Gifts aren't what they seem!
Intriguing title, isn't it? We want to revisit the topic of our hypothesis about what's hidden behind the simple images in Telegram.
Last time, we conveyed the idea of our concept, and this time we'll dive into it more seriously, dig into the legislation, go through documents, and figure out if our theory holds water.
For clarity, here's a small example: imagine in Telegram you receive a gift—whether you upgraded it yourself or it was passed to you—a lightsaber model named «Wrath of Vader» that looks exactly like Darth Vader's weapon from Star Wars. On the surface, it's just a fun NFT integrated into the messenger, resembling the iconic weapon from the saga with clear references. But why hasn't Disney sued?
Our opinion: these gifts aren't random souvenirs, but the result of hidden collaborations with major brands. In nearly a year since the launch of upgrades, there hasn't been a single lawsuit from IP rights holders, which hints at secret partnerships.
It could be a global experiment in integrating IP into Web3, where brands are earning incognito for now, and soon they'll come out into the light.
What are NFT gifts in Telegram?
Gifts are digital collectible items bought with Telegram Stars, "worn" as status next to the name, displayed in the profile, and convertible to NFTs on the TON blockchain. It's a massive market where collections trade for tens, hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. They seem simple, but these are some of the most utilitarian NFTs, full of references to famous IPs, suggesting invisible work with rights holders.
Surface glance vs hidden reality: why gifts aren't what they seem?
Right now, for most users, gifts are cute, beautiful, fun, and cool animations for communication, self-expression, flexing, and displaying status. But if you dig deeper, gifts are a whole network of references to movies, games, works, memes, and cultures. It seems to us that Telegram has made secret deals with brands like Disney, where references are part of the marketing, but it's not advertised to avoid revealing Web3 strategies. After testing such gifts with brand collections, the brands will fully launch their own gift and sticker collections, and Telegram will serve as a platform for brands to release such collections, like it was with Snoop Dogg. Such clear hints, like in the Light Sword collection containing all the lightsabers of the main heroes and antagonists, are impossible without consent—this isn't a coincidence, but a clear calculation.
In May, we sent our publication to the closed chat of Plush Pepe holders, where the top brass of the TON Foundation is located. As we said in the post, no one really paid attention to our work, but Jack Boot didn't pass by our guesses and subtly voiced support for our opinion and at that time gave a few insights on gifts and stickers. Possibly because Jack Boot was handling rights and intellectual property development in the TON Foundation.
Most likely, it's thanks to Jack that we're seeing so many gifts with references and not observing any lawsuits or disputes from rights holders.
Jack Boot is a co-founder of TON Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to decentralizing The Open Network (TON) and expanding community engagement. Previously, he worked at the TON Foundation, where he handled intellectual property issues and US expansion strategy, but recently left the foundation and became CEO of the Mint platform—a service for collectibles in Telegram.
Let's break down what intellectual property is, what categories of rights it has, and how it relates to our gifts.
Intellectual property is a category of rights that protects the results of creative and intellectual activity of a person or company, including works of art, inventions, brands, and other intangible assets:
- Copyright and moral rights protect creative expression (design, plot, dialogues) (17 U.S.C. §101, §102, §106A).
- Trademarks protect the brand and commercial use of the character (15 U.S.C. §1114, §1125, §1127).
- Design patents protect the unique appearance of physical objects related to the character (35 U.S.C. §101, §171).
- Right of publicity protects commercial use of the persona if the character is tied to a real person (15 U.S.C. §1125A, as well as California Civil Code §3344 and New York Civil Rights Law §§50–51).
For the most part, we're interested in the US market. We'll rely on their legislation, since our favorite blockchain is trying to fully deploy its activities and conquer the masses precisely in this country.
This type of property is a very complex thing. Every company that has intellectual property does everything it can to protect its rights, sometimes spending millions of dollars on legal proceedings (costs, etc.).
But what's the connection to our blockchain, Telegram, and gifts?
Now we'll try to dig deeper into US law and understand if our gifts violate copyrights or if they manage to bypass the laws. Or more accurately, whether Telegram is collaborating with major studios like Disney, Warner Bros., Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Paramount, Electronic Arts, Valve, Soyuzmultfilm (yes, that very one), and others, or not. If Telegram isn't collaborating with the studios and is possibly breaking the law, it will inevitably lead to hundreds of lawsuits, which in turn will cause the whole gift story to collapse, and possibly Telegram as a whole.
