By
Steve Muchoki
May 10th, 2024
Durov noted the continuous evolution of the TON technology.
Russian entrepreneur and Telegram founder Pavel Durov, has expressed his support for the Toncoin project. Toncoin started as a spin-off of an abandoned project by Telegram.
Recall that in May 2020 after a prolonged legal battle with the SEC, Telegram announced the close of its TON blockchain project. It also paid an $18.5 million fine to the SEC who cited securities law violation as the company’s offense. However, before shutting down the project, the company made the code for TON open source. Not satisfied, some of the developers who had previously worked on the project decided to continue developing the project giving rise to Toncoin.
Expressing his delight, Pavel Durov said, “When Telegram said goodbye to TON last year, I expressed the hope that future generations of developers would one day carry on with our vision of a mass-market blockchain platform.” Durov claimed seeing previous champions of Telegram’s coding contests continue the development of Ton inspired him.
Durov noted his gladness to see the continuous evolution of the TON technology. He also commented on how the technology surpasses everything else currently in the blockchain ecosystem given its scalability and speed. He said:
“TON is still years ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm. It would have been a shame to see this project not benefitting humanity.”
It Isn’t Just TON Coin
Toncoin is not the only project that spun off from the open-source TON. After Telegram officially withdrew support for TON, a community launched the FreeTON blockchain. Led by TON Labs which previously ran the TON test net before it was shut down, the group also launched a native token called TON Crystal, in May 2020.
Recently, FreeTON announced its protocol rebranding to Everscale. Despite its relative success, the project was not acknowledged by the Telegram team. This may be due to a change in the protocol on which FreeTON was built.
Unlike FreeTON, Telegram has acknowledged the Toncoin project. Durov however noted that the project was not related to Telegram. However, Durov continues to wish the team success. He said that “coupled with the right go-to-market strategy, they have all they need to build something epic.”
Following its announcement, the Toncoin had a quick spike. At the time of writing, the coin was trading at $3.39 up 42.87%.