Developer Story 02 | TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov & OKX Web3: TON Makes Web3 Fun

TON is pushing the potential of blockchain technology to new heights. TON (The Open Network) was originally created by the Telegram Messenger development team and has since been taken over by the community for further development, aiming to build a fast, secure, and highly scalable blockchain network. As a cutting-edge blockchain project, TON attracts numerous developers and users with its high performance and flexibility, especially since its theoretical maximum TPS can reach millions. With the continuous growth of the ecosystem and ongoing technological iterations, TON is expected to become an important player in the blockchain field in the future, promoting the popularization and development of decentralized applications.

It is worth noting that OKX Web3 launched a brand new App Connect protocol on September 6, 2024, which currently supports the TON ecosystem and will soon expand to popular networks such as EVM and Solana. This upgrade allows developers to easily call the OKX App wallet directly through the Telegram Mini App, enabling signature transactions and other DApp interactions. Developers only need to integrate App Connect to quickly build their own DApps on TON and Telegram, simplifying the development process and laying the foundation for a richer Web3 ecosystem.

This issue is the 02nd episode of the "Developer Stories" column, which aims to provide a better understanding of the TON world from the perspectives of TON core developer Anatoly Makosov and Wang, the head of OKX Web3 TON ecosystem integration. The questions in this episode cover various aspects such as TON's technological progress, developer construction, community governance, and ecological security, aiming to gain insights into the views and plans of TON's core developers.

Key Points Overview:

1. TON's long-term goal is to promote the widespread adoption of the crypto industry and decentralized technology, rather than short-term trends; our clear short-term goal is to achieve 500 million monthly active users within 5 years.
2. I call on Solidity programmers—if you don't want to be left behind by history like Prolog or Fortran programmers, don't be afraid of new things.
3. OKX Web3 launched a brand new App Connect protocol on September 6, 2024, which currently supports the TON ecosystem and will soon expand to popular networks such as EVM and Solana.
4. Telegram project developers do not necessarily have to choose the TON chain; they can choose any blockchain.
5. All services and products in the TON network have been fully developed by the community in a decentralized manner; our core team is only responsible for the implementation of the blockchain kernel.
6. I believe that in the future, only Bitcoin and TON will continue to exist; other blockchains seem outdated—development cycles are too slow, and goals are unclear.
7. We have great respect for Bitcoin and Ethereum—they opened the era of the crypto industry. But to be honest, they have not achieved much in terms of large-scale applications.
8. In addition to providing a stage for excellent projects in the TON ecosystem, OKX Web3 also promotes the positive construction of the TON ecosystem through technology.
9. Currently, we at TON Core are not standard setters but pioneers.
10. We need to pay attention to ordinary users who are not yet familiar with blockchain; perhaps such a user will find that having a TON passport with visa-free access to 256 countries is more attractive than yet another complex mining protocol.
11. The OKX OS service provided by OKX Web3 offers a complete set of development tools, SDKs, APIs, and documentation for TON developers, greatly simplifying the development process. Developers can quickly build their applications on TON and integrate with the OKX Web3 wallet, providing a one-stop solution for project deployment and operational needs.

Igniting Chain Games: Sharing TON's Technological Innovations and Progress

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: These games with tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of users choose TON because it seems to be the only blockchain capable of handling such high loads. Although we did encounter some challenges in the process, we ultimately succeeded in launching all these games.

On May 16, 2024, the game project Notcoin, with 35 million users, issued its token on the TON blockchain and simultaneously launched on top global exchanges. On the first day of the game's launch, the TON blockchain welcomed 1 million new Notcoin holders. Also noteworthy are the token issuances of Avacoin in July and DOGS in August, which have 6 million and 50 million monthly active users, respectively. Next, this year, game giants such as Hamster Kombat, with 239 million players, and TapSwap, with 56 million players, will issue tokens on TON. These figures are astonishing even by Web2 standards, and we feel we are truly pioneers.

