Whitepaper · Last changed 4 Nov 2026

Games on Telegram, built to give back.

Poker, table games and free giveaways in one Mini App. Free to start, and most of what players spend comes back to them.

Download the PDF Open Medal on Telegram

Medal is a Telegram Mini App where paid play in GRAM and Telegram gifts funds free prize pools and $MEDAL token burns. The house keeps a published slice to run the business. Everything else is designed to go back to players.

Designer graphic Hero illustration: a stylised Medal shield at the centre with three orbiting icons (poker chip, gift box, game controller). Paid play flows in on one side, free prizes and burned tokens flow out the other. Dark navy background, blue accent, no text.

One app, one rule

A gaming app inside Telegram. Poker, free giveaways and short games. No download, no sign-up form.

Play for free with Medal chips, or for real value with GRAM (the main coin of The Open Network) and Telegram gifts. One rule sits underneath everything: the house earns enough to run the business, and the rest goes back to the people playing.

What makes Medal different

Built to need volume, not losses

Fees and edges are published. After the token launches, 90 to 95 percent of revenue goes back out as free prize pools and $MEDAL burns.

Nothing hidden

Table games sit on their own tab, labelled as house-edge games. Every cut Medal takes is stated in the app.

Players own it

$MEDAL is the only ownership asset. Holding it means holding a share of the platform. Playing shrinks the supply.

Two things to keep straight. Medal chips are free play points, not the token. And the 90 to 95 percent return begins when $MEDAL is listed. During closed beta, revenue funds the build.

The house shouldn't need you to lose

In most online gaming businesses, the operator earns more when the player loses more.

Online gambling sites

The edge is the business. Bonuses keep you playing. "VIP" finds the biggest losers.

Telegram raffle bots

Free-looking prizes, hidden odds, farmed entries, and payouts nobody can verify.

Poker rooms

High rake drives out the skilled players who make the game worth joining. Anonymous tables invite collusion.

The shared failure. The house needs players to lose. Medal is built to need volume instead.

Suggestion, for feedback

Market opportunity

A short section with sourced numbers could sit here: online poker market size, Telegram monthly users and Mini App growth, TON ecosystem activity. Every figure would carry a source and estimates would be marked. Recommended once public launch timing is clearer so the figures are fresh when readers see them.

Q11Include market sizing now, or hold it for the next version?

Designer graphic Side by side comparison: "Traditional operator" (money flows one way, into the house) versus "Medal" (money flows through the house and back out to players as prizes and burns). Simple arrows, two panels.

Follow the money

Four steps, repeated.

STEP 01

Play

Users play for free with Medal chips, or for real value with GRAM and Telegram gifts.

STEP 02

Take a cut

The app takes a published fee, rejoin payment, or declared house edge.

STEP 03

Return most

Most of that revenue funds free prize pools and buys $MEDAL to burn.

STEP 04

Keep a slice

5 to 10 percent pays for the team, security and infrastructure.

Free players fill the tables. Paid players bring the value. Medal takes a visible cut and, after listing, sends most of it back as prizes and burns. Holders own the system. Supply shrinks as people play.

Timing. The 90 to 95 percent return switches on after $MEDAL is listed. Until then, revenue funds the product.

Three ways to play, one economy

One Mini App. Three modules. One economy.

Poker

Heads-up and ring tables. One tap to play. Free or paid.

Flagship

Giveaways

Real prizes locked in escrow. Free to enter. Elimination rounds.

Growth engine

Table games and PvP

Blackjack, roulette, Mayhem, Durak and duels. Labelled, fee-based.

Variety

Poker

Press play, get paired by skill rating, cards are dealt. Under ten seconds.
A game runs 5 to 12 minutes with enough chips and clock for real decisions after the flop.
Winners earn Medal chips and climb daily leaderboards. Paid tables use GRAM or Telegram gifts at posted stakes.

Designer graphic Phone mockup of the free poker lobby inside Telegram: one large "Quick Play" button, a small Elo rating badge, and a daily leaderboard preview. Actual in-app screenshot preferred.

Giveaways

The prize is locked away when the event is created, so it is guaranteed to pay out.
Entry is free. Players are eliminated round by round until one winner remains.
Eliminated players can buy a rejoin or a shield in GRAM during a short window. These restore a seat and never change anyone else's odds.
This is where most new users come from.

Table games and short games

Blackjack is house-banked. Roulette sits beside it. Both are labelled as house-edge games.
Medal Mayhem, Durak and head-to-head duels are player versus player. Medal takes a small fee and nothing else.
Free versions of every game. Paid versions settle in GRAM and Telegram gifts through the live gift relayer.

Who comes first

Order	Audience	Why
1	Telegram-native users	Already in the app, already hold GRAM and gifts.
2	Giveaway and free users	Free entry is the cheapest first session there is.
3	Poker regulars	Highest value per user. They arrive once the tables are full.

