The Open Network, also known as TON, is a scalable multi-blockchain network that can process millions of transactions per second. Toncoin (TON) is the name and ticker symbol of The Open Network's native utility and governance token.
Existing blockchains lack scalability and user-friendly interfaces. Moreover, blockchains cannot communicate with each other directly. The Open Network aims to solve these problems using its multi-blockchain architecture.
The TON blockchain is a collection of blockchains that consists of a masterchain, up to 232 workchains, and up to 260 shardchains. TON's masterchain is the principal blockchain with all the information about the protocol and the current parameters. On the other hand, workchains are blockchains that handle smart contract transactions. These workchains are further subdivided into shards.
Through these shards, TON transfers messages instantly between any two blockchains, regardless of the network size, achieving massive scalability at speed. Furthermore, to combat security issues and maintain decentralization, TON uses Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus and allows validators to add new blocks on top of any invalidated block to avoid unnecessary forks.
The TON ecosystem consists of blockchain products such as decentralized storage, a blockchain naming system, a micropayment platform, and other decentralized services. TONCOIN has several use cases in this ecosystem, such as earning validator and liquidity farming rewards, voting for protocol proposals, and paying for TON products.
TON price and tokenomics
Toncoin (TON) has a total supply of 5 billion. Of the total supply, 1.45 percent was distributed between testers and developers. The remaining 98.55 percent was transferred to Proof of Work (PoW) Giver smart contracts.
New Toncoin tokens are generated during block validation. As a result, Toncoin is inflationary, impacting its price in the long run. The annual inflation rate is 0.6 percent, calculated according to payments made by the TON community to the validators.
TON: How is it different from Toncoin?
Toncoin, with the ticker TON, is the cryptocurrency that powers the TON ecosystem, short for The Open Network. The Open Network, or TON, refers to the underlying blockchain infrastructure and network. On the other hand, Toncoin (TON) is the native currency for transactions, staking, and governance within the same ecosystem.
About the founders
The Open Network (TON) was initially launched as Telegram Open Network by Telegram founders Pavel and Nikolai Durov in 2019. Unfortunately, the founders had to close Telegram Open Network due to regulatory pressure from the SEC, a US regulatory body.
Independent developers Anatoliy Makosov and Kirill Emelyanenko created The Open Network after Telegram stepped away from the project.
The decentralized community now consists of over 40 independent developers who work on the project as a part of TON Foundation, a not-for-profit community funded by donations.
The project is currently independent of Telegram. The Telegram team has transferred the ton.org domain and the Github repository to TON's blockchain developers. On top of that, Telegram founder Pavel Durov endorsed The Open Network in his official Telegram post, dated December 23, 2021.