Callcoin: Telegram-bot for international calls for bitcoins
If the title suddenly drove you into a light stupor, then let me repeat slowly : Callcoin is a Telegram bot. So. Which allows you to make incoming and outgoing international calls to and from any numbers on command from the chat in the "Telegram". Yeah. And paid bitcoins. Clear.
And also Callcoin is an exhibition of almost all the cool API Telegram features for bots that are now available to developers: we ’re scoring @callcoinbot into the search and starting to get acquainted.
Attention is immediately attracted by the set of buttons below:
This is a multi-level menu, actually porting the user experience of the site or mobile application inside the chat window is a killer thing, if you haven’t seen this in Telegram.
It turns out, Telegram de facto allows you to create applications in the application, as new powerful bots appear, leaving users, who spend almost all the time in messengers, less and less reasons to get out of them. A bit like the ideology of the previous creation Durov, is not it?
This is a relatively recent feature of the Telegram API, so not all developers have yet tried it out - most popular bots still look and act much more primitive. From the user's point of view, you can see and try this using the example of @Storebot ,@Botaniobot and, of course, @callcoinbot .
A new user is given a loan of € 0.5, which is enough, for example, to talk with Alaska for 13 minutes to find out if they are bored with Russian citizenship:
For comparison, the usual call to Aleuts from my Moscow “Megaphone” would have cost me either 75 Zr / minute, or 4 Zr / minute with a subscription fee of 2 Zr / day and 60 Rucks for connection - the second is much better, but still Callcoin is one and a half times cheaper even without an amendment to the subscriber and connection.
Callcoin is useful when you need:
In order for Callcoin to work, you will need: the Internet to access Telegram and access to any local telephone. In a sense, absolutely anyone. This can be either a sim card bought on the spot, or the phone of a friend who met you, a bus neighbor, or the reception desk at the hostel where you stayed.
Callcoin just needs a local connection number, which you will have on hand to take a call: you tell its bot, and then write who you need to call - and then the bot dials you first (on your SIM card, on the phone of your friend, neighbor , hotel or cafe), and then connects with your interlocutor.
Payment of the call will still be from your account, and incoming for the one who lent you your phone to call will be free. So the most difficult thing here will be to overcome the language barrier and look friendly, because not everyone can appreciate the request to give the phone a call made with a heavy Russian accent:
Callcoin will be tied to a local number by a free Latvian number, where you can be reached by phone while this bundle is valid. So if you are, say, traveling by bus from France to the Czech Republic, you do not need to buy a German SIM card on the way: if you ask your neighbor for permission to use his phone, you can make and receive calls to him at Callcoin tariffs.
The Latvian operator SanCom is responsible for cheapness - the Balts generally mastered this niche well, having developed the so-called “ tourist SIM cards ” - @callcoinbot, it turns out that it simply adds to their capabilities, already known to many travelers, through Telegram.
I'm sure you still have questions. Two main questions: so why does Telegram still work, and why does Bitcoin do?
Usually, a separate application is immediately released for such projects, but Telegram as a platform has a number of attractive advantages.
The creators of Callcoin deliberately tried to make a kind of model bot, using the API's capabilities to the maximum, including integration with the user's notebook, ubiquitous emoji, be they wrong, and, of course, a multi-level menu. Of the new features of the API, only HTML5, which was presented by Telegram in October, when Callcoin was already launched, remained untouched.
With all this baggage, Callcoin has already accepted the bot developer contest for Telegram, the authors of which hope not only for a Durov grant, but also for a new influx of users and the opportunity to make friends with the messenger’s team.
Here everything becomes more interesting.
The service was launched on October 10 and was advertised both on Bitcoin sites and forums, and among the telegram community, which have already led several thousand users - moreover, the main audience came from Bitcoin platforms, which is not surprising: purely statistically, the Bitcoin user “ Telegram already stands with far greater probability than the Telegram user already has Bitcoins.
For payment, you can use both the bot purse and the Paybis exchange . An account in Callcoin can be used as a wallet, because through the same stock exchange you can not only replenish it, but also withdraw money back with a commission depending on the currency of withdrawal.
At the same time, transferring money in the form of a Callcoin replenishment of the balance can be done directly in the Telegram, simply by writing the name of the bot and the amount of the transfer through the space in the message to the recipient. So the bot uses another telegram API chip: inline mode .
