What is Toncoin (TON) ?

Toncoin (TON) is the native cryptocurrency of the Telegram Open Network (TON), a decentralized layer-one blockchain project. The Telegram Open Network was initially developed by the encrypted messaging platform Telegram in 2018 but was later abandoned and taken over by the TON Foundation, renaming it "The Open Network." The project focuses on speed, scalability, and efficiency, aiming to provide fast, high-throughput, and low-cost transactions.The TON blockchain utilizes a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, offering high scalability and security. The project's goal is to become the most user-friendly payment method, allowing users to directly send cryptocurrencies to others in chat rooms, providing fast, transparent, and secure payment services, and facilitating seamless transactions with minimal fees and third-party applications.TON also serves various purposes, including being a payment method in decentralized applications (DApps), integrating into various applications, and offering users efficient and swift solutions for storing, managing, and transferring funds.

History of Toncoin (TON)

Who Created TON?

TON was originally created by Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov, the founders of Telegram. Telegram is a popular instant messaging application, and they initially planned to use Gram as the native cryptocurrency in the Telegram Open Network (TON). However, due to regulatory issues, Telegram abandoned the project, and it was later taken over and continued to be developed by the independent community and the TON Foundation.

History

• In 2018, Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov, the founders of Telegram, introduced the concept of Telegram Open Network (TON). The initial token was called Gram. They released the whitepaper and a "lightweight whitepaper" for TON and planned for a public sale in the United States.

• In April 2018, through private sales, TON raised up to $1.7 billion, becoming the second largest token sale in history.

• In March 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) classified Gram tokens as securities and accused Telegram of distributing securities without registration. This resulted in Telegram being fined $18.5 million and ordered to return $1.2 billion to investors.

• In May 2020, Telegram abandoned the TON project and a small team of open-source developers called NewTON took over its development, using the project's open-source code on GitHub.

• In May 2021, a successful vote was conducted to rename the Newton community as The Open Network (TON) Foundation.

• In 2023, TON was listed on multiple mainstream exchanges, increasing the accessibility and liquidity of the cryptocurrency. Additionally, there are already over 7,400 wallets holding TON coins.

How Does Toncoin (TON) Work？

Consensus Mechanism

As the a blockchain to integrate two consensus algorithms, the TON blockchain currently operates on a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, featuring speed and low-cost characteristics. Anyone can become a validator or join the validator pool, thereby aiding in securing the network and earning TON coins. The initial token distribution of TON is achieved through decentralized mining, with mining conditions being uniform for all participants. This approach is officially referred to as "Initial Proof of Work" (IPoW), bringing about several advantages. Many solutions and features have been developed on TON, one of which is IPoW.

Blockchain Technology

• The TON blockchain employs asynchronous smart contract invocation to enhance scalability but increases the development threshold.
• Designed as an infinitely sharded blockchain, including the main chain, work chain, and shard chains, TON aims to achieve a future target of millions of transactions per second (TPS).
• TON utilizes a distributed hash table for data storage, enhancing performance and reliability.
• TON Proxy is used to conceal node IP addresses, protecting user privacy. The Secret Chats feature offers end-to-end encrypted communication.
• TON introduces an anonymous number registration and a peer-to-peer file-sharing system called TON Storage, further enhancing privacy protection and data storage capabilities.
• TON employs its own programming languages, Func and TACT, to reduce development complexity.

Governance

TON holders can participate in network governance, voting on any proposed changes to the blockchain or ecosystem, ensuring equal opportunities for all users to express their opinions.

Validators and Nominators

Validators earn interest by verifying transactions, while nominators lend assets to validators to receive rewards. These mechanisms help protect the network from potential hacking attacks and ensure that tokens are used only for validation and fairly distributed rewards.

Network Development

Since 2020, TON's technology has been evolving, thanks to a non-commercial supporter group and an independent enthusiast community calling themselves the TON Foundation. After the initial token distribution, TON entered a new phase, increasing the number of validators and tokens participating in validation, thereby enhancing network stability and security.

