Topic: Filipinos Playing crypto games for a living - Developer even says it is gambling (Read 1650 times)

I found this nice article for us to read. It talks about Pavel Durov and how it might affect the digital freedom.

Digital Freedom on Trial: Telegram’s CEO in Custody
https://tradeflock.com/arrest-allegations-accountability/


Is It an Attack on Digital Freedom?

Consistency. I think what the writer wants to point out is it should be fair to Durov since a lot of social media applications are also not too good at content moderation. Not just X and Facebook, there's a lot more out there.
So why Telegram?
The home of: Gambling? Scam attempts? Cryptocurrency project rugpulls? Well, we can also see a lot of those on Facebook and it actually was the first home of such things.

It's scary and if these charges do get him in jail for a long time, the other application owners who do the same should now be careful with their contents. Or, will it just be Durov? Now that will be questionable.

Due to it's own in-app currency called TON coin.
They want it's users to make use of it so to have it become more valuable towards the cryptocurrency market.
But due to recent events with Durov it has backfired and lost a significant amount while it was on a surge upwards towards the $6.80usd mark. Last I looked it was hovering around $4.68usd when you view the coin's chart there was a dramtic dump in the price once news broke of his arrest.

But I agree with your very last statement, the CEO had no recollection of what is going on with his app and it has become an entity on it's own devoid of any sort of control at this point.
And this is including those unregistered gambling platforms.

@rdbase, now it's all coming out.

Unregistered gambling platforms inside Telegram. I have heard of this but didn't try it because there are so many options out there so why the heck should I gamble in a platform that is used for messaging? I just don't get it.
Anyway, there's so many things that Telegram seems to be having a hard time cleaning up and that includes scammers and rug pull projects using their platforms to victim people.

Now, they added more such as gambling and investment applications such as Hamster Kombat. I bet Durov will have a hard time escaping this one despite all the support that he is getting from different popular people.

And there's even an article telling the story of Durov and the start of Telegram here.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/09/05/pavel-durov-s-arrest-marks-the-emergence-of-sovereign-digital-spaces_6724871_23.html#


I guess that's the reason why it's filled with black agendas. Censorship. Governments won't like that.

The arrest of Durov is a delicate matter, as for us who we are outside the spotlight it's hard to measure how conniving he was with the criminals operating inside Telegram. Was he really conniving with drug dealers, terrorists and children abusers, or was he just ensuring the privacy right of each Telegram's user?

At same time, are French authorities defending the society from the corruption practiced by the criminals, or are they just using this situation as an excuse to completely get rid of privacy for the common citizen?

After all, Telegram is only good or evil depending the person who is making usage of this tool. The offensive against Telegram is a pitty for those who just want to have their privacy respected, but on the other hand, it's good that criminals are having their schemes stopped somehow, even if temporarily.

^^
P2E is a form of gambling because are you guaranteed anything after you play? Certainly not.
Players are investing their time into the game, so if those who are playing do not view their time as valuable than it wouldn't be considered gambling.
As someone had mentioned before these games on telegram require you to make in-game purchases so to level up and continue playing, so they have hooked them in right when starting to play the game thinking they can just play for free and earn. But it is at a slower rate and will take them years to achieve in weeks from what they would if they just paid for those in-game purchases.

Something called the TGCasino telegram casino made some news this past week of the CEOs arrest in France:


source: https://sbcnews.co.uk/featurednews/2024/08/27/durov-telegram-illicit-game

Yes, it's the exchange listing as well. TGE means token genetion event. I am also guessing that a massive dump is about to come there. But it won't be surprising if some delay might possible happen again as it did before.

P2E is different from gambling so I don't think that there's any relation to that. But who knows soon if some connection will be done by the rulers, officials or senators for something to push like that.

This is so true, no can skip that taxation from whatever we're all earning from.

TGE what is that exactly? Exchange listing if it is then which one will it be available for trading once it is released to all those users?
On the very first day expect a massive dump of the coin on to that exchange then.

Also was wondering about another thread I had just noticed about:
PH Senator pushes a Ban to POGOs and All Sort of Online Gambling...
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ph-senator-pushes-a-ban-to-pogos-and-all-sort-of-online-gambling-5501566

Will this affect the P2E ecosystem because I believe the Philippines will find a way to say this is gambling and to have it banned under this law they look to put in place.
We can all agree that any government, no matter which corner of the world you are in, will try and find a way to tax or outright ban if it's citizens are making an income that is not in their control.

Telegram isn't in trouble just because Durov has been arrested. But maybe he is unless he will step down as the CEO to protect the company.

Finally, the TGE for Hamster Kombat has come. I don't have it but I am happy for my friends that have been tapping for so long that this has now been supported in the exchanges that they can trade the token that will be generated. Some exchanges have already gave the date of listing it and it is in less than a month now. Hope for it folks that there won't be any reason for them anymore to delay it.

I don't know how Durov could get away from his cases.

Telegram founder faces probe into alleged ‘acts of violence’ against his child in Switzerland
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/29/europe/telegram-pavel-durov-swiss-child-allegations-intl-latam/index.html
It's piling up.


Now the big question: How this will affect the crypto games in the Telegram application? One of them is Hamster Kombat which is being played by millions of people. I bet there are a lot of investors and players who are now doubting where the project's future is. Did the make the wrong gamble or will it still continue its promise?
 
I mean, this is a big problem considering it's the Telegram founder who is being accused of many cases and that is where their application is set.

Regardless whether such games are total scams or not, telegram being in trouble is super bad news as many legit sites use it extensively for their business

$HMSTR will be launched in just about a month and alot of it depends on telegram still being 'legal' is most countries, Even India hinted they might be looking at the shady stuff happening in some corners of telegram 

It's only unknown crypto projects that are doing it though which pop-up outta nowhere and equally fast to disappear and they don't make a dent in overall gaming industry, mainstream studios are still sticking with usual in-game items as rewards.


