As Head of Roar at the TON Foundation, Martin Masser is on a mission to raise crypto to the masses—with out customers even realizing they’re using it. A longtime Telegram user and early TON advocate from his STON.fi days, Martin now leads one amongst the most valorous adoption pushes in Web3. From gifting NFTs and sports-themed stickers to rolling out Telegram Mini Apps (TMAs), he’s serving to remodel TON into the most user-friendly blockchain ecosystem on the earth. On this outlandish interview, Martin shares what drew him to TON, how he defines success, and why the next generation of crypto is hiding in horrid glimpse—internal your well-liked messaging app.
Q1. You’ve been a key figure in TON’s ecosystem for years — what in the foundation drew you to TON, and how has your imaginative and prescient for it evolved since your STON.fi days?
“I’ve been on Telegram since 2016, but handiest heard about TON by a Market Maker friend. What received me bent used to be the premise of fixing crypto’s supreme topic — that onboarding remains to be manner too exhausting for many folk — internal an app that each person’s already using. Motivate then, TON felt love a hidden gem. It used to be restful largely unknown, but the doable used to be there for something in truth mainstream. Now we’re seeing that doable initiate up to unfold, significantly with issues love gifts and stickers. I’ve been onboarding folk by these — it’s straightforward, stress-free, and working.
“Since stepping remote from STON.fi, the ecosystem has persevered to adapt. Recent narratives love gifts and stickers are emerging—they now and again’re no longer upright stress-free aspects, they’re onboarding tools. I’ve considered firsthand how gifting by Telegram will likely be a gateway for price recent customers. We’re initiating to peek third-internet together marketplaces pop up round these mechanics, and that’s a signal: we’re upright getting started.”
Q2. As Head of Roar, how carry out you elaborate “success” for TON’s adoption over the next 12–18 months?
“TON is uniquely positioned at the intersection of crypto and mainstream culture. My role is to internet certain we turn that doable into influence. For me, success comes down to three key issues:
“First, I absorb to raise user brands onchain— significantly in sports. Sports groups absorb emotional, lifelong relationships with their followers. TON can serve deepen that bond with right utility: NFTs, digital merch, gamified fan experiences. I absorb to peek us powering these form of connections .
“2d is stickiness. It’s no longer ample to absorb any individual internet a one-time token swap. I desire customers interacting with TON-powered apps day to day, upright love they spend their well-liked social or finance apps.
“And the third is relationships proper by the ecosystem. Too many initiatives are being inbuilt silos. I learn about myself as TON’s “router” — connecting the dots, serving to groups learn about one but any other, resolve challenges, and collaborate to execute better.”
Q3. Telegram Mini Apps (TMAs) are central to your arrangement. What outlandish advantages carry out TMAs offer over standalone dApps, and how will you measure their influence?
“TMAs flip the script on dilapidated crypto apps. You don’t must download anything, you upright tap and recede. That by myself eliminates a wide barrier to entry.
“They additionally feel inherently social since you’ll likely be in a jam to fragment links, refer chums, or upright tumble into neighborhood conversations. And you is more likely to be in a jam to carry out all of this with out leaving Telegram. Combine that with a seamless crypto pockets connection and also you’ve received something in truth extremely efficient.
“That you can presumably even pin a TMA to your cell phone’s dwelling veil, so it behaves love a native app, but with the final advantages of being internal Telegram.
“By manner of measuring influence, we’ll scrutinize at how in most cases customers return. Is this something you’re opening day to day? Are you coming inspire since it’s precious, stress-free, or rewarding? Lengthy-term, we desire builders to contemplate “Telegram-first,” and attach experiences that initiate up right here, even sooner than obsessed on constructing for Android or iOS.”
Q4. What are the supreme hurdles in onboarding mainstream Telegram customers onto TON, and what tactics will you deploy to overcome them?
