How to set up a cryptocurrency wallet in Telegram: detailed step-by-step instructions
At the end of September, airdrop of the HMSTR token from the Hamster Kombat token game took place. The giveaway was not the most successful, as many players received only a few dollars as a reward, and the cryptoasset’s exchange rate plummeted after the start of trading. However, the event still made it clear that the TON blockchain ecosystem will develop – primarily because of the large number of users of the Telegram messenger. The wallet built into the platform will allow you to join it, which is what we’re dealing with today.
TON is a relatively new high-performance blockchain that allows for fast and affordable transactions. As of today, its ecosystem remains small.
This is confirmed by data from the CoinGecko platform. As you can see in the screenshot, only two cryptoassets from this network are in the top 100 coins by market capitalisation. These are a native token of the TON blockchain called Toncoin and NOT from the Notcoin project.
Three more projects have reached a market capitalisation of more than $100 million, while all other tokens failed to take the mentioned level. Accordingly, at least for now, the Ton network has not attracted enough investors and capital.
However, everything can change. For example, by the end of September, the number of active addresses in the TON network grew to 3.8 million units, while in August the figure was 2.2 million. Of course, it’s all about the HMSTR airdrop, which attracted a lot of new users.
As a result, HMSTR turned out to be the second most popular token on the network after TON. And the rest of the projects can surely gain success if their developers use the marketing strategy from the developers of Hamster.
Contents
- 1 What is a Telegram wallet and what are its peculiarities
- 2 How to create a cryptocurrency wallet in Telegram: a detailed guide
- 3 How to use a cryptocurrency wallet in Telegram. Sending and receiving coins
- 4 What is TON Space in Telegram and how to use it
- 5 Conclusions. Why do I need a TON wallet in Telegram?
What is a wallet in Telegram and what are its features?
Wallet or Wallet in Telegram is an application built into the messenger to interact with the TON blockchain. Wallet is custodial, i.e. it can be perceived as an analogue of a centralised exchange.
This means that users use their Telegram account for authorisation and cannot access the so-called cid-phrase.
Sid-phrase is a unique combination of 12, 18 or 24 words, which is generated when setting up a personal non-custodial wallet like Phantom or MetaMask. It is needed to regain access to an address on the blockchain and manage its contents.
If a platform does not provide the user with a passphrase, then they are essentially relying on its developers to store their own assets. In addition, they can block access to the wallet if necessary.
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Custodial wallets are usually not valued in the crypto community, because in this case the user is not a full-fledged owner of his digital assets. However, for beginners they can be considered suitable, because a simple password in a familiar messenger is much clearer than the concept of cid phrases and studying the rules of their correct storage.
Telegram wallet allows you to send and receive cryptocurrencies, exchange tokens, as well as use P2P-market. Again, all of this is relevant to the TON network and tokens of the corresponding ecosystem. That is, for example, sending Solan SOL and ETH ethers will not work here.
How to create a cryptocurrency wallet in Telegram: a detailed guide
In general, to create a wallet in Telegram and use it, a few simple steps will suffice.
- Log in to your Telegram account.
- Enter the word “Wallet” in the search and find the corresponding official programme. You can also open it from the link.
- We agree with the terms of use and proceed to transactions.
Note that in the search you should enter exactly “Wallet”, not “Wallet”. If you use the second query, you can fall for scammers who want to steal other people’s cryptoassets. Here are the products of scammers who pretend to be the official Telegram wallet.
And this is how the real wallet of the platform is signed.
Open the app and press “Start”.
Also agree to the terms of use of the Wallet.
That’s all: the messenger will open a separate window with the interface of the wallet. We will perform all the necessary operations in it.
In the upper part we see four main control buttons:
- “Send ” – use it for outgoing transactions, for example, to send coins to friends or to the exchange. To press it, you need to top up your wallet first.
- “Refill ” – this menu allows you to buy cryptocurrency, including with a bank card.
- “Exchange ” – a tab for carrying out the exchange of one token for another.
- “P2P-market ” – the function of buying or exchanging coins with other Telegram users.
Note that in order to carry out any operations with Telegram Wallet, it is necessary to undergo identity confirmation. For basic identification, it is enough to specify your phone number, first and last name, and date of birth.
This is logical, because this wallet is custodial. That is, its developers must comply with the legal framework of different countries. They just require verification of the identity of cryptocurrency users to prevent money laundering and other crimes.
Non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets will allow you not to disclose your data. We told about them for the TON network in a separate article.
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How to use a cryptocurrency wallet in Telegram. Sending and receiving coins
To use a cryptocurrency wallet in Telegram, you need to confirm your identity and top up your wallet. If you will be sending coins from the exchange, click Deposit > External Wallet > Toncoin (or any suitable token).
In response, you will see your own address and its representation in QR code format.
How to top up your Telegram wallet to get airdrop token HMSTR from Hamster Kombat: step-by-step guide
Copy the address and withdraw TON from the exchange – in this case from Binance.
Now we have TON coins.
Let’s exchange 1 TON into dollars, that is, the USDT stablecoin. To do this, click Exchange and specify the appropriate amounts of the required coins.
After confirmation, we see our own balance in USDT.
Let’s send steiblecoins to the Binance exchange. To do this, specify your address on the platform and click Send > Dollar.
Enter the address and be sure to mark the Memo – a unique identifier specified on the exchange, which will allow the exchange to credit the coins directly to your account.
We see that the platform charges 1 USDT as a commission. This again reminds us of the custodial nature of this wallet.
If the wallet was non-custodial, the user would pay for any transaction - from TON, USDT or HMSTR - to TON. Still, it is a native token of this network.
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The transfer went through.
What is TON Space in Telegram and how to use it?
In September 2023, Telegram developers introduced a non-custodial solution inside their own wallet called TON Space. It’s still running in Beta status and is designed for more advanced blockchain users.
They should understand the essence of the sid-phrases mentioned above and be able to keep them out of sight. Still, a cid or mnemonic phrase allows anyone with it to regain access to the wallet and manage its contents.
It allows you to store coins without trusting intermediaries, as well as interact with decentralised applications, NFT and other phenomena in the TON network. TON Space needs to be enabled in the settings.
Creation is instantaneous, but you need to commit a cid or recovery phrase to retain access.
It consists of 24 words. Three of them will eventually have to be confirmed as a verification.
The controls here are similar.
Most importantly, the TON Space wallet allows you to steak TON, that is, block this cryptocurrency and get rewarded over time. The actual yield of TON steaking is 3.41 percent per annum.
As noted in the menu, an investment of 100 TON would yield $15.69 in TON at the current exchange rate for last year. Investing and withdrawing is available at any time, with rewards accruing every 18 hours.
Conclusions. Why do you need a TON Wallet in Telegram?
The built-in Wallet in Telegram is a convenient solution that allows you to quickly interact with the Ton blockchain. It is also handy to be able to send coins to your messenger contacts, and there are no fees for doing so.
Be that as it may, it is a custodial solution, which is not optimal. Still, such platforms are vulnerable to hacking and can also block users’ coins if necessary. So it is better to take this wallet as a starting point in the blockchain world.