The emergence of blockchain technology is often compared with the emergence of the internet at the initial stage of its development. Users were cautious about a decentralized system and failed to understand many of its subtleties.

But just as firms opened up to the internet, almost all corporations are now working on integrating blockchain into their processes — at least as a trial. And certain reasons for this trend to emerge are: With the acceleration of data transfers, globalization and the amount of information, the security questions concerning personal data are becoming more acute for users.

Personal information, in a way, is becoming valuable and thus compared to oil and thus can be monetized. If we recall the various scandals involving Facebook and Google, which have been led by allegations of misusing the data of millions of users. Therefore, the concept of a new “Web 3.0” emerged which would provide people with control over their content and digital identity, is gradually gaining traction and popularity.

Traditional internet browsers like chrome and firefox are still the gateway to internet for users, but will they retain their place in the new trend? And what will be the role played by blockchain in the future of internet browsing?

This year, the Opera browser officially launched a blockchain powered browser, called Opera Touch, for electronic devices operating on Apple’s iOS software and it was already initially available for only PCs and Android based devices by the end of last year.

A distinctive feature of the Opera Touch browser is the presence of all the necessary infrastructure and tools to work with the Web 3.0. Particularly, the Opera touch browser is equipped with a built-in cryptocurrency wallet and provides support services for decentralized applications (DApps) working on Ethereum.

The Opera browser also allows users to search blockchain based apps via URLs and has a built-in virtual private network (VPN). However, multiple other platforms already have different and established solutions like Chrome uses Metamask extension.

Brave browser and BAT reward

The Brave browser was launched some years ago, back in 2015 by Mozilla Project Corporation co-founder and JavaScript creator Brendan Eich. Its operations on the based on Google’s Chromium engine and its source code is totally open. One of the important features of the browser is that the browser removes ad banners and blocks pop-ups.

Moreover, it uses a system by which users are rewarded with BAT coins for watching ads that have passed the browser’s screening. So for these reasons, a crypto wallet is integrated into the browser. Last year in August, the browser boasted on its Twitter page that, in just four months after its launch, the number of downloads of its app in the Google Play Store has doubled and crossed the mark of 10 million downloads.

Open-source Beaker browser

A recent example in the list of decentralized browsers is the open-source P2P browser Beaker. It was developed recently in 2018 in partnership with the team that supports the Dat Project and is based on Dat’s P2P protocol. One of the visions of the project is to provide the capability to create and host websites directly in the browser.

And what about Google and Mozilla?

Google is working on the development of a blockchain-based technology which aims for developing and supporting cloud business and a number of other projects, which includes plans to use blockchain to the security of user data storage better. However, the company is not interested in sharing the details regarding its blockchain products. Mozilla seems to be following a similar path, as of now the browser supports plug-ins to provide facilities like privacy and security to the users, but similar to Google, no further information has been disclosed.