Earlier in the week, we announced the launch of our new Discord server which has already seen over 200 community members join. For those new to, or unfamiliar with Discord this article should help to explain some of its key features.

Discord began life as part of a game created by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevsky which allowed users to chat with one another from inside the game. Realizing the chat function was gaining more attention than the game itself they decided to develop the concept further.

Fast forward to today and Discord is a free-to-use platform that allows users to create forums for their communities where people can share content and ideas easily. The key to its success is that it’s quick and easy to spin up a new server and inviting people to join is as simple as following a one-click link.

Although Discord originally gained most of its traction within the gaming community it’s now been widely adopted across many other areas, including the crypto community. With over 150 million active users per month, it provides an open forum for communities to learn from each other and grow.

Before transitioning to Discord we started building the Paribus community through Telegram and Twitter. Each platform has a different feel and approach, so to be as open as possible to our whole community we decided to expand the options for engagement.

As Wilson, our COO explains, “While we believe that Telegram is perhaps the most integrated social platform for crypto enthusiasts, Discord is a top platform for social interaction with the crypto/NFT space too. The different styles of platform UI can cause some people to have a preference for one over the other. We want to be able to deliver content and areas for conversation on the platform that our community enjoys best based on their preferences.”

We also had to take the time to scale carefully as each platform brings with it different issues that require the appropriate resources. In the case of Discord we had to wait until we had the ability to facilitate the conversations in a safe and respectful environment.

When people click the link to join our Discord server (discord.io/paribus) they’re greeted with the welcome page listing the main rules. Anyone familiar with the sometimes toxic environment of Crypto-Twitter will appreciate the benefit of trying to keep conversations respectful, productive, and on topic.

Another advantage of Discord is its ability to segment topics of conversation into their own channels within the server. Deniz, our CEO describes how this will be of benefit to the Paribus community, “The discussions on Discord will overall be very similar to Telegram. The advantage with Discord is the channel categories each server has, which can help separate discussions. These groups are specific to a particular topic, so community members can keep focus on an idea and others joining the conversation will know where to go for information about certain topics.”

So many great ideas and conversations can easily be lost in the endless thread of Telegram groups, so it’s our expectation that our Discord channels will grow and adapt organically. This flexibility will enable the community’s needs and wishes to shape how our server develops.

As with every space in the cryptocurrency scene users do have to exercise a little caution in how they interact with the platform. As Simon, our CTO explains, “As with any social media site, there are plenty of reasons to be cautious, such as scam messages and bot attacks. We will do our best to limit bots in the group with verification tools. Our community should also be extremely skeptical of any direct messages. They are more than likely attempts to obtain personal information. Our admins do a great job of reminding the community of these dangers.”

We always advise people that no Paribus team member will ever ask them to send funds to an address, nor will they ever ask for any of their passwords or seed phrases. Another advantage of Discord is that we can ensure that only official team members can communicate through the announcement channel. If you’re ever uncertain you can always cross-reference our Discord announcements with our official Twitter announcements.

We’re excited to see where our community takes the conversations about Paribus. We’ve been blessed from the very early days of the project with a hugely supportive and engaged community. That’s why we’re delighted to be able to expand the opportunities for discussion and involvement even further with Discord.