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What Is The Open Network? A Comprehensive Guide To TON Blockchain

 

By Block Angels Jul 28, 2024

 

The Open Network or TON is a suite of decentralized services including TON Blockchain, TON DNS, TON Storage, and TON Sites, built on a highly scalable and secure framework.

 

With the TON blockchain serving as the core protocol connecting TON’s underlying infrastructure together to form the greater TON Ecosystem, The Open Network is designed to achieve widespread cross-chain interoperability.

 

 

 

Brief History Of The Open Network(TON)

 

The Open Network(TON), Previously known as “Telegram Open Network” is a Turing-complete smart contract-compatible blockchain network founded by the Durov brothers and Telegram.

 

Nikolai Durov and Pavel Durov are the cited authors of the original design of the open network(TON) whose testnet was launched in January 2019.

 

The Durov brothers built TON to be compatible with the large user base of Telegram. However, due to legal battles in Q1 2018 with the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) over the sale of Gram tokens(now TONCOIN), to which the regulatory body alleged was an unregistered security, the Durov brothers and the Telegram team withdrew from the TON project in May 2020. 

 

The Development of TON was taken over by the open source community dubbed NewTon(now the TON Foundation), sticking to the original design and vision of the Durov brothers, The Open Network remains a beacon of innovation in the blockchain space with significant technological advancements, and a rapidly growing community. 

 

How Does TON Blockchain Work?

 

At its core, the TON blockchain functions on a Proof-of-Stake(PoS) consensus mechanism that requires validators(nodes) to stake TONCOIN to participate in adding new blocks to the chain and ecosystem-wide governance.

 

That said, the TON blockchain is built on a unique technological framework designed to address some of the most pressing challenges in the blockchain world, such as scalability and transaction speed.

 

● Multi-Blockchain Architecture

 

To achieve a fully decentralized layer-1 blockchain with ultra-fast transactions, TON employs a multi-blockchain architecture consisting of a masterchain and several workchains.

 

The masterchain is responsible for overseeing general information about the protocol and the current values of its parameters, the set of validators and their stakes, the set of currently

active workchains and their shards, and, most importantly, the set of

hashes of the most recent blocks of all workchains and shardchains, while the workchains handle the actual transaction processing. This structure allows TON to support an unprecedented number of transactions per second (TPS). 

 

● Sharding

 

One of TON's standout features is its advanced sharding technology. Each workchain can be further divided into up to 2^60 shards, which process transactions in parallel. This, as claimed by the team at TON, ensures that the network remains efficient and can handle high volumes of transactions without slowing down.

 

This design of shardchains which makes each block in a shardchain (and in the masterchain) not just

a block, but a small blockchain makes the TON blockchain a heterogeneous blockchain or as popularly denoted: a blockchain of blockchains.

 

● Instant Hypercube Routing

 

Instant Hypercube Routing is a sophisticated routing algorithm used in The Open Network (TON) to optimize the speed and efficiency of message propagation across the network. This algorithm is designed to support the high scalability and throughput needs of TON by ensuring quick and reliable communication between nodes. 

 

Instant hypercube routing enables the TON blockchain stay fast, reliable, scalable and self-consistent at the

same time.

 

What Is The TONCOIN?

 

Formerly Gram, TONCOIN is a native token of the TON blockchain, used for gas or transaction fee payments, staking for running validator nodes and general ecosystem governance. 

 

Toncoin is a crucial aspect of the open network, facilitating the use of Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism to influence the direction of the Ton blockchain, development-wise.

 

With a $16.52 billion marketcap at the time of writing, the Toncoin positions itself as an attractive “gold-class” cryptocurrency, native to a layer 1 blockchain. 

 

Toncoin has a total supply of 5.11 billion coins, with prominent investors like Pantera Capital, Maske Network, DWF Labs and Kucoin Ventures.

 

Community and Ecosystem Growth

 

Since transitioning to an open-source project, TON has witnessed significant growth driven by its vibrant community of developers, enthusiasts, and investors. The TON Foundation has played a crucial role in this growth, launching various incentive programs to encourage participation and development within the ecosystem.

 

● Open League Incentives

 

The Open League is a multi-season rollout of $TON incentives, aimed at bootstrapping the ecosystem across categories like DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. Over $40 million in rewards have already been distributed through this program, fostering rapid development and innovation.

 

● Integration with Telegram

 

Despite no longer being owned by Telegram, TON maintains a close relationship with the messaging app. Toncoin is integrated into Telegram's via a native crypto wallet, allowing users to make transactions seamlessly within the app.

 

● Developer Community

 

TON's developer community, although smaller compared to some other blockchains, is highly active and committed. This community has been instrumental in building various DApps, tools, and services that enhance the functionality of the TON ecosystem and scaled up its adoption like the most popular - Notcoin.

 

With a growing community of users and developers, the TON blockchain is likewise experiencing a cash flow growth with the network attracting over $758 million in total value locked(TVL) as of July, 2024.

 

Overview Of Other TON Infrastructures

 

The Open Network(TON) is a next generation protocol aiming to unite all blockchains and the existing internet. As such, TON offers more than a regular distributed ledger for recording financial transactions.

 

Some other infrastructures that make up the open network includes:

 

● TON Storage

 

With a torrent-like technology which splits files into smaller chunks and distributes across the network, TON storage is a decentralized file storage system developed as part of The Open Network (TON) ecosystem.

 

Users can upload their files to TON Storage through several dApps and platforms that have integrated this technology. For instance, the TON Drive dApp is a notable example, providing an intuitive interface for Telegram users to upload, view, and manage large files, bypassing Telegram's native 2GB file limit.

 

● TON DNS

 

TON DNS (Domain Name System) is a service within The Open Network (TON) ecosystem that allows users to register and use human-readable names for blockchain addresses, smart contracts, and decentralized services. This system simplifies the interaction with blockchain resources by replacing complex alphanumeric addresses with easy-to-remember domain names.

 

● TON Sites

 

TON Sites is a component of The Open Network (TON) ecosystem that enables the creation and hosting of decentralized websites. These websites are built on the TON blockchain and leverage TON's decentralized storage and domain name services to provide a secure, censorship-resistant alternative to traditional web hosting.

 

The Bottom Line

 

The Open Network(TON) aims to revolutionize the internet with a suite of decentralized infrastructures and applications, custom-designed to enable product and services to build and scale effectively.

 

With over 88+ active projects contributing over 200 million off-chain accounts and over 5 million active on-chain accounts, The Open Network is on its way to achieving mass adoption and fulfilling its mission of putting crypto in every pocket.