There was much debate about which platform we should integrate HiveTips with next and furthermore, bring into our Hive ecosystem. Facebook was weighed heavily with their massive userbase and so was the familiarity in the cryptospace with Reddit. After seeing all the finer points and wanting to encourage both 'normies' and crypto-enthusiasts to take Hive more seriously, we opted for Telegram! Here are some of the reasons why:
Latest and greatest news, stats and features from Telegram:
- 12 January 2021 - “Telegram surpassed 500 million active users. In the past 72 hours alone, more than 25 million new users from around the world joined Telegram.” (https://t.me/durov/147)
- Telegram requires less than 100MB of disk space to run on your device. You can adjust Storage Usage settings and selectively clear your cache to keep the app's footprint incredibly small. Media and files stay available to re-download whenever they're needed in the future.
- Telegram has over 100 animated emoji to bring your favorite expressions to life. To quickly pull up any emoji (animated or not), type a word into the message bar or use shortcuts 💙
- Cloud Drafts let you start writing a message on one device and send it from another. All progress saves and syncs across your devices so you can finish typing – even if your phone runs out of battery.
- Telegram apps are standalone and synced with the cloud – all your messages and media are available everywhere you go. Unfinished messages save as Cloud Drafts, which you can pick back up later and send from other devices, like your computer.
- You can quickly record a video message for your favorite friends and felines. They arrive in a flash, play instantly and let you keep watching as you move around the app.
- Anyone can quickly make their own custom stickers – or choose from 20,000+ free stickers made by professional artists.
- You can send disappearing photos and videos in any one-on-one chat. They self-destruct after opening, leaving no trace of your confidential fruits or vegetables.
- Telegram brings support for groups with up to 200,000 members. It also offers multiple group-specific features such as bots, polls, quizzes, hashtags, and a lot more which can make group experiences a lot more fun.
- The size limit for sharing files on is 1.5 GB of any file type! A far cry from the 8 MB limit of Discord. Check their Twitter feed for more useful stats - https://twitter.com/telegram
- "Telegram is open, anyone can check our source code, protocol and API, see how everything works and make an informed decision. Telegram supports verifiable builds, which allow experts to independently verify that our code published on GitHub is the exact same code that is used to build the apps you download from App Store or Google Play. We welcome security experts to audit our system and appreciate any feedback at security@telegram.org. On top of that, Telegram's primary focus is not to bring a profit, so commercial interests will never interfere with our mission." (https://telegram.org/faq#q-so-how-do-you-encrypt-data)
- https://www.coininsider.com/5-reasons-why-telegram-popular-with-cryptocurrency-communities/
- https://www.inc.com/joel-comm/why-cryptocurrency-followers-use-telegram-groups.html
- "All of Telegram's official apps are open source. Telegram provides end-to-end encrypted calls and optional end-to-end encrypted "secret" chats between two online users on smartphone clients, whereas cloud chats use client-server/server-client encryption.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_)
HiveTips on Telegram
Requirements
In order for HiveTips to be used on Telegram, there must be a wallet function or feature. With this post, we happily introduce and announce that as a support product and service we have created the first Beta version of 'MyAltWallet'! The Telegram HiveTips application works in synergy with MyAltWallet for the tipping mechanics. MyAltWallet will provide the signing capabilities. You must add @MyAltWalletBot to your telegram contacts to get started and activate it. An instructional video will be released soon after this announcement post on how to set it up.
There are many great Hive Wallets available in the Hive ecosystem, however, we didn´t find one that really suited our needs for Telegram. We needed to create this enhanced wallet and make it so amazing that it'll be the last one you ever need when on Telegram. It will serve any and all Hive apps built (by anyone) on Telegram. Why? It is dynamic and minimalistic so there is no need to download anything. You can access your wallet from any device with Telegram, create Hive accounts (yes, account creation!), transfer funds to any other Hive account or even just gift your friends and business acquaintances with HIVE.
Usage
The user must invoke the Telegram program via inline by tipping @HiveTipsBot. Once typed in, the following parameters are to be expected:
- Wallet Password (The password for MyAltWallet)
- Sending account (The account you want to send the funds from)
- Receiving account (The account you want to receive the funds)
- Amount (The amount you wish to send)
- Currency (The type of 'money' you would like to send)
In any chat or message, simply type @hivetipsbot. After a few seconds, the command will present results which can be posted in the chat by left clicking on the mouse. You will see the parameters needed to send a tip, but don't get too flustered. All you need to type is each of them in that order. Let's say I want to tip @neoxian for consistency in curating content creators for Neoxian City. I would type X12345XX enginewitty neoxian 5 HIVE and once you press space bar after entering the currency, it will send the tip.
Please keep in mind, you have to have the wallet activated for the account you wish to send from. It does not need to be unlocked for you to do so.
As soon as you press the final space bar, it will initiate the tip in a matter of seconds. From there, you have two options; you can either tap the 'X' on the right of the chat box to clear it, or you can maintain a personal record and have it post to whatever chat you are currently in by left clicking on the mouse.
Here, I opted to post it to my chat so I can easily check the transaction on Hive Blocks. Once completed, @HiveTipsBot will mosey on through the Telegram streets, alleys and avenues to help someone else and be there instantly when you call upon it again for assistance in the future. You have heard mention of the new wallet we have designed, for usage with this addition to the HiveTips tree, and we proudly give it to you today!
Features
- Secured Persistent Wallet. Access your wallet from any device via Telegram.
- Account creation and account sponsoring (redeem code).
- Transfer operation (more coming including powerup/down, vote, post etc.).
- Multi-account wallet. Store multiple accounts inside the wallet.
- Safe screen keyboards with helpful graphic prompts.
- Transaction history for an account.
- Keychain browser extension compatibility. (You can seamlessly import your Hive keychain accounts securely).
Security
- Encrypted database: All user related data stored in database is always encrypted (primarily the wallet itself).
- Telephone binding. Password alone does not unlock the wallet, each wallet is bound to a specific phone number.
- Wallet interactions are never done in a public or private channels, only on one-to-one private chats (between you and the wallet bot).
- The Telegram Bot itself never has access to the decrypting private keys of the users, instead decryption happens in 'run time'.
- If the database were to get compromised, asymmetric encryption renders the encrypted wallet useless for the attacker.
- To protect the data that is not covered by end-to-end encryption, Telegram uses a distributed infrastructure. Cloud chat data is stored in multiple data centers around the globe that are controlled by different legal entities spread across different jurisdictions. The relevant decryption keys are split into parts and are never kept in the same place as the data they protect. As a result, several court orders from different jurisdictions are required to force us to give up any data.
- Cryptographically secure wallet via importing and exporting. Both import and export files are encrypted.
We Hope You Enjoy Our Toys!
As we expand our REACH here in 2021, we have every intention to make Hive a household name this year. We will continue to deliver more great tools, toys, apps and dApps for you to play with and use at your leisure. As we said, a comprehensive instructional walk-through of the wallet itself, with a video included, will be the next post we put out for you. Hive is Alive! Join us on Telegram!
