Behind the scenes of building the messenger

We believe that everyone in the crypto space values data privacy. Message metadata can reveal just as much as the content itself. Attackers can build social graphs from almost any signal, even timing patterns. For example, if 2 new IDs send short messages to each other in quick succession, it is likely a greeting exchange.

In TON, everything is public. However, networks such as Monero and Zcash have implemented transaction anonymity. While this may partially conflict with the ideology of blockchain transparency, our research suggests that stronger security is preferable to weaker security. Unlike financial transactions, communication has a strong case for being anonymous.

What does this mean for a messenger?

For an average user, nothing changes. The client UI can look like anything, even similar to Telegram, since most messengers share nearly identical functionality. But the difference becomes clear when you look at the network as a whole.

Without anonymity, it is visible that A sent a message to B.
1. This reveals the exact time of last activity, which is often undesirable. In Telegram, for example, this can be partially hidden.
2. It exposes the fact that you are communicating with a specific person, as well as the intensity of that interaction.

In practical terms, your partner could see that you message a friend more often than you message them. Or a malicious actor could identify everyone you have communicated with and impersonate you to contact them. This kind of information is valuable to many different actors.

If cryptocurrency were used in everyday life, demand for anonymity would likely be much higher. For example, if someone buys medication at a pharmacy, the transaction amount alone could reveal what was purchased and link it to a specific person. That would expose medical information, which is private in the real world.

In the future, the world may move toward greater openness, which could potentially reduce crime, as these factors are correlated. Or it may remain as closed as it is today.

I hope for the first scenario and would like to contribute to a more open world. However, at this stage, we don't believe we can take that level of risk. If a crime were committed using publicly visible A-B social graph data, media headlines would likely read something like "TON Messenger Is Not Private" which would seriously damage its reputation.

Overall, this was not an easy decision. Most users will feel safer this way. The only thing we sacrifice is the possibility of accelerating the transition toward a more open global infrastructure, which might, in theory, lead to a better world.