Since the project, as is clear from his very idea and the title of this post, is absolutely geeky - the quality of the audience is appropriate. The technical support of Callcoin, which is supported by the support of the operator SanCom, is absolutely delighted: the bot users do not have typical lamer questions in the style “nothing works for me”, only pleasant specifics: “This and that does not work for me, I tried it still didn't help. ”
As a “Uber” enthusiast, it reminded me of how happy the drivers were when this project just came to Russia, the service’s customers: completely sober and intelligent - others didn’t know about it then. For the time being did not know. However, this is what distinguishes most startups at the initial stage and Callcoin, who is three weeks old, also experiences this candy-bouquet period with its first users now.
Speaking about plans for the future, I could not resist not to ask the developers:
- Are you not afraid that voice calls in Telegram will bring Callcoin on takeoff?
As I was told, judging by the statements of the Telegram team, messaging for them remains the main priority. Bots, channels, improving the transfer of data packets - they have enough work to build their own ecosystem, turning the messenger into more than the messenger, and there are no hints at the preparation of streaming data transfer yet.
Therefore, Callcoin plans in the near future - expanding the user base, increasing the audience’s awareness of Telegram bots, lifehacks for travelers where in a new country to find wi-fi on arrival or cheaper to buy a local SIM card, etc. etc. During the year, developers expect to collect at least one hundred thousand bot users.
The priority areas for the distribution of the bot now are Russia and the EU, but in any country where you can buy a SIM card or borrow a local phone, all Callcoin functions will work. And you can always make sure that a particular country is available on the Callcoin website in the “ Tariffs ” section .
Do you have an interesting blockchain or bitcoin startup? Contact the author through lichku or mail in profile.
And also Callcoin is an exhibition of almost all the cool API Telegram features for bots that are now available to developers: we ’re scoring @callcoinbot into the search and starting to get acquainted.
Attention is immediately attracted by the set of buttons below:
This is a multi-level menu, actually porting the user experience of the site or mobile application inside the chat window is a killer thing, if you haven’t seen this in Telegram.
It turns out, Telegram de facto allows you to create applications in the application, as new powerful bots appear, leaving users, who spend almost all the time in messengers, less and less reasons to get out of them. A bit like the ideology of the previous creation Durov, is not it?
This is a relatively recent feature of the Telegram API, so not all developers have yet tried it out - most popular bots still look and act much more primitive. From the user's point of view, you can see and try this using the example of @Storebot ,@Botaniobot and, of course, @callcoinbot .
A new user is given a loan of € 0.5, which is enough, for example, to talk with Alaska for 13 minutes to find out if they are bored with Russian citizenship:
For comparison, the usual call to Aleuts from my Moscow “Megaphone” would have cost me either 75 Zr / minute, or 4 Zr / minute with a subscription fee of 2 Zr / day and 60 Rucks for connection - the second is much better, but still Callcoin is one and a half times cheaper even without an amendment to the subscriber and connection.
Callcoin is useful when you need:
- Calling to Europe from outside the EU - savings compared to calls from a local number or a European operator’s roaming card in a third country will be up to ten times.
- Call to Russia from abroad - the savings are the same.
- Give the left phone number - for example, on bulletin boards or when looking for a rented apartment with the help of a realtor.
- Register with the phone number. Callcoin does not support text messages, but almost all services with two-factor authorization offer an alternative in the form of a voice call.
In order for Callcoin to work, you will need: the Internet to access Telegram and access to any local telephone. In a sense, absolutely anyone. This can be either a sim card bought on the spot, or the phone of a friend who met you, a bus neighbor, or the reception desk at the hostel where you stayed.
Callcoin just needs a local connection number, which you will have on hand to take a call: you tell its bot, and then write who you need to call - and then the bot dials you first (on your SIM card, on the phone of your friend, neighbor , hotel or cafe), and then connects with your interlocutor.
Payment of the call will still be from your account, and incoming for the one who lent you your phone to call will be free. So the most difficult thing here will be to overcome the language barrier and look friendly, because not everyone can appreciate the request to give the phone a call made with a heavy Russian accent:
Callcoin will be tied to a local number by a free Latvian number, where you can be reached by phone while this bundle is valid. So if you are, say, traveling by bus from France to the Czech Republic, you do not need to buy a German SIM card on the way: if you ask your neighbor for permission to use his phone, you can make and receive calls to him at Callcoin tariffs.
