MetaMask, the popular non-custodial wallet with over 21 million monthly active users, has launched its Snaps functionality in Open Beta, marking an important step towards creating a fully permissionless ecosystem. This action encourages developers and the broader community to devise novel solutions to the difficulties of the emerging Web3 landscape.
The wallet developer hopes that developers will be able to build on the MetaMask wallet to address some of the most complex challenges in Web3. MetaMask welcomes the developer community to release independent features and capabilities with the introduction of Snaps, thereby changing the wallet into a modular platform.
This flexibility enables over 21 million users to build and publish features or services via MetaMask without the need for clearance from the cryptocurrency firm. This licence allows for the creation of a plethora of services and features, perhaps in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands, to address various outstanding concerns in Web3.
MetaMask believes that by decentralising development, it will be able to unleash human potential on an exponential scale and capitalise on the full breadth of innovation occurring in the Web3 ecosystem.
The road to releasing Snaps, however, has not been without difficulties. During negotiations with Google, developers from the search engine and PlayStore offered a full rewrite of how extensions like MetaMask functioned, according to MetaMask, which is owned by ConsenSys, a leading creator of Ethereum software solutions.
Negotiations and compromises between ConsenSys and Google developers resulted in an agreement on how the wallet should function without adding security issues.
Snaps is now available in open beta in MetaMask version v11.0 and can be viewed through all supported browsers, including Chrome and Brave. While the feature is currently available to users of these browsers, Firefox users will get access to it at a later, undisclosed date.
MetaMask is an important part of the Web3 ecosystem, acting as a bridge between decentralised protocols that provide end-users with solutions in decentralised finance (DeFi), the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other areas. Because MetaMask is “hot” (connected to the internet) and non-custodial, users may easily plug it into a variety of services, from trading to staking, without giving up control of their assets.
According to Google PlayStore data as of September 12, over 10 million users had downloaded MetaMask, with more users on various operating systems such as iOS and Windows.
ConsenSys received criticism in November 2022 when it modified its privacy policy to collect additional data from users relying on Infura, a vital infrastructure utility in Web3 that enables seamless connectivity between protocols such as MetaMask and the Ethereum mainnet.
