Thinking Outside of the Box With Senior Community Manager Benjamin Bateman From TON Labs

[Alex077 16064]

Benjamin Bateman

🔥Hello! Who are you and what do you do?

B: Hey there, so I’m Ben, senior community manager for TON Labs, the team who brought Free TON to life from the ashes of the original Telegram project. On a daily basis, I’m active in a number of our sub-governance groups — specialised think tanks for various working aspects of the project — which leads to an incredibly varied schedule!

So, for example, right now I’m working wi

Free TON Crystal

🔥I’m sure many people know the Telegram story but for those that don’t, quickly explain what happened.

B: The SEC essentially deemed the original Telegram project a security. So despite already having developed an incredible product, they were forced to return all funds. Rather than waste their efforts entirely, they open-sourced everything. Enter TON Labs.

🔥What’s your backstory and how did you come to be involved with Free TON?

B: Well, my crypto origin story isn’t as exciting as some. I have a daughter. She’s 11 years old now, and back in 2017, I managed to gather together some savings for pretty much the first time in my life. I was looking for a way to put some of this to one side and grow it, for her future. After getting frustrated at the options available, I stumbled into the Bitcoin rabbit hole and haven’t looked back. I got involved in communities, telegram groups, made a Twitter account for the first time, and the rest followed on from there really.

How I got involved with Free TON, is at the start of 2021 as part of the Dune Network merger. I’d been working with the Origin Labs team since the network launch, and it was in December last year we became aware of what Free TON was doing. At the time, it was a crossroads for us, on one hand, we were (and still are) proud as punch of all we built on Dune. However, as an indie platform, the hurdles we had to overcome in becoming a serious competitor in such a crowded and highly-funded market were stacking up, particularly with regulatory factors. So, after much deliberation, we put forward a groundbreaking proposal to the Dune and Free TON communities, the world’s first decentralised M+A process.

 

Read more...