Opera Browser Adds Bitcoin Payments to Android Update

The Opera web browser has added bitcoin e-commerce and TRON integration to its Android app, the company said.

The enhanced crypto functionality will let Opera for android users make bitcoin payments directly from its built-in digital wallet and interact with decentralized apps on the TRON blockchain.

It could increase crypto visibility among the browser's claimed 300 million users.

"Most people have heard of bitcoin and thus we saw it as important to support it and make this feature more familiar to a larger group of people."

Of the top-five browsers chrome, safari, Samsung Internet, UC browser and Opera - Opera remains the only one to have digital wallet integration.

Now it is another tech move by one of the web's oldest apps.

Though technically a legacy product the Norway-based web surfer pivoted towards crypto in the past year, regularly expanding digital wallet functionality to its mobile and desktop offerings.

In July 2018, Opera for Android piloted an ethereum digital wallet as a step towards "Web 3.0:" the vision of a decentralized future internet built on a blockchain.

Opera introduced a "Web 3 ready" android browser, a crypto-friendly iOS app, a desktop browser with native digital wallet support, and partnered with a Swedish crypto broker to sell Scandinavians discounted ETH. Hamel told CoinDesk that the apps are now synchronized and optimized for adoption of a future web3.

"Bitcoin is a completely different beast that requires its own infrastructure and has a payment-focused usage scenario."