Original article from Howard (Head of Developer Relations, Asia, TON Foundation)
Compiled by Odaily Odaily Golem ( @web3_golem )
Summarize:
From Q1 to Q2 2024, the number of developers on the TON blockchain increased rapidly. The influx of talent is just the first step, and high-quality projects are on the way. The entire ecosystem is about to prosper. Developers bring good projects, which in turn attracts more funds into the TON blockchain. The ecosystem is expected to prosper in one or two quarters.
Many excellent and experienced teams are working on various tracks, not only DeFi, DEX, Yield Farming or lending products, but also DApps with practical value. Most importantly, Telegram Stars plays a key role in the entire ecosystem.
Currently, some interesting projects are emerging. TON's path to success may not follow past experience. Although DeFi is still relevant, TON's killer application may be a combination of "game + finance" . From what I saw at the DoraHacks hackathon, there are many interesting projects with excellent talents in smart contract coding. I hope to see more innovations in the near future.
I am very surprised by the number of DeFi projects that have emerged. Currently, many people believe that TON is going through the "Cretaceous period" with countless opportunities and projects, and building on TON now may have a greater advantage. As described in the article " TON Ecosystem Growth: Relying on Asian Developer Resources and Telegram Ecosystem ", this is a great opportunity for talented developers in Asia.
Furthermore, Telegram Stars could become the most successful fiat onramp in the crypto industry. Given the recent global environment and positive news, I believe the second half of 2024 will be very exciting. The main purpose of this article is to introduce some interesting projects from the DoraHacks hackathon and highlight the potential of TON in the next six months from a developer perspective.
The number of developers is growing
In my experience with BSC (limited to the ETH DeFi summer of 2020 and the BSC craze in early 2021), there is usually a lag between developers entering an ecosystem and creating products and content and attracting a large number of users. We can attribute the growth of TON developers to factors such as Notcoin's listing on Binance or Hamster Combot's attraction of users outside the Web3 field.
However, we can still evaluate the growth of the number of developers from the following data perspectives:
Number of people in Telegram developer community
TonConnect SDK call data
Electric Capital 2024 Q2 Developer Report.
Developer community in Telegram
According to the latest data, the developer community is growing so far. The total number of people is increasing, and the proportion of the Chinese developer community is growing faster than other developer groups.
https://t.me/addlist/1r5Vcb8eljk5Yzcy
This also means that, as mentioned earlier, Asia should be the most important market for TON, not only because there are a large number of developers, but also because these developers have rich experience in creating and managing mini-programs.
These experiences are critical to developing innovative solutions and driving ecosystem growth. In addition, Asia’s rapid adoption of new technologies and the region’s large technology user base make it an ideal market to expand TON’s influence. By focusing on the Asian market, we can leverage the unique strengths and expertise of local developers, ultimately contributing to the overall success and adoption of the TON blockchain.
TonConnect SDK Download Data
On the other hand, the downloads of TonConnect are growing rapidly, which indicates that the number of DApps on TON is increasing, which is a very positive sign.
Source: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tonconnect/sdk
In addition, more and more people are joining the TON blockchain and integrating support for the TON blockchain in their wallet systems, which is an excellent signal of the health of the ecosystem and its future growth potential. TonConnect is widely adopted by developers, indicating that they have a strong interest in building DApps on the TON platform. The growth in SDK downloads not only reflects the expanding developer community, but also highlights the ease of use and functionality of the TonConnect SDK, making it the preferred choice for developers.
Another key factor is that more and more wallet systems are adding support for TON, which shows that TON has gained the trust and recognition of more crypto communities, allowing users to interact with DApps more easily and manage assets securely. As more wallets support TON, user confidence will increase, leading to higher adoption and a more active ecosystem.
Overall, these trends suggest that TON has a bright future with a strong developer community and increasing user engagement.
Source: https://ton-connect.github.io/demo-dapp-with-react-ui
Electric Capital Q2 2024 Developer Report
In Electric Capital’s developer report, we can see some important trends in industry development.
Source: https://www.developerreport.com/
"Other L1s are stagnant and the developer ecosystem is slowing down." This reflects the correlation between the number of developers and the price trend of Web3. In addition, TON still has a lot of potential and room for growth that has not yet been realized. Compared with other L1s, TON is unique in that it has a lot of advanced technologies to learn, making it similar to the path of Web2.5 rather than pure Web3.
My opinion on TON/Telegram technology
Instead, developers should leverage Web2 experience to expand product strategies, just like the strategies used in WeChat and other traffic-driving products. I plan to write a detailed article analyzing the strategies behind these traffic-driving products and recent successful projects on TON. I believe TON provides a more diverse and flexible environment that can attract a large number of Web2 developers. With rich Web2 development experience, without having to start with smart contracts .
Many excellent teams are joining
Where to find quality teams and guide them in the right direction is the biggest problem in the past. But based on my review of projects at DoraHacks hackathons over the past few weeks, there are many quality projects. The projects I saw can be divided into several categories: DeFi, DEX, LSD-LST, yield optimizers, games, user acquisition tools, etc.
Current issues with Telegram games
While I am not the head of the game, I still have some thoughts to share. In the months since Notcoin launched, I have seen many projects building the exact same product. Our evaluation criteria have become outdated, and user engagement and willingness to play have dropped significantly.
Although gaming products like Hamster, Blum, Catizen, and Yescoin have increased Telegram user activity, more similar games will ultimately only degrade the overall gaming experience. The main question now is, "Without points and token rewards, is your game still attractive enough for users to play?" This is the core question.
What kind of games can be developed?
