Animoca to become TON blockchain’s largest validator

cointelegraph.com:

Web3 investment firm Animoca Brands is set to become the largest validator on The Open Network (TON) blockchain, and it plans to deliver blockchain-based games to messaging application Telegram’s 800 million users.

An announcement shared with Cointelegraph outlined how the partnership will involve funding, research and an analytics platform for third-party TON ecosystem applications. 

The value of Animoca’s investment was not disclosed by publication. However, part of the investment is understood to have been made directly into Toncoin, which has been staked as part of the validator agreement.

Related: Animoca still bullish on blockchain games, awaits license for metaverse fund

Animoca has conducted extensive market research on TON’s wider ecosystem, focusing on the platform’s ability to drive cryptocurrency and GameFi adoption.

The firm plans to strategically support TON Play, a gaming infrastructure project based on the TON blockchain. The infrastructure allows gaming applications to be built on TON and launched on Telegram and even allows for porting existing web-based games to the messaging app.

Ton Play will enable developers to deliver games to some 800 million Telegram users through its web application and the mobile app’s PlayDeck bot, which allows users to browse a catalog of mobile games.

Animoca will also explore the possibility of porting a selection of its gaming titles and applications from its portfolio of over 400 Web3 projects to Telegram.

Animoca Brands Research has also developed its own TON Analytics Dashboard, which gathers a variety of metrics from TON’s open internet ecosystem, including TON Blockchain, TON DNS, TON Storage and TON Sites.

TON Foundation director of growth Justin Hyun said the