to even test it.
It's so uninteresting to see a closed source browser which just uses the open
source blink engine.

~~~
elandrum
I can understand your dissatisfaction with their choice of closed on top of
open, but I’d encourage you to give it a whirl. I switched early last year
because I was growing wary of Google and wanted to see if Opera was faster.
Sure enough, it’s impressively fast and has all the built in things that I
want. I’m quite impressed with their latest improvements and really enjoy
using it. I’d be hard pressed to switch to anything else right now.

~~~
petre
I use it on mobile. It's quite nice, has an okayish ad blocker and a nice text
wrap zoom feature that I enjoy and no other mobile browser has. It's fast
enough but Brave is faster. Also used it on the Windows desktop before FF
quantum.

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dikkechill
What I find interesting is that it supports access to an external wallet on
your phone. This reduces the attack surface.

Another browser that has a wallet built in is Brave [1]. But afaik this does
not support access to wallets on other devices.

[1] [https://brave.com/funding-your-brave-wallet/](https://brave.com/funding-
your-brave-wallet/)

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ggm
_what could possibly go wrong_ integrating an engine capable of running
arbitrary web downloaded javascript, with a wallet capable of being drained of
real-world affecting value...

oh, its ok, we have _sandboxes_

~~~
xrd
It's really simple to take any crypto currency holdings you have and split
them into multiple accounts. One of your accounts, that you enable on your
mobile device, could have a small amount of currency and even if there were a
JavaScript exploit that hijacked your private key, you've only lost that bit
in the small account. And, you don't have to wait for the bank transfer to
occur, or even create an account with a bank bureaucracy. It seems much better
than the alternative, no?

~~~
ggm
yes. But the utility shrinks as soon as you walk into the risks. The headline
story is great. The reality is going to demand the same rigour around offline
and online wallets.

Plus, we just incentivised the bad guys to try harder. Up to now, the risk has
been "steal my CPU to do DDoS or mine" but now the risk is _steal my money_

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Ayesh
The golden age of Opera was with Opera Mini, where they ran a massive proxy to
dumb down desktop web sites for tiny mobile browsers, likely running Java.
Everyone used it, loved it, and I bet it cost Opera a lot of money too.

After this, Opera is struggling a lot to set themselves apart of the pack, and
in my opinion, they are failing at it. They lost the focus, and past recent
"innovations" were simply smashing things with the browser.

\- VPN integration built in. \- Ad Blocker built in \- Torrent client built in
\- Crypto currency wallet built in

All these features, but they still have to make money too. Running ads (as
suggested sites or whatever) doesn't bode well in a land where we have more
popular open source browsers not running ads, and having all these features as
add-ons, web apps, or one way or the other.

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Theodores
What is the 'web 3.0' Opera speak of? Is this a buzzword too far? I think I
get the idea - semantic web where the web knows loads of stuff about you
thanks to your browser, however, if I was in a client meeting and spoke of
'web 3.0' I would expect people to think I had gone mad, taken too many drugs,
arrived pissed and generally jumped the shark. It is not a helpful buzzword
and it surprises me that marketing for Opera use such a vague buzzword.

Regarding the crypto wallet that is built in, who honestly believes in the
crypto future these days? The fad is over and nobody is interested in the fake
bitcoins. Bitcoin dominance is on the rise and the other 'coins' only persist
due to people 'HODLing', i.e. holding on to the 'coins' they have out of the
hope that one day some greater fool will come along and be interested in what
they have 'invested in'.

Alt coins and their apparent value reminds me of those holiday homes people
built but did not complete in Spain, Ireland and elsewhere prior to the 2008
crash. If you go to Spain you can still see these properties and notionally
these useless buildings have got 'value'. Eventually someone will come along
and find use for the properties, even if it is to use them for keeping cattle
in. The owners are not selling as they have negative equity. That residual
value does fluctuate with movements in the currency markets much as the values
in fake bitcoins does move up and down. But there is no income, the capital is
not employed to generate a profit and the assets are worthless yet worth
something at the same time.

On this analogy it is like Opera think the good old days of 2008 will come
back. Or in alt-coins, the good old days of December 2017.

The 'good old days' of crypto are not coming back. There are no greater fools
foolish enough to want to buy in. The 'dApps' never arrived, much like the
tourists that never arrived in the pre-2008 speculator Potemkin villages of
Spain, Ireland etc. Mainstream people just do not want to have anything to do
with it, crypto is just not cool. Opera must be very desperate to want to tie
their fortunes to 'crypto wallets'.

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killjoywashere
opera is now a Chinese asset, correct?