What is Ton Staking?

TON staking refers to the process of participating in the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism of the TON (The Open Network) blockchain. Staking involves holding a certain amount of TON tokens in a digital wallet to support the network's operations and security. Here are some key points about TON staking:

1. Validator Participation: Validators play a crucial role in maintaining the security and stability of the TON network. Anyone can become a validator or join a validators pool to contribute to network security. Validators are responsible for validating transactions and creating new blocks on the blockchain.
2. Staking Incentives: TON blockchain offers staking incentives to encourage participation in the network's maintenance. Validators and participants receive rewards in the form of TON tokens for their contribution to securing the network. The rewards are distributed based on the amount of TON tokens staked and the level of participation in the consensus mechanism.
3. Liquid Staking: There are references to "liquid staking" on the TON blockchain, which involves staking native TON tokens and receiving stTON tokens in return. These stTON tokens can be freely used in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, providing flexibility and liquidity to stakers.
4. Network Security: Staking TON tokens contributes to the security and stability of the TON network. The PoS consensus algorithm ensures that the network's security and stability are maintained by validators, and staking TON tokens is a way to actively participate in this process.

Tokenomics

Token Utility

TON coins are the native tokens of the TON network and serve multiple purposes, including being used as a payment method in DApps, paying transaction fees, staking for proof-of-stake to maintain blockchain operations, participating in voting resolutions to determine network development directions, and facilitating settlements.

Token Distribution

The total supply of TON coins is 5 billion, and starting from June 2020, all tradable TON coins (98.55% of the total supply, with the team holding 1.45% of the tokens) became available for mining. These tokens are placed in a special Giver smart contract, allowing anyone to participate in mining. Users mine approximately 200,000 TON coins daily until June 28, 2022, when the last TON coin is mined, concluding the initial allocation of TON coins. The end result is that all tokens are distributed to thousands of miners.

Token Inflation

TON incentivizes validators to continue participating in network validation and enhances network security and stability through inflation. Approximately 0.6% of the total supply of TON coins is created each year through inflation.

Why Is Toncoin (TON) Valuable?

TON is a multi-layered architecture built on the principles of sharding or partitioning, often referred to as the "blockchain within a blockchain." The sharding functionality involves the use of multiple subnets (or shards) on the same blockchain, each with a specific purpose. This approach helps prevent the accumulation of unverified blocks, speeding up task execution. The TON network comprises the main chain, work chain, and shard chains. Developers of TON focus on scalability, efficiency, and widespread adoption.Through robust communication between different segments, the network achieves exceptionally fast transaction speeds and verification times, resulting in a very high TPS (transactions per second). The TON network provides the following services:1.Two Types of TON Wallets: Delegated and non-delegated wallets for fund transfers and interaction with platform services.2.TON Services: Developers can create various DApps, and users can access third-party applications through a user-friendly interface.3.YON Storage: Utilizes the user wallet's private key for privacy encryption, allowing users to access the TON blockchain through a decentralized VPN.4.TON Proxy: Encompasses all platform components, enabling traditional websites to operate within the TON network. This ensures users can use short, readable domain names through TON DNS (decentralized domain name system).

Highlights

Cooperation with Tencent, Planning to Build a "Super App Ecosystem" Similar to WeChatOn September 27, 2023, Telegram and the TON Foundation initiated a collaboration with Tencent, aiming to transform Telegram into a "super app ecosystem" similar to WeChat. This collaboration envisions allowing third-party developers and businesses, spanning from games to restaurants, to develop mini-programs and interact with users.Currently the Fastest and Most Scalable Blockchain PlatformOn November 6, 2023, according to an announcement from the TON Foundation, in recent public performance tests, the TON blockchain achieved a processing speed of 104,715 transactions per second, making it the fastest and most scalable blockchain platform known to date. The test was conducted under the supervision of the independent auditing organization Certik and was showcased to the public through a live broadcast.