What you play with

Four assets, each with one job.

Medal chips

Free play points earned in the app. Off-chain, not withdrawable, not the token.

Free play

GRAM

The native coin of The Open Network (formerly Toncoin). Paid stakes, rejoins, shields, table game bets.

Paid play

Telegram gifts

Collectible Telegram items with real value. Accepted as a stake, same as GRAM.

Paid play

$MEDAL

The on-chain token. Ownership, burns, discounts, store items. Not yet live.

Ownership

A move from Medal chips toward $MEDAL is planned. The rate will be set to keep the economy healthy. Not one to one by default, and no fixed date.

Designer graphic Four icon tiles in a row: a chip, the GRAM coin, a Telegram gift box, and the $MEDAL token. Each with a one-word label underneath (Free, Paid, Paid, Ownership).

Proposed new section, for feedback

Fairness and game integrity

Investors and serious poker players will look for this before anything else. It should cover: how the deck is shuffled, bot detection, collusion detection, real-time-assistance (solver) detection, and whether an outside audit is planned. Nothing is written yet because the facts are needed first.

Q1How are cards shuffled today? Plain server-side random number generator, or any commit-reveal / verifiable randomness that a player could check afterwards?
Q2What anti-bot and anti-collusion checks exist right now in the admin tools (IP, device, timing, hand history review)?
Q3Is a third-party fairness audit or RNG certification planned, and roughly when?

Proposed new section, for feedback

Technology and architecture

A short, non-technical explanation of how the app is built and how player money is held and settled. Suggested contents: Telegram Mini App client, AWS backend and ledger, how GRAM and gifts move in and out, settlement speed, and security practices.

Q4Is player money held in Medal-controlled wallets (custodial), or does it stay in the player's own wallet via TON Connect until a hand or event settles?
Q5Are stakes and payouts recorded on-chain, or in the off-chain ledger with on-chain deposits and withdrawals only?
Q6Typical withdrawal time today, and whether any security review or penetration test has been done or is planned.

$MEDAL: one token, one class of ownership

$MEDAL is the share. Founders and early backers hold it first, the public after listing. There is no second class of ownership.

What the token does

Ownership

Holding $MEDAL is holding a share of the platform.

Burn sink

A budgeted share of paid revenue is used to buy and permanently remove tokens from supply.

Fee discounts

Lower fees for holders anywhere this can be built without touching game outcomes.

Store exclusives

After public launch: table themes, sounds, colours and cosmetics. NFTs are a later idea, not a launch promise.

The token never changes the cards you are dealt or the odds you face.

Token supply and allocation

Total supply is fixed at 1,000,000,000 $MEDAL. No new tokens can ever be created.

60% Public launch and liquidity pool 600,000,000

25% Team and insiders (locked) 250,000,000

15% Marketing and giveaways 150,000,000

Bucket	Share	Tokens	Purpose
Public launch + LP	60%	600,000,000	Day-one public float plus liquidity locked on the exchange so the token can be traded safely.
Team / insiders	25%	250,000,000	Founders, builders, reserved tokens and future investors. Locked and released over time.
Marketing / giveaways	15%	150,000,000	Prizes and distribution after listing, held in a multi-signature wallet. Used only for prizes or burns.

Planning targets, not promises: a listing price around $0.10 and roughly $1M of liquidity locked for about 36 months. Exact lock-ups and release schedules for the team are set in the fundraising documents, not in this paper.

After listing, 90 to 95 percent goes back

Four sources in. Most of it back out.

Poker and PvP fees

A small cut on each pot or match.

Table games edge

A declared house edge on blackjack and roulette.

Rejoins and shields

Optional GRAM purchases inside giveaways.

Relay fees

Small withdrawal and relay fees where they apply.

The split once $MEDAL is live

90 to 95% returned

5 to 10%

Returned to players as free prize pools and $MEDAL burns

Kept for product, security and infrastructure

Today. Closed beta revenue and founder capital fund the build. The split switches on at listing.

Already live: 111 beta users, $1,747 in 30 days

Closed beta opened in August 2026. Public launch next, token after that.

Live now

Ring poker and heads-up poker
Blackjack (house-banked) and roulette
Medal Mayhem, Durak and duels
Gift relayer for Telegram gifts
Giveaways and events with rejoins and shields

Not live yet

Public Mini App (open access)
$MEDAL token listing
Locked liquidity pool
Cosmetics store

Closed beta numbers

The headline figure is approved access users. The wider counts include sign-ups that never joined the live group.

111Approved access usersThe closed beta group.

$1,747Revenue, 30 daysBlackjack, game fees and rejoins.

914Active accounts, 30 daysAny ledger activity. Secondary figure.

2,174Total accountsIncludes incomplete and non-access sign-ups.

