Telegram-based game, Farm Frens, has announced a delay to its FREN token airdrop on the Base layer-2 network until February. The decision comes in the wake of what the Farm Frens team describes as “unreasonable deadlines” and “heavy-handed restrictions” imposed by Telegram and The Open Network (TON).
The restrictions in question are a result of a recent announcement by Telegram and TON, stating that all mini apps with crypto integrations will henceforward be required to use TON. The Farm Frens team lamented the lack of prior warning and the swift imposition of these restrictions, expressing their disappointment via their account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Farm Frens went on to highlight what they perceive as a stark contrast between Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov’s original ideals of decentralization and censorship resistance, and the new position adopted by what they referred to as “The Closed Network.”
The exclusivity announcement on January 21 from Telegram and TON took the Farm Frens team by surprise, forcing them to make significant changes to their near-term roadmap. However, they have ultimately decided to stick with Base, an Ethereum scaling network developed by leading crypto exchange, Coinbase.
The exclusivity agreement mandates all teams operating mini apps with blockchain integrations on Telegram to fully migrate to TON and the TON Connect protocol. After a transition period of 30 days, any other blockchain protocols will be disabled.
While the TON Foundation has offered a potential $50,000 grant to projects that do migrate within the 30-day window, depending on their audience size and previous support from Telegram, Farm Frens has decided not to migrate. The company will instead remove on-chain interactions from its mini game for the time being, with plans to spin out its wallet as a standalone app and bring the game to other platforms in the near future.
Farm Frens offers players the chance to manage a farm, grow crops, and upgrade their animal helpers in anticipation of the upcoming FREN token airdrop. The token will also be available to owners of NFTs associated with the studio’s forthcoming tower defense game, Everseed.
The last year has seen a boom in Telegram crypto games, with popular tap-to-earn games such as Hamster Kombat and Notcoin attracting hundreds of millions of users. As tensions rise between the Farm Frens team and Telegram, the blockchain gaming community will no doubt be watching closely.
