Crypto dining is here 🍕

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Blackbird, a Web3 startup from Resy co-founder, wants diners to pay for meals in crypto

Blackbird Labs announced the launch of Blackbird Pay, a new system letting diners pay for meals with the cryptocurrency $FLY. Ben Leventhal founded Blackbird Labs as a restaurant loyalty platform and co-founded Resy and Eater; $FLY is its cryptocurrency, redeemable as loyalty points. 

Key features:

• Cryptocurrency payments: Diners can earn $FLY tokens as reward points for dining at participating restaurants or buy them within the Blackbird app using Coinbase's USDC stablecoin. This allows them to pay for their meal with $FLY.

• Lower transaction fees: Lower transaction fees for restaurants that use Blackbird Pay for transactions; they have to pay only 2% flat per transaction versus up to 3.75% typical credit card fees.

• Improved dining experience: Diners will have it easier where at any point in the meal, one will pay via the app, removing the pain of waiting for the check.

Technology…

• Blackbird Mainnet: This shall be powered by Blackbird Mainnet, a layer-3 blockchain running atop Coinbase's Base chain. The layer-2 network provides fast and cheap transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

Solving restaurant pain points: According to Leventhal, the restaurant business is "a humongous industry made up of tiny players." This tends to be a highly competitive, thus expensive and low-margin industry. Blackbird seeks to drive traffic and create new revenues via reward and cryptocurrency payment options, which could potentially improve operating margins and strategic growth.

Backed by major investors, a year ago Blackbird raised more than $24 million in funding from American Express and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), underpinning rising interest in Web3 solutions for traditional industries.

Leventhal's vision: Leventhal envisions Blackbird to be a transformative platform partnered with restaurants to help boost their payment and rewards systems and drive profitability for a much more seamless dining experience. "We think those are the levers to really creating massively improved operating margins and massively improved strategy," he stated.

Blackbird Labs imagines a world where integrating Web3 technology with restaurants redefines how consumers engage with their favorite restaurants—offering better economics and superior experiences for both diners and restaurant owners.

^{Sponsored by Unchained}

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Telegram introduces in-app browser and mini app store

Telegram announced the launch of an in-app browser and mini app store to integrate with its large user base. Key Features:

In-app browser:

• Combines decentralized TON Sites located on the blockchain of Open Network.

• Supports URLs that end with ".ton" (for example, http://foundation.ton), providing enhanced security and decentralization.

• Seamlessly navigates between messaging, surfing, and gaming through features like search, bookmarks, and multiple tabs.

• Exposure to Web3 technology for wider diffusion among the 950 million users of Telegram.

Mini app store:

• Aggregates all Telegram-based mini apps in one place for its 500 million monthly active users.

• Introduces a new tab called 'Apps' within the Search feature to enable easy access to surfed-up apps like Catizens or Notcoin.

• Enables video demos and screenshots so that developers can explain their apps better.

• It allows the gifting of Stars, a mini-app payment unit that can be used with exclusive content and digital goods.

Community reception: Those updates were warmly welcomed by the community of Telegram users and crypto investors who anticipate massive Web3 adoption.

Rising Popularity of TON…

TON blockchain: Hosts such popular Telegram-based games as Catizen, Hamster Kombat, and Yescoin—all of them using Toncoin, the native token of the TON blockchain. Toncoin is trading at $6.8, having a market capitalization of $17.1 billion from this position, that places it 9th across cryptocurrencies. It surged over 470% in the last year, evidence of its strength available in the market.

This is why Telegram's integration of Web3 through its in-app browser and Mini App Store is the most important measure toward decentralizing the Internet and thus pushing blockchain technologies to a global audience. It improves user experience, thus contributing to the popularity of the TON blockchain and its native token, Toncoin.