Introduction: Let me start with the basics. I'm Tim, co-founder and the CEO of Grindery is a Singapore-based blockchain technology company backed by Binance (Labs S4) and other strategic crypto companies like Near, Algorand, Optimism, DFG/JSquare Capital, Perridon Ventures, Gate.io, ANKR, MH Ventures and more.
Ten weeks ago, after many product iterations, we launched our Telegram based Smart Wallet. Today, I'm thrilled to share that we've surpassed 400,000 600.000 sign-ups, breaking several records, including 50,000 sign-ups in a single day. And because this is against the general market trend for Smart Wallets this milestone is a testament to the growing trust and enthusiasm in our community.
This rapid growth has made it difficult for us to keep up with tasks on many fronts: the website is not up to date, documentation is missing, and we need to create a clear structure and compensation for moderators. To catch up, we decided to start at the top with an updated overview of what we're building.
In this post, I'll try to provide an overview for anyone who simply uses Telegram and is curious about blockchains, crypto and Web3.
As you can already tell I've also updated our documentation and included links for those of you who want to dig deeper :)
Updates added on 1.12.224:
- Since the original publication signups have grown from 400k to 600k
- More accurate mission statement: "Bring EVM to Telegram"
- We launched ERC20 token support
Telegram, the crypto SuperApp
We believe that Telegram is on the path to becoming a true “super app”. What does this mean? It can deliver a wide range of services through so-called mini-apps. These mini-apps can be already enabled for payments and most recently the TON via the Wallet project added support for crypto payments.
Telegram has the unique opportunity to make crypto usage - usually too complicated for average users - much simpler. While TON is integrating the TON blockchain into Telegram to bring crypto to 500M people in the next 5 years our focus is to do the same for existing blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon and Binance Chain. Why? Because they are underserved in Telegram while 95% of current web3 users, all working web apps and DeFi protocols and tokens are moving there.
Grindery, the Smart Wallet
We are on a mission bring EVM to Telegram. For that we created the world’s most utilized Smart Wallet, designed specifically for 700M Telegram users. Smart Contract Wallets are a new technology that makes it easy for users to buy, pay, play, swap, stake, and transfer across major blockchains without having to worry about managing passphrases, private keys, or acquiring different gas tokens for each blockchain.
Our Smart Wallet allows users to interact with EVM blockchains such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Chain, which sets it apart from TON’s default Telegram Wallet which supports only the emerging TON Blockchain.
Our Smart Wallet is in progress to become fully self-custodial by Q1 2024. This means that you and only you will be able to control the tokens in this wallet. No other party, not Telegram, not some centralized exchange, not even us will be able to access it.
Because of their security and their unmated ease of use, self-custodial smart wallets are the future of crypto wallets and the pathway for millions of new users to start using crypto in everyday lives.
Grindery, the Merchant Platform
Our Smart Wallet offer a variety of benefits, not just for end users but also for “digital merchants”: crypto dApp, crypto protocols and e-commerce sellers. These digital merchants can now offer one-click crypto payments for NFTs, tokens, digital goods, or physical items via Telegram Bots and Mini-dapps. This approach paves the way for crypto to live up to its promise of becoming a universally accepted form of payment.
By combining our Smart Wallet with the automation infrastructure we have developed with Grindery.io over the last few years, we will be able to empower these merchants to build easy-to-use services that leverage crypto with no/low code interfaces. This will allow businesses of all sizes to accept crypto payments and provide their customers with a seamless and secure experience.
Grindery, the Payment Network
The primary value Grindery brings to digital merchants is not the technology, but the network of users. Just as credit cards provide value to shops and restaurants by making it easy for people to spend their money, Grindery does the same. The more users with more funded wallets on the network, the greater the incentive for merchants to offer their services. The more merchants connect their services, the more utility there is for users in the network. This is known as a network effect, a powerful flywheel of growth that additionally creates a strong barrier to entry for other technology players.
Go to Market
Since launching less the 3 month ago, we have seen over 400,000 600,000 sign-ups for our wallet. We have achieved this by offering a strong vision, a simple product, and a powerful incentive.
We plan to continue growing by creating a balance between recruiting new users through social networks like Twitter and Telegram groups, and viral features native to our app. To do this, we reward users with tokens that can be exchanged and give users a voice and vote in the network.
We call this an "incentivized virality." We believe that it is more effective to pay our users than to pay advertising giants like Twitter, Facebook, or Google.
The Grindery Tokens
The network is powered by two crypto tokens: G1 and GX.
G1 is a Social Financial or “SocialFi” Token that incentivizes growth through interaction with other users on Telegram and other social networks. It will have a number of utilities within the network, for example unique opportunities to participate in quests, campaigns or marketing promotions of our partners and even the opportunity to earn other tokens from the user's engagement.
GX is a native token that powers the tools and network by allowing users to pay all fees for sending, exchanging or bridging other tokens on all supported blockchains. Options for staking and voting will follow suit. Grindery users will be able to use G1 tokens to obtain GX tokens at favorable conditions as well as exchange G1 directly to GX in the future.
For more information on how the tokens work and work together, please see the Tokenomics section in our documentation.
Quest and Launch Partners
Our large user base, the ease of use of our wallet, and our G1 token provide other protocols with a unique opportunity. Together with our partners, we can deploy custom-built Telegram bots that allow our users to participate in quests and airdrops offered by our partners.
Some of the partnerships we are exploring include emerging layer 2 blockchains. We can allow qualified users to bridge our G1 token to these chains and perform specific actions on-chain. Compared to traditional blockchain-based quests, users can do this without having to worry about gas tokens or complicated wallet setups.
Users receive tokens from our partners as a reward, our partners drive activity on their protocols, and Grindery generates additional utility for its social token. This win-win-win collaboration could in the future expand, transforming Grindery into a strategic launchpad for crypto projects on Telegram.
Token Sales and Listing
We will launch our first token sale of 2024 on January 1, 2024, giving community members the unique opportunity to buy GX tokens before anyone else.
We are also working with Launchpads for further rounds of the token sale.
Our ultimate goal is to list GX tokens on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. However, we have not set any listing dates yet, as we believe it is in everyone's best interest to list when the market turns around. This could be tomorrow, in 2024, or later.
We have allocated a percentage of GX tokens to be exchanged for G1. This means that the G1 token will have clear and measurable utility. All users who have contributed to building and growing the community will be able to exchange their G1 tokens for GX and get rewarded. While the exchange rate and date have not been set yet, all token holders will be able to leverage the G1 token in the upcoming token sale.
We will publish more details on the token sale and token listing soon.