This article is translated from Pantera Capital's Investing in TON Network
introduce
Pantera Capital announced its latest investment in TON, a layer-one network originally designed by Telegram and continued to be developed by the open source community. They believe TON has the ability to introduce crypto to the masses due to its widespread use within the Telegram network.
Telegram has over 900 million monthly active users on its future-proof, fast and secure messaging platform for personal and group communication, massive community building, content sharing, and more.
By leveraging Telegram’s massive user base and seamless user experience, as well as the vitality of TON’s emerging ecosystem, TON has the potential to become one of the largest crypto networks.
Combining the concept of WEB3 with mass distribution
Among the world’s leading messengers, Telegram stands out because its platform not only embodies much of the ethos of cryptocurrency, but also has significant distribution. Telegram regularly outpaces its closest alternative, Signal, with 10 times more downloads per month, reaching over 36.7 million downloads in January this year.
This article is translated from Pantera Capital's Investing in TON Network
introduce
Pantera Capital announced its latest investment in TON, a layer-one network originally designed by Telegram and continued to be developed by the open source community. They believe TON has the ability to introduce crypto to the masses due to its widespread use within the Telegram network.
Telegram has over 900 million monthly active users on its future-proof, fast and secure messaging platform for personal and group communication, massive community building, content sharing, and more.
By leveraging Telegram’s massive user base and seamless user experience, as well as the vitality of TON’s emerging ecosystem, TON has the potential to become one of the largest crypto networks.
Combining the concept of WEB3 with mass distribution
Among the world’s leading messengers, Telegram stands out because its platform not only embodies much of the ethos of cryptocurrency, but also has significant distribution. Telegram regularly outpaces its closest alternative, Signal, with 10 times more downloads per month, reaching over 36.7 million downloads in January this year.
What about other premium messengers? Telegram is the only major platform without regulatory barriers to incorporating Web 3 into open blockchain networks. While messengers attempted to incorporate cryptocurrency payments with Libra, they ultimately faced regulatory hurdles in the U.S., leading to a complete shutdown. WeChat tried to integrate the digital yuan’s CBDC payments, but the system was limited in scope and builders did not have the ability to create permissionless apps.nbsp;
Telegram has the power to bring cryptocurrency to the world because of its shared Web3 ethos and large-scale distribution.
A scalable platform built for hundreds of millions of users
The Open Network (TON) is a blockchain initiative developed by Telegram that aims to leverage the messaging app's extensive user base to create a decentralized network capable of supporting a variety of applications. TON has a multi-component ecosystem that includes the TON Blockchain, TON Storage, TON DNS, and TON Services — all of which are integrated to operate seamlessly.
The system's backbone, the TON blockchain, is built for high performance and scalability, processing transactions quickly thanks to its dynamic sharding mechanism. This architecture ensures that the network can process millions of transactions per second and scale efficiently as the number of users grows, making it ideal for developers aiming to launch applications for hundreds of millions of users without compromising speed or security.
The era of mini apps
TON’s emerging ecosystem leverages Telegram’s innovative design and large user base. More than 360 million users use what Telegram calls "mini-apps" every month, which include chatbots and mini-games. With TON, we envision that integrating cryptography into these “mini-applications” will significantly enhance the user experience for hundreds of millions of users. There are over 300 projects on TON, most of which have built mini-apps on Telegram and can be accessed through the Telegram App Center.
Earlier this year, we observed how memecoin trading tools like BonkBot were generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue through Telegram’s user interface. TON-based applications like StormTrade now enable users to trade perpetuals, cryptocurrencies, stocks, and shares using the same interface. StormTrade is trading over $10 million per day, and we believe similar TON-native Telegram bots will become the preferred user experience for many traders.
Telegram is the foundation for viral social and gaming apps. Early experimental Telegram games, such as Pixels and Fanzee Battles, attracted millions of users in a matter of days, demonstrating the platform’s huge potential for user engagement. Catizen, a cat-themed mini-game platform built on TON, currently has over 4 million users, with over 700,000 playing daily. Notcoin, a social app built on TON where users compete to mine digital currencies, has quickly grown to over 30 million users in one of the fastest crypto adoption events ever.
The TON Foundation recently announced their incentive program that will reward the development of successful TON applications. We believe this will foster the creation of exciting new crypto mini-apps that have the potential to become part of the masses.
Unlock new ways to make money
TON is unlocking multiple ways for the Telegram community to monetize, share, and grow their businesses. As a decentralized marketplace on the TON network, Fragment provides a platform where users can trade collectibles such as virtual phone numbers and custom Telegram usernames.
Fragment has already facilitated the sale of over $350 million in custom usernames and virtual phone numbers. And this is just the beginning! In the near future, the 730 billion Telegram stickers that have been sent may be converted into NFTs. These NFTs will then be available for purchase and sale through the TON blockchain.
Telegram has taken a major step forward by integrating revenue sharing with content creators and channel owners through its TON blockchain-based Fragment platform. The move marks a shift from the traditional social media model by directly allowing these creators to profit from advertising revenue on their channels.
This approach would not only reward creators for their content, but would also foster closer relationships between platforms and users and promote a fairer distribution of economic benefits within the digital ecosystem.
Local stablecoin payment
On April 19, 2024, Tether announced that it would deploy its stablecoin USDt on the TON blockchain and Telegram's wallet. This development represents a major advancement in the crypto industry as it allows hundreds of millions of users to seamlessly send and receive stablecoins through the Telegram platform, making payments as easy as using Venmo or Apple Cash.
The scalability of the TON network allows for transactions between two users to be charged a flat fee of approximately $0.10 – 66% cheaper than other crypto payment platforms. In addition, built-in on-ramps and off-ramps, including bank transfers and exchanges, are being provided to further facilitate access and usage.
in conclusion
We believe the TON network is still in its early stages and we are excited to see the adoption of its ecosystem and new features by the Telegram user base.
At its core, Telegram embodies the spirit of crypto: an open, free network accessible to all. With TON, Telegram has achieved a symbiotic relationship where scalable smart contract functionality and a powerful payment network enable breakthrough capabilities not possible in a Web2 environment. TON leverages the potential of a network with 900 million active users, given its massive user base, scalable infrastructure, thriving mini-app ecosystem, and native stablecoin trading.
At Pantera Capital, we are excited about this investment and eager to support future builders in the TON ecosystem. If you are developing TON and share our passion, please do not hesitate to contact us.
