After joining hands with Telegram, TON's plans and challenges.

Interview: flowie, ChainCatcher

Guests: Steve Yun, President of TON Foundation; Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital and member of the TON Foundation Board of Directors

At the recent Token 2049 conference, the announcement of the renewed collaboration between the TON Foundation and Telegram quickly sparked a new wave of discussion on the narrative of "Web3 mass application." Telegram not only announced the integration of the TON self-hosted encrypted wallet "TON Space," but also stated that TON is its sole Web3 infrastructure. TON Foundation President Steve Yun even revealed in his speech that their goal is to attract 30% of Telegram's users to join TON by 2028.

"Is the arrival of 'Web3 super app/Web3 version of WeChat' imminent?" This question has sparked intense discussions among community users. Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital and member of the TON Foundation Board of Directors, also commemorated this moment after the official announcement, stating, "Telegram, with 800 million monthly active users and 400 million daily active users, is opening an exclusive secondary entrance to TON globally, which will become one of the largest Web3 gateways, with its daily activity surpassing the total daily activity of global exchanges."

Bill recalled that before founding Telegram, the core members of Telegram and the TON Foundation had founded the "Facebook" of the original Russian-speaking area, Vk.com. "Their consistent approach has always been to first create a hit product, and then develop it into a super app." According to Bill, after leaving Binance in 2022 and joining Cypher Capital, TON was the first project he invested in. At the end of 2022, Cypher Capital announced a $10 million investment in TON, and Bill also became an external member of the TON Foundation's board of directors, participating in TON's development.

Regarding the claim that TON's integration with Telegram has a shadow of the WeChat ecosystem, TON Foundation President Steve Yun believes that their vision is to have a more profound impact, driven by blockchain. This is because only in the environment of Web3 can they provide users with low-cost, efficient transaction experiences and truly empower users to control their own data, assets, and identity information.

"Mass application" and "super entrance" have always been highly anticipated topics in Web3. What are the principles behind Telegram and TON's future in creating a "Web3 super app"? Where does TON currently stand and what are its future prospects? How do they view future challenges and industry competition? Recently, ChainCatcher invited TON Foundation President Steve Yun and Cypher Capital Chairman and TON Foundation Board member Bill Qian to provide a more in-depth interpretation and discussion of the above topics.

1. How to understand the "Web3 super app"?

1. ChainCatcher: In the "Transforming Telegram to Web3 with Toncoin" presentation at Token2049, Telegram not only announced the integration of the TON self-hosted encrypted wallet "TON Space," but also stated that TON is its sole Web3 infrastructure. Could Steve provide more details on the roles that Telegram and TON will play in creating the "super app" in the future?

Steve: At the Token2049 conference, the announcement we made jointly with Telegram outlined how the TON Foundation will closely collaborate with Telegram to introduce a Web3 experience to Telegram users. In summary, the TON blockchain will be integrated into the global Telegram user interface and will be the only Web3 ecosystem heavily promoted.

However, providing a TON ecosystem wallet for easy access to Telegram users is just the first step in realizing the TON ecosystem vision. TON's vision is to build a TON-based Web3 mini-program ecosystem within Telegram. The deep integration of TON with Telegram, along with the wallet's integration into Telegram, will build a perfect system—a platform for developers to build Web3 "mini-programs." This platform is simple and intuitive, incorporating Telegram's highly acclaimed social features such as message forwarding, inviting contacts, and sharing in group channels.

We envision that this Web3 "mini-program" ecosystem will transform Telegram into the first Web3 super app that meets the needs of both crypto enthusiasts and ordinary users.

2. ChainCatcher: As an investor and board member of TON, how do you view the significance of the collaboration between Telegram and TON? The Cypher Capital team actually invested $10 million in TON at the end of last year. What were your expectations for TON at that time? Do you have new expectations after this latest development with TON?

Bill: After leaving Binance in 2022, the first project I chose to collaborate with was TON. My logic was simple: our industry has always been "speculative surplus, lack of fundamentals." So where do the fundamentals come from? Scenarios are the fundamentals. Only high-frequency, real scenarios can bring the entire Web3 to a user base of 1 billion. Whether it's Web1, Web2, or Web3, it all boils down to the business of the internet, and the foundation of internet business has always been "starting with traffic and ending with transactions."

