Dialogue with Vivi from TON Foundation: How do developers create popular projects?

Interviewer: Xiyou, ChainCatcher

In recent online and offline Chinese-language conferences on TON, we can always see a familiar figure, Vivi, the head of TON Foundation Research. She is skilled in solving various problems encountered by users and developers on TON, and is personally named "the human database of the TON ecosystem" by community users.

Vivi, who has a technical background and has served well-known public chains, said in an interview with ChainCatcher that she joined TON a year ago. At that time, TON was still in a state of no interest, and even a complete Chinese developer document could not be found in the Chinese area. She personally wrote several developer documents.

In more than a year since joining TON, Vivi has completed her career transition from behind the scenes to the front stage, and has also witnessed the moment when the TON ecosystem has gone from being ignored to being popular.

After in-depth one-on-one contact with thousands of developers on the front line, Vivi proposed a differentiated product principle of "I have what others don't have, I am better than others, I am cheaper than others, and I leave when others are cheaper" to help developers who want to build projects on TON.

Recently, ChainCatcher talked with Vivi, the head of Research at the TON Foundation, to discuss the ecological strategy of the TON Foundation, the relationship between TG and TON, and how developers can build popular applications.

 The foundation needs to take the initiative in the early stage of the ecology

1. ChainCatcher: What was the opportunity for you to join TON? What is the biggest gain after joining TON?

Vivi: I joined the TON Foundation more than a year ago, and now I am mainly responsible for DApp Review, BD, market, investment research, developer education and offline activities in Greater China.

There are two main reasons for choosing to join the TON Foundation: first, my own Web3 industry experience is mainly concentrated in the field of large public chains; second, I have great confidence in the Telegram platform behind TON. At that time, a large number of L1 and L2 solutions emerged in the crypto market, and homogeneous competition was very fierce. In contrast, TON's unique Web2 and Web3 integration background, as well as its underdeveloped ecosystem, show great development potential.

For individuals, joining TON also completed the transformation of my career from behind the scenes to the front stage. Before joining TON, I mainly focused on technology development and product construction in the background. After joining TON, I began to face the public with a public image, including public speeches, organizing events, and serving as a spokesperson. Through direct contact and communication with the front-line project parties, we can understand the thoughts and problems of the project parties and developers in a more comprehensive and multi-level way.

2. ChainCatcher: What changes have taken place in the TON ecosystem?

Vivi: For TON, the changes within this year are no longer just a Web3 product, but also go deep into the business of Web2, and form a unique integrated Web2.5 product form.

TON has transcended the traditional Layer1. The previous Layer1 public chain was more about competing in TVL and transaction volume, and did not care about the use scenarios that could really expand users. However, we have seen more possibilities in the TON ecosystem. TON has integrated payment into the user social platform, introduced various practical Web2 overseas projects, and created game projects with sustainable business models.

From these aspects, TON is more like a functionally enhanced Layer1 platform, or can be regarded as a Web3 product matrix based on specific Web2 applications, providing users with more practical and diversified services.

3. ChainCatcher: What role does the TON Foundation play in the development of the TON ecosystem?

Vivi: The TON Foundation is the official entity organization of the TON public chain and the core promoter of the ecological development of the TON public chain.

Regarding the positioning of the Foundation in the development of the TON ecosystem, it can be described by a sentence I often mention: "When no one cares, the official will show up more and promote more, and when the voices are loud, the C position will be handed over to the community."

Specifically, in the early stages of TON's ecological development, when attention and participation are low, the Foundation needs to take the initiative to assume the responsibility of promoting ecological development, including but not limited to business development (BD), connecting with potential project partners and various investors.

As the ecosystem gradually develops and matures, the Foundation will gradually transfer the governance role to the community, such as: establishing a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), implementing a community voting decision-making mechanism, etc., to achieve decentralized allocation and management of TON resources. TON Foundation prefers to go with the flow and govern by doing nothing. However, governing by doing nothing does not mean inaction, but encouraging community users to participate in a more democratic and decentralized form.

4. ChainCatcher: Some people believe that the TON Fundation Foundation is more like a centralized organization. What do you think of this?

Vivi: This is mainly because the TON ecosystem is still in its early stages of development.

Compared to Telegram's 1 billion monthly active users, TON has only a few hundred thousand daily active wallet addresses, and the user growth has mainly occurred in recent months.

