Opera Sings Praises Of New Cryptocurrency Wallet

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Developers behind the Opera internet browser have revealed their shiny, new cryptocurrency wallet and platform for decentralised Ethereum apps (Dapps).

A private beta wallet is open for Android users.

The move marks an internet milestone as Opera becomes the first major browser to incorporate a cryptocurrency wallet.

“We are pretty excited about this,” said a spokesman.

“We believe the web of today will be the interface to the decentralized web of tomorrow. This is why we have chosen to use our browser to bridge the gap.

“We think that with a built-in crypto wallet, the browser has the potential to renew and extend its important role as a tool to access information, make transactions online and manage users’ online identity in a way that gives them more control.”

The wallet supports wallet-to-wallet transactions and online payments on a Coinbase-enabled platform.

“Although the current selection of merchants accepting cryptocurrencies is very limited, we think cryptocurrency payments will become more popular, as crypto wallets become easier to use and understand,” said the spokesman.

“This is a user-controlled wallet, which means that the keys controlling the funds and assets are on the user’s phone and nowhere else.”

Ban on the cards

Card providers Mastercard and Visa set to declare cryptocurrency, initial coin offerings (ICOs), forex and binary options as ‘high risk’ transactions.

The change of policy means only financial institutions with a licence to operate in a specific region can carry out transactions. Each institutions must provide documentation as proof of permission to operate.

The move is expected to tame rogue brokers and exchanges based in unregulated or loosely regulated jurisdictions.

The measure will impact any merchant currently using Mastercard, Mastercard Debit and Maestro.

$8m ICO flops

The Civil Media Company’s proposed $8 million ICO has flopped with just over a thousand investors staking $1.43 million.

Another 1,738 buyers registered but failed to progress with their interest.

The ICO was to sell CVL tokens to create a new economy for content providers and journalists.

Despite the disappointment, the company is planning a second offering that includes a blockchain plug-in for blogging platform WordPress.

“This isn’t how we saw this going,” said a spokesman. “The numbers will show clearly enough that we are not where we wanted to be at this point in the sale when we started out.”