Show HN: WhisprMe – Anonymous messaging inside Telegram with Stars micropayments

[paulbrickman]

https://whisprme.app

I built an anonymous messaging app that runs as a Telegram Mini App. Share your link, friends send anonymous messages, unlock them with Telegram Stars (no credit card needed).

Tech stack: Node.js/Express, PostgreSQL, React, Telegraf. Single Hetzner VPS with PM2. Total cost: ~$5/month.

Interesting technical bits: - Auth uses Telegram's initData with HMAC validation (no passwords) - Payments via Telegram Stars API (createInvoiceLink → pre_checkout → successful_payment) - Haptic feedback makes WebView feel native - i18n for English + Russian

Try it: https://t.me/WhisprMe_bot

Happy to answer questions about the Telegram Mini App platform or Stars payment flow.

[paulbrickman]

I open-sourced the auth and payment code as a starter kit: https://github.com/haskellthurber/telegram-miniapp-starter

The trickiest part was getting initData validation right — Telegram's docs don't mention you need to sort the parameters alphabetically before hashing. The code in the repo handles that plus the full Stars payment lifecycle.

Also wrote a step-by-step guide for the Stars integration specifically: https://dev.to/haskelldev/how-to-accept-payments-in-a-telegr...