Community Outraged by Strengthening of TON’s ‘Monopoly’ in Telegram

Telegram developers have mandated that all third-party crypto wallets must exclusively use the TON Connect protocol to connect to The Open Network. This was disclosed by a representative of the TON Foundation to Cointelegraph. 

The new requirement is part of an exclusive agreement, under which all mini-apps in the messenger’s ecosystem can only use the TON blockchain. 

Third-party developers must implement the changes by February 21, including contract migration and asset bridging. After this date, support for all protocols except TON Connect will cease.

Applications with cross-chain functionality will not be banned.

The TON Connect protocol is a “universal authorization standard” for interaction between applications and the TON blockchain. It allows users to log in using a wallet instead of the standard login and password combination.

According to a TON Foundation representative, the changes will not affect the Wallet offered to Telegram users as the default option:

“The Wallet in Telegram will not be affected as it is based on TON and only supports TON Connect for interaction with dapps.”

Some third-party developers have expressed frustration over both the exclusive restrictions and the timeline for implementing the changes.

“The fact that they gave their partners — developers working on Telegram — only a few days to adapt makes the process quite challenging. This could significantly undermine trust in Telegram and what it once represented,” noted Tim Delhaes, founder of the mini-app Grindery Wallet.

According to him, the team is considering the prospect of leaving the ecosystem, even though their product meets the requirements.

Back in January, the TON team reported on the number of wallets and the earnings of mini-app developers.