Welcome to another edition of TON Culture Kings, where we examine the weird and wonderful world of memecoins on TON Blockchain. Today, we’re excited to feature Povel Durev ($DUREV), a prominent player in the TON memescape. Taking a break from his ice bath routine, Durev himself joins us to share the story behind $DUREV, discussing both the fun and the challenges of leading a memecoin community.

This interview is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement, approval, or recommendation of the project. The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of TON Foundation. This is not investment advice.

TON Culture Kings: DUREV

Welcome to TON Culture Kings, Durev! It’s awesome to have you here, especially straight from a workout! Could you start by telling us about the moment of inspiration behind $DUREV? What made you think, “Yep, let’s make a memecoin about Durov”?

We have always admired Pavel Durov as an entrepreneur since the days of VKontakte, viewing him as one of the greatest of our time. We also actively traded memecoins on various blockchains, especially those in the Poorly Drawn style, like Boden and Tremp.

So, when we thought of creating a memecoin featuring Durov in this style, we knew it had to be on TON Blockchain. That’s when we came up with the idea for this memecoin. It all came together when we created images of Povel Durev—these instantly turned into top-tier memes.

The reaction was clear; everyone who saw them laughed and wanted to know where they could buy them. This enthusiastic response confirmed it was a project worth pursuing. We continue to enjoy every moment, whether we’re drawing new memes or discussing Povel Durev.

Pavel Durov has faced off with the SEC, the FSB, and a bunch of other 3-letter agencies I probably don’t know about. If $DUREV had to pick a digital rival, who would it be and why?

Generally, we avoid conflicts and don’t see other memecoin projects as competitors. Instead, we consider them partners. This is reflected in our approach of offering help, building friendships, and collaborating with various projects. Therefore, I don’t believe we have any digital rivals.

However, if forced to choose as our main adversary a three-letter agency or four-letter words, we would pick "Scam”! This is because we are the first memecoin launched by a publicly known team. We are committed to the highest levels of transparency in all our actions and regularly seek input from our community.

Our goal is to lead and raise the standards for memecoins. We want to avoid the pitfalls that occurred on Solana, where many projects ended up being scams and quick money-making schemes. We're here to build something lasting on TON and fight against short-sighted projects that, in my opinion, damage our industry.

Keeping your community pumped and engaged is key for any memecoin. What cool tricks are you using to keep your community excited and active with $DUREV? Will we be seeing any shirtless photo contests in the future?

I’ll start with the shirtless photo contests; it's a brilliant suggestion that we hadn’t considered before, so thank you for that, and we will definitely think about it. On a serious note about our community engagement, our primary strength lies in our absolute reliance on and accountability to our community—they effectively guide our decisions.

Firstly, we prioritize transparency. Everything we do is communicated to our community first, even before we inform external partners and influencers. Secondly, we frequently consult our community, ensuring they feel involved and integral to every aspect of the project. For example, after experiencing a setback during our initial launch, we sought advice from our community on how to proceed. Regular polls and active engagement are fundamental to our operations.

We also reward community members for their active participation and ideas. Our moderation team was recruited from within the community, showing that we value and reward their contributions.

Additionally, we host various contests to keep the community engaged. We recently held a meme contest and a short video contest, both of which were highly successful. The entries were outstanding, and we showcased these on our social media, rewarding the creators. We are about to launch a significant airdrop bonus campaign for our token holders and NFT owners. This involves completing tasks through our bot while holding our tokens or NFTs, with a substantial prize pool shared among participants.

Finally, simply by holding Durev tokens or our NFTs, community members gain access to exclusive opportunities. For example, we recently helped our friends at Shitcoin launch their token, and our Diamond Hands members received a portion of the Shitcoin supply for free. We plan more such benefits in the future.

Above all, keeping a community engaged and earning their loyalty means genuinely loving and respecting each member, creating enjoyable content, and addressing their needs. People recognize and respond to this genuine care with their support.

If Pavel Durov and Joe Biden were to have a meme-off, who would win and why?

