What is a crypto browser and why do we need crypto-friendly browsers?
Since the beginning of the internet, web browsers have been an integral part of our lives. Through a web browser, we can easily navigate the internet in the search of useful content. These web browsers require servers to live upon. The servers return with the requested content on your screen. But today, in the era of Web3.0 there are crypto friendly browsers, specifically developed for easily accessing web3 based websites. In this article, we will be going to learn about the top 5 crypto-friendly browsers.
Crypto Browsers come integrated with a crypto wallet that allows users to buy, sell, trade, or store their cryptocurrencies. For instance: MetaMask is a crypto wallet and can be used via its browser extension on the web browser for easy access. Similarly, many other crypto wallets are built into the browser whereas others can be operated through their extensions. Also, some crypto browsers come with built-in decentralized applications (dApps) and marketplaces.
Your crypto browser needs to support exceptional qualities related to the security and speed of its working. Certainly, nobody wants their crypto wallet gets hacked or a slow and fussy browser with extremely slow speed. Therefore, some parameters should not be overlooked or taken for granted when choosing a secured web browser for crypto trading. Let us take a close look at the given list in the next section.
Also, read - Top 10 cryptos wallets in 2021
In-built VPN
A browser with an in-built VPN is the best idea. The VPN (Virtual Private Network) system tends to put your IP address out of the sight and encrypts the traffic from the devices. Also, VPN extensions such as ExpressVPN can be downloaded and installed if your browser doesn’t have one. Through a browser having a solid VPN system, crypto trading can be done anonymously and securely.
In-built Wallet
The in-built wallet feature comes in handy for traders and frequent crypto users. It becomes convenient and secure when you use an in-built wallet feature for multiple purposes. One can store their digital assets, keep a track of transactions, and saves a lot of time from frequent logging into the account. Users holding multiple crypto wallets braise this feature and suggests all browser should have it.
Removes Browsing History
Our browsers often become slow due to poor network, multiple tabs, and accumulated browsing history. A good browser does not record your browsing history. Many browsing organizations often collect personal information to share with advertising agencies. They also record your history and makes inferences about your choice of sites you always prefer. They store and sell the private data to many advertising sites to influence visitors.
The best crypto browsers do not store your browsing history. It is suggested to delete your history data periodically, work in incognito mode, or chose an efficient browser that does not store your history.
Fast
A well-experienced crypto trader always goes with a fast browser. Trading is a quick process where tracking the prices of crypto tokens is necessary. These prices change every second on each crypto exchange platform. To do trading, buying, or selling at a certain fixed price before it changes, a good and fast browser is a must. Fast browsers are dependable, reliable, quickly responsive, and do not chuck your valuable time in loading a page.
Today, there are many fast browsers available for users and mostly for crypto and digital asset traders. Many of them are built on Chromium engine which is the fastest search engine in the world so far.
Tab Stacking
A good crypto trader is a good tracker. And for that, he/she needs to be updated with token pricing and other activities. Opening multiple tabs become handy for these purposes to visit different web pages. Therefore, it becomes easy to lose track of the exact website we want to go to collect information.
The tab stacking feature is an excellent feature for people who often open many sites at one time. The tab stacking feature arranges the tabs according to your preferences. Through this feature, you can create a variety of stacks related to different topics. For instance, you can create a tab stack for all the Ethereum-based coins and another for Bitcoin. It also becomes easy to reach any site quickly and process the data by the user.
Top 5 Crypto-friendly browsers
1. Brave
Brave has become the most widely used browser after Google Chrome. It is a Chromium-based browser that blocks the ads and cookies, this service is known as Brave-Shield. Brave-Shield also stops advertisers from tracking the users and their history. It comes with other features like device recognition blockchain and script blocking. The users are suggested to keep the Shield in on mode so that shopping sites and other trackers do not follow them.
Working on Brave becomes much easier and faster as it blocks the ads faster than Google Chrome and Firefox. Such advertisement not only consumes a heavy amount of data but also causes network congestion in the system. Having switched to fully Chromium-based engines in 2018 from the Muon interface, it speeded up its functionality by 22%.
