MetaMask Launches Snaps to Expand Compatibility Beyond Ethereum

The popular Web3 wallet has officially unveiled a novel feature called ‘Snaps,’ which paves the way for its expansion beyond the confines of  Ethereum.

This marks a new dawn for developers and users of Metamask, who will benefit from interoperability and compatibility for different non-EVM blockchains.

The inception of this feature traces back to a proposal by Dan Finlay, the co-lead developer in Metamask, to construct a platform welcoming developers to build permissionless solutions that integrate with the wallet.

Following significant advancement, the concept envisioned by Dan Finlay is becoming a reality with the introduction of Metamask Snaps in Extension v11.0+.

Metamask defines Snaps as novel features developed by third parties that users can directly install into their wallets without permission. The project offers a functionality allowing anyone to add features from other independent developers straight into their Metamask wallet.

According to Metamask;

“Snaps run in a sandboxed 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 what permissions you are granting.”

Sources indicate that Metamask engaged with about 150 different devs in developing this new functionality. The launch of Snaps is a giant leap forward for innovation grounded in Metamask, propelling the decentralization movement into a new era.

Snaps Welcome Interoperability with non-EVM Blockchains

As indicated in Metamask’s snap directory, 34 snaps are integrated and ready to use by crypto investors at launch. Based on Metamask, one of the primary classes of the allowlisted ‘Snaps’ focuses on the interoperability and compatibility of Metamask with non-EVM blockchains, including Solana, Bitcoin, Algorand, Cosmos, and more. There are two Solana-focused, 1-Algorand-focused, and 1 Bitcoin-focused Snaps.

The BTCSnap is the first-ever product allowing users to manage BTC directly within Metamask without wrapping the tokens.

Algorand Foundation now has an Algorand Snap, which allows people to manage, swap, and transfer accounts directly with Metamask.

Solflare Wallet and Drift Labs have launched different integrations of Solana wallets so investors can swap, stake, connect to Solana Dapps, and even bridge from EVM to SOL with utmost ease.

More interoperability-focused snaps already launched include Tezos-Metamask-Snap, CubeSigner, Cosmosnap, Consensys/Starknet Snap, and Mina Portal, etc.

Notification and Transaction Insight Snaps

Aside from the interoperability Snaps, Metamasks brought the Notification and Transaction insights the new feature as well. Notification snaps bring with them chat features and notifications provided directly into Metamask. Examples of such tools include Push Snap by Push V1, Walletchat-Metamask Snap, and more.

Transaction Insight Snaps are features that bring clear and in-depth analysis of blockchain transactions. Such Snaps include Forta network-Metamask Snap, risk detect-snap, Blockfence-insights, Tenderly Snap, and Wallet Guard.