I think in real life, Pavel Durov would never physically fight with an elderly gentleman like Joe Biden. However, in a meme battle, I believe Durov would definitely come out on top, despite Joe Biden being much more meme-worthy in real life and Pavel being quite serious.

In fact, one of our goals was to add some fun to Pavel’s image. He usually communicates in a very serious and thoughtful manner with a fairly intellectual audience. We wanted to create an alter ego for Pavel, one who could entertain and engage with the millions who prefer consuming information through memes rather than through educational posts.

Pavel advises against using social media, advocates running a thousand kilometers every day, and promotes a lifestyle free from drinking, smoking, or breaking personal promises. We completely agree that this is a great way to live but if we are aiming for TON mass adoption, we also need to communicate in a way that says, “Dude, you’re already cool. Just join us and enjoy the process,” appealing to people regardless of who they are, where they are, or how they live.

Has the $DUREV team gone full superhero reveal, or are they still rocking the secret identity vibe? In other words, are you guys doxxed?

Yes, our team is fully doxxed. The project was initiated by Ruslan Sokolovsky, a well-known figure in and out of the crypto world. Within the crypto community, he is recognized as the founder of the media outlet Prometheus and runs the channel “Sokolovsky in Chain.”

Outside the crypto sphere, he is almost universally known as the man who was imprisoned in Russia for playing Pokémon Go in a church—a case that involved charges of insulting religious believers’ feelings. Ruslan, much like Pavel Durov, is a staunch advocate for freedom of speech. He believes in the right to freely express opinions and to speak out wherever and whenever one chooses. His experiences have made him a symbol of these beliefs. In terms of values, we therefore feel a strong alignment with Pavel Durov and the ethos of Telegram and The Open Network.

Switching it up, how do you manage to keep things fun while tackling the everyday challenges of running a memecoin?

That’s a great question, as many people assume that running a memecoin is mostly about fun and games, perhaps involving just a few hours a day crafting memes. However, the reality is quite different—it’s a massive and complex operation for our team of 10+ people.

When the coin's value drops, the community can start to panic and make all sorts of baseless claims, which also adds to the challenge. Running a memecoin is not just about creating memes; it requires serious, hard work.

Our job involves continuously creating entertaining content, which is enjoyable but demanding. We also negotiate with partners, make agreements with various influencers, develop products that enhance the value of our token, and solve technical issues.

Fortunately, our team maintains a positive attitude, and we try to have fun with everything we do. This approach helps us blend the playful with the practical in our day-to-day operations.

The TON Ecosystem is getting more popular every day! How does $DUREV fit into this world, and what role do you see it playing in the TON’s future?

Indeed, TON Ecosystem is gaining popularity every day, and we are eager to contribute to this growth. It’s encouraging to note that about 50% of the participants in the $DUREV presale made our token their first purchase on the network. This trend shows that memecoins generally help blockchains become more popular.

The ecosystem recognizes the value of memecoins and supports them by rewarding traders with airdrops and similar incentives. Our role is to help popularize Pavel Durov as one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. Although he is well-known within the Russian-speaking community, many in the West, including daily users of Telegram, may not realize he is the founder or may not even know that TON exists.

Since TON has entered the top ten cryptocurrencies globally, it has attracted more attention. Memecoins often catch the eye of those new to the ecosystem. Being consistently in the top three, either by trending status or volume among all TON tokens, we hope to play a significant role in attracting new audiences and educating them about Pavel Durov and TON Ecosystem as a whole.

Memecoins often get some eyebrow raises because of their volatility. How is $DUREV proving the doubters wrong?

As the Durev team, our main goals are to ensure fun for the community, increase liquidity, and grow our holder base with engaging and cool memes. We focus on educating the community about the inherent volatility of the market, emphasizing that short-term fluctuations do not significantly impact our long-term trend.

The most important action we take to reduce volatility is increasing our liquidity. Currently, we have $1+ million dollars in liquidity. For those who provide liquidity, we offer additional token boosts on platforms like STON.fi and DeDust. There are also extra boosts in STON.fi and DeDust tokens for those providing liquidity in our pairs.

