The popular Web3 wallet has officially launched a novel feature called “Snaps,” paving the way for its expansion beyond Ethereum.
This marks a new dawn for Metamask developers and users, who will benefit from interoperability and compatibility across different non-EVM blockchains.
The feature’s genesis can be traced back to a proposal by Metamask co-lead developer Dan Finlay to build a platform that would welcome developers to build permissionless solutions that integrate with the wallet.
Following significant progress, the concept envisioned by Dan Finlay is becoming a reality with the introduction of Metamask Snap in Extension v11.0+.
Metamask defines Snaps as novel features developed by third parties that users can install directly into their wallets without permission. The project offers a feature that allows anyone to add features from other independent developers directly into their Metamask wallets.
According to Metamask;
“Snaps run in a sandbox environment and use a permissions model to protect your data and respect your consent. Snaps do not have access to your MetaMask account data. When installing a Snap, make sure you understand the permissions you are granting.”
According to sources, Metamask worked with about 150 different developers to develop this new feature. The launch of Snaps is a huge leap forward in Metamask’s innovation, pushing the decentralized movement into a new era.
Snaps welcomes interoperability with non-EVM blockchains
As Metamask’s snap catalog shows, 34 snaps are integrated and available to cryptocurrency investors at launch. One of the main categories of permission-listed “Snaps” based on Metamask focuses on Metamask’s interoperability and compatibility with non-EVM blockchains, including Solana, Bitcoin, Algorand, Cosmos, and more. There are 2 Solana-centric Snaps, 1 Algorand-centric Snap, and 1 Bitcoin-centric Snap.
BTCSnap is the first-ever product that allows users to manage BTC directly in Metamask without the need for wrapped tokens.
The Algorand Foundation now has Algorand Snap, which allows people to manage, exchange, and transfer accounts directly using Metamask.
Solflare Wallet and Drift Labs have launched different integrations for Solana wallets so that investors can exchange, stake, connect to Solana Dapps, and even easily bridge from the EVM to SOL.
More interoperability-focused Snaps that have launched include Tezos-Metamask-Snap, CubeSigner, Cosmosnap, Consensys/Starknet Snap, and Mina Portal, among others.
Notifications and transaction insight snapshots
In addition to the interoperability snap, Metamasks also brings new features for notifications and transaction insights. Notification snaps bring chat features and notifications directly in Metamask. Examples of such tools include Push Snap for Push V1, Walletchat-Metamask Snap, etc.
The transaction insight snapshot feature provides clear, in-depth analysis of blockchain transactions. Such snaps include Forta Network-Metamask Snap, Risk Detection-snap, Blockfence-insights, Tenderly Snap, and Wallet Guard. #MetaMask #Snap
