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I worry that this is scope creep for Telegram. I trust them--for now--as a secure messaging service. That's serious enough. But incorporating an entire bespoke

I worry that this is scope creep for Telegram. I trust them--for now--as a secure messaging service. That's serious enough. But incorporating an entire bespoke payments system puts an even bigger target on Telegram's back and introduces new trust issues. Also, I can't help but compare this to Keybase's affiliated payment system, Stellar. I'm curious what the differences are in the two projects.

pjc50 7y ago
That reminds me, apparently I've been airdropped $20 in "lumens" as a keybase customer. Any idea what the point of that is or how I can cash out easily?
- half-kh-hacker 7y ago
  If you're already on Coinbase, you can cash out there by sending your Lumens over. Otherwise, you can go through one of the Stellar exchange frontends and convert the lumens (there are a few institutions set up to accept lumens and convert them into a token tied to the value of a fiat currency (these tokens are still part of the Stellar network) -> real currency via bank transfer)
alluro2 7y ago
I worry that this will be a deciding excuse to paint them as pure terrorist evil and shut them down - "they're not only helping TERRORISTS organize, but now also transfer large amounts of money for their operations"
em-bee 7y ago
if you have the opportunity to observe wechat payment in china, it will make a lot more sense. payment in a chat application right now is the best way to bring electronic payments to everyone. because within that chat application you already established trust with your communication partner, and using the same tool to exhange payments thus builds on that trust and reduces the chances for fraud. (it does not eliminate fraud, but when making payments to a known entity, i can trust that the payments go to the right place) this is independent from using a blockchain to do that, or facilitating payments in regular currency. the principal is the same. payments across an existing chat system are simply easier to trust than payments across a new wallet where i have to make sure that the wallet target actually match who i want to send money to.
- DiogenesKynikos 7y ago
  WeChat isn't just a chat application. You can buy all sorts of things in WeChat - taxi trips, takeout, food off the menu of the restaurant you're sitting in, and on and on. Is Telegram trying to go this route?
  - jyrkesh 7y ago
    Almost certainly, yes. They started with a fairly extensive bot platform, and I'd expect that this will plug commerce as a first-class into bots.

pjc50 7y ago

That reminds me, apparently I've been airdropped $20 in "lumens" as a keybase customer. Any idea what the point of that is or how I can cash out easily?

half-kh-hacker 7y ago
If you're already on Coinbase, you can cash out there by sending your Lumens over. Otherwise, you can go through one of the Stellar exchange frontends and convert the lumens (there are a few institutions set up to accept lumens and convert them into a token tied to the value of a fiat currency (these tokens are still part of the Stellar network) -> real currency via bank transfer)

alluro2 7y ago

I worry that this will be a deciding excuse to paint them as pure terrorist evil and shut them down - "they're not only helping TERRORISTS organize, but now also transfer large amounts of money for their operations"

em-bee 7y ago

if you have the opportunity to observe wechat payment in china, it will make a lot more sense. payment in a chat application right now is the best way to bring electronic payments to everyone. because within that chat application you already established trust with your communication partner, and using the same tool to exhange payments thus builds on that trust and reduces the chances for fraud. (it does not eliminate fraud, but when making payments to a known entity, i can trust that the payments go to the right place) this is independent from using a blockchain to do that, or facilitating payments in regular currency. the principal is the same. payments across an existing chat system are simply easier to trust than payments across a new wallet where i have to make sure that the wallet target actually match who i want to send money to.

DiogenesKynikos 7y ago
WeChat isn't just a chat application. You can buy all sorts of things in WeChat - taxi trips, takeout, food off the menu of the restaurant you're sitting in, and on and on. Is Telegram trying to go this route?
- jyrkesh 7y ago
  Almost certainly, yes. They started with a fairly extensive bot platform, and I'd expect that this will plug commerce as a first-class into bots.