jakiro
Cryptocurrencies are relatively independent emerging technologies that give their paths to mass adoption unique challenges.While blockchain projects promise to disrupt a variety of established technology businesses, this requires the creation of a thriving community full of active users who have moved their activities from established tracks to the cryptocurrency space.The problem is that this is one of the toughest challenges for blockchain projects, as established technologies work well to a large extent.More importantly, there are currently thousands of blockchain projects that tend to be similar to each other and compete for the same attention and users.The vast majority of these projects are essentially “a technical idea that tries to build a community from scratch.”
Telegram, as the leading cryptocurrency communication platform, is moving on the road to 1 billion active users.Telegram’s versatility, security and speed make it the preferred platform for cryptocurrency users.Achieve seamless communication between individuals and teams.For the industry, Telegram plays an important role in building a large-scale community, providing projects with tools to interact with audiences, spread information and cultivate a sense of belonging.It may be one of the best tools for cryptocurrency projects to build a community.
Telegram’s huge user base and free and open APIs offer an unparalleled opportunity for cryptocurrency projects to integrate their products into an existing, vibrant community with a very large cryptocurrency user base.Recognizing this potential, TON stands out for the highest strategic fit with Telegram.But there are also signs that other blockchain ecosystems will be further integrated into Telegram.
Telegram’s rapid development
TON has recently attracted widespread attention and has performed well throughout the cryptocurrency market since it was announced as Telegram’s “official Web3 infrastructure” at the TOKEN2049 Singapore event in September 2023.At the event, Telegram and the TON Foundation jointly announced TON Space, a brand new self-hosted wallet that integrates directly into the official Telegram wallet and includes the Telegram wallet in the settings and attachment menus for all non-US users.
TON Space is a game-changing product.While some might think it’s just Telegram adding a self-hosted wallet, the broader view is that Telegram has actually become a self-hosted wallet with nearly 1 billion users, seamlessly bringing users to crypto applications within a wide range of platforms.Connect and allow users to communicate privately within the platform or between groups without leaving the platform.No other wallet can provide such a user experience.In addition to simple transactions, most wallets lack direct application integration or social capabilities, requiring users to have a hassle-free login process between different browser-based applications, severely limiting availability.Telegram’s all-round experience is crucial for mass adoption.Imagine if Instagram or X requires you to log in to a separate browser app to send messages or leave messages on a friend’s post, or if you have to use a different browser app to attach files from cloud storage to electronicsWhat will happen in the email?
The re-cooperation between Telegram and TON has attracted the attention of well-known venture capital firms, Pantera Capital has made its biggest investment ever on TON, and other companies have expressed recent interest.Unlike most blockchain projects that struggle to build new communities, TON’s deep integration with Telegram positioned it as “a community that integrates blockchain.”As Pantera pointed out in their investment letter, “it will definitely be easier.”
TON: Spotify in the cryptocurrency world
TON’s recent embedding action in Telegram reminds me of Spotify’s collaboration and integration with Facebook in 2011, which was a big time for the music streaming industry.Spotify’s integration with Facebook enables users to share their listening habits and playlists directly on this huge social media platform, greatly improving Spotify’s visibility and usage.In just four days, Spotify gained 1 million new Facebook-related users.And over six weeks, Facebook-linked Spotify users shared more than 1.5 billion song listening events through Facebook’s open map, which allows developers to integrate their apps into social media platforms.From then on, what remains is history.
Similarly, the integration of TON with Telegram enables TON developers to integrate their applications into Telegram’s vast social network, making it easier for users to discover and use TON’s applications and services.Just as Spotify uses Facebook’s social graph to build a community around music sharing, TON uses Telegram to build a community around value transfer.
TON has maintained steady growth since Telegram recognized TON.Recently, the total value locked in TON smart contracts (TVL) exceeded $1 billion, an increase of two orders of magnitude from the previous activity.
TON’s daily active wallet number continues to hit record highs.
TON’s token holders and trading volumes show a strong upward trend.
While there are limitations through analogy reasoning, there are compelling similarities between Facebook and Spotify and Telegram and TON.When Facebook integrated Spotify into the platform in the third quarter of 2011, Facebook had about 800 million users, while Spotify had 2 million paid subscription users.Less than a year later, Spotify’s paid subscription users increased to more than 4 million.Similarly, when Telegram integrated TON in the third quarter of 2023, Telegram also had about 800 million users, while TON had about 100,000 monthly active wallets.Less than a year later, TON’s monthly active wallets grew to about 5.5 million.
Although the growth of TON active users is an order of magnitude growth for Spotify, it should be noted that it is inaccurate to directly compare Spotify subscription users from ten years ago to active TON wallets now.Importantly, the adoption of new technologies has seen significant growth after being integrated into a large social network.
Given that TON has touched only a small part of the Telegram user base to date, it is reasonable to expect that its growth will continue as technology improves and use cases expand.
Except TON: Cryptocurrencies on Telegram
Although Telegram has officially recognized and given TON some exclusive offers on the platform, they are likely to remain independent organizations due to legal issues.This is a good thing for other blockchain projects, as Telegram keeps its API free and open for developers to use, thus promoting healthy competition and innovation.
