I'll take a short break from the xRocket story, but I'll definitely continue it in future posts. Let's take a look at Telegram Stars.
xRocket & Telegram Stars
"How will the introduction of Telegram Stars affect
@xRocket?" - This is one of the most frequently asked questions I've got last month. I decided to provide a detailed explanation in this post.
For those who missed,
Telegram launched Stars on June 6, 2024. All in-app purchases within Telegram must now use Stars exclusively and remove alternative payment methods (including accepting crypto). This mainly about so-called digital goods. Digital goods include in-game currency purchases, various skins, loot boxes, access to premium content in games, etc. This requirement comes primarily from app stores. Telegram itself may not be particularly interested in the 30% fee it has to share, but on the other hand, it allows the platform to be integrated into most popular apps at once and have a small percentage, which is significant.
Here is the link to Apple's app review guidelines, where point 3.1.1 is of particular interest.
In the first days after the Telegram Stars announcement, I wondered how it might affect
@xRocket and similar services on Telegram. Although we did not receive any notification from Telegram, there was some concern. I asked the TON Foundation guys about this, and Anthony Tsyvarev agreed to gather a call and try to answer my questions based on his previous experience interacting with Apple (he was in charge of mini-apps at VK). However, he did not know any details about how the Telegram team would handle specific cases at that time.
There are three main areas in xRocket; let's break them down separately:
Everything related to the wallet and exchange: deposits, withdrawals, exchanges, and p2p
These actions do not fall under point 3.1.1 of the guidelines. Here we should look at point 3.1.5, (iii) - Cryptocurrencies: Exchanges. This is classified as an cryptoexchange and does not fall under the digital goods rule, with all the consequences. Otherwise, apps like Binance/OKX and others wouldn't exist in app stores, as no one is willing to accept deposits/exchanges, etc., with a 30% fee. Questions about licenses/regulations arise, and we will soon post all the information on these matters in our bot.
xRocket Pay - a payment API built-in into our wallet and targeted at Telegram bots.
Although Telegram and Apple do not prohibit us from having this payment system among our features, Telegram must prohibit its use by other bots for digital goods (majority of use cases for all bots and mini-apps). Therefore, formally, we can keep it, but we need to rebuild this feature towards the web and bots without digital goods. We can also check how similar products which most likely will follow all the telegram rules, handle this: an example is Wallet Pay. To access their API, you needed to describe the usage scenarios and apply, and as far as I know,
all use cases involving digital goods were turned down.
So, if someone tells you after June 6 that there is an easy way to accept crypto in a Telegram bot and you're not trading physical goods, you should think how trustworthy this source is. Telegram's banhammer on your bot/mini-app and a quest to quickly switch to Stars can happen at any moment.
What can we do to avoid closing this feature entirely but still be in harmony with the Telegram ecosystem? I think the best solution would be a consent screen with a link to Apple' and Telegram rules and explanations about digital goods so that any potential API user knows these rules and understands the consequences of improper API use. We haven't implemented this screen yet but plan to do so and to rebuild the payment system towards a broader market.
