Status vs Telegram: Preserving Privacy for Crypto Users
The Telegram messaging app has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, highlighting the importance of how the applications we use every day to communicate treat our data and private conversations.
Considering Telegram's adoption in the crypto space and renewed conversation about messaging apps' privacy-preserving features, now is a better time than ever to try out Status, the private messenger and crypto wallet built for Web3 natives.
Let’s take a look at how Status handles encryption, privacy, and more in comparison with Telegram.
Contrary to what many users may think, Telegram chats are not encrypted by default. Instead, “Secret Chats” must be manually created to take advantage of end-to-end encryption. On Status, all one-to-one chats are always end-to-end encrypted, ensuring the content of your conversations stays between you and your contacts.
Chats within Status use the Double Ratchet algorithm for end-to-end encryption (the same algorithm used by Signal but adapted to a decentralised network), while Telegram’s Secret Chats use the MTProto 2.0 protocol, which some experts have questioned the strength of considering its lack of extensive peer review.
Using a resilient end-to-end encryption algorithm means that it is impossible for anyone but you and your message’s recipient to decrypt and read your message.
This is true even if those messages are stored on a centralised server by applications such as Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram—although many governments advocate for the implementation of “backdoors” that allow them to decrypt messages stored on centralised servers at will.
Status is uniquely resistant to this form of privacy violation thanks to its design as an open-source, peer-to-peer messenger that operates as a public good. This means that messages sent between users are routed to one another through a peer-to-peer network in a way that preserves privacy and operates without the centralised servers used by other messaging apps.
Even if we wanted to, neither we nor anyone else has any way to collect and decipher your messages, ensuring they remain private.
Status messaging uses the Waku peer-to-peer communications protocol, meaning there is no centralised server through which messages on the platform must be routed, and neither we nor anyone else is able to read or control what is shared on Status.
Status provides open-source infrastructure that allows users to create, join, and, as appropriate, administer community spaces; Status is not a moderator, owner, or controller of user-created spaces.
This is true for everything from group chats to token-gated Communities, where users are responsible for the information they share and for ensuring the channels and spaces they create align with their values.
On top of this, Status preserves users’ right to digital privacy, as you don’t need an email address or mobile number to sign up for the application. Profiles are created through the generation of secret, self-custodial keys to which users can optionally attach identity metadata, such as a username, profile image and bio.
Status even gives users the ability to create multiple profiles, each with a different connected wallet address. That means you can choose which identities to share with whom, all while still being able to easily send and receive crypto payments.
Status is built with a single vision in mind—to create an open, decentralised application that helps to defend human rights, enables free speech, protects privacy, and promotes users’ sovereignty.
Our journey is informed by the principles laid out in our manifesto, which include liberty, censorship resistance, privacy, and security. We are building a messaging application that upholds the human right to secure, private communication in the digital world, and we are making that messenger open-source and freely available to everyone to help facilitate its censorship resistance.
Not only does Status enable private, censorship-resistant communication, but it also comes with a built-in crypto wallet, complete with fiat on-ramps, multi-chain support, and WalletConnect compatibility.
By combining a private, unstoppable messenger with decentralised crypto payments, Status allows you to retain your privacy and security in the digital world, all while privately chatting with your friends, sending and receiving payments, creating and joining Communities, and much more.
To get started with Status, download and try out the latest releases of Status Mobile and the Status Desktop Beta.
