The Open Network project found itself on a new wave of popularity after the launch of a wallet on Telegram. However, the project’s long and difficult path to success is often overlooked.
Since 2020, a fully decentralized Layer 1 blockchain has been developing thanks to a non-profit group of supporters and an independent community of enthusiasts who called themselves the TON Foundation.
History of TON
The Open Network was created by the Telegram team, and the Gram coin was to become the native token.
In 2018, the team began collecting applications for participation in the ICO quite successfully. In the first round alone, the ICO volume reached almost $3 billion. The following year, the TON testnet, a network browser, was launched, and the code for a full node appeared. The launch of the main network was planned no later than November 2019.
And it would have happened if the U.S. Securities Commission (SEC) had not intervened. Since investors from the United States took part in the project, the ICO was carried out under American law. The regulator found violations in the token sale. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, announced the closure of the project and did not challenge the injunction.
TON’s vision
The original idea was to integrate TON into an easy-to-use application allowing users to buy, send, and store assets. Customers pay transaction fees and use TON to settle or confirm transactions.
“A decentralized and open internet, created by the community using a technology designed by Telegram.”
TON website
According to the project’s website, the platform provides its customers with fast, transparent, and secure payment services, facilitating transactions with minimal fees and third-party applications.
The developers’ mission is to create a full-fledged ecosystem with decentralized storage, decentralized services, a domain name system (similar to DNS), an anonymous network, an instant payment platform and transaction processing.
Ecosystem of TON
The ecosystem of the TON crypto project consists of four main elements:
- Blockchain of the layer 1. The main component that unites the entire project ecosystem.
- TON DNS domain name system.
- TON storage system.
- TON websites.
The Open Network also has a native token, Toncoin (TON). Cryptocurrency serves as a connecting link in the project ecosystem. With its help, you can pay commissions and make transactions, as well as earn money from staking.
There are several sections available to users on the TON website. These include cryptocurrency wallets that support TON, services to sell or buy Toncoin, a staking section, and setting up payments in TON.
The project also provides an application explorer, a bridge for translation between The Open Network and .ton domain registration. The TON statistics browser is also available in the Learn section on the project’s official website.
Finance
The total value locked (TVL) in the system, according to DeFi Lama, leaves much to be desired, and there are almost no dapps. The NFT segment is very poorly developed on this blockchain, and the audience is made up of people under 21 years of age (low ability to pay), which results in an effect that is popularly called Russian Flippers.
At the time of writing, TON ranks 10th in the CoinMarketCap rating by marketcap. The popularity of the coin is largely due to the launch of a wallet in Telegram.
Telegram connections
The Open Network is a descendant of the Telegram crypto project, which the messenger team was never able to launch due to regulatory pressure. Since the developments were in the public domain, several development groups took them as the basis for their own projects. This is also what The Open Network team did.
The Telegram team supports The Open Network. For example, the messenger used the TON blockchain to launch its short domain name service.
Initially, the crypto wallet function became available to Telegram users back in January 2022, but only users of the bot of the same name could try it.
In 2022, Telegram users were also able to sell user names and identifiers on the Fragment auction platform based on the TON blockchain technology. In total, digital assets worth $120 million were sold at auction, and the value of some of them, for example, anonymous Telegram numbers, increased 27 times in nine months.
WeChat competitor?
The platform supports payment in Toncoin, and recently a cryptocurrency wallet was launched in the messenger.
The crypto wallet is built into the messenger as a mini-application. Users can access it through the @wallet bot. Using the service, you can buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrency, and send it to contacts in the messenger. In turn, the service promises to handle user data with care.
After the latest update, Telegram has every chance to become a serious competitor to the Chinese messenger WeChat, in which users already have the opportunity not only to communicate but also to successfully make payments.
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