Along with its previously mentioned mini app store, Telegram has released a new in-app browser that can access decentralized websites hosted on the Open Network (TON). The news came out in a blog post on July 31.
Telegram’s 950 million users can now use the new browser to navigate TON Sites, which are decentralized websites that can be reached through the Open Network blockchain. When they first came out in 2023, these sites could be reached through TON Proxies.
CEO Pavel Durov talked about how the browser can browse the traditional web and easily switch between viewing the web and messaging, which lets almost a billion people use the blockchain-based web.
Telegram Mini App Store
The mini app store, which was mentioned in early July, is now live and can be found in the search section of the Telegram app. It gives the 500 million people who use mini-apps every month a central place to go.
Telegram also added “Stars,” an in-app ticket system that lets mini-apps take payments and was released on June 7. You can trade these tokens for Toncoin, which is the network’s own token.
The mini-apps on Telegram have been very popular. Notcoin and Hamster Kombat (HMSTR) are two well-known examples that have millions of players all over the world. Since its start in March 2024, Hamster Kombat has gained more than 300 million users, making it one of the fastest-growing web3 apps. The company is now getting ready for a major airdrop of its HMSTR token on TON.
Catizen, a small app that came out at the same time as Hamster Kombat, now has more than 500,000 paid users. Because of its success, the company that published it, Pluto Studio, got funds from the Hong Kong-based crypto startup firm HashKey Capital.