TON has an asynchronous architecture that can handle dynamic sharding. However, in practice, there are indeed some implementation and infrastructure issues, and we are working hard to resolve these issues in a timely manner to keep up with the increasing load. We release planned kernel updates every 1 to 2 months, some of which have improved resource consumption and performance by several dozen times. This year, we plan to release a major "accelerator" kernel update and update the decentralized weak validator penalty system to encourage network validators not to skimp on hardware.

Additionally, we take pride in our fixed network fee system, which does not fluctuate with network load. If the price of TON tokens rises, fees can be reduced through a full network vote, as we demonstrated this year.

OKX Web3 TON Ecosystem Integration Head Wang: On this topic, I would like to add from three perspectives. The explosion of on-chain games in the TON ecosystem is mainly attributed to two key technological factors:

First, the deep integration of TON with Telegram and the TON Connect protocol brings unique advantages to the TON ecosystem in the field of on-chain games, especially in terms of game promotion and user growth. Users can directly access on-chain games and other DApps on TON within the Telegram app and achieve smooth wallet connections and interactions through TON Connect. This greatly lowers the entry barrier for users, making participation in on-chain games more convenient, thus driving rapid user growth.

Second, TON's sharding technology is another core advantage. This architecture significantly enhances the network's throughput and scalability, effectively meeting the demands of high-concurrency scenarios. This is particularly important for on-chain games, as they typically need to handle a large number of small transactions and real-time interactions. TON's sharding architecture ensures that the network can still operate stably even under high user loads, avoiding congestion issues and providing a smooth gaming experience, ensuring players can seamlessly interact and transact in the game.

Through these two technological innovations, the TON ecosystem provides strong support for the development of on-chain games.

Why Does the TON Ecosystem Start with GameFi Instead of DeFi?

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: The goal of the TON blockchain is to promote the widespread adoption of the crypto industry and decentralized technology, which is why we always focus on the needs of ordinary users rather than the short-term trends of the crypto industry. I am surprised that other blockchains are almost entirely focused on the speculative aspects of cryptocurrencies. After all, speculators and traders are not the mainstream of the global population.

The TON network has a comprehensive tool system covering DEX, lending protocols, liquid staking, and more. We hope that users can play DeFi and mini-games on TON as easily and simply as possible.

On other blockchains, ordinary users can't even figure out how to send tokens. We need to solve this problem first before we can get more people to use DeFi. This year, we launched USDT on the TON network, which, according to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, is the most successful USDT launch in history, thanks to TON's low fees that do not depend on network load fluctuations, direct integration in the Telegram wallet, and the ability to use USDT to pay network fees.

What Does TON Bring to Developers?

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: First, I believe the main force attracting developers is the growing number of users in the TON ecosystem. Since the beginning of the year, the number of accounts on the TON blockchain has increased from 4 million to 53 million, more than a tenfold increase. Additionally, with the emergence of a series of tools, developers can create Mini Apps in Telegram and easily link them to the TON network and TON wallet through TON Connect, providing blockchain developers with the opportunity to reach nearly 1 billion Telegram users.

Second, we cannot be EVM-compatible because they belong to different architectures: EVM is an unscalable synchronous architecture, while TVM is a scalable asynchronous architecture. However, if we consider the global pool of programmers, Solidity programmers are actually very few. Our target audience is ordinary users who are not yet familiar with blockchain, not traders. At the same time, we also target ordinary developers who have not yet been exposed to blockchain, such as those who program in Java, Python, C++, JavaScript, etc., rather than the few Solidity developers.

We have our own development tools and programming languages because TON's asynchronous structure is fundamentally different from the previous generation of synchronous blockchains. This allows developers to create scalable decentralized products. Some developers feel lazy about learning new things. But before blockchain emerged, programmers also transitioned from single-threaded languages to multi-threaded programming. I call on Solidity programmers—if you don't want to be left behind by history like Prolog or Fortran programmers, don't be afraid of new things.

We are continuously developing our own development tools and programming languages. Alexander Kirsanov, who was the maintainer of the KPHP language, and AnTON Trunov, who created the Scilla language for the Zilliqa blockchain, have both joined TON. We plan to showcase significant updates at the Gateway conference this fall.

TG+TON Ecosystem is Often Compared to WeChat; WeChat Dominates Many Businesses, So What Is Your Division of Labor with the Community?