The Latvian operator SanCom is responsible for cheapness - the Balts generally mastered this niche well, having developed the so-called “ tourist SIM cards ” - @callcoinbot, it turns out that it simply adds to their capabilities, already known to many travelers, through Telegram.
I'm sure you still have questions. Two main questions: so why does Telegram still work, and why does Bitcoin do?
Why Telegram
Usually, a separate application is immediately released for such projects, but Telegram as a platform has a number of attractive advantages.
- By launching a bot, not a separate application, you open the doors, behind which there is more than one hundred millionth (judging by the growth rates mentioned by the Durovs - the 200 millionth soon) army of messenger users. And convincing a user to try a chat bot is much easier than putting up a whole new application.
- Telegram is a multi-platform instant messenger, so with the help of a bot you get access to all platforms for one code. This is not the same as developing separate applications for PC, Mac and mobile systems.
- And, as you can see, including from the screenshots above, Telegram now provides the most advanced API for creating bots, far ahead of WhatsApp and Viber.
The creators of Callcoin deliberately tried to make a kind of model bot, using the API's capabilities to the maximum, including integration with the user's notebook, ubiquitous emoji, be they wrong, and, of course, a multi-level menu. Of the new features of the API, only HTML5, which was presented by Telegram in October, when Callcoin was already launched, remained untouched.
With all this baggage, Callcoin has already accepted the bot developer contest for Telegram, the authors of which hope not only for a Durov grant, but also for a new influx of users and the opportunity to make friends with the messenger’s team.
Why bitcoin
Here everything becomes more interesting.
Bitcoin in the service - only the tip of the iceberg. We decided to experiment and see how society is educated and “digitized”. Cryptocurrency and telecommunications are similar in nature: they live in a single digital environment and use the same data channels. In fact, these are the same bits, but “packed” in different ways.
- Dmitry Chuenko , author of the project, CEO of a Canadian-Latvian company , explained in an interview with Latvian media 120 minutes
The service was launched on October 10 and was advertised both on Bitcoin sites and forums, and among the telegram community, which have already led several thousand users - moreover, the main audience came from Bitcoin platforms, which is not surprising: purely statistically, the Bitcoin user “ Telegram already stands with far greater probability than the Telegram user already has Bitcoins.
For payment, you can use both the bot purse and the Paybis exchange . An account in Callcoin can be used as a wallet, because through the same stock exchange you can not only replenish it, but also withdraw money back with a commission depending on the currency of withdrawal.
At the same time, transferring money in the form of a Callcoin replenishment of the balance can be done directly in the Telegram, simply by writing the name of the bot and the amount of the transfer through the space in the message to the recipient. So the bot uses another telegram API chip: inline mode .
Since the project, as is clear from his very idea and the title of this post, is absolutely geeky - the quality of the audience is appropriate. The technical support of Callcoin, which is supported by the support of the operator SanCom, is absolutely delighted: the bot users do not have typical lamer questions in the style “nothing works for me”, only pleasant specifics: “This and that does not work for me, I tried it still didn't help. ”
As a “Uber” enthusiast, it reminded me of how happy the drivers were when this project just came to Russia, the service’s customers: completely sober and intelligent - others didn’t know about it then. For the time being did not know. However, this is what distinguishes most startups at the initial stage and Callcoin, who is three weeks old, also experiences this candy-bouquet period with its first users now.
Speaking about plans for the future, I could not resist not to ask the developers:
- Are you not afraid that voice calls in Telegram will bring Callcoin on takeoff?
As I was told, judging by the statements of the Telegram team, messaging for them remains the main priority. Bots, channels, improving the transfer of data packets - they have enough work to build their own ecosystem, turning the messenger into more than the messenger, and there are no hints at the preparation of streaming data transfer yet.
Therefore, Callcoin plans in the near future - expanding the user base, increasing the audience’s awareness of Telegram bots, lifehacks for travelers where in a new country to find wi-fi on arrival or cheaper to buy a local SIM card, etc. etc. During the year, developers expect to collect at least one hundred thousand bot users.
The priority areas for the distribution of the bot now are Russia and the EU, but in any country where you can buy a SIM card or borrow a local phone, all Callcoin functions will work. And you can always make sure that a particular country is available on the Callcoin website in the “ Tariffs ” section .
Do you have an interesting blockchain or bitcoin startup? Contact the author through lichku or mail in profile.