Operaâs Android browser â the âblockchain-readyâ web surfing app â added support on Monday for Unstoppable Domainsâ decentralized .crypto websites.
The partnership grants Unstoppable Domainsâ 200,000 registered .crypto domains an immediate inroad into Operaâs 80 million-strong user base. That means they can access Unstoppableâs Ethereum smart contract-registered, InterPlanetary File System-stored (IPFS) websites without leaving the browser address bar.
âIt makes them a lot more useful,â Unstoppable Domains founder Brad Kam said of the .crypto domains. Previously, web users needed either Unstoppableâs eponymous browser or a Google Chrome extension to access such sites.Â
From a technical standpoint, the integration marks an intriguing milestone for Opera, which started browsing .coms, .nets, .orgs and others over 26 years ago. Standard browsers get sitesâ IP addresses from Domain Name System (DNS) servers, the internetâs near-universal equivalent of a phone book. But thereâs no DNS entry for .crypto, according to Unstoppable.
Kam explained that Operaâs integrated browser uses a fundamentally different process to access .cryptos sites. Thatâs because .crypto domains scatter their web content across IPFSâ distributed host network and store the content locators â IPFS hashes â in Ethereum smart contracts.
âWhen I view a website, the browser is looking up the Ethereum blockchain itself in order to find my website content, instead of looking it up on the DNS servers,â Kam said in an email to CoinDesk.
He compared decentralized IPFS storage to Amazon Web Servicesâ global server network, but said IPFSâ reliance on distributed computers instead of a single corporate entityâs servers make .crypto websites censorship resistant.Â
âYou have lots of copies, so thereâs no one person or one group to ask to take it down,â he said. âEven if one or multiple people decide to take it down, someone else will still have it.â
Opera said in a press release it partnered with IPFSâ developer Protocol Labs for the integration.Â
The browser provider said Monday it has also expanded Opera for Androidâs cryptocurrency purchasing feature to the entire European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Switzerland.Â