Despite experiencing dips and explosive growth, our volatility isn’t too high. These fluctuations are all within the general trend. Our team concentrates not on daily movements but on making Durev a prominent player in the market. We encourage more and more people to buy, hold, and use our token within our ecosystem.

What are some of the unforgettable moments or events that have happened in the $DUREV community since its start?

Our journey began with a memorable incident that many have heard about, but I’ll share it again for those who haven’t. During our launch, a misplaced comma by one of our developers led to a major error: our pre-sale contributors received ten times more tokens than they were supposed to. As a result, 7% of the presale participants ended up controlling 70% of the presale pool. This discrepancy caused some to start dumping their tokens, while others held onto theirs, triggering a major crisis within our team and community as we scrambled to find a solution.

With the help from our partners, we managed to recover our liquidity and relaunched the project a few days later. Initially, the relaunch seemed risky, but it ultimately united our community and showcased our team’s ability to resolve problems. We conducted a survey afterward, and more than half of the community members expressed greater confidence in our team following our handling of the issue. This unfortunate event even became a local meme about the comma, which we now often use in our community communications and memes.

Following this incident, our community became more cohesive and began to grow even faster in terms of membership. Since then, we haven’t faced such severe issues.

On a lighter note, when we launched our NFT collection during a market downturn, we were concerned about slow sales. However, the entire collection sold out in just three minutes, a fact we take great pride in. The floor price of our NFTs increased several-fold, and we are now planning a new collection for an even larger number of holders.

Looking into the future, can you tease any upcoming features, events, or big plans for $DUREV?

We have ambitious plans for expanding our community and the meme. Currently, we are working on getting our first listing on a Tier 3 CEX. We’re also looking forward to more exchanges supporting our token. Our ultimate goal is to secure listings on major Tier 2 and Tier 1 exchanges, and we are confident we’ll get there.

Additionally, we are launching an airdrop campaign; up until now, we have never conducted any airdrops or giveaways! This approach has helped us build a vibrant, organic community without any selling pressure from opportunists. Now, with increased confidence, we’re rolling out an exciting bonus campaign where participants can earn Durev tokens by engaging in various social actions and inviting friends. However, to receive the maximum rewards, one must be a holder of our token. This strategy ensures we focus on long-term results rather than short-term impacts. We're also planning to launch a new NFT collection by the way.

Following the successful launch of Durev, other projects have approached us seeking assistance with their own launches, recognizing our expertise. We realized the best way to support both our community and the broader ecosystem is to launch a memecoin launchpad. On this platform, people can gain allocations and airdrops by holding and staking Durev tokens. This venture is perhaps the most exciting project we’re working on. It’s poised to bring many new, exciting projects into the ecosystem, attract numerous new users, and reward the members of the Durev community.

For those dazzled by the idea of starting their own memecoin, what tips would you give?

That’s an excellent question and linked to the previous one. If you're considering launching a memecoin, I have several tips. First and foremost, always start with a funny meme. To seen day, every time we read “Povel Durev” and look at our pictures, we genuinely laugh. We’ve observed many memecoins launched around well-known personalities in TON Ecosystem, or based on mere words or events. Those aren’t funny; those aren’t true memes. A successful meme should be the quintessence of some cultural narrative–that’s the most crucial point. Everything starts from there.

Secondly, always begin with a community. If you don’t understand how to build a community, if you lack connections with influencers or media channels, or if you can’t make such people part of your team, then it’s better not to start a memecoin at all. The value of a memecoin comes from the community you build around it. Without a strong community, your memecoin is likely to fail to take off or won’t sustain over time.

Lastly, creating memecoins is a challenging and long-term game. If you are serious about entering this space, you should educate yourself about finance, understand how AMMs work, how market makers operate, and engage with people from the TON Ecosystem. Consider joining us or other memecoin projects to gain experience. Learn all the ins and outs, assemble a strong team, and then you will be well-positioned to succeed!

Lastly, I can neither confirm or deny that I’m in Durov’s DMs, but if $DUREV could send one meme to Pavel Durov, what would it be and why?

We have our own sticker pack, and I think almost every meme from it would resonate with Pavel Durov. However, I would send him this meme inspired by an interview with Tucker Carlson.