What Is the Telegram’s TON Blockchain?

When it comes to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, widespread acceptance should be inevitable. These technologies have the potential to improve security in the world. With the ability to add layers to self-governance, these systems can further improve the said security. Taking up these systems into the mainstream is the obvious next cause of action.

However, there have been reasons as to why it is yet to be adopted into the mainstream. This is because the cryptocurrency and blockchain creators have yet to create a singular product that can serve as a blockchain ecosystem of sorts, which would then inevitably receive acceptance globally.

This idea is what Telegram Open Network is striving to achieve. In this article, the reader will discover what Telegram Open Network (TON) is all about and how it plans to achieve “global acceptance”.

What Is Telegram Open Network (TON)?

Telegram Open Network is expected to be a major game-changer for social messaging. It is the native blockchain project of the social media giant, Telegram. The company has been able to raise a whopping $1.7 billion in funding from 200 private investors via an Initial Coin Offering for the said project. This blockchain ecosystem can prove to be a very remunerative opportunity for early investors considering the number of users the platform possesses.

The project will be based on a strong focus on blockchain scaling which is said to be a very persistent issue in the crypto space. 

TON is looking to offer adequate security to all of its users. The goal of the project is to increase the adoption of cryptocurrency globally and that would be difficult to achieve if they cannot provide round-the-clock security and protection for its users. The decentralized nature of TON is going to be of help in this regard.

It was established to be a not-for-profit entity and the applied ‘.org’ domain can emphasize its uncommercial nature.

The Telegram Open Network is not just another regular ICO project. It is also not based on any existent blockchain, ut features its own blockchain, ‘TON Blockchain’ instead. It also features its own cryptocurrency dubbed GRAM coin, its own consensus mechanisms and additionally, its own virtual machine.

Transactions on this blockchain are executed with insanely fast speeds and are facilitated with little or no delay and charges. The system consists of the blockchain itself and 292 additional networks. The blockchain will be able to provide support for sharding technology, which will significantly improve the speed of transactions.

Who Stands Behind the Project?

In 2013, a group of tech enthusiasts sought to create an entity that would give freedom by way of encryption. As a result of this desire much later, the Telegram Open Network came to reality. 

Telegram is a cloud-based voice-over-IP service and an instant messaging software that was developed by Telegram Messenger LLP. The company was founded by Russian entrepreneurs Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov. 

The founders’ ideology of significant decentralization is also seen in the physical foundation of the TON. Telegram uses a server design that is spread across numerous independent server clusters to maintain encrypted data.

Thanks to enticing features like speed, encryption, and independence, Telegram received widespread acceptance by millions of users within just a few months after its launch. Over the years, Telegram has evolved, grossing an average of about 12 updates per year. In February of 2016, the platform boasted of 100 million active users and was delivering close to 15 billion messages on a daily basis.

As of October of 2017, Telegram welcomed 170 million new users and 70 billion messages were delivered through the platform on a daily basis. In March of 2018, there were 200 million active users. Currently, 500,000 users join Telegram on a daily basis. These numbers are only going to grow exponentially over the years.

TON plans on utilizing these impressive numbers to encourage widespread use of its cryptocurrency.

Main Features of TON

According to the white paper, the structure of Telegram Open Network will feature a number of components which will include:

• TON Storage: This has been described as a file storing technology used for storing arbitrary files that have torrent-like access technology and contracts used to implement availability. This feature will be available for use by DApps that require large amounts of storage.
• TON Proxy: This is a tool on the network that will be used to mask the identity of the user and create a decentralized virtual private network (VPN) to ensure online privacy. The goal of this is to guarantee any service including Telegram, immunity from censorship.
• TON Services: This has been introduced as a platform that will be used for smart contracts and to ensure a decentralized browsing experience.
• TON DNS: It is a service that will make access to decentralized services available to its users by assigning accounts with human-readable labels.
• TON Payments: This will support instant off-chain payments inside the network. It will also feature in-built safeguards that aim to enforce security when making transfers, ensuring that these transactions are as secure as any other on-chain transaction. 
• TON Virtual Machine: This has been described as an entity that carries out smart contracts on the network.

What is GRAM?

As it is typical for a newly-created blockchain, Telegram has issued GRAM as its cryptocurrency. This token will be used mainly as part of the in-app ecosystem of Telegram and is expected to be utilized as a payment method. External use of this token is still yet to be announced.

GRAM is based on a proof-of-stake protocol and will be secured through smart contracts. This will enable the platform to facilitate up to 10 million transactions/second.

GRAMs can be used to pay for:

• in-built services provided by DApps;
• storing and securing data in a decentralized way;
• registration of blockchain domain names and also for hosting any TON-sites;
• concealment of identities, as well as IP addresses, from selected viewers to further improve privacy;
• bypassing censorship that internet service providers typically enforce;
• other services within the ecosystem and on other TON projects.

As GRAM does not support mining, the validity of a transaction is rendered by “validators” who will receive a commission for the fulfilled task. The received in GRAM tokens.

Telegram’s GRAM vs Facebook’s Libra

The most prominent competition to be faced by TON is Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Libra.

Libra will be a platform that does basically the same thing as Telegram Open Network. 

Libra aspires to accomplish two key aims. The first is to create a singular global currency and the other is to make a system that allows domestic and international financial transactions through a basic mobile interface. This platform will be based on a blockchain architecture that attains security, speed, and scalability. It also has plans to obtain a fully decentralized system sometime in the future.

These are all attainments the TON is looking to accomplish. Although they possess different characteristics, their similarities are quite noticeable. This has caused enthusiasts to draw conclusions that these bodies will have a strong rivalry when they eventually get released.

There’s no telling whether TON and Libra will become major rivals or not, what’s important for them right now is to receive widespread adoption globally.

In conclusion, it’s worth mentioning that with all the progress TON is making and the potential it possesses, it’s becoming more and more obvious that the development of the TON ecosystem will be a success and this project has very high chances to achieve widespread adoption.