358: Building Crypto Payments for 1 Billion Telegram Users | TON Pay Deep Dive with Glenn Brown and Nikola Plecas from TON Foundation

I’m recording live from Hong Kong during Consensus week with Glenn and Nikola from the TON Foundation.In this episode, we break down how TON is building payment infrastructure for Telegram’s 1+ billion monthly active users. We talk about TON Pay. A crypto commerce solution built for developers and merchants.We explore stablecoins. Real-world adoption. Developer experience. Regulation. And what it takes to compete with payment giants like Visa and Stripe.This is not about hype. It’s about building usable infrastructure. With better UX. Fewer clicks. And real utility.If you care about crypto payments, stablecoins, or mass adoption, this one is for you.Key Timestamps00:01:20 – Nikola’s journey from Visa into Web3 00:02:13 – Glenn’s path from cybersecurity to digital assets00:03:42 – What TON Pay is and who it’s built for 00:04:12 – The vision: infrastructure for Telegram’s billion users 00:04:57 – Lessons from Alipay and WeChat 00:06:09 – Go-to-market strategy and merchant adoption00:07:48 – Competing with Stripe through better APIs00:09:37 – Why Apple Pay–level UX is the North Star00:11:07 – Why regulation and off-ramps matter 00:12:30 – Gasless transactions and technical roadmap00:14:03 – Telegram mini apps as a distribution channel00:15:13 – Stablecoins as real product-market fit 00:16:09 – Partnership opportunities and what TON is looking forConnect with TON Payhttps://ton.org/en/ton-pay-a-new-payments-layer https://x.com/ton_blockchainDisclaimerNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research.It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend.Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/