So after leaving Binance and while building a new platform with my partners, I have been looking for a "high-frequency hitting low-frequency" killer app. I have known the Telegram and TON teams for a long time, and we often meet offline in Dubai. No application in the world with higher daily active users than Telegram can enter Web3, such as WhatsApp, so Telegram is essentially the platform with the highest frequency that can do Web3 in the world.

So when I joined Cypher as chairman, our first investment was in TON. As a member of the foundation, we have been actively negotiating strategic cooperation with Telegram and are very pleased to have finally announced it in the third quarter of this year.

3. ChainCatcher: In terms of the integration and usage of the TON wallet with Telegram, was there any inspiration drawn from WeChat? The Chinese crypto community likes to refer to the collaboration between TON and Telegram as "creating a Web3 version of WeChat." How do you view this claim?

Steve: Indeed, some have mentioned that the integration of TON with Telegram has a "WeChat model" shadow. But our vision is to have a more profound impact, driven by blockchain.

Only in the Web3 environment can peer-to-peer online transactions and interactions be realized, allowing us to provide users with low-cost, efficient transaction experiences. More importantly, only in Web3 can users truly control their own data, assets, and identity information.

We firmly believe that establishing a decentralized application ecosystem on the TON blockchain and integrating it with the Telegram user interface will provide users with a more secure, privacy-protected, and more powerful experience, empowering large-scale end users.

Bill: In fact, back in the Web2 era, Pavel, as the founder of vk.com, and Andrew, as the first product manager of vk.com, had already studied and learned from super apps like WeChat in detail. After returning to Moscow, they quickly turned vk.com into a super app in the Russian-speaking area. Later, Pavel left Moscow and came to Dubai, where he founded Telegram, and this approach of first creating a hit product and then developing it into a super app has always been consistent.

After joining the foundation, although I am only a part-time director, I still spent a lot of effort in establishing an ecosystem team for TON in Asia. I recommended my former colleague from JD, John, to be in charge of TON's ecosystem in Asia; at the same time, our Cypher partner, former Chief HR Officer of Meituan, Elaine, is organizing various offline activities for TON in Hong Kong through her cross-border recruitment platform.

4. ChainCatcher: What does your ideal "Web3 super app" look like? What are the similarities and differences compared to Web2 super apps like WeChat?

Steve: TON's vision is to shape the Web3 experience into a social experience driven by blockchain technology. Simplicity is the key to mass adoption, and the initial step in promoting Web3 is to integrate Web3 technology with a user-friendly experience that better meets user needs.

But the pursuit of a Web3 super app goes beyond this. It should empower users with complete control over their digital identity, data, and assets. Unlike Web2, ownership of Web3 accounts belongs to the users, not the platform, and users can freely transfer ownership. Account-related data will not be used for targeted advertising or other forms of misuse, and asset transfers will no longer go through multiple intermediaries but will be achieved through peer-to-peer transactions. A Web3 super app ecosystem is designed to be borderless, allowing talent from anywhere in the world to compete on the global stage for global markets.

Web2 super apps are like an economic entity controlled by a central entity, with numerous rules and "taxes" extracted in every interaction. In contrast, a Web3 super app is more like a completely open, free, permissionless, and purely peer-to-peer market. The TON Foundation is committed to encouraging more "mini-program" developers to jointly create this Web3 super app vision based on TON.

2. Current Status and Future Space of TON

5. ChainCatcher: Steve, can you share what the future plans are for TON Space? How does "TON Space" differ from the built-in custodial wallet function in Telegram? What roles do they play in the Telegram ecosystem? After the launch of TON Space, what are the important strategic roadmaps for TON?

Steve: First, it needs to be clarified that the wallet in Telegram and Telegram Messenger are two completely different business segments, and it is not an official wallet of Telegram; both the (custodial) wallet in Telegram and TON Space (non-custodial wallet) are built by the developer team of The Open Platform.

The next plan for TON Space is to integrate its wallet by default into the Telegram menu, and it is planned to be launched globally in November. This global layout will allow hundreds of millions of users to easily have a Web3 wallet, enabling TON ecosystem projects to achieve a one-click login user experience and cryptocurrency payment functionality.

