Neton | Devpost

Make Near as the second settlement layer for Telegram.

Inspiration

As we all know, Ton has been the fastest-growing crypto ecosystem in the past few months. One of Ton’s core advantage lies in Telegram's native support for the Ton wallet. Users could interact with Ton or do Onramp without any wallet management issue.

Ton as settlement layer

By observing the Telegram MiniApp ecosystem, we found that MiniApps with Telegram Native UX (using the native Ton wallet) experience far greater growth than those with non-native UX (using other blockchain wallet bots on Telegram). This is mainly because a large portion of new Web3 users on Telegram are not accustomed to using separate wallets; they view Telegram itself as a good wallet, and this perception is indeed accurate.

Near as settlement layer

What it does

Neton is a Native track project, builds an infrastructure bridging the Telegram and Near networks, allowing users to sign Near Chain transactions directly through Telegram’s built-in wallet. By bringing Near-based MiniApps with Telegram’s native UX, Neton positioning Near as a secondary settlement layer for Telegram.

Steps happened behind when user interacts with Near through MiniApp:

Near UserOperation generated by MiniApp;
Wrap it into a Ton Proof;
User Sign Ton Proof in MiniApp frontend by using Ton wallet that telegram embedded;
The Near contract verifies the proof(signed by ED25519);
Transfer/Interaction has been made;

How we built it

Users can log into a MiniApp using Telegram’s built-in wallet and initiate an NEAR transaction, requiring only confirmation of a transaction within Telegram.

Architecture

This magic is consists with two parts.

Ton Proof assembly. Ton proof is one of Telegram’s mechanism allows MiniApps let users to sign payloads with user’s Ton wallet. Neton packages Near onchain operations into a Ton proof payload and is requires user to sign by the user’s Ton Wallet.
Contract Account on Near. We deploys Near contracts for each Telegram users who logged into the MiniApp. This contract account can verify the signature from the Ton Wallet and execute the actions contained in the payload.

Challenges we ran into

To capture a large number of new Telegram users, we also need two important features: gas fee sponsorship and an embedded Onramp. Gas fee sponsorship requires a MetaTransaction-based approach, while Onramp integration requires BD with partners who support NEAR.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We hacked the Ton proof process, enabling userOps on the Near chain to be wrapped and signed using the Ton wallet. We can then verify this signature on the Near chain.