Revenue source (same 30 days)	Amount	Note
Blackjack	$1,214	House-edge game. Currently carries most of the cash.
Game fees	$525	Ring poker, Mayhem, Durak and duels.
Giveaway rejoins and shields	$95	Early, before the giveaway engine is pushed publicly.

House-edge games carry the revenue today. Poker and giveaways are expected to take over as the user base grows.

Designer graphic Simple horizontal bar chart of the three revenue sources above, blue bars on navy, with the dollar figures labelled. Optional: a second small chart showing the three user counts (111, 914, 2,174) as nested circles.

Three people, shipping a live product

Three people. In-house build.

Slim

Lead founder. Product, direction, and the capital already invested.

Founder

Ben

Backend and AWS. The ledger, infrastructure, live admin tools and game logic.

Backend

Rayman

App. The Telegram Mini App client that players use every day.

App

Team and insider tokens are the 25 percent bucket described above. Individual percentages are not published in this document.

Designer graphic Three matching avatar tiles (illustrated, not photos) in the brand style. Owners wish to stay private, so no real faces.

From closed beta to listing

Public app first. Token second.

Now

Closed beta

Harden poker, giveaways, the table games tab and gifts. Grow the approved group without opening the door to bots.

Public Mini App

Open Telegram access to everyone. Launch the cosmetics store once the public app is stable.

Then

$MEDAL and locked LP

List the token once real usage exists. Lock liquidity. Switch on the published return split.

After

Expansion

Tournaments, creator-hosted giveaways, the chip to token transition if the numbers support it, more cosmetics, and later NFTs.

Suggestion, for feedback

Dated roadmap

Readers trust dates more than "Next" and "Then". Earlier plans slipped, so only commit to dates the team is confident in.

Q12Target quarter for public Mini App launch, and for the $MEDAL listing? If unknown, the undated version stays.

Risks and how we handle them

Every serious plan has them. These are ours.

Risk	What we do about it
Return loop underfunded	The 90 to 95 percent split is published and adjusted in public if revenue cannot cover prizes and operations.
Token price	$0.10 is a planning figure. Liquidity is locked for about 36 months to reduce swings. The market sets the price.
Telegram and TON dependence	The app also runs in a web browser at medal.app. Settlement assets can be widened over time.
Regulation	Paid play is limited by region where rules require. See the compliance section below.
Small team	Three people shipping a live product keeps costs low. The raise funds runway and hires.
Bots and abuse	Anti-abuse controls are tuned per prize value, and the beta grows by approval rather than open floodgates.

Proposed new section, for feedback

Compliance and responsible gaming

This must be written accurately. Do not claim a licence that is not held. Suggested contents: current licensing status and plan, countries where real-value play is blocked, age verification, KYC/AML approach, and player protection tools (deposit limits, time limits, self-exclusion). A plain statement of intent here does more for trust than silence.

Q7Confirm current status: no gaming licence held. Is a licence being pursued, and if so which (Anjouan, Curaçao, other) and on what timeline?
Q8Which countries are, or will be, geo-blocked for paid play?
Q9Do self-exclusion, deposit limits or session limits exist in the app today? If not, should the paper commit to them before public launch?
Q10Any KYC at all today (age check at minimum), or is it Telegram identity only?

Glossary

Terms used in this document.

Telegram Mini App: A small app that runs inside the Telegram messenger. No download from an app store is needed.
TON: The Open Network, the blockchain connected to Telegram.
GRAM: The main coin of TON, formerly called Toncoin. Used for paid play in Medal.
Telegram gifts: Collectible items inside Telegram that have real value and can be traded. Medal accepts them as a stake.
Token burn: Permanently removing tokens from circulation. Fewer tokens exist afterwards, so each remaining token represents a larger share.
Liquidity pool (LP): A reserve of tokens and coins placed on an exchange so people can buy and sell smoothly. "Locked" means the reserve cannot be withdrawn for a set period.
House edge: The built-in advantage the house has in a game such as blackjack or roulette. Medal states it openly.
Rake: The small fee a poker room takes from each pot.
Heads-up: Poker played one against one.
Escrow: Holding a prize in a locked account until the event finishes, so it is guaranteed to be paid out.
Rejoin and shield: Optional paid items in giveaways. A rejoin puts an eliminated player back in. A shield protects a player from one elimination.
Vesting: Releasing team or investor tokens gradually over time instead of all at once.
Multi-signature wallet: A wallet that needs more than one person to approve any transaction. Used for the marketing and prize tokens.

The case for Medal

Medal keeps a published slice. The rest is designed to come back as free prizes and a shrinking token supply. If that loop works after listing, $MEDAL is a share in a system that becomes more scarce the more people play. If it does not, this paper was wrong and the token should be judged on that basis.

Ship the public app. Keep the beta group honest. Then list.