You Can Now Pay Merchants on Telegram in Bitcoin—Here’s How it Works

By Nivesh Rustgi

Users can now directly pay merchants in crypto on Telegram via an independent chatbot called Wallet.

Built on TON blockchain and Telegram, the Wallet chatbot provides a way to store, trade, and transfer three cryptocurrencies: Toncoin (TON), Tether’s USDT on Tron, and Bitcoin (BTC).

The Wallet chatbot's team launched a new feature today with Wallet Pay API, which allows merchants to receive crypto payments directly on Telegram.

It’s an unofficial integration of crypto tech that isn’t developed by Telegram developers Telegram FZ LLC and Telegram Messenger Inc.

TON, which stands for The Open Network, is a layer-1 blockchain network based on the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, originally developed by the Telegram team. Toncoin (TON) is the native gas-paying token of The Open Network.

In May 2020, Telegram abandoned the project after litigation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

How to receive crypto on Telegram?

Merchants must first apply on the Wallet Pay website to start receiving crypto payments via Telegram.

A spokesperson for the chatbot’s team told Decrypt that “there are about 200 companies already in the queue to implement the product,” adding that they “expect thousands of small businesses to apply to make use of Wallet Pay.”

Users need to add @wallet on Telegram as a new contact and create a new crypto wallet instantly linked to their Telegram account. There’s no need for saving seed phrases or private keys.

“A Telegram account is required for any user to make use of Wallet and access simple transfers of USDT–this can be created using a regular phone number, or an anonymous tokenized phone number built by Telegram on the TON blockchain,” the spokesperson told Decrypt.

The team added a demo merchant for a fake demo merchant called Pineapple Store. Its user experience was relatively seamless, where users can view the store’s items and make payments within Telegram chat itself.

Demo payment using TON on Telegram. Image: Telegram.

On adding new coins in the future, the spokesperson replied saying, “We are considering adding a few more essential coins in the future, however, our focus will be on TON.”

Despite this focus, Decrypt’s transaction logs don’t show any gas fees paid in the network’s native TON token in the test payment.

Telegram had previously auctioned usernames as NFTs on the TON blockchain.

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