Telegram: No-SIM Signup, Auto-Delete All Chats, Topics 2.0 and more

I am a little confused as to why a blockchain was necessary here? Since Telegram is a centralized platform, couldn't they just roll their own "usernames" which they already do.

I’m absolutely astonished that anyone trusts Telegram for their communication. Both on a technological, ownership, operational and geopolitical basis. Their “agreement” with the Russians government is beyond sketchy, they’re 100% authoritarian located/exposed and they’ve a track record of bad encryption, what am I missing?

So it looks like you have to pay $16 minimum for one of these &#x27;anonymous numbers&#x27;. How can it be anonymous if you have to purchase the TON required to bid on them, and therefore have done KYC at an exchange or used your credit card?<p>This seems like a pretty big leap from true username sign-in, and I really like Telegram.<p>&#x27;Anonymous login&#x27; seems extremely misleading in this case.

Why not just allow signups without any number at all? That&#x27;d be a lot simpler than creating a fake number.

I would consider requring a Blockchain account worse than requiring a mobile number.

Signal already allows you to sign-up without a SIM card: you can use a landline number and voice call verification...<p>WhatsApp Business allows landline numbers too, by the way.

There are often conflicting requirements of privacy, security, and something else...resistance to inauthentic actors, bots, spam?<p>Is Telegram supposed to be private? I always thought they were more security than privacy focused. Now how do you allow private and secure messaging without being overrun by every bad actor on the planet? They&#x27;d flock to the platform if there were no hurdle to account creation or ensuring authenticity.<p>Handle payment like Mullvad?

Something I missed at the first read: The &quot;phone numbers&quot; they sell are in the fictional +888 country calling code.<p>This is beyond bizarre: They are selling numeric-only identifiers (for no technical reason), looking like and clasing with a namespace they don&#x27;t own, for money that they made up.

You can sign up without a SIM now, BUT it doesn&#x27;t work outside the US! When there are country restrictions on username verification, it renders this &#x27;feature&#x27; worthless.

&gt;Today starts a new era of privacy.<p>I literally spat out my coffee. What nerve.<p>Telegram disguises itself as an encrypted chat app, when it is actually just a regular centralized plaintext messenger that has an encryption feature that nobody uses.<p>Don&#x27;t walk. Run.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.livelaw.in&#x2F;news-updates&#x2F;after-court-order-telegram-discloses-phone-numbers-ip-addresses-of-users-accused-of-sharing-infringing-material-215311" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.livelaw.in&#x2F;news-updates&#x2F;after-court-order-telegr...</a>

Great features.<p>Ummm, but are our raw messages being stored at their servers, in a form of encrypted data-at-rest (such that no one can get to the message on the hard drive, if stolen, powered down, or an errant process accessing them ... without a key),<p>... AND are the keys being kept only on the clients&#x27; side (such that keys are generated only by client-side and its keys are never sent to Telegram servers)?<p>I didn&#x27;t think so.

Uhh, how about let me sign up with a throwaway email like a NORMAL piece of software?<p>Screw you, telegram. I&#x27;ll stick with open-source Jitsi Meet hosted on my own Debian Virtualbox machine using DDNS and Let&#x27;s Encrypt so I can give people a link to instantly be in text&#x2F;E2EE voice chat with me. No software. No app. No login. No password. Just over the browser WebRTC.

One step forward, two steps back. No need SIM, but you need even worse Blockchain account.<p>Telegram is not worth recommending to anyone until they require SIM (or some Blockchain nonsense) and all chats&#x2F;calls&#x2F;content is not E2EE by default, even Whatsapp is safer option, if you don&#x27;t want some proper alternative like Matrix (Element, FlufflyChat), Briar, Session etc.

&quot;Today starts a new era of privacy. You can have a Telegram account without a SIM card and log in using blockchain-powered anonymous numbers available on the Fragment platform.&quot;<p>What does the hn crood think about it?

All chats should be auto-encrypted. That would be a useful feature.

Telegram has been my favorite messenger since I started using it. Fast, nice interface, great features, and wide adoption.

didn&#x27;t they comply with Indian police request and handed over complete user data and ip logs to them?

Blockchain? There goes any remaining trust I had in Telegram.