Telegram Mini Apps Are ‘Trojan Horse’ For Mass Blockchain Adoption – Ton Investments Director

Blockchain-based mini decentralized applications (DApps), also known as mini-apps, on Telegram could be a “Trojan horse” for mass blockchain adoption.

Here's what Justin Yun, director of investments at the Ton Foundation, told Cointelegraph:

Our thesis is to bring more users to blockchain without even having to teach them about blockchain. It's the Trojan horse way: Look, you're allowing all these user-friendly DApps, and we don't even call them DApps. […] They only use Telegram mini apps in their channels.

Telegram Mini Apps was launched in 2020 as an open platform for web3 businesses to deploy directly within the Telegram messaging app.

They were launched in partnership with the Open Network (TON) Foundation and Tencent with the aim of creating a super-app platform.

Bringing the next 500 million users on-chain requires simple initial use cases where users are unfamiliar with basic blockchain interactions. Hyun says:

“We believe that mass adoption will initially come in the form of simple use cases and then trickle down to more sophisticated users who get into different use cases. But bringing 500 million people on the chain by 2028 – that's our goal – the user will be looking for blockchain-related issues without realizing it on the front end.”

Some of Telegram's mini apps offer users Web3-specific financial incentives, Hyun explained.

Related: Dencun is a big step towards mass adoption: Metis CEO

Telegram is the third largest messenger app in the world by monthly downloads, according to Statista. It has over 800 million monthly active users worldwide.

Telegram announced the launch of its advertising platform on February 28. The platform uses the Ton blockchain for payments.

Starting this month, owners of Telegram channels in more than 100 countries will be able to earn cash rewards for their work after the advertising platform opened up to all advertisers.

The channel owners start receiving 50% of the total ad revenue generated by Telegram from displaying ads on their channels.

Ton launched a $115 million community incentive program on March 20, with $38 million for token mining and user incentives, $22 million for airdrops, $15 million for the League Builder ecosystem, and $40 million for liquidity pool enhancements.

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