Telegram Is a Frontier Opportunity for the Lederhosen Bros
April 15, 2026
Another semi-amusing post related to what is the Telegram complex. Those filters blocking our brand of fun are annoying, but we have managed to slip through the MSFT grate (not “great”) and swizzled around the BearBlog’s assertion “AI writes your stories.”
I am not sure how many people know about two interesting and very clever fellows, Manny Stotz and Oskar Hartmann. In the Telegram Notes’ post “Two Frontier Compeers,” I have summarized some general information. If you attend one of my lectures for law enforcement or intelligence professionals, you will learn that I call these pals the “lederhosen bros.” Both are Germans by birth; both find Telegram’s TONcoin crypto a “frontier opportunity”; and both have business linkages in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Did you know that the UAE is the site of an exclusive club called “Equium”? Now you know. In addition to holding meet and greets, the members chat.
Why are bears chasing Manny and Oskar? Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
If you want to know more about Manny and Oskar, navigate to our current home on the Web at this target location. If the story does not render, just write kentmaxwell at proton dot me. He will send you a text version.
Stephen E Arnold, April 15, 2026
Microsoft: RIFs ‘R Us
April 15, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Rumors are flying around the tech industry that Google is planning massive layoffs. INC dived into the gossip in the article, “Microsoft Execs Respond to Mass Layoff Rumors.” Microsoft has RIF plans. Estimates vary. Maybe 11,000 to 22,000 jobs in different business units will get to find their future elsewhere.
Big discovery. Venice.ai refused to generate this image because it violated the firm’s decency guidelines. What was the trick? Nothing. Just moved a couple of works around and out popped a bunch of people escorted from a firm’s property by one HR robot and one security robot. Those guardrails are a treat, aren’t they?
The rumors started on the popular social media platforms Reddit and Blind then they spread like a viral video to BlueSky and X. Microsoft denied the rumors:
“Microsoft’s chief communications officer, Frank X. Shaw, took to X to refute the rumors, calling them “100 percent made up/speculative/wrong.” He also responded to a post suggesting the layoffs would materialize in weeks, sarcastically replying, “i eagerly await.” Jez Corden, editor at Windows Central, also pushed back on claims, writing on X, “false on the Xbox side at least.”
In 2025, Microsoft reduced its labor by 15,000 employees from May to September. At that time, the Xbox’s Phil Spencer said that the layoffs were a necessary evil in order for the company’s longevity.
“I Burned Out As a Manager at Microsoft — Then Got Laid Off. Nearly 3 Years Later, I’m Still Looking for Work” is not a reassuring read for those from the Microslop factory. The article includes some interesting statements:
I have no resentment toward Microsoft. If I had never been laid off, I think I’d still be there today, and would be using some of my talent, but not all of it. Now, I think I’m on a track where I’m using more of myself than I ever have. My advice for others who have been laid off would be to take what time they can — even if they can’t take a whole year like I did — to reflect on what part of their last job gave them the most energy. Then, try to make sure their next role aligns with that.
A positive attitude, a warmth, and optimism — clearly evident. The problem, however, is that 36 months passed and no job, just an entrepreneurial flicker. Now thousands of Softies are chasing jobs. Several observations:
- Losing a job is not a positive. Spinning is one thing. Money is another.
- Coming from a big outfit like the Outlook coding, Copiloting beast may not be a positive for some potential employers.
- The economic uncertainty of global exogenous events creates a more uncertain business environment. Uncertainty often translates to conservative business methods and a desire to reduce insofar as possible risk. Companies, therefore, do the on-again, off-again hiring boogie.
Net net: Whatever the reason for a termination, today’s job hunt is fraught with
Whitney Grace, April 15, 2026
Modern Management Thinking or McKinsey-Type Outfits, Hire Skolkovo Graduates
April 10, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Skolkovo. That ranks right up there with Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Chicago – type MBAs. I don’t know if the management wizard referenced in “Russian Billionaire Says 12 Hour Days and 6-Day Workweeks Could Help Save the Economy” graduated from Skolkovo. Frankly I don’t care. The idea is sheer genius. Perhaps not as brilliant as the special operation, but it is right up there. I am going to take my Peter Drucker books and my worn notes from my charm school training and recycle them responsibly. The ideas are not in step with this new approach to work.