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: At this stage, all services and products in the TON network have been fully developed by the community in a decentralized manner; our core team is only responsible for the implementation of the blockchain kernel and providing network guidance, offering a platform for the community. The Telegram team has built a feature-rich top messaging application and provides public Bots API and Mini Apps API.

OKX Web3 TON Ecosystem Integration Head Wang: Indeed, TON needs more focus on building the underlying protocol, especially in infrastructure. Compared to mature public chains like Ethereum, there is still room for improvement. In the future, as TON's infrastructure improves, this will not only help attract more developers into the TON ecosystem but also pave the way for broader application scenarios.

Do Projects Starting on TG Ultimately Have to Choose TON?

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: We do not impose any mandatory requirements on developers; they can choose any blockchain. For example, the HOT project, which initially ran on Telegram, chose the Near blockchain but failed during its initial token issuance due to overload on the Near blockchain. Therefore, the HOT project has now migrated to the TON blockchain. However, due to Telegram's viral nature, products that choose to launch on Telegram find it easier to gain a sufficient user base.

OKX Web3 TON Ecosystem Integration Head Wang: While Telegram startup projects do not necessarily have to choose the TON chain, there are indeed many projects currently choosing to deploy on other public chains like EVM. However, due to the deep integration of TON with Telegram, projects deployed on the TON chain have a more obvious advantage within the Telegram ecosystem. The seamless connection between the TON chain and Telegram significantly simplifies the user experience of the project, enhances user acquisition and participation, and effectively promotes project development by leveraging Telegram's large user base and strong social features.

TON's Current and Future Position in the Public Chain Ecosystem

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: We are following our own path and not blindly following trends. Our uniqueness attracts more innovators with new ideas rather than practitioners of crypto scams. At the same time, the crypto trend has not bypassed TON—we have experienced multiple waves of hype and meme coin trends.

TON is a community-driven project. No one, including the core team, can make changes to the blockchain alone. We can only provide options for improving the network for the community to choose from. Voting functionality is built into the core of the TON blockchain, which aligns with the principles of decentralized projects. Major changes must be voted on through the TON.vote platform and then validated by validators.

I believe that in the future, only Bitcoin and TON will continue to exist; other blockchains seem outdated—development cycles are too slow, and goals are unclear.

TON has a clear goal—to achieve 500 million monthly active users within 5 years. We are steadily moving towards this goal—since the beginning of this year, the number of monthly active users has increased more than 20 times, from 221,000 MAU to 4.5 million MAU.

What Contribution Does TON Make to Industry Standardization?

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: I believe the industry has not yet reached the stage of standardization. We have great respect for Bitcoin and Ethereum—they opened the era of the crypto industry. But to be honest, they have not achieved much in terms of large-scale applications.

Currently, we at TON Core are not standard setters but pioneers. Our development achievements may become industry standards in the future. However, we hope to introduce a standard now. Last fall, we conducted a blockchain performance test that demonstrated the execution of complex smart contracts at 100K TPS, setting a world record. The problem we encountered is that there is currently no unified system to measure and compare blockchain performance. The renowned auditing firm CertiK cross-validated our results and created a leaderboard in its system. This could potentially become something akin to the Guinness World Records for the blockchain field.

TON is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain with its own Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus protocol called Catchain. This year, we reached 400 independent validators on the network, with 600M TON (over 10% of the total supply) participating in validation to ensure the correctness of the network. Although during this time, no smart contracts written by the TON core or core team have encountered any hacker attacks, we will not become complacent because of this.

In addition to the in-depth and long-term testing by the core team, we also collaborate with top global auditing firms and actively conduct bug bounty programs in the community. For example, the USDT smart contract has been tested not only by the core team but also by Trail of Bits, Zellic, and through public hacking competitions.

What Technical Development Directions Are You Focusing on to Achieve Large-Scale Applications of TON?

TON Core Developer Anatoly Makosov: We need to pay attention to ordinary users who are not yet familiar with blockchain. Perhaps such a user will find that having a TON passport with visa-free access to 256 countries is more attractive than yet another complex mining protocol.