It is actually difficult to make an accurate judgment on the degree of decentralization of public chain foundations. Because in the early stages of blockchain projects, it is usually necessary to adopt a company-like operating model to improve efficiency. There is a certain contradiction between efficiency and decentralization: complete decentralization may lead to reduced efficiency, while the pursuit of high efficiency may lead to a certain degree of centralization. Therefore, it is necessary to seek a balance between the two.

The TON Foundation is also constantly striking a balance between efficiency and decentralization. TON is building various communities, planning to open TON's resources to active participants in the community, and actively listening to everyone's opinions and ideas for improvement.

As far as I understand it, TON's attitude towards centralization and decentralization in the early stages is pragmatic and result-oriented. If centralization is indeed beneficial to the overall ecology and community development of TON, then moderate centralization is acceptable. However, if centralization leads to excessive concentration of power or poor community feedback, strategies and methods need to be adjusted in a timely manner.

It should be emphasized that this relatively centralized state is limited to the early stages, and decentralization has always been TON's long-term goal. As the ecosystem continues to develop, the importance of the community will become increasingly prominent and eventually become the core resource on which TON relies for development.

5. ChainCatcher: What actions has the TON Foundation taken behind the scenes to promote the outbreak of the ecosystem?

Vivi: It can be said from three aspects: First, in terms of developers, pay attention to whether the developer's usage threshold and experience are friendly, and continue to optimize the developer experience. For example, we have found that the cost of a large number of small programs and small game projects to be on the chain is very high, so we have optimized the data on the chain. For example, unimportant interactive data in the game can be run off the chain, and only key information such as props and payments need to be on the chain, which greatly reduces the entry threshold for developers. At present, the TON technical documents that I am responsible for will be released in multiple languages ​​to support developers from different countries.

Secondly, in the early stage of the ecosystem, the foundation provided all-round support for multiple potential projects. For example, the popular Notcoin and Catizen, the foundation provided a lot of traffic, marketing and financial support for these projects. TON tokens have shown a strong wealth effect, and the price of the coin has risen from about US$1 at the beginning of the year to US$7-8.

Finally, in terms of ecological promotion, the TON Foundation organized and held a number of offline series of activities to provide face-to-face communication opportunities for project parties, developers and users, and invited TON front-line developers and technical mentors to guide developers on how to build projects on the TON ecosystem, attracting thousands of developers to join the TON ecosystem.

6. ChainCatcher: Since the second half of last year, the TON Foundation has held a number of online and offline activities. What changes have taken place in TON?

Vivi: There are three major changes: First, TON has radiated far more than Web3, and more and more Web2 people are pouring in. The development of TON is very consistent with the concept of Mass adoption advocated by Web3. In the past, Web3 practitioners mainly focused on the DeFi trio (DEX, Lending, and machine gun pools), but with the increase in conferences and activities held by TON, more and more Web2 users have begun to build and develop various applications and projects on the TON platform, covering foreign trade, payment, e-commerce, small games, and artificial intelligence tools.

These applications have mature models in the Web2 world and can also be realized on the TON platform, while other public chains have not yet reached this level.

Second, more and more project parties no longer regard Token issuance as the primary focus during the development process, but take a more compliant approach, focusing on using the underlying technology of the TON blockchain to expand their overseas business. This shows that users are adopting blockchain technology based on actual business needs, rather than just driven by the wealth effect. Only when more and more users adopt blockchain technology and its products due to actual business needs can the Web3 industry achieve real prosperity and large-scale adoption. At present, there are already multiple applications based on e-commerce, air ticket booking and hotel booking on the TON platform, which have successfully achieved a seamless transition from Web2 to Web3.

Third, users have shown a high degree of acceptance of the concept of Mini DApp (Mini Program Application) in the TON ecosystem, and can easily understand it as similar to the existence of the overseas version of WeChat Mini Program, without in-depth understanding of technical details such as blockchain, Layer1 or Layer2. With the participation of ecosystem builders, the boundary between Web2 and Web3 is no longer an insurmountable wall.

7. ChainCatcher: What factors do you think are needed for the explosive growth of the TON ecosystem? Have you ever predicted that the TON ecosystem will explode?

Vivi: I did not expect the TON ecosystem to grow so fast, but I always believe that mass adoption is the ultimate goal that TON can achieve.