This could be the trendy hat for MBA schools. It is a Deripaska hat, and a tribute to keen management thinking. Thanks, Venice.ai. The hat did not violate your guardrails. The request for white numbers was ignored, but, hey, good enough.
The ideas allegedly flow from the fertile mind of a person named Oleg Deripaska, whose savvy financial dealings sparked the creation of the term de-Deripaskization. I am a dinobaby, and I don’t know much about Russian rules and regulations. But a quick visit to the Google and to Yandex delivered some interesting assertions about this wealthy person; for instance:
- He seems to be on the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. This blocks all his assets in the U.S. and makes business dealings with him risky in some jurisdictions
- He allegedly tried to arrange for his children to get US citizenship. Yeah, they are Russians, but a smart executive sees solutions, not problems. He does have a 2022 indictment hanging over his head or he did have because today things can be fluid.
- Some nations U.S. and UK, the EU, and a few G7 nations have imposed sanctions upon him.
So what’s the management insight? The write up reports:
Russians should consider working 12-hour days, six days a week, as the country grapples with a deep
ereconomic shift, Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska said on Monday [March 31, 2026]. Referring to what he described as a changed global reality, Deripaska framed the country’s slowing economy as more than a typical downturn driven by interest rates or monetary policy.
Will US forward leaning management experts embrace this idea? Answer: Absolutely. The scarcity of jobs, the fear that Uncle Claude will step in and just do the work, and the desire of some big AI technology leadership to create a low-paid humanoid serf class could fuel this management revolution.
Let’s consider who would snap into this new 12x6x12 or 12 hours a day, six days a week, 12 months each year.
First, the truly desperate. I can imagine a number of recent college graduates figuring that some work is better than making wreaths and picture frames to sell on Etsy.com.
Second, the older person who is will to take a part time 12x6x12 to supplement government assistance or retirement money.
Third, a single parent family with one or more kiddos. Those athletic shoes are expensive, and youngsters like to eat.
I am sure there are some categories I have overlooked. It is clear to me that this facet of what I would call the Skolkovo Method or applying logic to a problem like productivity and generating oomph for a country’s gross domestic product has some merit.
I am waiting for a YouTube video featuring Oleg Deripaska. He can explain the details of the 12x6x12 method. It is not just a method for Russia. The idea could revolutionize how the US MBA programs train future VCs, BAIT leadership, and bankers to approach opportunities.
I want a hat with 12x6x12 emblazoned on it. Big time consultants can wear them to client/prospect meetings. I might get one myself. I can alternate it with my “I’m Glad I’m Old” hat.
Stephen E Arnold, April 10, 2026
UK Procurement Approach Pays Heavy Poundage for a Bookmark Site
April 9, 2026
The United Kingdom wants its people to increase their AI expertise so they launched the AI Skills Boost website. Mahad Kalam writes about the new hub on his blog: “The UK Paid £4.1 Million For A Bookmarks Site.” To be frank, it stuck me as a bit orthogonal to my way of working. The UK government procurement process apparently found the system peachy keen. The fee for the software service? Answer: A piddling £4.1 million for this service.
Upon visit the website, I immediately reacted with caution. In my work for our dear leader Stephen E Arnold I encountered some Dark Web sites with a a more appealing presentation. Despite this collection of links or hub under the firm hand of the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, the list of the agency’s partners is not much different from those suggested links that pepper Clear Web marketing sites. There is some AI information on the platform some links like the one to Trailhead’s learning center send the visitor to a third-party Web location.
