Gram Wallet: technical details

Behind the simple functionality of the first version of Gram Wallet from Telegram lies a series of technical innovations and a strong focus on UX details:

1. All operations are executed on the blockchain via smart contracts.

2. Gram can be sent to a user who has never opened a wallet and has not even updated the Telegram app.

3. Cloud backup (the mnemonic is split into three parts stored in different data centers on three continents) allows using one wallet on all of the user's devices without manual import on each of them.

4. The user can disable cloud backup, rotate the mnemonic while preserving the wallet address, and subsequently import the wallet, for example, into a separate standalone Gram Wallet app.

5. When connecting to a dapp via TON Connect, the connection becomes available immediately on all of the user's devices — no need to reconnect on each one.

6. Five free transfers per day (using Gasless & Sponsored Transactions technology). Subsequent transfers cost almost nothing thanks to the reduction of network fees this year.

7. Network-wide validator voting allows updating the code of the tg-wallet smart contract and adding new functionality. The update is applied immediately to all users without the need for additional migration. Telegram itself cannot force-update user wallets in violation of blockchain rules.

To ensure this UX, both existing TON capabilities and new developments are used. The foundation is the TON architecture, in which each account is inherently an arbitrary smart contract, along with previously released Gasless Tx, Sub-Second, and Sub-Cent updates.

Additionally, Telegram's own support for TON Connect, a new smart contract tg-wallet-v1 with key rotation capability, a special wallet proxy contract, and other technical innovations were implemented.

https://t.me/anatolii_makosov/160