The explosion of the TON ecosystem is mainly due to several reasons: First, driven by the wealth effect, although the TON token has not yet been listed on the Binance exchange, its market value has ranked among the top ten, and the market continues to expect its listing.

Second, in terms of ecological development and brand awareness, this year the TON Foundation has effectively promoted the development and visibility of the TON ecosystem by holding a variety of online and offline activities, such as The Open League, HackerHouse, and participating in important industry conferences such as the Hong Kong Web3 Conference, Token2049, and the mainland Dev meet up. In particular, The Open League provides substantial economic incentives and resource support for the project party.

The most important thing is the deep integration of TON and Telegram. In the past, people generally believed that TON and Telegram were two separate entities, but since last year, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has clearly expressed his support for TON in many public occasions, such as publicly expressing his support for the TON ecosystem at the Token2049 conference in Dubai in April. In addition, the Telegram platform provides a number of enabling measures for TON tokens, including TG advertising, virtual mobile phone numbers, domain names, creator economy, and Stars virtual points and other value-added services, all of which can be used as a means of payment.

We believe that the premise of ecological growth and the realization of vision is that TON has achieved a seamless integration of Web2 and Web3, and supports Web2 applications to directly use Token and blockchain technology in the Web3 world.

TON Mini DApp ecosystem is booming, and the mini program store has more than 2,000 scheduled

8. ChainCatcher: What are the requirements for project parties who want to participate in the Open League event? What are the screening criteria for winning projects? Vivi: For the specific details of participating in The Open League, project owners can visit The Open League's official website for details. However, from the perspective of developers, it is recommended that they build projects based on user needs and the development trend of the TON ecosystem, taking into account multiple factors. Based on my experience in connecting with developers on the front line, I believe that developers can follow the principle of "I have what others don't have, I am better than others, I am cheaper than others, and I will leave if others are cheaper" when building projects. Specifically, "I have what others don't have" means that in areas that have not yet appeared in the TON ecosystem, such as the CDP protocol, project owners should seize the opportunity to build products with competitive advantages; "I am better than others" refers to areas that already exist in the TON ecosystem, such as lending protocols, and project owners should surpass existing competitors by providing more borrowable currencies, lower borrowing rates, or richer service functions; "I am cheaper than others" emphasizes attracting more users by providing more benefits, incentives, and support when the functions are complete.

When building a project, developers need to think deeply about the value it brings to the ecosystem, public chain and users, and what problems it solves. If the product can truly meet user needs and bring practical benefits, then such a project will not only stand out in The Open League activities, but is more likely to stand out in the ecosystem.

9. ChainCatcher: What support can the TON Foundation provide to project parties or developers?

Vivi: At present, the development activity of the TON ecosystem is remarkable, and the number of queued projects for Mini Dapp (Mini Program Store) has exceeded 2,000.

Faced with so many projects, the first task of the TON Foundation is to identify those who adhere to the concept of long-termism and are truly committed to building and achieving results. These projects should be able to bring substantial benefits to users and the ecosystem, rather than just pursuing short-term interests or following the trend.

In the short term, the Foundation will mainly identify excellent projects with long-term potential by examining projects. Once the value and potential of the project are confirmed, the Foundation will provide necessary support.

In the early stages of the project, the Foundation will provide technical support and guidance. As for the support of funding (Grant) and marketing resources, whether to provide and the extent of provision will be determined based on the actual performance and development of the project after it goes online.

Compared with other public chains, TON is unique in that it has a powerful Telegram (TG) application platform as a carrier. Most applications involve off-chain businesses, not pure Web3 businesses, and the TON Foundation encourages openness, supports competition, and does not directly participate in the commercial activities of the project. Therefore, the success of the application is not significantly related to the degree of support from the public chain.

In short, the support provided by the TON Foundation tends to be boosted after the technology and project mature, based on helping the project party achieve long-term development on the platform.

10. ChainCatcher: What advantages do you think developers have in choosing the Telegram applet ecosystem? What development opportunities will it bring to the TON chain?

Vivi: The advantages of the TG applet are in several aspects. First, the Telegram applet ecosystem supports developers to carry out a series of Web2 businesses. TON provides developers with another possibility besides issuing coins. Even if there is no token issuance, no listing on exchanges, and no financing, the project party can still realize its own business model and monetization path, such as providing cross-border services, in-game purchases, and in-app advertising.