Based on my experience with UK government Web sites, I formed the impression that the bookmark site needs to do a bit more in the user experience department. The cited article opines:
"I’m angry at the sheer wastefulness of the UK Government here. Our public services are collapsing – while £4 million is admittedly chump change for the UK government, there are real people behind these numbers – families waiting months for NHS appointments, children in crumbling schools, vulnerable people not getting the care they need. The waste feels particularly galling when you realize that almost no one will actually use this site!”
Kalam asserted there are businesses out there ho could have made this Web site at five percent of the cost and delivered a better, more useful product. To quote Kalam, “Do better.”
The moral of this article about a government procurement is a reminder that some taxpayer money is just wasted. The problem is not confined to a single country. The procurement pandemic has infected most countries it seems.
Whitney Grace, April 9, 2026
Data Centers As Sitting Ducks
April 6, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Those in the data center business with structures in the Iran war zone realize that when rockets or other kinetics strike the roof, problems ensue. A well-placed round can disable a critical piece of the electrical or cooling equipment as well. Now there is another possible threat. “Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Just Named 18 US Tech Firms as Military Targets. The Age of the Civilian Data Centre Is Over.” The write up reported on March 31, 2026:
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published a statement on its official Sepah News channel naming 18 US firms, from Apple and Microsoft to Nvidia and Palantir, as “legitimate targets” in retaliation for what it described as their role in enabling American and Israeli assassination operations inside Iran. The list reads like a roll call of the Nasdaq’s most valuable constituents. Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, Cisco, Oracle, Dell, HP, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Tesla, General Electric, Boeing, and Palantir all appear alongside Spire Solutions and G42, the Abu Dhabi-based AI firm that has become a linchpin of the Gulf’s artificial intelligence ambitions.
Some people are aware of potential supply disruptions in gasoline and helium, but the idea that the financial operations of certain countries could be disrupted is problematic. One cannot go to the local automatic teller machine and conduct a hundred million euro transaction.
Thanks, Venice.ai. I appreciate that you excluded the missile. Good enough.
I know that data centers in the Ashburn, Virginia area are hardened. However, I am not so sure that the data centers not far from the special economic zones in Dubai are constructed to what I think of AT&T milspecs. From what I have observed, direct missile strikes were not part of the actual construction.
The write up said:
The threat is extraordinary in its specificity. Rather than targeting military installations or government buildings, the IRGC has identified private-sector technology infrastructure as the mechanism through which, it alleges, the United States has been locating and killing senior Iranian officials. The statement declared that American ICT and AI companies are “the key element in designing and tracking terror targets,” and that “for every assassination and terrorist act in Iran, one facility or unit belonging to these companies will face destruction.”
What’s interesting is that the Ukraine-style asymmetric warfare is making explicit the companies whose infrastructure is at risk. The threats may be idle, but the vulnerability exists. One cannot pile sandbags on a roof of a typical data center. I assume that’s why the subtitle to the cited article makes the point “the age of the civilian data center is over.”
The more practical knock on effect of this threat is that the costs of retro-fitting a data center are not in the budget for the current quarter. New data centers will have to have some additional thought put into their construction method.
Data centers are sitting ducks. There are numerous points of vulnerability. Just “bury data centers” is easy to say. Using existing caves, old mine digs, or more exotic ideas like putting data centers in orbit present some challenges as well. There are some notable caves. I know from my work with the hard rock mining engineering firm Robinson & Robinson that suitable mine shafts exist if they are not filled with water or sealed to prevent some exciting environmental events from becoming noticeable to bunnies and people. The data center in space works if one has rockets that don’t explode on launch. For one firm, exploding rockets suggest the company should consider switching to the production of war munitions.
The write up pointed out:
The exposure is enormous. Microsoft has committed $15 billion to expanding its operations in the UAE by 2029. Amazon has pledged $5 billion to an AI hub in Riyadh. Oracle, Cisco, and Nvidia announced a partnership with OpenAI to build an AI campus in the UAE. Google and Amazon Web Services are constructing dedicated cloud regions in Saudi Arabia scheduled to launch this year. According to analysts at TD Cowen, hyperscaler capital expenditure is forecast to exceed $600 billion in 2026, with roughly 75 per cent tied to AI infrastructure. A substantial portion of that money is flowing into the very region the IRGC is now threatening.
