Opera signaled its intent for a share of the cryptocurrency market when it launched its crypto browser in January 2022. Not resting on its oars, the company has taken another stride as the Opera for Android (OfA) has integrated Ethereum Layer 2 Wallet becoming the first mobile browser to do so.
What this means in practice is that OfA users will be able to transact with Ethereum Layer 2 directly, benefiting from efficient, ultra-low transactions and instant trading — making swaps 100 times quicker and more cost-effective. The new solution brings low cost and near-instant DeFi functionality to Opera’s millions of users with no personal data required via DeversiFi’s decentralised exchange.
The integration with Ethereum Layer 2 exchange DeversiFi powered by Starkware’s Layer 2 scaling solution allows Opera to provide cheap and instant transactions within its Opera for Android browser wallet.
The increasing popularity of the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector, and the ongoing Non-Fungible Token (NFT) frenzy, have led to prohibitive transaction fees on the Ethereum mainnet. Hence, integrating a Layer 2 solution through a partnership with DeversiFi makes it easier, faster, and cheaper for Opera’s users to send ETH to each other in p2p transactions, with a Layer 2 swapping feature.
DeversiFi is powered by StarkWare’s innovative StarkEx scalability engine, which makes transacting via Layer 2 instantaneous and 100-times cheaper than via Ethereum Layer 1. Opera can therefore eliminate costly transaction fees and introduce instant trading for millions of its mobile users.
The company commenting on why it is making this move said, “It’s part of Opera’s DNA to make accessing the web easier. We have been providing extreme data savings, privacy, or ad-blocking features to our users around the globe. Now it’s time to remove one of the key hurdles associated with the use of web3: exorbitant gas fees and slow network speeds.
“Through this integration, the Opera users are able to seamlessly interact with DeFi on a user-friendly interface and experience a completely new way to interact with financial services at low costs, which are particularly relevant for those users who today are being priced out of the market due to high transaction costs on Ethereum.”
Layer 2 is a collective term for solutions designed to help scale applications, speed up transaction times and lower the transaction costs thus making them more user- and environment-friendly. While Ethereum 2.0 will bring these benefits to the entire Ethereum blockchain, current Layer 2 Zero-Knowledge solutions are designed to handle transactions off the Ethereum mainnet while taking advantage of the Layer 1 settlement and security model.
Zero-Knowledge scaling solutions use cryptography to ensure transactions’ validity and to validate it on the Ethereum mainnet. This allows for faster and cheaper processing and higher scalability and makes the experience of transacting with Ethereum more user-friendly.
To start transacting with Layer 2, all you need to do is install the beta version of Opera for Android, go to settings, open the crypto wallet feature and activate the L2 card there.
