September 18, 2024: Worth a $TON 💰💎
The business opportunity of launching Curve stableswap onto the TVM
Yesterday we showed off how EVM-compatible chains can launch their own skeletal Curve infrastructure in seconds on the command line:
September 17, 2024: Hardcore! 💥🗡️
Wake up, babe… new repo just dropped! https://github.com/curvefi/curve-core
But what if your chain is not EVM-compatible by default?
Consider Telegram’s TON, which uses the more asynchronous TON Virtual Machine (TVM), designed to allow greater parallel processing directly within its design. It’s novel, though well outside the scope of this short article (check their 2020 white paper for more conceptual info on the inspiration behind TON)
The important point is that Curve has notably not launched directly on several non-EVM blockchains, such as Solana. How best to do so when Curve devs are stretched thin?
Yesterday’s announcement provides a template:
Look behind the splashy announcement, and it’s structured as a contest… which dev team will get the opportunity to fork Curve onto TON.
Read through the application, and you’ll see it’s a hefty ask. The winning team will bring an entire organization at the ready to essentially run and operate a TON-based Curve fork.
With strict requirements, it’s by no means a guarantee that any team would in fact meet this high threshold. Nowadays it’s difficult enough to assemble a web3 team without at least one infiltrator who works for a North Korean hacker group. (PRO TIP: Try asking them to verbally denounce Kim Jong Un, no idea if this actually works but reportedly they cannot!)
While it’s no guarantee this contest surfaces a qualifying team, it would look like a great opportunity for any team looking to attack the right opportunity. Stableswap remains a great beachhead market for a team seeking a solid foundation upon which to build a crypto empire. Combined with the blessings of both the TON Foundation and Curve, plus the opportunity to receive mentorship from Mich, and it appears as a great deal:
Hidden in this announcement and uncovered in Diego.crv’s great thread on the announcement is that an airdrop to veCRV holders would be included.
An unauthorized fork of Curve might run into IP issues, so we’d guess that they negotiated terms to require payment to veCRV holders. Far simpler to push forward with both teams’ blessings.
A reality in business is that genuine innovation is difficult and prohibitive. The most successful businesses often simply mimic something that’s worked well in one place in another place — at least to get started.
By this measure, there appears to be a TON of potential in $TON. Per Coingecko, Toncoin ($TON) has cracked the top ten, with a nearly $14B market cap.
This hefty market share comes despite the odious arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov and subsequent concerns about the future of Telegram. Maybe the prospect of $TON having ready access to the billion-something users of Telegram outweighs any potential downsides?
Meanwhile, in terms of DeFi, the situation on $TON is rather nascent. Despite billions of dollars worth of $TON, DefiLlama registers just $400MM in TVL.
However, the chain already has $1B in Tether, based on $700MM circulating and another $300MM authorized but unissued.
Loads of opportunity! All this Tether needs is some sort of home and it’s easy to imagine the TON ecosystem catapulting into the top ten on DefiLlama.
Only question remaining… is there anybody out there capable of assembling a superteam to tackle such an opportunity?