I have confidence that the bean counters and MBAs at the high-tech super companies have the problem solved. These folks have their own brains and the unfettered power of AI without guardrails. Obviously for these BAIT (big AI technology) companies the data center threat is a no brainer. I assume these BAIT outfits know who will ensure their data centers too. I admire forward thinking and the use of agentic AI to solve problems. For example, what if an adversary strikes a data center in Fremont on the way to San Jose?
Stephen E Arnold, April 6, 2026
Data Centers: Build Them Quick
April 3, 2026
The AI frenzy demands more AI compute. The fix? Hop on the data center bandwagon quicker than someone can enter a prompt into a chatbot. However, the current boomlet is different from Pets.com. Because BAIT (big AI tech) companies want AI in everything, with inefficient methods, more compute is needed fast. The speed is important because AI chip technology keeps advancing. If a data center locks into to today’s best chips, in a couple of update cycles, the data center may find itself like the buggy whip manufacturer watching Model Ts putter by the leather shop. Judging from Microsoft’s lateral arabesque, that company is now waking up and dreaming that it can make everyone happy again by pulling back on such innovations as putting AI in the ascii editor Notepad. Microsoft may learn that those billions in capital investment may become the anchor that keeps dragging down the firm’s share price. As I write this, I think the shares in Microslop are down another half dozen points. Nice going, Softies. One difficult question is the date of the data center fizzle? A quiet question that needs to be spoken more loudly is the amount of power and water data centers are using.
The Guardian explores how AI data centers are affecting power grids in the article, “The Environmental Cost Of Data Centers Is Rising. Is It Time To Quit AI?” The story explains that datacenters use four times more power than other sectors says the International Energy Agency. Japan is predicted to exceed its power demands by 2030. Meanwhile Australia expected for its datacenters to triple in five years and surpass the electricity needed to charge electric cars by 2030s.
There’s a movement called QuitGPT to boycott AI’s surveillance, use in weapons, and resource demands. Despite the boycott’s small following it begs the question if more people should be listening? Data centers wizards aren’t transparent about the amount of energy AI is using. It’s also understated that AI uses more energy than a basic search engine.
Here’s what an “expert” says:
“ ‘Consumer software that generates text, images and videos are uniquely energy inefficient,’ says Ketan Joshi, an Oslo-based climate analyst associated with the Australia Institute, due to the ‘vast datasets and computational strain of pattern-matching that happens underneath the hood’”.
Two final points. City and county taxing authorities like the idea of expanding their tax bases. Those who live near a proposed cruise ship sized data center are less enthusiastic. The financial outlook for some of the AI plays has yet to make the money folks nervous. Most do not live near a planned data center with a modular nuclear reactor in the future or the flock of jet turbines providing power when the local grid hiccups.
Net net: If we build it, the money will come. Didn’t that work for baseball?
Whitney Grace, April 3, 2026
Happy Friday Information: Death Risk News
March 27, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
March has been an interesting month. Amazon Web Services fail over technology failed. But missile strikes are not something with which the two pizza teams had much familiarity. Now it’s a different story. The ensemble of estimable companies found themselves on the wrong side of social media addiction lawsuit. Let the appeals begin, but the decision is not going to boost the trust score in the European Union for US companies. Plus, there is some economic uncertainty forcing some seniors to decide, “Do I buy food or medicine this month?” There is vanlife, of course.
But for Friday, March 27, 2026, I want to present an even more uplifting item of allegedly true information. I know I believe everything I read on the Internet, and I assume you are even more rigorous in your information vetting than I. However, I found Science Daily’s “This Dangerous Combo in Your Body Could Raise Death Risk by 83%.”
