Telegram, the global messaging app with over 800 million users, is quietly adopting a Web3 pivot that may turn it into a super-app for everything, propelling crypto ahead in the meantime.
With its Mini Apps, a way for developers to implement their own Web3 apps that can be accessed by Telegram users, the messaging platform is opening the doors for becoming a new hub of Web3 activity. It is perhaps the Web2 company best positioned to do so, thanks to a combination of a long tradition of being used by Web3 enthusiasts and its independently-minded leadership.
Telegram Mini Apps are connected with the TON blockchain, which was developed directly by Telegram to support high speeds and transactions throughputs. Legal disputes with the SEC in 2018 had dramatically slowed down the rollout of the chain, and paused Telegram’s plans to integrate crypto in the messaging app. Indeed, TON here stands for “The Open Network” — and the TON Foundation is one of several independent entities that took the open source code and deployed it. TON’s native currency, Toncoin, is now a Top-10 crypto asset by market capitalization.
Compared to regular dApps, Mini Apps bring several advantages to developers. For one, they are automatically cross-platform and work on all devices supported by Telegram, including Android, iOS, PC, Mac, and Linux. They offer a familiar UX, leveraging Telegram bots for their interactive and automated features, and don’t need any additional wallets or account setups. In a nutshell, Mini Apps offer simple access to Telegram’s 800M+ strong user base, and expose its users to dApps that look and feel just like any other Web2 app.
Mini Apps Aren’t Just for TON
While the TON blockchain has gained steadily in market capitalization and has grown significantly in recent months, it remains fairly small by some key statistics, including its relatively low $650M in total value locked in DeFi. Given the immense popularity of Solana and the constellation of Ethereum Layer-2 networks, it’s unlikely that the future of crypto is just the TON blockchain.
However, Telegram Mini Apps can also be used to access other chains. One example is Vara Network, which is encouraging developers to build Mini Apps leveraging the Vara blockchain through its Gear-JS SDK. Since Mini Apps are programmed in Javascript, you could in principle use Mini Apps with any existing chain.
However, due to the seamless nature of a Mini App, not all blockchains will lend themselves well for this type of usage. With support for external wallets being quite limited, it becomes very important to let users transact without having to first fund their wallets with ETH on the right chain. Vara, for example, has a robust fee voucher system, letting a user transact on the chain in just a few clicks as long as the mini app developer sponsors the user.
Similar solutions can be adopted on EVM ecosystems as well, using the same backbone as Coinbase’s Smart Wallet system. However, Smart Wallet transactions are considerably more expensive than regular transfers, so it only makes sense to utilize on L2 platforms like Base, Arbitrum, Optimism and others.
Why Mini Apps Might Be What The Crypto Ecosystem Needed
With the integration of Mini Apps and advanced Web3 support, Telegram is pushing to become a global Super App for finances, news, messaging and many more.
However, unlike other competing solutions, Telegram is a fully neutral platform that has always prioritized security and freedom for its users. This combination makes Telegram more likely to be trusted by its user base, and lead to significant adoption across the entire globe.
At the same time, Telegram has been challenged in the past, and its radical stance might not be particularly appreciated by major worldwide governments. This only forces it to be ever more cautious and adopt a fully decentralized approach, benefiting the entire Web3 ecosystem.
In short, Telegram and its Mini Apps might provide the perfect canvas for Web3 developers to paint on. At this point, the most important challenge is to find what its users will enjoy.
