The Open Network (TON) is a decentralized and open internet platform composed of several components: the TON Blockchain, TON DNS, TON Storage, and TON Websites. The TON Blockchain is the core protocol that connects the underlying infrastructure of TON, forming the larger TON ecosystem.
TON aims to achieve broad cross-chain interoperability while operating within a highly scalable and secure framework. Designed to handle millions of transactions per second (TPS), its goal is to ultimately reach the adoption of hundreds of millions of users.
The TON Blockchain is conceived as a distributed supercomputer or "super server," intended to provide various products and services to support the development of a decentralized vision for the new internet.
What is The Open Network?
The Open Network (TON) is a blockchain project created by Telegram. Initially known as Telegram Open Network (TON), it aims to build a distributed, high-performance blockchain platform that supports decentralized applications and digital assets.
TON consists of a masterchain and multiple workchains, each of which can be further divided into multiple shardchains. Validators must use advanced hardware similar to that used by Solana and Aptos blockchains.
Theoretically, the TON system can accommodate up to 2^32 workchains, each subdivided into up to 2^60 shardchains, with nearly instantaneous cross-shard and cross-chain communication, enabling millions of transactions per second.
TON Development History
- 2017: Project Launch - Telegram founders Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov began developing the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project, planning to introduce its native cryptocurrency, Gram.
- 2018: Initial Coin Offering (ICO) - Telegram raised approximately $1.7 billion through an ICO, becoming one of the largest token offerings at the time. The ICO attracted the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- 2019: Development Progress - The TON blockchain introduced sharding technology to improve scalability and transaction speed, and released a testnet for developers.
- 2020: Regulatory Issues and Project Shift - Telegram withdrew from the TON project, transferring development to an independent open-source developer community. The project was renamed "The Open Network," and the token name changed to Toncoin. ICO funds were refunded.
- 2021: Community Takeover and Development - The TON Foundation, founded by Anatoliy Makosov and Kirill Emelianenko, took over the project, continuing its development and promotion.
- 2023: Return to Telegram - Telegram announced that the TON blockchain would be its preferred Web3 infrastructure and planned to integrate it into the Telegram app's user interface. Telegram also announced an IPO plan.
- 2024: Ecosystem Expansion - The TON blockchain ecosystem expanded to include financial services, storage, payments, and domain names. Projects like PunkCity, PUNK, and HyperGPT gained market attention. In February, Telegram announced exclusive use of the TON blockchain and Toncoin for all transactions and payments with channel owners.
TON Project Background
Telegram founded the Telegram Open Network project in 2018, raising $1.7 billion through an ICO. However, in 2019, the SEC accused Telegram of illegal fundraising, leading founder Pavel Durov to end Telegram's involvement in blockchain development in May 2020 and start refunding early investors.
After Telegram abandoned the project, it was taken over by the developer community and renamed The Open Network, with the token TON. Telegram's founder publicly expressed support for the TON project.
In April 2022, the TON Foundation announced the creation of a $250 million ecosystem fund, TONcoin Fund, supported by exchanges and institutions like Huobi, KuCoin, MEXC, 3Commas Capital, and TON Miners. The fund aims to finance projects based on TON through fundraising, incubation, hackathons, educational programs, and grants.
In June 2023, DWF Labs joined the $25 million TON Accelerator Program, contributing to the token economics, market making, and liquidity of the TON ecosystem. DWF Labs' support includes investment and other ecosystem services.
Development Languages
TON smart contract development does not use popular languages like Solidity, Rust, or Vyper but instead employs three programming languages: Fift, FunC, and Tact. Fift is geared towards low-level development with a focus on runtime efficiency, making it difficult to develop. Tact is a newly introduced high-level language for TON, similar to TypeScript, designed to reduce development complexity. FunC, resembling the C language, is currently the preferred choice for development. Given Tact's efficiency, mainstream developers may shift towards using Tact in the future.
Technical Advantages
Asynchronous Smart Contract Calls: Unlike Ethereum and other public chains, TON uses asynchronous calls for smart contracts, enhancing system scalability. When a smart contract calls another contract's function, the call is not executed immediately and does not need to complete all transaction processing within a single block. However, this asynchronous call mechanism also increases the complexity of developing and maintaining applications, posing higher technical challenges for developers on the TON chain.