Several click baity points. I like the idea of a “dangerous combo.” You put two things together and you may as well start coffin shopping now. Your “death risk” spikes. The odds are not quite twice as likely. The odds are only 1.83 percent. I keep remembering that everyone has a 100 percent chance of dying. But I think the point is that you will definitely or at least 1.83 percent change of heading to the quantum beyond faster. Speed is good in today’s high tech world, but speed in flopping over is a negative.
What’s Science News say? I noted this statement:
both excess abdominal fat and reduced muscle mass significantly raises the risk of death. People with this combination were 83% more likely to die than those without either condition.
Shocker. Who knew that being overweight in the tummy area and failing to exercise would shorten one’s life? Quite a scientific insight, is it not?
The write up points out:
simple methods can be used to detect sarcopenic obesity.
I think I understand. Look at a person. Big tummy and not much walking, paddle tennis, or competitive weight lifting signal a problem and put the observer on alert for trouble ahead.
True to modern science and diagnostic code chains, one does not just look at a person and say, “Put down that burger and hit the gym.” Nope. The article reports:
Diagnosing sarcopenic obesity usually requires advanced imaging tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, electrical bioimpedance, or densitometry…. but they are expensive…
Yes, they are, and that is the entire point of using advanced technology when common sense provides equivalent insight about a person.
Here’s the shocker. The authors of the paper don’t want to do the DRG billing trick that rolled up hospitals favor. The write up says:
… the team used practical criteria to identify those at risk. Abdominal obesity was defined as a waist circumference greater than 102 centimeters for men and 88 centimeters for women. Low muscle mass was defined as a skeletal muscle mass index below 9.36 kg/m2 for men and below 6.73 kg/m2 for women.
The approach may work in Campinas, Brazil, a city in which we lived. But in the US? I am not so sure. Why? Learn more about health care billing and those nifty DRG chains. It’s a fun subject. Be aware that some of the documentation about the organizations chasing this issue is no longer available on certain US government public facing Web sites.
Net net: It’s NCAA basketball time. Kick back. Eat those cheese drenched nachos. Have a beverage. Change that behavior after the games. Monday for sure. If you think about 1.83 angle, the bad news is that it may be too late if one is over 22 years old.
Stephen E Arnold, March 27, 2026
Old and Fired? Suck It Up, Buttercup
March 26, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
A fellow 54 years old claims age discrimination. The senior director of monetization analytics wrote an article that makes clear he believes the estimable Meta dumped old people. Full disclosure: I am 82 and I think a person who is a bit more than a quarter century younger than I am is not what I would call old. I completed college at a one-horser in the Midwest and managed to fool enough people that I deserved a graduate degree. I had been working in “real” jobs with a secretary and staff (believe it or not) before this Franchet fellow was conceived.
Thanks, Venice.ai. Sort of bad, but good old Google Gemini fixed up your output. Is that why having just one AI system is a really lame idea? I think it is.
The same whimpers were emitted when IBM (another outstanding company) identified employees who bumped up health care liabilities, wanted vacations with pay, and expected retirement accounts. Why keep these dodders around when cheap and good enough professionals were available in the idyllic city of Bangalore, India? Some of these people who were allowed to find their future elsewhere posted in social media about their job loss. How did that work out? It didn’t. The opportunity to push boundaries was not withdrawn. That hot desk in New Jersey went to a contract worker somewhere forcing the manager to obtain a world clock to schedule a video conference F2F or face to face.
“Meta Unfairly Targeted Older Workers During Layoffs Last Year, Lawsuit Claims” explains:
“Employees 40 and older were 1.5 times as likely to be included in the layoffs than employees under 40, and employees 50 and older were 2.5 times as likely to be terminated than employees under 40,” the lawsuit reads, allegedly citing data provided by the company to laid-off workers.
