Mini Apps in the WEB 3 ecosystem of Telegram are a killer feature that should be used right now!

If you follow the development of Telegram, then you will agree with the opinion that it is one of the most promising and adequate, if you can say so, products for its users, which actively took up the development and implementation of WEB 3. Today, on the basis of this platform, they are successfully working and developing thousands of cryptocurrency projects, including cryptobots, thriving communities of blockchain supporters and promoting coins, tokens and more. The Telegram team has a long-term plan of action up to and including 2028 and a wide network of partners interested in its implementation, has its own decentralized network, and the most important thing is an understanding of the value of WEB 3 and a desire to help in the development of this concept. A new step on the way was the launch of Mini Apps, which is worth talking about separately.

What are Mini Apps?

The open platform Mini Apps started working back in 2023 and was presented at the Token2049 crypto conference in Dubai. This was made possible thanks to a strategic alliance with The Open Network Foundation, better known simply as TON, and a number of other cryptocurrency partners. The integration of the Telegram API with the blockchain allows easy integration of the most important elements of WEB 3, such as free data, decentralized applications, payment in cryptocurrency, etc.

The use of Mini Apps makes Telegram not just a messenger or even a social network, but a real platform for deploying solutions with extremely wide capabilities, but at the same time within the application interface. It can be both a small program for several actions, and a multipurpose system that combines the capabilities of several services.

Another important feature is cross-platform. Mini Apps are equally available to iOS, Android, PC, Mac and Linux users, which eliminates the need to install additional software. Since at the time of writing, Telegram reports that it has crossed the 900 million active user mark, the prospects for any mini app to find its user audience seem extremely optimistic.

Mini Apps use the ability to interact with Telegram bots, and this opens up a whole range of attractive possibilities for developers:

Automation of interaction with users;
Reaction to data entry;
Performing tasks;
Facilitating dynamic interaction within the application.

Well, the Telegram team and partners left a wonderful gift for Mini Apps developers. As you know, Telegram widely uses its own MTProto protocol, and writing smart contracts for TON is possible using little-known Fift, Func and Tact, Mini Apps are developed on JavaScript. In addition, Web3-dApps authors can use the TON SDK and TON Connect and, in fact, write in any of the supported languages.

TON — sets the tone for everything

The use of the main protocol of the TON blockchain has a number of features, which are positioned by the Telegram team as clear advantages. For the most part, this is true, since we are talking about points that are painful for many other networks:

A multichain network that supports all types of transactions in both the masterchain and all workchains;
High speed of execution of transactions, which surpasses Solana and is not at all comparable to the speed of fiat systems Visa or Mastercard;
The time to build a new block in the shardchain is only 5 seconds, and it takes at least 6 seconds to synchronize the entire network. The concept of infinite sharding allows you to divide the network into many parts in order to increase the overall bandwidth during peak loads;
TON developers protected the network from the risks of a 51% attack and possible blockchain forks;
This is a third-generation blockchain that can process tens of millions of transactions at the same time;
TON takes into account the legislation of different countries and tries not to be exposed to sanctions or bans.

In general, the decentralized network from The Open Network Foundation deserves a separate article, and we at BeFund will definitely create it. But the advantages listed above are enough to pay attention to the blockchain and to the offers of Telegram Mini Apps in general.

Advantages of Mini Apps

In short, Mini Apps solve the main issue with integration into the WEB 3 ecosystem. If earlier developers relied on the Telegram API to create a solution for a specific decentralized network (which is long and expensive), now there is an easy way to integrate with the multi-chain TON. However, the rest of the advantages deserve attention:

Privacy and security

Telegram’s privacy policy in general has always sought to best protect any user data. The developers claim end-to-end encryption and no saving of chat history on Telegram servers to avoid accusations of data leaks.

However, the legislation of some countries, in particular the United States, requires the preservation of the history of cryptocurrency transactions and even mentions of them in correspondence for a certain time and provides for considerable fines, for example for WhatsApp. A certain precedent in this story is the expert recognition of the LeapXpert company that the Telegram messenger is suitable for business communication within the Swiss company Laser Digital. This adds winning points to Telegram against such “bureaucratic monsters” as, for example, the SEC.

Scalability

The issue of distribution and mass adoption has always been key for any dApp — at least now, when society is ambivalent about it all. TON’s ability to efficiently manage a large number of transactions combined with Telegram’s huge user base promises a simple solution to this issue.

Payment gateways and WEB 3

Peer-to-peer and smooth transactions provided by integration with WEB 3 payment gateways contribute to the development of Mini Apps tokenology. The solution already supports Toncoin cryptocurrency, which can be easily converted to any other. And the integration with Google Pay and Apple Pay right out of the box practically eliminates the issue of fiat money payments.

Gaming blockchain

And while there are arguments about the effectiveness of Mini Apps in the field of DeFi, the advantages for creating games are quite obvious. PlayDeck’s fast blockchain and toolkit for the TON Play gaming platform allows developers to quickly create trending cryptogames with Telegram publishing, NFT monetization, in-game donation receipts, and more. If you stumbled upon the Notcoin mini-application, there is simply no point in telling further.

Mini App available to everyone and Apps Center

At the time of writing this text, a large number of Mini Apps are already successfully functioning in Telegram, which are supplemented with new solutions almost every day. At the end of April 2024, there was also information about the end of work on the Telegram Apps Center platform — a mockup of ready-made solutions that can be chosen from the tAppt catalog — specialized custom applications for Telegram by analogy with the App Store for iOS or PlayMarket for Android.

However, according to the head of the Apps Center project, the future marketplace currently has several big problems:

it is almost impossible to find the most suitable solution for your own needs;
developers are not concerned with updating their own applications;
there is no single systematic catalog.

To solve the problems, the development team invests 2-3 years, which does not sound too encouraging. Therefore, if you need a solution today, it is better to contact BeFund developers.

But there is already a Mini App that is available to absolutely every Telegram user. This is an example of the effectiveness of the mass implementation carried out by the developers of the service to enable the use of other Mini Apps and not only. Of course, we are talking about Wallet — a cryptocurrency wallet in Telegram, created to attract Toncoin users.

Now this mini application has its own place in the service interface and allows replenishment, exchange, transfer and settlements with TON coins, as well as a number of popular cryptocurrencies.

Conclusions

Telegram has long ceased to be a simple messenger and shows a course to increase its capabilities with WEB 3. The appearance of Mini Apps is another confirmation of this strategy and a signal to potential investors to look for developers for their projects. Locks inside Telegram, which are easily integrated with blockchain technology, open up new opportunities for business development. And although the service is at an initial stage, there are already some successful examples that allow you to evaluate the advantages of Mini Apps and take advantage of the possibilities of this killer feature from Telegram. The BeFund team has the necessary experience to become a reliable contractor for the development, implementation and support of your project.

Mini Apps in the WEB 3 ecosystem of Telegram are a killer feature that should be used right now! Home2024May2Mini Apps in the WEB 3 ecosystem of Telegram are a killer feature that should be used right now!