Durov has been pushing a lot of blockchain nonsense over his app. I really like Telegram as a chat app, but his stunts are making me wonder whether it's still a good idea to depend so much on it.
I don't think so. When you own a lot of crypto, and have lots of real dollars (Pavel has lots of real dollars!), you can manipulate price a little bit.
In 2019/2020 Telegram had to give investors all their money back, and the new TON project started without venture capital with a value of 0$. It's now 1.84$.
If their market makers are sophisticated enough, they will create enough liquidity grabs to sell telegram's TON bags over time for a nice sum.
I think they are aiming for creating a market + "eco system" similar to ETH.
Sigh.
Charge users directly or GTFO.
Seriously. If the product is "very secure messaging," then come right out and say "very secure messaging costs money, pay up."
Doing anything -- ANYTHING else lets me know they're not serious about the mission.
It's a typical freemium model. I'd subscribe if I were certain that my money won't be going to Russia.
Not a great way to monetize in one of the larger markets.
The networking libraries may be fine. The UI could be completely rebuilt.
(Sadly, I don't have a ton of cash, or even a ton of time, to dedicate to such things.)