Am I, an authentic dinobaby, surprised? You have to be kidding me with that stupid question. Let me explain why Silicon Valley-type outfits and the BAIT outfits (big AI tech firms) do not want people who appear to be old timers to their leadership. I will give three reasons and make them really simple and clear:
- Cost
- Cost
- Cost
Now there may be other issues; for example, a dinobaby like myself listens, questions, and then when warranted, pushes back. How many zippy computer scientists under the age of 23 want that? Answer: Zero. How many MBAs want to have their cherished boilerplate game plans disabused? Answer: Zero. How many Peter Principle promotees want to be reminded they are making a bad decision? Answer: Zero.
I find the idea that Meta is culling old cattle believable and part of the playbook. Many of these outfits senior managers struggle with imposter syndrome. These individuals sense that something is amiss. Therefore, a wide range of coping mechanisms come into play. Examples range from forming a squishy bond with another humanoid to buying a vehicle with a big engine, from ignoring physical exercise to a gym rat (albeit a gym with chrome machines and odor free plastic on the weight bench). I would include the odd cruise ship scale yacht and trophy wife or companion. Yes, these icons of American business have to deal with those inner anxieties. (I will not mention drugs, Epstein Epstein Epstein, and causing a discarded companion to attempt suicide. No, I definitely will not.)
The terminated Franchet is the source of this passage in the cited article:
Six months before his termination, in August 2024, Franchet received an “At or Above Expectations” performance rating. Just a few months later, Meta introduced a new “lowest performer” category. The lawsuit claims the review process used ahead of the layoffs was less rigorous than usual. During that process, Franchet received a “Met Most Expectations” performance rating and was classified as one of the company’s lowest performers.
So the personnel procedure did not work. How many systems and policies regarding people work at Meta? I don’t know the answer, but there is the occasional suicide attributed to the firm’s “bringing everyone together” system. I have heard that law enforcement in some cities checks Facebook Marketplace for that area if there is a notable robbery. One officer told me a couple of years ago, “Who needs a fence. There’s Facebook Marketplace.” I thought this was an interesting observation.
Net net: Old people belong in the warehouses for the soon to be unliving. Get used to it. Worrying will take years off your life. Be a happy dinobaby and don’t litigate. That reduces one’s changes for a consulting gig. Former employees who take a big company to court may get a “lowest performer” hashtag.
Stephen E Arnold, March 26, 2026
AI and Hitting a Math Wall
March 25, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
The average AI chatbot user realizes that the technology has its limits. An intelligent user (who doubles checks their facts) knows that the bots are prone to hallucinations and takes everything it dishes out with a binary salt grain. Gizmodo explains the limits of AI bots and how the technology is about to hit a computational brick wall: “AI Agents Are Poised to Hit A Mathematical Wall, Study Finds."
AI bots are built on LLMS with the belief that they will infinitely grow, gain more knowledge, and become more human in their autonomy. The father and son research team, Vishal Sikka and Varin Sikka, wrote a paper (hopefully without AI’s help) about the limits of AI. Apparently LLMs can’t do agentic and computation tasks beyond a certain complexity. In other words, AI may face computational limits. Thus, mathy innovation is going to be needed.
The paper explains that AI are programmed to complete tasks only as far as the parameters of the LLM. LLMs have limited processing capabilities and must operate within its their bands of knowledge. When tasks go beyond those parameters, more complex models are needed. The LLMs can’t extrapolate the required information so they either fail in the tasks or return incorrect information.
AI, therefore, needs to be helped out with humans who come up with new methods and techniques:
"The basic premise of the research really pours some cold water on the idea that agentic AI, models that are able to be given multi-step tasks that are completed completely autonomously without human supervision, will be the vehicle for achieving artificial general intelligence. That’s not to say that the technology doesn’t have a function or won’t improve, but it does place a much lower ceiling on what is possible than what AI companies would like to acknowledge when giving a “sky is the limit” pitch.”
Other experts have reported similar results and the average user can tell you the same thing. Can AI replace humans. No, but the MBAs and bean counters have calculated that smart software is cheaper and faster. Plus, AI does not need health care, retirement contributions, or vacations.