When discussing TON and Telegram, it is important that other ecosystems are integrated into Telegram.NEAR in particular is probably the second most integrated chain with Telegram, quietly taking action to build a strong presence on Telegram.
The most notable example is NEAR’s self-hosted HERE wallet and its lightweight Telegram implementation, HOT wallet, launched in early February.HOT Wallet focuses on user engagement and simplifies the process of accessing the NEAR ecosystem through Telegram as NEAR’s response to Telegram TON Wallet.
Creating a new NEAR account with a HOT wallet is as simple as opening a Telegram application and tapping the screen a few times to generate a readable NEAR address that is automatically assigned to your Telegram username (e.g. blockhiro.tg).
To increase user engagement, HOT Wallet adopts the gamification strategy of the popular Notcoin app on TON, which launched a month ago and attracted millions of users in the first week.Similar to Notcoin, HOT wallet users can mine their local tokens directly on the app through a fun game that combines social features, tasks and upgrades.
Within 10 days of launch, more than one million Telegram users have created NEAR accounts on their HOT wallets.It has been ranked No. 1 on DappRadar several times since its launch.
In the first quarter, the average daily number of users of HOT wallet was about 370,000, accounting for nearly 30% of NEAR’s daily active addresses.So far, the average daily active users in the second quarter have increased to about 500,000.
NEAR’s success on Telegram raises the question: Will TON continue to be Telegram’s *only* Web3 infrastructure, or will it be one of the ** Web3 infrastructure?Although TON has been receiving attention, NEAR and other potential blockchain projects should not be ignored.I will keep an eye on the dynamics of other blockchain ecosystems over the coming months and years.
tApp (encrypted app on Telegram)
In recent crypto apps on Telegram (called “tApps”), improvements in user experience—from monotonous proxy page trading bots to complete applications—for more high-engagement mining gamesAnd the rise of other tApps paved the way.Notcoin and HOT wallets are just the beginning.Now, there are many popular “mining +” tApps on multiple chains that have attracted millions of players by providing simple and fun ways to play and earn.Here are some examples:
User growth for these seemingly simple applications is extraordinary!For example, Hamster Kombat has reached 100 million users in less than three months, making it between ChatGPT and TikTok in terms of user acquisition speed.Simple estimates show that at least 10% of Telegram users tried the game a few months after the app was launched, demonstrating Telegram’s strong influence in Web3 user acquisition (user retention is another matter).
With the development of tApp categories, there are signs that they are moving towards multi-chain (e.g. MemeFi, Blum) and are no longer just imitators of Notcoin (e.g. AVACOIN, PixelTap).Some people associate this category with meme coins because the meme nature of Notcoin initiates all this, but I have a different opinion.In some ways, current tApps and meme coins are similar in emphasis on convenience and fun—a very different from the serious technical terminology we often see in the crypto space.But unlike meme coins, tApp provides full features such as games and tasks that attract the actual use of potential hundreds of millions of crypto-prepared users who are already on Telegram or willing to join Telegram.
Apps that integrate with cryptocurrencies on Telegram started a smaller start, but now is the time for them to grow into more complex platforms that compete with other mobile apps.The new tApp can combine and integrate gaming, social and other engagement mechanisms to provide a richer user experience for cryptocurrency users and new entrants.
TApps spanning multiple blockchain ecosystems beyond TON will further consolidate Telegram’s position in the wider crypto industry and strengthen existing links between various crypto communities and Telegram.If these applications can not only leverage Telegram’s existing user base, but also attract new users and developers, this may inspire Telegram to provide more support for more chains.This can be achieved by providing wider API access, higher server-side rate limits, or extended availability in settings and menus.
Summarize
To achieve large-scale adoption, we should go beyond TON or any specific blockchain protocol to consider Telegram in a broader context of digital assets, information security and globalization.Telegram has become a global communications giant with extensive penetration in North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe.Its huge user base, combined with innovative features at the forefront of information security and technology, makes Telegram the best platform for us to bridge the encrypted island to the mainland.Just as Facebook gave birth to the rise of Spotify and music streaming in the 2010s, Telegram is the right product to accelerate blockchain adoption and drive the normalization of on-chain value transfer in the 2020s.
The most common argument I hear when discussing the barriers to mass adoption of crypto is user experience (UX).Many believe that the main reason that hinders mass adoption of encryption is the poor user experience.But, I no longer think that’s the case.The rapid growth of accounts and activity on tApps such as Telegram Wallet, Here Wallet and Notcoin, Hamster Kombat shows that crypto user experience is basically ready for mainstream use.If this is not the case, these applications would not have grown to millions of users in a few days.I think the real bottleneck is the lack of integration between isolated blockchain projects and larger social networks.Imagine what kind of activity would have happened if these games were launched as standalone apps other than Telegram.
Just as streaming technology revolutionizes the way we consume audio and visual content by making it easier to access and convenient than ever before, the goal of blockchain projects should be to achieve the same effect of value transfer.This won’t happen in the silo.It will happen on platforms like Telegram, where blockchain applications can make transfer of value between individuals, groups and applications more accessible and convenient than elsewhere.
