The popular messaging app used by millions of people, especially those interested in the cryptocurrency industry, has launched a new in-app service customized for Bitcoin. For months rumors about Telegram cooking up something huge for the crypto sector have been circulating.
According to the rumors, Telegram’s new feature would be anonymous and P2P. Accordingly, Telegram users will need to share their phone numbers to buy, deposit, and trade cryptocurrencies. The rumor further stated that the sellers would need to pay a 0.98% commission, whereas the buyers would not pay. This is because,
“It is aimed towards ordinary users and provides a low entry threshold for learning about blockchain. Many services on TON are similar to the typical applications people are already used to. Without leaving Telegram, you can buy cryptocurrency, send it to your friends using a short nickname without long wallet addresses, get access to the internet with the @mobile bot, and pay for a subscription to your favorite Telegram channel along with many other services.”
The messaging service has a bot wallet that will serve as an intermediary between the cryptocurrency traders in case of any problems or disputes amid transactions.
The Service’s New Feature
For the users to sell their tokens, they need to post messages in Telegram that the buyers will either respond to or ignore based on their interest in the specified transaction and its price. In addition, the buyers will be allowed to buy cryptocurrencies with UAH, KZT, USD, BYN, and EUR. TON will be the only cryptocurrency shareable directly via this new Telegram feature.
Fortunately, the new feature will soon allow sharing of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin. Besides, The TON Foundation representative stated:
“One of the goals is to merge blockchain technology with the traditional internet. TON is creating its ecosystem to further this decentralized concept, which already includes DNS, sites, and proxies.”
As Durov stated, Telegram aims to enter the Web3 market, and launching this new feature might be one of the ways to do so. However, the possibilities of the new service, which seems slightly more limiting than those offered traditionally, to get public favor are not yet known.
Telegram into the Web3 Market
Telegram launched “Wallet Ton” in April, allowing users to trade the TON token. $TON shows in the blockchain of the social network directly on the Telegram app. Later in May, Disinter platform was introduced to TON’s first non-fungible token projects. In July, the app’s CEO, Pavel Durov, discussed exploring the vast opportunities offered by crypto, especially for his app.
Unfortunately, Durov had to leave TON, whose token remained, because of the SEC’s accusations that he had sold securities minus authorization. In addition, the SEC made the firm return approximately $1.2 billion, acquired by selling the GRAM token needed for governing the app’s blockchain environment.
To keep Dorav’s idea and plan to explore the crypto space in Telegram alive, the Telegram Wallet Ton’s developers have now created a new app to enable an accurate cryptocurrency exchange between the approximately 550 million Telegram users.
