In the rapidly changing landscape of cryptocurrency payments, Telegram messenger has taken another significant stride.
The Wallet bot on Telegram, which already facilitates the trading of Bitcoin (BTC), has unveiled its new payment solution, Wallet Pay, built on The Open Network (TON) blockchain.
This development enables users and retail businesses to make crypto payments directly within the Telegram interface.
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Wallet announced on July 13th that this new payment feature is immediately accessible in all jurisdictions where its service is available, marking an important evolution in the crypto-friendly platform.
However, it's important to note that Wallet Pay does not cater to every jurisdiction. Certain countries, including the United States and others that have been blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force, will not have access to the service. Countries facing exclusion from Wallet Pay's services include Iran, Myanmar, and North Korea.
For those countries where residents are not permitted to make crypto payments, Wallet insists that local businesses must bear the responsibility of compliance. A Wallet representative said:
Businesses should decide if they are allowed to do business within their jurisdiction before applying to make use of Wallet Pay.
A few of these jurisdictions where crypto payments for products and services are prohibited include Russia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, and Egypt, among others.
As Wallet prepares to roll out its new payment feature, there is no clear indication of which merchants will be the early adopters. The platform has yet to launch its Know Your Business (KYB) procedure.
We have had a few hundred requests collected by our support team, but we did not start the KYB procedure with these requests prior to launch, so we don’t yet know who will be the first to implement the feature.
Despite being integrated into the Telegram messenger, Wallet operates independently. Based on the open protocol known as the Telegram Web Apps, it allows developers to create their unique apps and services within the Telegram ecosystem.
Users can access the Wallet Pay service via a dedicated bot on Telegram or the official Wallet Pay website.
With this new feature, Wallet supports three cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Tether (USDT), and Toncoin (TON).
As businesses and individuals increasingly adopt in-app services, Telegram's new feature could transform how users conduct their crypto transactions.
At the end of 2022, Telegram founder Pavel Durov unveiled plans to launch a decentralized exchange and non-custodial wallets.
