Chrome MV2 sunset forcibly disabled uBlock Origin for millions of users who now have no equivalent tracker blocker
Google Chrome 138 (July 2025) permanently disabled Manifest V2 extensions and removed the last workaround toggle. uBlock Origin, the most-installed browser extension with tens of millions of users, stopped working in Chrome. The replacement (uBlock Origin Lite, MV3) is crippled: it cannot use dynamic filtering, has a hard 30,000-rule limit vs uBO's 300,000+, and misses 80%+ of tracking blocks. Users describe Chrome as now 'an advertising company's browser.' The MV3 architecture blocks the key webRequest API that made real-time blocking possible. Chromium-based alternatives (Brave, Edge, Opera) face the same deprecation path. The HN threads show mass switching intent to Firefox, but a large segment remains on Chrome for work or compatibility reasons and needs a privacy layer that works inside the MV3 constraint.
Score Breakdown
Social Proof 2 sources
Gap Assessment
uBlock Origin Lite exists but is explicitly crippled and community-rejected as an equivalent. No MV3 Chrome extension replicates full dynamic filtering and tracking protection at uBO's capability level. The gap is technical (MV3 constraints are real) but the demand is enormous and the frustration is documented across two HN threads totaling 391 pts and 352 comments. A smarter MV3 extension using the Declarative Net Request API more efficiently and fetching rule updates via a companion service is a monetizable SaaS-extension hybrid.