FOB vs.
the field.
The wallet-shaped objects you've used so far. The one you're about to. We'll meet your favorites in the things they're great at — and lap them in the rest.
| FOB | @wallet | Phantom | MetaMask | Tonkeeper | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lives inside Telegram | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | partial |
| Non-custodial by default | ✓ | partial | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Survives a Telegram ban | ✓ | ✗ custodial | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Send to @username | ✓ | Mini App only | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Inline-mode pay-friend | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Telegram-contact recovery | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 10 chains (SOL · ETH · BASE · ARB · POLY · HyperEVM · TRX · TON · SUI · BTC) | ✓ | no Sui · no HyperEVM | no Tron · no TON · no HyperEVM | no Sui · no TON · no HyperEVM | TON only |
| Pre-tx simulation | ✓ | partial | ✓ | partial | partial |
| Address poisoning protection | ✓ | partial | partial | partial | partial |
| Gas paid in stablecoins | ✓ | ✗ | partial | ✗ | TON only |
| Telegram Stars top-up | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Watch-address pings | ✓ | ✗ | partial | ✗ | ✗ |
| 2FA bot for large tx | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Telegram Gifts on-chain | ✓ | partial | ✗ | ✗ | TON only |
| KYC required | ✗ | ✓ above $3.5k/day | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Inline-pay fee on $100 | $0.02 | $0.90 | $0.18 | $0.85 | $0.04 |
The math.
One point per row, half for "partial". The numbers are rough but the direction is clear: wallet-shaped objects exist; FOB is the wallet-shaped wallet for Telegram.
A wallet should be a thing.
Not a tab.
For ten years, crypto wallets have been built by engineers, for engineers. They sit in browser tabs. They prompt you with hex strings. They ask you to "approve" things you cannot read.
When you make a payments tool that has to be used by your grandmother and a Solana market-maker on the same day, you stop showing the hex strings. You stop asking for approvals you cannot read. You stop putting the wallet in a tab.
You put it where the conversation already lives.
FOB is the wallet for people who never wanted a wallet — and the wallet for people who already have five. It is non-custodial because money should never be administrative. It lives in Telegram because that is where the chat is, and the chat is where the payments naturally want to happen.
We chose the keychain as the metaphor on purpose. A fob is the small thing on your keychain — pocketable, tactile, present-on-your-person. Always there. Never the centre of attention. Quietly indispensable.
That's what this should be.