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MetaMask, the most widely used Web3 wallet, has announced the launch of a new mechanism that enables its use outside the EVM ecosystem.
According to the MetaMask team, Snaps is a significant step towards making MetaMask fully decentralized and permissionless.
MetaMask Outside The EVM Ecosystem
The new software mechanism is called Snaps and aims to foster the wallet’s use on blockchain networks that are not natively compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). So far, MetaMask has been primarily associated with Ethereum and Ethereum-compatible blockchains. These include Polygon, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, and Optimism. The introduction of Snaps will enable MetaMask’s use on non-EVM compatible blockchains such as Cosmos, Tezos, Algorand, Starknet, and Solana.
“Today marks a major milestone for MetaMask: We’re launching MetaMask Snaps Open Beta, the first step towards our journey to create a fully permissionless ecosystem with MetaMask.”
Snaps are software modules that can be integrated with the MetaMask wallet for several add-on use cases, such as making the wallet compatible across blockchain ecosystems using specialized code.
A Significant Step
The MetaMask team has stated that the launch of Snaps is a significant step in making MetaMask fully decentralized and permissionless. With the launch of Snaps, MetaMask reaffirms its commitment to building a peer-to-peer ecosystem of decentralized applications without any risk of censorship.
The first iteration of Snaps will be featured in Extension v11.0+. This is already available to Google Chrome users. Meanwhile, the release for Firefox is under development and will be available to users soon.
“You may wonder why would you want just any dev to build a feature for MetaMask. The answer is simple. We believe a decentralized internet accessible to all and owned by the people who use it, will give rise to human flourishing on an exponential scale. While our roots are in Ethereum and our expertise is grounded in building the leading self-custodial wallet, we appreciate that innovation occurs across many domains across the Web3 ecosystem.”
Over 30 Snaps third-party apps for MetaMask are currently available on the wallet portal. The first generation of Snaps extensions can connect MetaMask to Cosmos (ATOM), Bitcoin (BTC), Starknet, Algorand (ALGO), Sui (SUI), Solana (SOL), and Aptos (APT). These are some of the most popular non-EVM compatible blockchains in the world.
Solana Comes To MetaMask
With Snaps, we will also see Solana-based NFTs and SOL be directly managed on MetaMask wallets. Additionally, Solana dApps will also be available on MetaMask. Filip Dragoslavic, Solflare co-founder, stated that the development will help erase the friction generally experienced when installing a new wallet. This has been a considerable hindrance and has stopped Solana users from interacting with the chain. Now, according to Dragoslavic, users can simply use MetaMask, which is the most popular crypto wallet.
“Solana has an incredibly vibrant ecosystem of apps, of which many are only possible on Solana. This integration could be a game-changer to introduce the biggest user base in Web3 to just try Solana and see for themselves.”
Solflare is one of 34 third-party developers who have developed Snaps to enable users to customize their notifications, customize their user interface, and get insights about transactions.
Is MetaMask Airdrop Coming Closer?
The MetaMask team has stressed that switching to a more decentralized mechanism is on the horizon for itself and the MetaMask community.
“Today, MetaMask Snaps is not at the final destination of our vision to being a fully permissionless ecosystem just yet. This journey requires time, iterations, and improvements to accomplish.”
This could mean that the highly anticipated airdrop of the hypothetical MetaMask token could be closer, as it represents the only way fully decentralized governance can be established.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.