We take a specific gift, its name, image, and animation. We find the studio whose work it references, attach articles under which it might violate the law, and give a verdict on whether the gift violates the law or not.
Pet Snake - Dobby - Reference to the same-named character from Harry Potter (Warner Bros.), visually resembling Dobby himself. Copyright on the character design (17 U.S.C. §101). No lawsuit—likely hidden partnership.
Jack in the Box - Crash TNT - Reference to the game Crash Bandicoot (Activision), depicting Wumpa fruit and dynamite from the game. Trademarks on game elements (15 U.S.C. §1127). No lawsuit—same, indicates negotiations.
Lunar Snake - Ender Snake - Reference to the End (Ender) from the game Minecraft (Microsoft), the snake stylized as an Enderman mob, and the numbers under ender pearl or end stone. Design patents (35 U.S.C. §171). Lack of reaction—sign of collaboration.
In this PDF file, we've collected just a tiny bit of such gifts for visual acquaintance. In reality, there are 1–3 to 10–15 such gifts in each collection, and there are already about 100 collections at the moment, meaning hundreds of gifts with references! Pay attention to the detail: many gifts replicate the originals from the works almost exactly, like the bee from Minecraft.
If you want to see a more compact list with all the references we've found, let us know with reactions under the post. Also, on our channel, we run a section with the hashtag #GiftReferences, where each time we detail and show 3 references from different collections.
And now let's look at a diagram with companies and studios whose references we've found in gifts. The diagram is a network of connections between parent companies and their subsidiaries, as well as individual brands. In the center are key conglomerates like Disney (linked to Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and others), Warner Bros. (with Harry Potter, Batman, The Matrix), Microsoft (with Mojang for Minecraft, Activision for Crash Bandicoot), Sony (with PlayStation, Naughty Dog), Paramount (with SpongeBob, Terminator), and Universal Pictures (with Shrek, Minions). From them branch out to specific IPs like Star Wars, The Simpsons, or Pokémon. This visualizes how references cover dozens of franchises but boil down to a limited number of giants.
We accounted for both subsidiaries and parent companies to find connections between them. Thus, we get at least 6 major conglomerates and many independent companies. This six holds most of the intellectual property rights in the gifts through their subsidiaries. So Telegram only needs to partner with six giants to get rights to use most of the intellectual property images. We see this as a plus for our theory, because with good connections like those of Pavel Durov and Jack Boot, it's not that hard to negotiate with six head companies rather than hundreds of small ones.
Just look at the scale. What number of companies could sue and win cases with 99% probability for intellectual property infringement. For such a number of violations, hundreds of lawsuits would rain down on Telegram, legal costs would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, entry into the US market would be closed forever, and the very existence of Telegram would be in question. But this hasn't happened for about a year.
It's also worth pondering: perhaps it's these collaborations that are delaying the release of upgrades so much. Because to release a similar gift, you need to negotiate collaboration with the IP, approve the design, get a bunch of permissions from rights holders, etc., and there are a dozen such gifts in a collection, and 2–4 such collections come out at a time.
With the latest gifts, you could notice how the number of references is growing more and more. This may indicate that companies are more willing to collaborate now than at the beginning, when gift metrics weren't that big yet.
If you're planning to invest in gifts, we'd recommend investing specifically in models with references, because if studios confirm collaboration in the future, meaning make it official, and start releasing standalone collections, then fans of various movies, books, games, etc., will come for their gifts, and the current ones will be the most valuable, since their supply starts from a couple dozen and ends at a couple thousand. In our opinion, these will become the gems, and then all the others and those released in collaboration, like with Snoop Dogg. But growth for all gifts is inevitable. (This is not financial advice, based on analysis, DYOR.)
Soon major IPs will come to Telegram to release full-fledged, standalone collections of their works. Gift and sticker collections for the Marvel universe, Harry Potter, SpongeBob, Naruto, and so on. Soon everyone will find their collection, and mass adoption will be unavoidable.
What do you think about hidden collaborations? Write in the comments.
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