They are doing it on their own free will, and no one is forcing them to play, so how is that taking advantage? If they do not find it worth it, they can stop playing, as simple as that.

Durov who was in custody since late last week had been released and transferred to French court for possible indictment.
"Whatever Durov’s portrayal a government arresting the founder and CEO of a popular social media platform over its content is considered extraordinary and historic.
After France's officials detained Durov, Telegram released a statement saying that “its absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” adding that the platform complies with European Union laws."
source: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/28/nx-s1-5091295/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-french-custody-investigation

That could be also said about Ulbricht and the Silk Road who ended up with a double life sentence for over the last decade.

Well, there's some news about it although it's not new anymore because they've mentioned it before about the TGE and it has been delayed. I've seen the community of it not really impressed at all and are expecting for some more delays from the announced one recently.

They are right, most of these play to earn games are launched at the right time. Like this time, we're on the bull run and many of them are starting to push their projects because interest of the people are there once again. But if they're going to launch that on a bear market, they won't get that much attention for sure.

Nobody really knows since this is an ongoing investigation on the CEO of the company platform where he is being charged with some serious allegations including illegal gambling, drug trafficking and distribution of sexually explicit images of minors. And there is no getting away with that if found to be guilty of doing any sort of those activities.

https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1828151621651447908

They are set to make their decision on his fate later on today:
https://financialpost.com/pmn/french-prosecutors-set-to-charge-or-release-telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-as-his-custody-order-expires

https://x.com/CP24/status/1828747450422882781

A little of a background check on how this person got into his business it is today which  it's wealth of information is more valuable to governments officials across the globe than one might think:

https://time.com/7015129/pavel-durov-arrest-france-telegram

Think of what happened to Andrew Tate of his most recent arrest in Romania with being charged with human trafficking to know the extend governments will go to apprehend individuals who are vocal about freedoms they are entitled too and see them as a problem.
https://www.politico.eu/article/telegram-pavel-durov-arrest-emmanuel-macron-france-social-media

Macron was seen checking his telegram right after he landed in France and arrested right infront of him.
French President Macron Continues To Use Telegram After CEO Durov's Arrest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQAieE7z_yg

Seen many ads and friends talking about it.

Is hamster kombat actually legit or a scam ? are people able to convert those to real money ?

I use telegram alot but never really looked into all these things 

I am a big fan of crypto games but all in all I am here for the money, I don't care what will happen after, and right now I see that Sony is creating a layer 2 for web3 games too called Sonieum, also a big web3 game is already listed on Sony store, I believe gaming will do well in coming months.

Gaming is also gambling too because you won't always win, even in web2 games you can't always beat the boss until you find it weak point, come to think about Call of duty multiplayer, there will always be others that are tougher than you, so you won't always win.

Right now there isn't a perfect game built with good tokenomics, most of them are like ponzi kinda, but like I've said, I don't care about that but the money that I am ready to make in the bull market, as for gamers in Philippines, my advice is they should get into the games early, the longer the game is the harder it gets to make money out of them.

Simple, money!
You understand that in order to play to earn somebody must bring in the money for your reward, you have millions of players you need to bring in millions. You have for example 10 million players, each needs to make like $100 a month to be happy, this translates into 1 billion each month that needs to be injected in the game, 12 billion each year, this can be possible only if you add new 120 million players and each spends for started on average $100. Now you have 130 million players that each want $100 a month so....get ready... 170 billion is needed each year or 20 times!!!!! the revenue of Blizzard or Electronic Arts.

The problem with all those games is that they have been built on an MLM scheme basis, they produce unlimited tokens that need unlimited resources, and it's simply impossible for them to survive in the long run.
Imagine what would be the price of any item in the world if everyone started making it, every single person in the world would plant potatoes for example, the outcome would be that potatoes would be worthless since everyone has more than they need and nobody buys it, such is the problem with play to earn models.


If Hamster Kombat turns into a rugpull it will be the end of mini-games and their tokens, there will be millions of frustrated users who have spent hours working for this stuff and if they don't get anything decent they will never touch these kinds of games again!

You have touched upon a very interesting philosophical question. Indeed, why shouldn't play-to-earn game developers maintain interest in their games over the long term? Of course, it is difficult. But nevertheless, there is nothing impossible about it. Players' interests do change, but this does not mean that developers cannot follow these interests and adjust game mechanics to their interests. However, those commentators who claim that the main goal of game developers is to wait for the hype, secure profits and abandon the game are right. We see this scenario almost always.

Thought to start playing they don't require to pay anything , just as they progress through the game and level up then they would. But not at first.
Heard some news today they were going to stop the game since the trouble the platform that they are using has been in the since last week with the arrest of their current CEO and investigations happening as we speak.
Essentially a rug-pull by the game developers of Hamster Kombat because they can not afford to keep the company going with the in-game currency dumping along with the platform's own TON coin.

That's how it should go, while the pockets of the players could be the main source of these games revenue and what they're going to give back to their community. They could be open in advertisement and any sponsorships just to keep going with the game without hitting the pockets of the player but at the same time, they're giving back. Well, there are really different thoughts and plans for each game's development and if the main goal is to give fun to the players, I don't think that many of these developers have that goal.

The main plan of the most of them is to make money and not to miss the train when the game they have developed became on hype. We've seen various games that have became popular but then lost its popularity a little by little and that's one of the realities into these games that the devs will never be able to control. Like players are growing up and getting older and the interest changes but if they retain a good and sustainable economy, I don't think players that benefit the game will quit.

I guess that these devs have realized that creating a hype and making the game's temporary success is easy than maintaining it and regaining its glory.