Relying on global Web2 communication giants allows one to rest easy in the Web3 world, but reality is far more brutal than imagined
Author: DeMan
On February 28, Telegram announced that it would use the TON blockchain to process payments and withdrawals for advertising revenue, significantly boosting TON's market value. The price of TON surged from $2.15 to a high of $2.71, an increase of 26%.
The following will introduce the TON project.
Highly Valued Privacy and Security, TPS Can Reach Millions: TON's Technical Performance Has Many Highlights
As a public chain project launched by Telegram, TON has multiple technical highlights.
- Technical Features and Asynchronous Smart Contracts:
Unlike traditional blockchains like Ethereum, TON's smart contract calls use an asynchronous model. This design greatly enhances the system's scalability, as it allows smart contracts to execute asynchronously at different points in time, rather than requiring all transactions to be completed within the same block. Although this increases the complexity of developing and maintaining applications, it also enables efficient processing of massive transactions.
- Implementation of Infinite Sharding:
TON achieves an infinite sharding paradigm through a unique sharding mechanism—divided into the main chain, work chains, and shard chains—greatly enhancing the network's processing capacity. Each work chain can be further subdivided into countless shard chains as needed, with each shard chain maintaining the state of a group of accounts, enabling efficient information transmission and processing. This design of infinite sharding theoretically supports TON in achieving millions of TPS in the future, becoming a Layerzero infrastructure that other chains can fork from.
- Distributed Hash Table and Privacy Protection:
In terms of data storage and access, TON employs distributed hash table technology to ensure fast access, security, and durability of data. This distributed hash table allows data to be encrypted and redundantly stored across multiple nodes in the network, ensuring data security and recoverability even in the face of node failures or attacks. Additionally, TON's privacy protection measures, such as TON Proxy and blockchain-based anonymous number login features, further enhance user privacy protection, providing users with a secure and anonymous online environment.
From the above introduction, we can see several innovations in the TON blockchain technology architecture, not only in its efficient processing capabilities of asynchronous smart contracts and scalability of infinite sharding but also in its high regard for data storage and user privacy. Through these technical features, TON lays a solid foundation for realizing a decentralized, secure, and efficient new internet platform.
Backed by Telegram, a Giant Platform, Will the Fortunate TON Soar?
Since its inception in 2013 by the Durov brothers, Telegram has rapidly grown into a global social platform with nearly 900 million monthly active users and over 1.3 billion registered users. Notably, Telegram plays a crucial role in the cryptocurrency community, with numerous channels and groups dedicated to cryptocurrency-related content, and almost all Web 3.0 and Crypto projects build their communities and disseminate information through Telegram.
The TON project was initially launched by the Telegram team in 2018 but was halted in 2020 due to allegations from the U.S. SEC. Nevertheless, the power of the community took over the project's development, transforming it from "Telegram Open Network" to "The Open Network," and continued to advance the project's development. TON is not only a public chain but also encompasses multiple technical services, including P2P networks, TON Proxy, and TON Storage, aimed at solving the challenges users face when utilizing blockchain technology.
The close integration of Telegram and TON not only provides a strong user base for the TON project but also paves the way for the large-scale adoption of blockchain technology. TON's technical architecture particularly emphasizes parallel computation of transactions and asynchronous processing of smart contracts, capable of supporting millions of transactions per second, showcasing its powerful performance. At the same time, the promotion by the TON Foundation and the involvement of a professional team ensure the steady development and technological innovation of the project.
As the TON ecosystem expands into wallets, DeFi, NFTs, and other fields, the ecosystem is rapidly developing, offering rich opportunities for investors. For example, projects like Telegram Wallet and TONSpace are providing users with more convenient services. Coupled with TON's validating nodes, an active developer community, and an increasing number of applications, it indicates that the TON ecosystem has immense growth potential.
With a More Diverse Layout in Technology and Applications, TON's Future Development is Worth Long-term Attention
Starting from the Telegram team's ambitious ICO fundraising of $1.7 billion in 2018, facing SEC allegations of illegal fundraising in 2019, and ultimately reaching a settlement with the SEC in 2020, announcing the abandonment of the TON project, TON seems destined to become a remarkable chapter in blockchain history.
However, just as Telegram announced its withdrawal, a new chapter quietly opened. TON Labs conducted a fork, launching "Free TON," later renamed Everscale, and new community forces began to take up the banner of the project. This was not only a technical relay but also a passing of spirit and philosophy. In 2021, the TON Foundation was established, marking the official transformation of The Open Network, emerging from the shadow of Telegram to become a community-driven open-source project.
In this new era, TON is no longer just a public chain project; it integrates multiple technologies such as P2P networks, TON Proxy, and TON Storage to build a brand new ecosystem. With the establishment of a $250 million ecosystem fund in 2022 and a comprehensive shift to the PoS mechanism, TON is rapidly evolving into a highly decentralized and technologically advanced blockchain network.
Even more notably, in 2023, the integration of the native wallet TON Space with Telegram accounts provides users with a seamless access point to Web3 applications, bringing unprecedented development opportunities to TON. Today, TON is no longer the unfinished dream of Telegram but has become an independent and bright new star in the blockchain world.
From Telegram's abandonment to the community's rebirth, TON's journey is filled with challenges and turning points. Each historical node witnesses the extraordinary charm of blockchain technology and community power. In this story written by the community, TON demonstrates the true strength of an open-source project: even in the face of adversity, it can carve out a new territory with the support and collective efforts of the community.