The Telegram Open Network (TON) is back from the dead! As it emerged from regulatory troubles, this ambitious blockchain project is now surging on the NFT boom and pulling regulators back into its orbit again. Are they banking on a smart comeback or flailing to maintain relevance? That's the million-dollar question. To be honest, I’m not sure anybody really knows for sure the answer right now. Let's dive in.
Is TON a Web2 Trojan Horse?
So what is the crux of TON’s NFT strategy? The center of TON’s NFT strategy lies in Telegram “gifts,” now called “collectibles.” These are not your standard pixelated punks or algorithmically generated apes. Consider them less like points in a video game and more like specialized emojis or virtual badges, intended to be shown off ostentatiously on your Telegram profile. Telegram's founder, Pavel Durov, is obviously all-in. He's been touting their success, even claiming they've surpassed Ethereum in daily NFT transaction volume. Ambitious? Yes. Believable? We need to dig deeper.
Here's where the unexpected connection comes in: remember QQ Show items from the early days of the internet? They were completely ornamental, completely social and astronomically popular in Asia. TON “gifts” seem like a similar idea, but amplified and made possible through the blockchain. This is where the Web2 adoption potential gets really exciting. The convenience factor for gifting and social integration is huge. NFT whale BitCloutCat gets it. That’s the kind of thing the average non-crypto user would universally get and need.
Here's the anxiety creeping in. All this activity is within Telegram. But is this really building a more decentralized web, or just a nicer looking walled garden? The libertarian in me bristles at the thought of so much control concentrated in one platform. We know the risks of when centralized platforms pull the rug out from under us. Remember Vine? Remember MySpace?
Centralized Power vs. Decentralized Ideals
The issuance model is another big sticking point. These “gifts” are bought with “stars,” an in-app currency, in Telegram. Stars, you say? Sure sounds an awful lot like Q-coins, the latest universal currency adopted by celebs spillin’ their tea across social media. If monetization is the next hurdle we’re tackling, are we truly pioneering, or merely recreating Web2 monetization strategies with a new label? And is it really decentralized if the only way you can obtain it is through Telegram?
The concentration of Telegram-official assets is worrying too. Although customizable, community-created PFPs do exist, they never took off anywhere near the impact. The truth of the matter is, it feels like Telegram is framing the entire narrative, deciding which NFTs succeed and which ones fail. This isn’t the kind of open, permissionless ecosystem that most of us imagined when NFTs first came onto the scene.
Increasing dominance of the Russian-speaking community This leads to another red flag. While being the first to adopt is wonderful, putting all your eggs in one demographic basket can become quite the disaster. Of course, we would like to see much broader adoption to feel confident that long-term sustainability is achievable.
Genius or Echo Chamber?
Needless to say, that’s quite an impressive trajectory, especially with the pace of transaction volume growth. Notably, some markets such as TONNEL have even outpaced OpenSea in daily trading volume. Let’s not be swept up by the excitement. While off-chain trading accounts for most of this volume, it does offer some added convenience for Telegram users. This convenience gives up a significant amount of the transparency and security benefits that blockchain provides. Pretending that your local farmer’s market is larger than the NYSE because it sells more tomatoes just ignores the point. It’s crucial to understand the differences in scale and significance between these two markets.
Here's the cold, hard truth: TON's NFT play is intriguing, but it's far from a guaranteed success. Or, it might turn out to be a genius move that welcomes millions of Web2 users into the NFT ecosystem. Or, it may just be a passing era that soon rides off into the sunset and leaves TON where it was before.
The answer depends on TON’s capacity to prove it can escape its centralized impulses. It needs to develop a truly competitive, diverse ecosystem and lure users from outside its native Russian-speaking base. If it can do that, then perhaps, just perhaps, this gamble will pay off. For now, I’m watching with cautious optimism and a healthy dose of skepticism.
