Brave Wallet on desktop adds Polkadot and private cross-chain transfers in v1.94

Brave has added two wallet upgrades in the latest v1.94 version on desktop. It includes native Polkadot support and private cross-chain transfers powered by NEAR Protocol’s “Confidential Intents.”

Brave officially posted this information on X. You can view the entire thread attached below.

This is a desktop Brave Wallet update, covering Windows, macOS, and Linux; it is not an iOS or Android wallet announcement. Users already on Brave desktop can pick it up by opening the browser menu, heading over to About Brave, and installing the update. Since the wallet lives inside the browser, no separate app is required.

The first change is Polkadot. You can now buy, hold, and send DOT directly in Brave Wallet. The wallet also supports AssetHub, the part of Polkadot used to issue and manage Polkadot-native assets.

Furthermore, Swaps and broader Web3 connectivity for Polkadot are planned later this year, and are not included in this release.

For those unaware, Polkadot is a network built so that many blockchains can share security and move assets between them. DOT is its native token, and AssetHub is the chain where those native tokens are created and managed.

In simpler terms, Brave users no longer need a separate Polkadot wallet just to hold or send DOT.

The second change is Confidential Intents. Brave says you can now move funds on Bitcoin, Cardano, Ethereum, and Solana without leaving the usual public trail on those chains, and Zcash support is coming later. By default, those transactions are routed through a NEAR private shard.

More information about Confidential Intents is available here, but it’s basically a privacy layer. Instead of broadcasting swap details on a public blockchain, the transfer runs on a private layer that you can’t browse publicly. The size, pair, and path of the trade aren’t as easily visible as a public transaction. While the incoming & outgoing money is still visible on public networks, the entire process in the middle is obscured.

In other Brave news, the Containers feature is getting an upgrade, with upcoming automation features. More on that here. 

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