Telegram Game 'Farm Frens' Airdrop Delayed as Devs Call TON 'The Closed Network'

Telegram game Farm Frens is delaying its FREN token airdrop on the Base layer-2 network until February, citing important roadmap adjustments as a result of “unreasonable deadlines” from Telegram and The Open Network. 

The game sounded off about “heavy-handed restrictions” that stem from the recent announcement that all Telegram mini apps with crypto integrations would need to utilize The Open Network (TON) moving forward. 

“Mini app devs (like our team) were given no prior warning, and the heavy-handed restrictions that were swiftly imposed included unreasonable deadlines,” the Farm Frens account on X (formerly known as Twitter.)

“It is upsetting to witness the incredible hypocrisy between [Telegram co-founder Pavel] Durov’s original purported ideals for Telegram (decentralization, censorship resistance, etc.) versus The Closed Network's new stance.” 

The creators of Farm Frens alleged that the January 21 exclusivity announcement from Telegram and TON was a “surprise,” forcing them to make important updates to their near-term roadmap. Ultimately, they’ve decided to stick with Base, an Ethereum scaling network created by major crypto exchange Coinbase. 

The exclusivity agreement between Telegram and TON requires all teams operating mini apps with blockchain integrations on Telegram to completely migrate to TON and the TON Connect protocol. After a 30-day transition period, any other blockchain protocols will be disabled.

“To maintain a scalable and secure user experience that meets Telegram’s standards, all mini apps with cryptocurrency functionality must be based exclusively on TON blockchain,” TON Foundation President Manual Stotz previously told Decrypt.

Projects with other blockchain affiliations that do migrate within 30 days may be offered up to a $50,000 grant depending on their audience size and previous support from Telegram. 

Farm Frens has opted not to migrate, and instead will remove on-chain interactions from its mini game for the near future. It plans to spin out its wallet as a standalone app, and bring the game to other platforms “very soon.”

The mini game offers players the opportunity to tend a farm, growing crops and upgrading their animal helpers while earning for the eventual FREN token airdrop. The FREN airdrop will also be available for owners of NFTs tied to the studio’s upcoming tower defense game, Everseed. The project captured the final snapshot for its token airdrop on January 20. 

Telegram crypto games have flourished in the last year, with popular tap-to-earn games like Hamster Kombat and Notcoin collectively attracting hundreds of millions of users.

Edited by Andrew Hayward