Whitney Grace, March 25, 2026
AlphaTON Capital: From Cocoon to Consumer Gaming
March 24, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Talk a flip. I read a surprising story titled “AlphaTON Capital Acquires Controlling Interest in GAMEE, Adding 119 Million Users to its Ecosystem.” The article appeared in the online publication Hackernoon. AlphaTON is what I call a Swanson TV Dinner company. The firm was pharmaceutical outfit called Portage, and it was listed on NASDAQ. A firm named RSV swam up and bought the firm in the fall of 2025. The company was renamed, paperwork filed, and the AlphaTON Capital entity was in business and listed on the US NASDAQ. After some organizational shifting, the company has modified its original business plan; that was, acquire AI compute, let Telegram sell it, and get paid some money by Telegram.
Surprise, mom. Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough.
Now the company is in the “ecosystem” business with a focus on consumer online games. The Hackernoon article reports:
AlphaTON Capital Corp. (Nasdaq: ATON), a public technology company dedicated to scaling the Telegram super-app ecosystem, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 60% controlling interest in GAMEE, a leading mobile gaming platform and wholly owned subsidiary of Animoca Brands. Concurrently, AlphaTON and Animoca Brands have formalized a Strategic Alliance to pursue broader commercial opportunities across blockchain and social gaming.
If you are “into” the Telegram, TON Foundation, AlphaTON Capital ecosystem, you understand the references. For some people, a bit of deconstruction might be helpful; to wit:
- Telegram super-app ecosystem. This means creating software applications that run on the Telegram platform. The platform includes smart contracts, bots or software robots, advertising, and blockchain (the TONcoin crypto, bridging technology to move crypto across different blockchains, unique programming languages, hundreds of partners and thousands of developers)
- Animoca Brands. The company is well-known to the TON Foundation. The company is a partner and a developer and investor in crypto projects for the Telegram ecosystem. This is important because the AlphaTON Capital outfit is part of the Telegram ecosystem and as a new start up, AlphaTON Capital has no “ecosystem.”
- Social gaming. This is a term used to describe a wide range of online games running in the Messenger environment. Many games are gambling platforms. The goal is to attract people to a “harmless” game like Hamstr Kombat and then get the player comfortable with winning tokens and then converting them into TONcoin. For a 13 year old interested in getting something for nothing and beating other players to the top of the leader board, social gaming is the ideal gateway to gambling. (In my monograph, “The Telegram Labyrinth” I explain how the social games morphs into casino gambling run by international operators from locations with flexible regulations. To request a copy, write kentmaxwell at proton dot me.)
Armed with these contextual items, the AlphaTON Capital acquisition is either a diversification of the AI compute business model or it is a attempt to generate revenue from online games.
The Hackernoon story explains that Animoca can’t buy AlphaTON Capital for several years.
Several observations are warranted:
- The value of the TONcoin has dropped since AlphaTON Capital was conceived and rolled out in late 2025
- The ticker symbol for AlphaTON Capital is ATON. That is the name of a large Russian bank.
- The company has severed ties with an individual and a firm with expertise in generating a market for TONcoin and other crypto
- No references to Yuri Mitin, the principal figure at Red Shark Ventures aka RSV appear in the story. Red Shark was founded in Moscow and moved to Toronto, Ontario prior to the AlphaTON Capital shell flip. This linkage could be interesting to some investors.
- The shift from AI compute signals that AlphaTON Capital had to find another way to generate excitement, value, and revenue. Perhaps online gaming will succeed.
Net net: AlphaTON Capital is evolving. Another Telegram shell flip which took place a few months before the AlphaTON Capital play. TON Strategy Company faces similar headwinds. With Pavel Durov’s trial in France approach and the Kremlin’s steadily increased pressure on Telegram users in Russia to abandon the platform, the Telegram ecosystem may be facing significant financial challenges.
Stephen E Arnold, March 24, 2026
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