introduction

Recently, Telegram (TG) and the Ton network have frequently become hot topics. On August 28, due to the surge in $DOGS transactions, the Ton network was congested, causing the garbage collection function to be overloaded and many verification nodes to temporarily lose consensus. In order to restore the normal operation of the network, the verification nodes need to be restarted around 12 noon.

So, what applications are there on the Ton network? Who are its users? Let’s explore together.

1. Current status of Ton ecosystem

The Ton ecosystem relies on TG's 1 billion users. After half a year of rapid development, the number of active wallets on the Ton chain has reached 14 million, but the penetration rate is only 1.4%. In contrast, WeChat Pay's penetration rate in 2023 is about 80%. From this perspective, the Ton ecosystem has a huge potential user market. Ton officials set a goal in a recent meeting: to attract 500 million users to Web3 in the next 4 years.

When it comes to the Ton ecosystem, the most eye-catching thing is the Ton game. Just like Axie Infinity back then, the most widely discussed game on Ton recently is Catizen. With the launch of Dogs, the hotspot quickly shifted. At the recent KWB event, people were discussing who the next phenomenal game would be and what kind of story it would bring. Developers who have more contact with the Ton Foundation will know that the Ton Foundation has not provided support for the project for a long time. In addition to the changes in supply and demand, simple Clicker Games have occupied a lot of users' time, and users are tired of such games. At present, there are only two paths for the commercialization of Clicker Games:

  • Shanghai Stock Exchange

  • Divert traffic to other projects

However, there are very few projects that can be listed, and users may participate in many games but get nothing in the end. For users, mutual diversion will only result in a bunch of boring and task-heavy Clicker Games. In the long run, bad money drives out good money, and users will gradually lose interest in TG games and lose trust in the TG ecosystem. When the activity decreases, developers will also leave. These clicker games often do not require a "chain" because of their simple goals. The game logic can be completed in a centralized way, but they consume Ton's resources instead of serving Ton. Faced with such a situation, how will Ton officials guide it?

In the traditional Internet, "people, goods, and places" is an important concept, and Ton officials are also aware of this and promote the development of the ecosystem by hosting various developer activities.

  • People: refers to users. In the Ton ecosystem, users are the core. Just like the evolution of the WeChat ecosystem from "jump jump" to "sheep sheep" and then to "search the world", users need to be cultivated and educated through high-quality games and applications. Ton officials are working hard to attract more users into its ecosystem and provide them with interesting and valuable experiences.

  • Goods: refers to content and services. In the Ton ecosystem, games and applications are "goods". These contents need to be attractive and innovative to meet the needs of users. Ton officially encourages developers to create outstanding games and applications to enrich the ecological content, and stimulates innovation through various activities and support programs.

  • Field: refers to the platform and environment. The Ton network itself is a "field" that provides a decentralized platform for users and developers. Ton officials can join forces with some potential partners that can help break the circle, such as Web3 native companies and traditional game companies, to enrich the ecological content. Through these collaborations, Ton can not only provide developers with a wider range of resources and support, but also attract more users to participate and promote the prosperity of the entire ecosystem.

So I started looking from the "venue" and saw that many traditional wallet giants have held Ton Campaign activities, such as Bitget Ton Carnival, OKX CryptoPedia, Safepal Ton Fest, etc. This time, I selected the games in the recently launched Safepal Ton Fest event list for analysis.

2. Crazy Like Game: Ton Heroes

A phrase often said by domestic developers is: "Move the games on the WeChat mini program over."

In the project list, the author found a "crazy" game, and the word that highlights this game is "fun".

Players no longer need to constantly defeat mobs to level up, nor do they need to fight to the death in the game's dungeons to get equipment. In the game, the treasure chest is placed in front of you, with equipment, experience, and gold coins in it, and you can open it at will.

The types of weapons that players can obtain are:

Weapon rarity is divided into 9 categories, as shown below:

After reading this, did you immediately think of a very popular project back then: Loot?

The narrative of universal assets on the chain described by Loot is accepted by many people, but because it only solves problems on the production side and has no highly playable applications, it has lost its value.

Ton Heroes has implemented the production and use of props.

Users can obtain equipment of higher quality and better advanced attributes by continuously opening treasure chests. When opening treasure chests, players need to make decisions between advanced attributes and basic attributes, and try to make the hero more powerful in battle.

Players can obtain additional resources and treasure chests through PVE battles, and can also challenge other players, PVP to obtain battle rewards and higher rankings. The online time of "crazy" game users is up to 60 minutes, the active ARPU is 9.8, the payment rate is 7.7%, and the paid ARPU reaches 126. This proven category is a cash cow after the number of users increases. Coupled with Loot's narrative and the use scenarios of universal game assets, this game has great potential.

At the same time, the author found Ton Heroes on TonKeeper’s official recommendation and OKX, which shows the team’s background and strength.

Before publication, this game appeared at the top of the latest recommendations on Telegram's official AppsCenter.

3. Multi-terminal social networking games: NokNok

The Ton Heroes above represent the "goods" in the "people-goods market", while the "people" are represented by this fan-based and social MEME game. NokNok has established a fan economy from the perspective of "people". Players can "rank" each character by rapping on popular figures such as Trump, Musk, and Harris, and the ranking list shows the number of times each character has been rapped.

Hammer NFT

Players can obtain hammer coins through in-game actions. At the same time, they can obtain various hammer skins through treasure chests every day. According to official social media, they will soon launch an NFT system, allowing players to cast their collected hammer skins into NFTs.

I found this to be similar to Banana, which is very popular on Steam. Although there is a similar Banana project on TG, it is not developed by the same manufacturer, and the data cannot be connected. However, NokNok released its own PC game on Steam, which is the first Ton game that is connected to multiple terminals. This is also an important reason why I analyze it first.

Multi-terminal mining

Different from most existing clicker games, NokNok emphasizes a "light gameplay" where players can earn profits by hanging up.

Reward System

Like Banana, NokNok officials also launched an event to obtain rewards for limited skins. Players can get rewards directly from the official after opening the limited hammer, which directly anchors the value of the props.

In the task list, I saw two familiar logos, one is Binance, and Safepal is the earliest project incubated by Binance. If it can cooperate with Safepal, then there must be a certain connection with Binance. The core of Dogs breaking the circle is to bring TG users to CEX, so has NokNok's narrative on multiple terminals attracted the attention of Binance?

Another task is IOSG. As an investment and research institution focusing on blockchain technology, IOSG is an indispensable presence in the Web3 field. Although the author did not find relevant information from public channels, this part is left for everyone to explore and study. In this issue, we will first analyze these two games. Later, according to everyone's needs, we can analyze some games with new gameplay and new narratives on Ton in more depth.

reference:

1、Tonkeeper : https://x.com/tonkeeper

2、Ton Heroes: https://t.me/TonNokBot/game?startapp=wechat

3. Ton Heroes White Paper: https://tonheroes.gitbook.io/tonheroes

4、NokNok: https://t.me/TonHeroesBot/game?startapp=wechat