Unlike custodial wallets, TON Space can directly interact with the blockchain, and users have complete control over their assets. When users can directly connect to their applications and complete transaction confirmations without leaving Telegram, "mini-program" developers will also benefit from it.

In general, this wallet aims to address two major challenges in the mass application of blockchain technology: first, how to reach a large number of users, and second, how to provide a smooth entry experience for non-blockchain beginners.

6. ChainCatcher: In the Token 2049 speech, it was mentioned that the goal is to attract 30% of Telegram's users to join TON by 2028. Do you think TON will soon surpass Ethereum? Apart from the advantage of user traffic backed by Telegram, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the TON network in terms of technical roadmap and ecosystem development?

Steve: TON has strong sharding capabilities, and its transaction processing speed far exceeds other mainstream blockchains, avoiding issues of increased fees and transaction delays. TON is expected to become a widely adopted leading blockchain platform.

The advantage of TON lies in its core product's support for a comprehensive Web3 revolution—decentralized storage, proxy layers, DNS domains, payments, and sites—all embedded in the core of the TON blockchain from the beginning, rather than being separate applications built on the blockchain like other platforms. This seamless interaction between core products can be leveraged by builders at any time.

Bill: The advantage of TON lies in the future user traffic after establishing application scenarios. Currently, Ethereum has less than 1 million daily active users, but Telegram has 400 million daily active users and 800 million monthly active users.

Although TON has a relative user advantage, Ethereum still has the upper hand in terms of the number of developers, maturity of the development environment, and legitimacy in the global community. However, just as there are multiple public clouds in the real world (AWS, Azure, Google, Meta, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Huawei Cloud, etc.), the world of Web3 can also accommodate multiple "world computers" Layer 1 solutions. Therefore, although Ethereum has become a giant in Web3, TON still has its unique positioning and value.

7. ChainCatcher: There is data showing that whale addresses in the top 100 hold more than 50% of the total token supply. Will the large holdings of early TON miners pose a threat to decentralization of the TON network? What are the plans for achieving complete decentralization in TON?

Steve: The TON Foundation is just one of the many organizations in the TON ecosystem, and we always support and respond to the core interests and demands of the community. Ensuring the continuous decentralization of Toncoin supply is also a focus for us.

Recently, a team in the community launched a smart contract called "believers.ton," which aims to lock Toncoin gifted to the contract address for two years, and then gradually return it to depositors on a monthly basis over three years. Believers.ton quickly received a warm welcome from a large number of holders, with over 5.16 billion TON (approximately $11 billion) locked in the contract, accounting for about 10% of the total supply.

After the community resolution, the TON Foundation invested 1 million TON as a participation incentive for this initiative. Although this does not directly mean complete decentralization of assets, it does reflect the community's strong belief in holding TON for the long term.

In addition, our community and validation nodes have played an important role in achieving decentralization of Toncoin. For example, in a vote in February of this year, the community decided to freeze some long-inactive TON accounts, locking about 1 billion Toncoin for 4 years.

8. ChainCatcher: Compared to the ecosystems of some leading public chains, what are the main characteristics of the TON network's ecosystem? What are the key points of ecosystem development? What are the plans for ecosystem incentives in the future?

Steve: In guiding the transition from Web2 to Web3, various projects in the TON ecosystem are emphasizing the elimination of entry barriers for non-native blockchain users and providing a more intuitive and convenient experience.

Take the Wallet, for example, it allows non-cryptocurrency users to easily transfer cryptocurrencies to each other by sending messages. For users who are not familiar with industry jargon and technical details, they do not need to use complex and lengthy wallet addresses for transfers. They only need the recipient's Telegram username to complete the operation. Similarly, in the TON ecosystem, we see a series of user-friendly dApps. These applications have a friendly interface, intuitive operation, and greatly simplify the complexity behind the blockchain.

In general, the core difference between the TON ecosystem and other blockchain ecosystems is that TON developers are actually building Web3 for a large user base with real use cases.

9. ChainCatcher: After Ethereum, there is a continuous stream of second and third-generation public chains. How do you view the future landscape of the public chain race where TON is located? What are the decisive factors?

Steve: I do hope that all blockchain projects thrive so that the world will have more options. However, due to the complexity of developing and maintaining a truly decentralized and general-purpose network driven by an open-source community, I believe that only a few blockchains will exist in the future. It is likely that all smaller blockchains will disappear if they do not find a specific use case.