This year, we developed the new TON wallet smart contract v5.0, which will support dual authentication, social key recovery in case of loss, and has already implemented gasless transactions, meaning no TONcoin is needed to pay network fees. Additionally, we have now launched the TON Mintless Token technology, allowing projects to instantaneously distribute tokens to hundreds of millions of users at a network cost of less than one dollar.

However, we still face many challenges, including both technical and non-technical challenges. It is difficult to pinpoint a single issue—we need to improve the kernel, infrastructure, APIs, and applications. We also need to rethink user experience (UX) and user interface multiple times until they are intuitive enough for everyone. With a natively scalable architecture, excellent technology, and the rocket launcher of Telegram, we are capable of addressing all these challenges. Many other blockchain projects lack these advantages.

OKX Web3 TON Ecosystem Integration Head Wang: I am also very focused on the development of TON's wallet smart contracts.

The latest v5 contract version introduces gasless transactions, off-chain calls, and other capabilities, undoubtedly laying the foundation for expanding more Web2 use cases. This has many similarities with EIP-4337 wallets but also has unique advantages. This greatly enhances the user-friendliness, flexibility, and security of the TON chain wallet.

When users can use the TON chain wallet 'seamlessly,' combined with Telegram's inherent user base in Web2, this will inevitably drive further large-scale applications of TON.

What Has OKX Web3 Done in Terms of Building the TON Ecosystem?

OKX Web3 TON Ecosystem Integration Head Wang: First, as a leading Web3 entry point, the OKX Web3 wallet has natively integrated the TON chain ecosystem. Users can manage TON assets in a one-stop manner through the OKX wallet, smoothly completing cross-chain swaps, NFTs, DeFi, and accessing TON DApps on mobile and desktop. At the same time, OKX Web3, in collaboration with TON project parties and The Open League, has launched the Giveaway and Cryptopedia series of activities, providing exposure and traffic for quality projects on TON and helping more Web3 users onboard to the TON ecosystem.

Second, in addition to providing a stage for excellent projects in the TON ecosystem, OKX Web3 also promotes the positive construction of the TON ecosystem through technology. We actively collaborate with TON core developers to promote some TON Enhancement Proposals (TEPs), continuously improving infrastructure to help developers better build applications in the ecosystem, making the TON ecosystem healthier and more sustainable. Additionally, from a tools perspective, the OKX OS service provided by OKX Web3 offers a complete set of development tools, SDKs, APIs, and documentation for TON developers, greatly simplifying the development process. Developers can quickly build their applications on TON and integrate with the OKX Web3 wallet, providing a one-stop solution for project deployment and operational needs.

Third, OKX Ventures, as OKX's investment department, has established a fund in collaboration with TON, actively participating in the investment and incubation of TON ecosystem projects, helping startups grow on the TON network. Through financial support and resource guidance, we help more projects launch and commercialize within the TON ecosystem.

In summary, OKX Web3 has been committed to promoting innovation and application of blockchain technology, and the TON ecosystem is one of the areas we are very optimistic about. Our collaboration with the TON ecosystem will focus on promoting the growth and development of more projects within the ecosystem, providing users with the highest quality multi-chain support and developer tools. However, not only for TON developers, OKX Web3 is also very friendly to developers of all public chains in terms of technology and resources. In the future, we will continue to optimize our products to provide users and developers with more convenient services. We look forward to promoting the landing of more application scenarios through resource sharing and technical exchanges, attracting more users and developers into the Web3 ecosystem.

About the "Developer Stories" Column

Web3 developers have made significant contributions to the development of the crypto industry. Their innovative spirit and technical capabilities inject lasting vitality and momentum into the entire industry's development, not only improving the technology itself but also supporting future application scenarios and business models. However, although they are active, they are rarely noticed. The "Developer Stories" column launched by OKX Web3 and ChainCatcher aims to understand the development context, technical insights, latest dynamics, market changes, hot comments, etc., of different public chain ecosystems from the perspective of developers through dialogues with core developers of various public chains and the OKX Web3 technical team, enhancing the voice of Web3 developers, getting closer to these most active and interesting people, and providing them with the greatest support.

Disclaimer

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