Some interesting projects have already mastered the resources and can attract a large number of users. For example, some big-name companies related to Chinese live broadcast platforms have already advertised to us, and I believe this may be the next scenario for Telegram Mini Programs and TON ecosystem.
In addition to this, I think more social-related games that can help people meet new people and transition to real-life interactions, as well as AI-driven life simulation games that allow people to randomly meet and make new friends, provide a path for TON ecosystem growth other than DeFi. For example, Pokémon Go has brought a lot of positive impact by allowing people to form groups and meet new people.
More projects, more momentum, more innovation
Whether it’s through feedback from the ecosystem, the latest questions people are asking in the community, or projects working with the Ton Foundation, you can feel the quality and quantity of projects growing.
For example, more and more people are trying new things, and someone posted about Rebase Token on TONResearch. In addition, based on the feedback I received when reviewing the DoraHacks project, there are many other high-quality projects.
A core value for me and anyone at the TON Foundation has always been to consider which path is better for the community and the TON blockchain.
Open League Hackathon in partnership with DoraHacks
Last week, we completed a two-part online presentation and announced the winning teams. Before revealing the winning projects, I would like to highlight some of the projects that impressed me the most. First of all, I need to make it clear that due to limited energy, I cannot review all the projects in detail. In addition, some hidden quality projects may not be selected or displayed in the online presentation, but this does not mean that these projects are not good. There are many reasons for this, including different judges and standards.
https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/the-open-league-hackathon/buidl
There are more than 1000+ projects in this hackathon. Even if the withdrawal rate is 50%, there are still 500+ projects that cannot be checked; whether it is a demo video, a mini program or a smart contract code (if any). The quality of the projects at this hackathon is very high, not only because there are more DeFi projects, but also because more talented teams with diverse backgrounds have joined, but the most important thing is that I have seen many high-quality Telegram mini program examples and products.
As mentioned before, more and more solutions are emerging that are not only focused on “on-chain” but also closer to the masses. For example, e-commerce, live streaming on TON, products similar to Calendly, and products similar to Earn.com, or any other practical products that can increase user value and explore the innovation of TON.
I think that’s the beauty of TON and Telegram.
Open League Hackathon Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGZpn4_QWE
Open League Hackathon Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhu8p8O3RJ4
Before I list some great example projects, let me state again that these are my personal opinions and not those of any entity or person.
Evaluation Method
Project quality (0-5) : The future potential of the project, including business model, clear vision of future plans, and monetization strategy. Whether it can bring more users to TON.
Team Structure (0-5) : This score assesses whether the team is well-structured. Although this is highly subjective, I think it is important. Hackathon projects still need good pitches and clear, direct video presentations. In addition, high trust between co-founders can help a project overcome many problems and take the product to the next level.
TON Orientation (0-5) : Evaluates whether the project is purely TON-related and whether it can help the TON blockchain (not just applets). Projects that have not yet completed smart contracts (either FunC or Tact language) will generally not score high.
TApps Quality (0-5) : The score is for the Telegram app itself. It takes into account the UI/UX design and all the details when users start using it. Guiding users and providing detailed information to easily get them started is key.
Uniqueness (0-5) : This score determines whether the project is unique and distinctive. While some projects may inevitably be copies (e.g. DEX), it is important to stand out. However, gaming projects may not score well in this category because many people are doing the same thing.
Having explained my approach, I would also like to highlight a few points:
For the game category, if the project is just like "Click-to-Earn", that's totally fine. But if you can have more innovation, it will be better. For me, I am now tired of opening the game and starting to invite my friends. But I am still open to games, but I feel that something different is needed.
There are many DeFi projects, and it would be great to see some projects making more use of non-oracle topics and building the basic logic of DeFi Lego on top of STON.fi or DeDust.io.
Examples of excellent projects
Curdle Protocol : This team has a lot of experience with TON and is still young. I know them from the community meetup in Taiwan last year. Their project focuses on stablecoin/LSD assets in Swap and is fundamentally based on Curve AMM as we know it. The hardest part was to overcome the FunC hurdle and make it a reality. The speed at which they delivered the project is impressive.
Beecon : This community tool is built by a team from Asia and is similar to the tools in WeChat. Although it is not widely used yet, I really like this kind of management tools for TG group owners and the like.
InOne : Similar to Linktree, but for Telegram, it allows people to make money by booking calls. As a point of contact for the foundation, I get many messages a day suggesting “let’s do a call”. While I rarely respond or schedule calls, it’s great to see more tools like this to fill in the gaps and take advantage of Telegram Stars.
Swipy : This is a Tinder-like swipe-to-earn app for Telegram applets. While there are more business models being explored, it’s great to see more people experimenting and innovating in this space. However, these types of social apps generally don’t rely on the TON blockchain yet. We’ll see if they can diversify and convert more on-chain activity to off-chain and TG records.
TON Hedge : This is a pool model for options products, similar to what we have seen before in EVM, more like Hegic, etc. The best part is its simple and easy-to-use UI, I like to see how good user experience can convert Telegram users into part of the DeFi world.
Full list of projects: https://ton-org.notion.site/DoraHacks-2024-Review-by-Howard-c40439fdec2243018ec84b973a503aca
in conclusion
https://tonbubbles.xy
Maybe it’s not “TON needs DeFi”, but “DeFi space needs TON” . Apart from TON, I don’t see any other platform with potential growth in the next 3 to 5 years.
The most important insight for me was “The beauty of TON is that we are able to onboard Web2 developers through Telegram modules, mini-app frameworks, and ways that people can easily try out products”. Regardless, the TON blockchain and ecosystem is a different beast now, with many more projects than it was six months ago, especially in the gaming space.