In addition, Brave comes with some important built-in security features. The most recognized feature out of all is the automatic upgrades of sites to HTTPS using sandboxing techniques. The HTTPS efficiently encrypts the online traffic whereas sandboxing technique prevents malware to infect the device.
Brave also has its native cryptocurrency BAT. It rewards users by displaying selected advertising programs on the browser in the form of BAT. These ads are shown concerning the user browsing history which is locally stored on the browser. Therefore, it does not exploit the user privacy concerns and can be a secured ad revenue system for users to earn BAT.
2. Tor Browser
Tor browser is the second most famous browser that uses the Onion network to make the traffic anonymous and untraceable. The traffic data are processed three times through a random series of nodes preventing malicious attacks and discovering personal information and location.
Thankfully, with the private servers of Tor, users get access to onion sites and the dark web without losing their network security. The series of private server networks is established on decentralization. Hence, users’ profiles and their information are safe and they don’t have to trust any private firms for their data.
Tor has its private search engine DuckDuckGo, similar to Google. but unlike Google, it provides more relevant data and searches results. To add a more layer of privacy, it doesn’t share user data to any of the visited sites. Also, Tor does not save any data when you close the browser. Each tab opened on Tor serves as an individual window, thus no data sharing takes place between open windows.
Tor comes with HTTPS everywhere with NoScript pre-installed activated. Both the services are dedicated to providing the best security services. While HTTPS Everywhere enhances the security by compelling Tor to open the safer site, NoScript blocks the Javascript and Flash (mostly exploited by hackers) to protect users from potential threats.
3. Waterfox
Waterfox was initially a part of Firefox’s open-source code before separating. It is known as Firefox Fork. With Waterfox, the users can browse hassle-free with strong built-in privacy settings. Waterfox is a result of the secure and more privacy-focused product of Firefox and it doesn’t require installing extensions separately.
It is a fully customizable platform that removes telemetry, private data collection, profiles, and other user-related information to protect privacy. It also doesn’t track your online activity. To check for updates, it does collect minor information about the operating system and browser version. Also to prevent malicious hackers from following your data, it periodically deletes the browsing history by itself. Therefore, no other plugins or browser cleaning tools are required to do that job.
4. Mozilla Firefox
According to Statcounter GlobalStat’s recent records, 3.4% of the total worldwide population uses Firefox or Mozilla Firefox as their preferred web browser. It has a huge library of extensions and can be widely used for enhanced security. Firefox was developed for worldwide Android and iOS users.
It also applies sandboxing techniques, fingerprinting protection, and crypto-jacking protection which prevents crypto miners from hackers. Firefox improvises itself with each update thus it makes sure that the security maintains its continuity. The browser boosts privacy protection by blocking pop-up ads and similar attempts.
Moreover, Firefox gives its users additional liberty to optimize its security in the web browser for privacy. the web browser does not collect or sell any data or information, unlike Google Chrome. having an open-source coding gives leverage to the users to inspect and make desirable modifications.
Last year, Firefox was audited by Cure53 which is a reputed cybersecurity firm that conducts audits and investigations to address security issues. Firefox did come out with flying colors with some minor issues which were fixed immediately. It is suggested that the Firefox browser should be used with a VPN.
5. Google Chrome
Google Chrome is the world’s leading and the largest web browser preferred by 64% of the worldwide population. Though it commits to the best privacy settings just like Brave or Tor, safety concerns are its top priority for better user engagement.
However, just like any other hacking news, the hackers or malicious sites cannot penetrate the system via network due to its regular updates and strong defending coding network. It automatically updates the browser almost every six to eight weeks. Even some parts of the codes are open-sourced, which means any developer and coder can modify as they please.
According to a large population and crypto enthusiasts, Google Chrome has still considered the safest browser out of all for doing business and trading activity. The web browser has a regular cycle to remove harmful extensions for their store.
As it doesn’t come with an in-built wallet system, it does supports various extensions related to crypto wallets and micro trading add-ons to buy, sell, and trade crypto assets. Also, anyone can download another browser extension to boost the security of the network and speed up data processing.
