Built a Telegram app where you pay $2 to put your name on a wall forever

I built a Telegram Mini App that does exactly one thing: you pay 150 Telegram Stars (~$2), write your name and a short message, and you get a permanent spot on a shared wall.

I'm not going to pretend this solves a problem. It doesn't. The internet is really good at making things disappear — sites shut down, chats get wiped, accounts get banned. This wall just sits there. That's the whole pitch.

Stack: Python (python-telegram-bot) on Railway, Supabase (Postgres) for the database, a static site on Netlify pulling directly from Supabase's REST API, payments via Telegram Stars, and certificate cards generated server-side with Pillow.

A few things I learned building this:

— Real-time updates via Supabase Realtime subscriptions are surprisingly easy to wire up, but easy to get subtly wrong (had a sort-order bug where reloading the page showed oldest-first while live updates added newest-first — took a while to catch).

— Added a "King of the Hill" mechanic where buying VIP status puts a crown next to your name. Shipped a version where the purchase worked in the database but never rendered on the frontend — fun bug to track down.

— Built a /profile command showing real rank (not just top-10) using Postgres RANK() OVER.

I know the concept isn't new — it's basically a spiritual successor to the old Million Dollar Homepage. I'm not claiming originality, I just wanted to build my own version for 2026, with Stars instead of PayPal and no pixels to buy.

Currently testing different ways to get this in front of people — paid ads converted zero buyers despite decent CTR, organic posts in dev communities did better. Happy to talk about what's worked and what hasn't.

wall1m.com if you want to take a look.