Infinite Sharding: TON blockchain is designed with three types of chains: the Masterchain, Workingchains, and Shardchains.
Token Economics
$Toncoin is akin to a native token on Telegram, offering discounts for Telegram Premium subscriptions and other virtual products. On the TON chain, $Toncoin can be used for transaction fees, staking, cross-chain transactions, decentralized data storage, proxy services, and more.
$Toncoin has a maximum supply of 5 billion tokens. As of June 28, 2022, all $Toncoin had been mined, marking TON's full transition from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) model to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model. Annual inflation of $Toncoin is 0.6% (approximately 3 million tokens), used to reward validators who maintain network security.
Initially, 1.45% of the 5 billion $Toncoin tokens were allocated to the team, with 98.55% obtained through mining. In February 2023, TON community proposed freezing 171 inactive early wallets for 48 months, totaling 1.08 billion $Toncoin (about 21% of the total supply), reflecting the community's confidence in TON's development.
Popular Ecosystem
Telegram Bot: Telegram Bot operates on Telegram, enhancing community building, asset management, information aggregation, and project promotion. Telegram Bot is versatile and easy to develop, supported by comprehensive documentation and API technology. With clear functional requirements, developers can build their bots using languages like Python and Node.js, supported by cloud servers. Additionally, numerous open-source Telegram Bots on GitHub provide opportunities for those with no coding experience.
Key Projects: BANANA, UNIBOT
Telegram Wallet: Telegram Wallet, based on the Telegram platform, is highly convenient for the public. It uses Neocrypto to enable users in over 100 countries to purchase cryptocurrencies with Visa and Mastercard, partnering with platforms like MoonPay, Onramp.money, and AlchemyPay to build efficient P2P Market channels. Telegram also collaborates with Tether to establish USDT-TON exchange terms, enhancing liquidity for $TON. Before the integration of the USDT-TON exchange, the TON network's TVL exceeded $100 million.
Telegram Games
- Notcoin: Notcoin is a free and easy-to-use Telegram game that has seen a surge in popularity since its launch on January 1, 2024, with over 30 million participants and 5 million daily active users. Its viral spread has garnered a large user base, laying the foundation for its ICO on major exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Bybit. Notcoin has remained strong in the market post-listing.
- Catizen: Catizen is a TON ecosystem cat game combining metaverse, GameFi, and AI. It introduces a revolutionary play-to-airdrop model, allowing players to earn future airdrops while playing. Backed by the TON official, Catizen became a Showcase project at TON's Token2049. As of May 30, 2024, Catizen's $wCATI token mining has ended, but the game remains highly popular, with ongoing development plans.
- Hamster Kombat: Hamster Kombat is a Telegram-based mini-game where players act as exchange CEOs, earning coins by clicking on hamster images. The game also features a card mining mechanism, allowing players to strategize and increase fixed point income.
- Pixelverse: Pixelverse is a cyberpunk-themed game ecosystem and entertainment company. The project secured $5.5 million in funding on June 12, 2022, from prominent investors like Delphi Ventures, Merit Circle, Mechanism Capital, and Foresight Ventures. Pixelverse currently boasts over 15 million registered users and more than 5 million daily active users.
Conclusion
TON, as an innovative and rapidly developing blockchain project, shows immense potential. However, it faces challenges in ecosystem diversity, user experience, cross-chain interoperability, and compliance. Despite these challenges, TON has demonstrated strong adaptability and continuous innovation.
While TON has taken active measures for compliance, the highly encrypted and anonymous nature of the Telegram platform attracts illegal activities. Combined with the privacy and unbanked financial nature of blockchain, it remains a potential haven for illicit activities. Though KYC is required for wallet withdrawals on the TON chain, providing only an ID does not fully prevent illegal activities.
Future regulatory challenges remain severe. TON must continuously monitor and adapt to the evolving global regulatory environment to avoid the risk of shutdown. As the ecosystem prospers, it will face increasing regulatory risks, with all projects needing to address technical security, user privacy protection, and compatibility with traditional financial systems.
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