TON's contribution to the entire blockchain industry will be to bring the critical mass into the Web3 space. Together with Telegram, TON will bring Web3 to mobile. In the future, I believe TON will be one of the blockchains with the most activity and users.

Bill: Infrastructure competition is an infinite game, and each survivor will have its own unique competitive endowment. TON is already in the top five globally for Layer1. I believe that in the future, leveraging its unique scenario advantage, TON will maintain and strengthen its leading position.

3. Challenges and Industry Competition in Building the Web3 Super App Ecosystem

10. ChainCatcher: In addition to reducing user barriers, what are the other challenges that TON and Telegram are expected to face in successfully building the "super app" of Web3?

Steve: The main focus is to attract and retain global talent for the future of many crypto cycles. To this end, we plan to hold an exclusive TON ecosystem conference in Hong Kong next year. We hope to impress today's Web2 users with convincing use cases. The short-term biggest challenge is the regulatory uncertainty surrounding Layer-1 maintained by a decentralized open community. Our community is separately consulting different jurisdictions to try to provide a regulatory framework for DAO organizations. The long-term challenge is adaptability. The TON community must continue to guide itself in the right direction, adhere to its original intentions and vision, and openly encourage active and voluntary community participation. The freedom of peer-to-peer transactions and interactions can only be achieved through the community's efforts. 11. ChainCatcher: Although Telegram has 800 million users, there seems to be widespread fraud on Telegram, and there have been privacy issues in the past. Some voices in the crypto community believe that this will be a major obstacle for the wallets and crypto financial systems that Telegram and TON are jointly building. How do you view this? Steve: The TON Foundation has always fully recognized the importance of protecting user safety. However, we do not agree with the notion that encryption itself will lead to more fraudulent activities. On the contrary, blockchain technology enhances the ability to track and deal with criminal activities. In many cryptocurrency-related "attacks," it is difficult for attackers to circulate the funds they have obtained without being caught. For example, the hackers of BitMex stole 4 billion dollars' worth of Bitcoin, but they were quickly caught and faced prosecution when they tried to transfer the funds. The incident with Mango Markets is another example, where the attackers were eventually forced to return most of the funds. In contrast, traditional fraud involving fiat currency often makes it difficult for victims to recover their losses. Although cryptocurrencies face criticism in some aspects, the value they bring far outweighs their potential issues compared to the traditional systems they intend to replace. The TON Foundation believes that, compared to fraud issues, the complexity of cryptocurrencies for new users is the main obstacle to their widespread adoption, and TON has been committed to addressing this issue. All centralized and custodial services will be subject to regulatory guardrails to protect consumers. On the other hand, decentralized applications are based on absolute freedom for end users but also unlimited responsibility. Just as in all societies, we are beginning to see various informal social balancing mechanisms in our community. We hope that our community members will continue to set high standards, promote education, reward good behavior, and discourage bad behavior. TON is fortunate to have independent and influential voices that shape us into a self-regulating community. I condemn all illegal activities, and our hearts are with the victims. At the same time, it is important to recognize that some forms of privacy are so valuable and are considered a fundamental human right. 12. ChainCatcher: MetaMask recently launched the Snaps feature, which is widely regarded in the crypto community as one of the super apps for future Web3 mass adoption. Do you think there will be competition between the two in the future? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the super gateway that Telegram and TON aim to build compared to MetaMask? Steve: TON brings a Web3 mobile experience to Telegram's global user base. TON and TON-based mini-programs, including their experiences and use cases, are built on a "mobile-first" basis and are in line with the usage habits of Web2 users. Unless the world returns from mobile to PC desktop, I believe the trajectory is clear. 13. ChainCatcher: Finally, do you have any messages for crypto users and developers in the Chinese-speaking region? Steve: We have found a strong force from the Asian community—they have experienced and participated in the success of regional super app ecosystems. Based on this, we will hold an ecosystem conference specifically for a particular market in the local language next year, preferably in Hong Kong. Bill: Chinese-speaking users, as the most understanding internet users of super apps, are the "soul mates" of Telegram and TON. We look forward to building with Chinese-speaking users and developers and embracing the next bull market.

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