“I contemplate awareness is the first hurdle. We desire to internet more folk conscious of TON sooner than we are in a position to execute affinity with the cost. Then it’s about making the entirety more functional. Shall we embrace, constructing DeFi merchandise that are one-click as adverse to 10 advanced steps. We additionally must raise more of what’s already built to the floor. There’s wide stuff in the ecosystem, but it’s a little bit exhausting to gain upright now.”
Q5. You’ve spoken about stickers, NFTs, and RWAs. Which category carry out you learn about hitting vital mass first on TON, and why?
“Gifts and stickers are already initiating to pop, and beneath the hood they’re NFTs. Nonetheless more importantly, they’re relatable. They let customers speak, fragment, and accumulate in a manner that feels natural to how we already spend Telegram.
“As a huge football and sports fan, I learn a few wide opportunity right here. Digital memorabilia — membership-themed stickers, moving gifts, outlandish drops — can become share of fan identification. Factor in being in a jam to flex your loyalty to your membership internal every Telegram conversation.
“If the supreme groups internet in the inspire of this, the size will likely be immense. Fans already desire these items, they upright don’t know but that it would are residing on-chain.”
Q6. For reveal material creators and channel house owners, what recent monetization fashions will TON introduce to incentivize participation?
“Monetization has continuously been a disaster point for creators, but with TON and Telegram it’s initiating to substitute. We’re now seeing creators experiment with guidelines straight on posts, or gating internal most groups in the inspire of a token or NFT. That’s already a wide step forward from dilapidated fashions.
“I contemplate there’s additionally room for collaborative stickers and referrals, the place creators co-delivery digital property with their viewers. These fashions don’t upright make money, they execute tighter fan communities. It’s early days but, however the playbook is forming, and we’re upright initiating to peek what’s that you’ll likely be in a jam to heart of attention on.”
Q7. What tooling or incentive functions are you most enraged to roll out for builders constructing on TON?
“I contemplate the predominant component is constructing stronger relationships with builders. And that procedure better documentation, more sources, and a more collaborative ambiance the place groups can learn from one but any other. We don’t desire folk constructing in isolation.
“We’re additionally ramping up dev-focused occasions to raise skills together in right time. Whether it’s hackathons, meetups, or grants, we desire devs to feel love TON is a platform that in truth supports and listens to them.”
Q8. Are you able to fragment any early indicators or pilot outcomes that give you self belief on your boost roadmap?
“The momentum round gifts and stickers has been wide. Around 55% of the wallets enticing with these experiences had been created upright this 365 days. That’s a wide indicator of right usage, no longer upright speculation. Quantity and user boost are spiking all the procedure in which by the board. This isn’t upright a vogue. It’s a signal that folk desire enticing, social, collectible experiences. And they’re picking TON to energy them.”
Q9. Taking a learn about forward 3–5 years, what does a in truth “mass-adopted” TON ecosystem scrutinize love on your mind?
“I contemplate it appears to be like something love this: You’re using a Telegram Mini App the linked manner you spend your banking, trying, or bound-hailing app — with out even obsessed on the reality that it’s Web3. The tech is all in the background. Customers aren’t “using crypto”, they’re upright sending a present, unlocking a membership, joining a fan membership, or making a transient price. And it’s all occurring internal Telegram, with TON running quietly beneath the hood. I contemplate that’s what right mass adoption appears to be like love.”
Q10. Whereas that you would possibly per chance presumably wave a magic wand and resolve one necessary industry topic for TON upright now, what would or no longer it be—and how hasty would possibly per chance per chance you mobilize round it?
“I’d attach away with the delusion that crypto is too exhausting to make spend of. On legend of as soon as customers realise how seamless it would possibly per chance per chance per chance presumably be, significantly internal Telegram, they’re in. We’ve considered it with gifting.
We’ll learn about it over again with TMAs, stickers, and fan engagement. If we are in a position to resolve the thought topic that crypto has — that it’s challenging to make spend of — the remainder turns proper into loads less complicated.”