Second, the development cost of deploying applet is low. Most applet can be deployed through HTML5, and TON provides a series of technical development documents and templates, so that developers can complete the deployment without writing code from scratch. According to feedback, project parties with a Web2 background can complete the deployment of a applet within two or three days.

Third, TON has opened up new possibilities for Web3 project parties, supporting developers to build products based on social, games, e-commerce, cross-border business, artificial intelligence and other fields, thereby broadening the scope of choice for project parties.

Finally, when developers develop in the TON ecosystem, they can complete the interaction and integration of multiple products on a single Telegram platform. For users, the mini-program applications of the TON ecosystem have obvious advantages in terms of interaction. Users do not need to leave the Telegram platform, and can complete one-stop interactive operations by clicking on the wallet mini-program, without switching to external wallets such as MetaMask. In addition, the wallet on Telegram already supports users to deposit funds with fiat currency, that is, users can directly use credit cards to purchase encrypted assets, realizing seamless interaction from capital injection to various applications on the chain.

TON Mini Programs are still different from WeChat Mini Programs

11. ChainCatcher: What advice do you have for developers who want to build on the TON chain?

Vivi: For Web3 developers, it is crucial to master TON's unique development language. At present, development talents proficient in FUNC and TACT are relatively scarce, while the market demand for TON smart contracts is very strong, which provides good development opportunities for relevant talents.

For developers with a Web2 background, especially those who focus on cross-border e-commerce, encrypted payments or other fields with high compliance requirements, it is recommended to seize the current time window. These fields are still in a blue ocean state in the TON ecosystem and have a large development space.

For low-cost projects with relatively low entry barriers such as mini games, developers need to formulate strategies in advance and think about how to quickly attract user traffic. This includes building brand awareness, establishing user mental models, and planning long-term business closed loops.

Although the mini-programs on TON are often compared to WeChat mini-programs, there are actually significant differences between the two in terms of ecological models. WeChat focuses on a single domestic market, and a large number of convenient localized services and life services form a strong barrier to the WeChat ecosystem, while Telegram is mainly oriented to overseas markets, which is more conducive to providing standardized products and services to global users. In addition, user preferences in different regions of Telegram are also different. For example, there are obvious differences in the product models familiar to Russian and Indian users, user willingness to pay, and platform participation depth.

Therefore, project developers need to carefully consider their own business paths, think about which target users they want to serve, what their needs and preferences are, and evaluate the degree of integration of their own business with Web3 technology. These strategic decisions will directly affect the long-term development of the project.

12. ChainCatcher: What does the TON Foundation think of the various incubator projects that have now emerged?

Vivi: There are a large number of so-called "incubator" projects of varying quality on the market. Some of these institutions, under the banner of assisting the development of projects, actually intend to obtain the tokens of the project party for free. It is true that there are also some incubators with good reputations, such as the incubation platform under Binance, but such high-quality incubators often have high entry barriers.

We recommend that all project parties must carefully evaluate when considering joining an incubator, and do not be overly superstitious about brand effects, publicity effects or publicity of various training camps. Project parties need to realize that the fundamental competitiveness of a project comes from the improvement of its own strength. There should be no unrealistic expectation that participating in an incubation project can significantly improve the quality of the project or change the fate of the project. In fact, most projects participating in incubators are still struggling with financing issues.

We believe that project parties should devote their main energy to improving the competitiveness of their own products, which is the key to ensuring the success of the project.

13. ChainCatcher: On June 12, Telegram launched Stars, an in-app points token, which can be used to pay for digital goods and services in TG bot and mini-programs. What impact will this have on TON?

Vivi: The launch of Stars points token is good for TON.

TG launched Stars essentially to deal with the supervision of the Apple Store. Apple charges 30% of the digital product and service fees of the apps in the store, which is what everyone calls the "Apple tax". However, this regulation is limited to digital products, such as game props and membership fees, and does not include physical products and Defi activities.

Telegram Stars also promotes the adoption of traditional Web2 users, allowing some users who do not know how to buy and use cryptocurrencies to enjoy the paid services of mini-programs, mini-games and Bots through traditional channels.

Telegram Stars has limited impact on the user habits of Telegram. 90% of Telegram users use Android devices, and there is no mandatory requirement to use Stars on Android applications, which means that only 10% of Apple users are required to use Stars.

In addition, Stars can be withdrawn with TON, which increases the use scenarios of TON. At the same time, Telegram also provides subsidies for merchants who use Stars to purchase advertising services.